Walking effects on memory in children: Implications for individual differences in BMI

Abstract

BackgroundRecent evidence suggests improvements in memory performance following a single bout of physical activity in young children. However, few investigations have explored individual differences associated with these activity-induced changes in memory performance. ObjectivesThe present study investigated the effects of acute physical activity on recognition memory during and after treadmill walking in preadolescent children (n = 39; 24 females) with further exploration of individual differences in body mass index (BMI). MethodsWord recognition memory performance was assessed during and after the cessation of a moderate bout of walking (60% heart rate max; 20-min duration) or seated rest on separate days. ResultsChildren demonstrated unaltered word recall performance during walking compared to seated rest. Additionally, performance after walking revealed greater improvements in primacy accuracy (probability of correctly identifying the first ten words) relative to during walking and after seated rest. Additionally, evaluating only children who are overweight/obese (≥85th BMI percentile) revealed greater improvements in primacy accuracy following the walking bout with no effect observed for the normal weight group. ConclusionsTogether, these findings demonstrate that single bouts of walking are more effective for improving memory performance than non-active rest periods of a similar duration and may be enhanced to a greater degree among children who are overweight/obese. Such findings add to the growing body of literature supporting the need for active opportunities among all youth and further indicate the importance of advancing such opportunities among overweight/obese children to improve memory performance along with physical health.