How Exercise Affects Our Memory

[opportune]

Sample size: 26. Confounding variable: all older people. Also the exercisers did not perform significantly better in the memory test! They only had higher activation in the regions of the brain associated with memory! Really a garbage conclusion from the actual article

[yjftsjthsd-h]

... Isn't increased brain activity a sign of worse performance? Because when your brain is actually operating efficiently, it doesn't need to light up very many neurons to do what it needs to do.

[maxerickson]

The memory test was designed not to measure performance (the names presented were preselected so that performance with each of them exceeded 90%).

For a real effect, a sample size of 26 is going to show it just fine.

[sonnyblarney]

Surely.

But I know that this is true for me. I can tell at the end of the day whether I worked out or not just by how I feel.

Without workouts I feel foggy, slow, unmotivated.

Doing cardio I feel 25.

Same for others so I hope they continue this research.

[interfixus]

Hardly even anecdotal, just my personal experience: I always disliked sports, and I would't dream of entering a 'fitness center' or whatever they're called. I do a minute or two with hand-weights every morning, I walk my dog, and I bike [pedals, not motor] a bit - the oldfashioned way, nothing fancy or spandexed about it. But am often puzzled by everyone's physical passivity: I don't really get the point of escalators, for example. I tend to trot up the stairs if they are available, in the process generally overtaking the stand-still folks on the conveyor. It seems to work: I'm sixty and in very decent shape and excellent health.

As for kickstarting my brain when it goes mushy, honestly I find driving at least as efficient as walking or biking. Change of scenery, not having to think, seems to do the trick for me.

[hawaiian]

Anecdotally, long periods of exercise (cycling 50+ miles in a single session, once a week) seem to nuke my short-term memory for a few hours, but over time this habit seems to have improved my short-term memory for things such as phone number extensions.

[brian_cunnie]

I have the same experience after rugby matches and open water swimming — my short-term memory is shot for the next few hours, but then it recovers. I have no evidence for the long-term effects.

[x11]

It might sound dumb, but whenever I'm stuck and I need to solve a hard coding problem, a long walk does the trick.

[agumonkey]

Do trips also work (car, train, or else) ?

Also being in a different location unleashes a lot of inspiration very often.

[bumby]

I think there's decent evidence that low intensity exercise can increase BDNF which helps increase neural connections. Not really the same as this study, but a different effect of exercise on the brain

[0xcde4c3db]

As I recall there is such evidence, but there's also evidence that commonly encountered concentrations of particulate air pollution drastically reduce that increase in BDNF. So it's not entirely clear what mechanisms all have to be working well to see that particular benefit.

[pishpash]

Methinks sleep increases memory performance more.

[sriram_malhar]

IIRC, I exercised yesterday.

[jdhn]

I wonder if those who primarily benefit from exercise based are primarily older people. If it's not, then either I need to see a neurologist, start exercising harder/more frequently, or both.