Effects of Acute Exercise and Learning Strategy Implementation on Memory Function.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Long-term potentiation (LTP), the functional connectivity among neurons, is considered a mechanism of episodic memory. Both acute exercise and learning are thought to influence memory via an LTP-related mechanism. Limited research has evaluated the individual and combined effects of acute exercise and learning strategy implementation (e.g., 3-R technique, cue-integration) on memory, which was the purpose of this study. MATERIALS AND METHODS: For Experiment 1, participants (n = 80; Mage = 20.9 years) were randomized into one of four experimental groups, including Exercise + Learning (E + L), Learning Only (L), Exercise Only (E), and Control Group (C; no exercise and no learning strategy implementation). The exercise stimulus involved an acute 15-min bout of lower-intensity (60% of heart rate max) walking exercise and the learning strategy involved the implementation of the 3-R technique. Experiment 2 (n = 77; Mage = 21.1 years) replicated Experiment 1 but addressed limitations (e.g., exposure level of the memory task) from Experiment 1 and employed a higher-intensity bout of exercise (77% of heart rate max). Experiment 3 (n = 80; Mage = 21.0 years) evaluated these same four experimental conditions but employed a cue-integration learning strategy and a moderate-intensity bout of acute exercise (64% of heart rate max). RESULTS: These three experiments demonstrate that both learning techniques were effective in enhancing memory and we also provided evidence of a main effect for acute exercise (Experiment 3). However, we did not observe consistent evidence of a learning by exercise interaction effect. CONCLUSIONS: We demonstrate that both acute exercise and different learning techniques are effective in enhancing long-term memory function.

Exercise and Episodic Specificity Induction on Episodic Memory Function.

Background and objectives: Episodic specific induction (ESI) is a manipulation shown to enhance episodic memory function. Episodic specificity induction involves thoroughly unpacking a recently encoded memory, with this enhanced retrieval-induced process helping to facilitate subsequent cognitions. In addition to ESI, emerging work suggests that acute exercise may also help to facilitate episodic memory function. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the potential individual and combined effects of acute exercise and ESI on subsequent episodic memory performance. Materials and Methods: Participants (n = 120) were randomly assigned into one of four groups, (1) ESI and exercise (ESI + E), (2) ESI only (ESI), (3) exercise only (E), and (4) no ESI and no exercise (Control; C). The ESI protocol involved watching a short video and then recalling details about the setting, people, and actions in the video. The exercise protocol involved an acute bout (15 min) of treadmill exercise. After these tasks, episodic memory function was evaluated with an autobiographical interview assessment and a computerized episodic memory task involving what-where-when integration. Results: We did not observe significant main effects for exercise or ESI on memory function but did observe some suggestive evidence of an interaction effect of these two parameters on episodic memory. That is, for the exercise group, memory performance was higher when combined with ESI as opposed to without ESI. Conclusions: Acute exercise and ESI may interact to influence episodic memory function.