Exercise boosts memory … later

Timing is everything; just ask the early bird or even the worm. People ascend to greatness, people fall to obscurity, businesses boom, businesses bust; and it’s all about timing. The right thing in the right time has immense power but that same thing delivered at another time can be ineffective. This has been eloquently illustrated in a new study showing that exercise boosts memory but only if you do it at the right time.

The new study involved subjects who completed a 40 minute task involving viewing 90 pictures and learning associated locations. The subjects were then divided in to three groups; one group exercised immediately after the learning task, one group exercised four hours after the task, and the third group did not exercise at all. The exercise groups both completed 35 minutes of interval training.

The results showed that the group which exercised four hours after learning did much better than the other two groups.

Two days later all of the subjects were given memory tests and MRI scans were used to measure brain function during memory recall.

The results showed that the group which exercised four hours after learning did much better than the other two groups and also showed more precise representations of correct answers in the hippocampus, the region of the brain involved in learning and memory. Exercising immediately after the learning task did not help memory two days later.

We know that exercise increases levels of chemicals called catecholamines in your body and we know that they enhance memory consolidation but exactly why exercising four hours later helps but exercising immediately does not is not so easily explained; except that it’s all in the timing.