Daily physical exercise can improve memory?

This view has been deeply rooted in people's hearts: exercise can really change the brain and affect people's thinking and emotions. But a detailed multi-level study shows that this effect is more subtle than many scientists used to think. Whether you can benefit from exercise may depend on the time and frequency of exercise and the gene composition related to the brain.

20 12 in April, the journal Neuroscience published an article, reporting a study by Dartmouth College in New Hampshire, USA. Researchers from the Department of Psychology and Neurology of this university recruited 54 adults from the campus and nearby communities as volunteers to participate in the experiment. Their ages range from 18 to 36. They are all healthy and seldom exercise.

Volunteers were first tested, answered a series of questions about their mood and health, such as their anxiety at that time and in peacetime, and were also given blood for genetic testing.

Previous studies have shown that exercise can promote the secretion of protein called brain-derived nerve growth factor (BDNF). In the process of the influence of exercise on the brain, this protein has played a positive role, and its formation is related to genes. For example, some people have less BDNF than others after exercise, because their genes controlling BDNF secretion are different from others. Therefore, the researchers will test the BDNF gene of each volunteer.

The memory test is carried out like this: some objects flashed from the computer screen, and soon another set of pictures appeared. Volunteers were asked to answer whether each object had appeared before. David Butch, an associate professor in charge of this research, said that unlike previous studies, this experiment involves different parts of the brain: other experiments usually detect the effects of exercise on cells in the hippocampus, which is the memory center of the brain, but recognizing things requires activities in the limbic cortex. If the limbic cortex is not healthy, you may remember where you put the car keys-the hippocampus is responsible, but you can't remember what the car keys are like.

After completing these tests, volunteers were randomly divided into "exercise group" and "meditation group". In the next four weeks, the volunteers in the "sports group" walked or jogged for 30 minutes four times a week, while the "sit-in group" continued to sit still.

A month later, the volunteers returned to the laboratory to retest. Half of the people in the "exercise group" walked or jogged before the test, while the other half did not. The same is true of the "sit-in group": on the day of the test, half of the people exercised for the first time since the beginning of the experiment, and the other half did not exercise.

The test results are somewhat surprising. Unsurprisingly, many volunteers in the "sports group" who have exercised for a month have significantly improved their scores in emotional and memory tests, but not all of them have.

Generally speaking, in the exercise group, the volunteers who exercised on the day of the test performed best in the memory test, and their anxiety level was better than other volunteers; In the exercise group, volunteers who did not exercise on the day of the test performed better in the memory test than those in the "sit-in group", but not as good as those who exercised on the day of the test.

Interestingly, the practice before the test not only did not improve the performance of the "sitting group" members in the memory test, but according to their own statements, they were more anxious and nervous than the first test.

When comparing the BDNF gene and memory test scores of volunteers, the most interesting discovery appeared: people whose genes have a mutation (which is a common mutation) that hinders BDNF secretion after exercise, even if they exercise regularly, their memory has not improved. This genetic variation is very common, appearing in 30% of white Europeans.

This shows that the interaction between physical activity and intelligence may be more complicated than people once knew. Butch, for example, said that some people's genetic composition can't promote BDNF secretion, so their memory changes after exercise may not be as good as those who have genes that can promote BDNF secretion.

But the conclusion of this study is that overall, exercise can improve memory. "The available data strongly suggest that people should exercise." Butch pointed out that almost all the volunteers who improved their scores in the memory test were those who exercised for a month and also exercised on the day of the test, which showed that exercise had a very strong cumulative effect. Butch also mentioned that different memories involve different areas of the brain, but after long-term reasonable exercise, almost no one is unaffected.