Abstract
Previous research has found that acute, moderate-intensity physical exercise enhances selective attention and memory and that men and women show differential performance on tasks measuring these skills. Although exercise and participant sex have been examined separately, it remains unknown whether acute, moderate-intensity exercise differentially affects men and women’s selective attention and memory encoding and retrieval. Participants in the present study completed two 10-min sessions of either moderate-intensity exercise comprised of jumping rope alternating with walking in place or an active control protocol comprised of watching wellness videos alternating with walking in place. Each participant completed a selective attention task and a task assessing recognition and object location memory immediately after exercising. Exercise was related to overall faster performance during the selective attention task, with no differences in men and women’s performance. Women showed better recognition memory compared to men. Exercise specifically improved object location memory among men, but only among participants who completed the memory task second. These findings suggest that acute, moderate-intensity exercise differentially affects men and women’s memory, which may be related to complex interactions between exercise, sex hormones, and the neurotrophin BDNF.
Highlights
Researchers are increasingly recognizing that exercise has important benefits for both physical fitness and cognitive performance during adulthood (Prakash et al, 2015)
Consistent with the results reported above, participant sex was a significant predictor of recognition memory for participants who completed the memory task second, B = 2.12, t(18) = 4.58, p < 0.001, with females showing better performance than males
The present study demonstrates that both participant sex and acute, moderate-intensity exercise influence selective attention and memory performance among healthy, young adults
Summary
Researchers are increasingly recognizing that exercise has important benefits for both physical fitness and cognitive performance during adulthood (Prakash et al, 2015). This work has shown that even short bouts of moderate-intensity exercise results in improved performance on measures of executive functions, attention, and memory (Lambourne and Tomporowski, 2010). Previous research has shown that habitual exercise can protect against cognitive decline among older adults (Prakash et al, 2015) and supports improved executive function and memory skills among young adults (Gaertner et al, 2017). Far fewer studies have examined long-term aerobic exercise interventions among healthy young adults, with mixed results indicating improvements in only some aspects of memory and executive functions (Stroth et al, 2009, 2010; Gomes-Osman et al, 2017)
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