The Effects of Acute Moderate and High Intensity Exercise on Memory.

David Marchant,Sophie Hampson,Kelly Marrin,Craig Thorley,Lucy Finnigan

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2020.01716

Abstract

Acute cardiovascular exercise can enhance correct remembering but its impact upon false remembering is less clear. In two experiments, we investigated the effect of acute bouts of exercise on correct and false remembering using the Deese–Roediger–McDermott (DRM) memory test. In Experiment 1, healthy adults completed quiet rest or moderate intensity cycling prior to the memory test. In Experiment 2, a similar sample completed moderate intensity running, high intensity sprints, or a period of quiet rest prior to the memory test. In Experiment 1, acute moderate intensity exercise increased short-term correct, but not false, recall. Experiment 2 replicated these findings but also found an acute bout of high intensity exercise had no impact upon either type of short-term recall. Acute moderate intensity exercise, but not acute high intensity exercise, can improve short-term correct recall without an accompanying increase in false recall potentially through processing of contextually specific information during encoding.

Highlights

Acute bouts of cardiovascular exercise provide moderate short-term post-exercise enhancements to several cognitive functions, including the speed of mental processing, attention, and executive function
Experiment 1 demonstrated that acute moderate intensity aerobic exercise, relative to a period of rest, prior to a Deese–Roediger– McDermott (DRM) memory task increased short-term correct recall
The current study provides initial evidence that acute aerobic exercise can enhance free recall performance, and that this benefit is not accompanied by changes in false recall

Summary

Introduction

Acute bouts of cardiovascular exercise provide moderate short-term post-exercise enhancements to several cognitive functions, including the speed of mental processing, attention, and executive function (see Chang et al, 2012; McMorris and Hale, 2012). These beneficial effects are associated with increases in arousal and available cognitive resources (e.g., Hillman et al, 2003), which are proposed to be critical variables in efficient memory functioning. When exercise occurs immediately before a memory encoding task, there are moderate enhancements to the volume of studied information correctly remembered, whereas exercising during encoding appears to impair encoding (see Loprinzi et al, 2019, for a metaanalysis). The majority of work has focused in correct recall, whilst little is known regarding acute cardiovascular exercise prior

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