Abstract
Objective: To investigate the different effects of acute aerobic exercise on the formation of long-term declarative memory (DM) and procedural memory (PM). Methods: Twenty-two young men completed DM and PM tasks under three experimental conditions: pre-acquisition exercise, post-acquisition exercise, and no exercise (control). The DM task encompassed word learning, free recall tests both immediately and 1 h later, and a recognition test conducted 24 h after word learning. A serial reaction time task (SRTT) was utilized to assess exercise effects on PM. The SRTT included a sequence learning phase followed by sequence tests 1 h and 24 h later. The exercise program consisted of 30 min of moderate-intensity aerobic exercise. Results: In the DM task, compared to the control condition, pre-acquisition exercise, but not post-acquisition exercise, enhanced free recall performance significantly 1 h and 24 h later. The target word recognition rate and discriminative index (d′) of the recognition test were significantly enhanced in both exercise conditions compared to the control condition. In the PM task, we observed significantly reduced (improved) reaction times at the 24-h test in the post-acquisition exercise condition compared to in the control condition. Conclusion: Acute aerobic exercise may enhance long-term DM and PM via effects on different processing periods. For DM, exercise had a pronounced effect during the encoding period, whereas for PM, exercise was found to have an enhancing effect during the consolidation period.
Highlights
In recent years, there has been a growing interest in understanding the effects of exercise on cognitive functions
For declarative memory (DM), exercise had a pronounced effect during the encoding period, whereas for procedural memory (PM), exercise was found to have an enhancing effect during the consolidation period
A two-way 2 × 11 repeated measures ANOVA was applied to analyze heart rate (HR), rating of of perceived exertion (RPE), and revolutions per minute (RPM) data from the DM task, and a structured ANOVA was applied to analyze the same variables from the PM task (Table 1)
Summary
There has been a growing interest in understanding the effects of exercise on cognitive functions. A single exercise bout has been shown to induce plasticity-promoting effects on both a molecular and a systems level, and to lead to increases in arousal [2] and cerebral blood flow [5]. Exercise-induced changes in brain structures [6] may potentially facilitate memory and learning processes [7]. Memory encompasses the faculties by which the brain encodes, stores, and retrieves information. Information may be held quite briefly, as is the case in sensory processing or may be stored in short-term, intermediate-term, or long-term memory [8]. The conscious, intentional recollection of factual information, previous experiences, and concepts is considered to be DM [10]
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