The Best Exercise To Quickly Improve Memory

Each exercise session was only 20-minutes long.

Each exercise session was only 20-minutes long.

Short bursts of high-intensity exercise provide a considerable boost to memory, research finds.

The study showed that healthy young adults increased their memory performance in a relatively short period of time.

Each exercise session was only 20-minutes long, during which they did short bouts of intense exercise.

Those with the greatest fitness gains saw increases in brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF).

This is a protein that supports the function, growth and survival of brain cells.

Dr Jennifer Heisz, the study’s first author, said:

“Improvements in this type of memory from exercise might help to explain the previously established link between aerobic exercise and better academic performance.

At the other end of our lifespan, as we reach our senior years, we might expect to see even greater benefits in individuals with memory impairment brought on by conditions such as dementia.”

For the study, exercise training was compared with a control group among 95 people.

The high-intensity exercise was particularly beneficial to high-interference memory.

When we try to retrieve something from memory, the retrieval process can be hampered by other similar memories.

For example, when trying to remember someone’s name beginning with the letter ‘J’, the memory might return ‘Jack’, ‘James’ and ‘Jeremy’, before you remember the man’s name is ‘Jeff’.

After exercise, people found it easier to recall memories in these sorts of situations.

Dr Heisz said they were now looking at older adults to see if the same findings held true:

“One hypothesis is that we will see greater benefits for older adults given that this type of memory declines with age.

However, the availability of neurotrophic factors also declines with age and this may mean that we do not get the synergistic effects.”

The study was published in the Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience (Heisz et al., 2017).


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This site is all about scientific research into how the mind works.

It’s mostly written by psychologist and author, Dr Jeremy Dean.

I try to dig up fascinating studies that tell us something about what it means to be human.

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Author: Jeremy Dean

Psychologist, Jeremy Dean, PhD is the founder and author of PsyBlog. He holds a doctorate in psychology from University College London and two other advanced degrees in psychology. He has been writing about scientific research on PsyBlog since 2004. He is also the author of the book "Making Habits, Breaking Habits" (Da Capo, 2013) and several ebooks.