A recent study led by researchers at University College London (UCL) has found that the short-term enhancement our brains experience after exercise endures throughout the subsequent day.
Past laboratory research had demonstrated that people’s cognitive abilities improve in the hours following physical activity, yet the duration of this benefit remained uncertain.
Published in the International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity, the new study discovered that, on average, individuals aged 50 to 83 who engaged in more moderate to vigorous physical activity than normal on a particular day performed better in memory tests the following day.
Reduced sitting time and six or more hours of sleep were also correlated with superior scores in the next day’s memory tests. Additionally, deeper (slow-wave) sleep contributed to memory function, with the research team determining it accounted for a small part of the connection between exercise and enhanced next-day memory.
The research team analyzed data from 76 men and women who wore activity trackers for eight days and underwent cognitive tests daily.
“Our findings imply that the short-term memory benefits of physical activity might last longer than previously believed, potentially extending to the next day rather than just a few hours post-exercise. Obtaining more sleep, especially deep sleep, appears to amplify this memory improvement,” stated Dr. Mikaela Bloomberg, the lead author from the UCL Institute of Epidemiology & Health Care.
In the short term, exercise augments blood flow to the brain and triggers the release of neurotransmitters like norepinephrine and dopamine, which assist a variety of cognitive functions. These neurochemical alterations are understood to last up to a few hours after exercise. However, the researchers noted that other brain states associated with exercise were more long-lasting. For example, evidence suggests exercise can elevate mood for up to 24 hours.
A 2016 study by a different research team also detected more synchronized activity in the hippocampus (an indicator of enhanced hippocampal function, which facilitates memory) 48 hours after high-intensity interval training (HIIT) cycling.
Co-author Professor Andrew Steptoe (UCL Institute of Epidemiology & Health Care) commented, “Among older adults, maintaining cognitive function is crucial for a good quality of life, well-being, and independence. Thus, it’s beneficial to identify factors that can influence cognitive health on a daily basis.
“This study offers evidence that the immediate cognitive perks of exercise might persist longer than we thought. It also indicates that good sleep quality independently contributes to cognitive performance.
“Nevertheless, we can’t ascertain from this study whether these short-term boosts to cognitive performance translate to long-term cognitive health. While there’s ample evidence suggesting physical activity could slow cognitive decline and lower dementia risk, it remains a topic of debate.”
For the new study, researchers examined data from wrist-worn activity trackers to gauge how much time participants spent being sedentary, engaging in light physical activity, and partaking in moderate or vigorous exercise. They also quantified sleep duration and time spent in lighter (rapid eye movement, or REM) sleep and deeper, slow-wave sleep.
When exploring the associations between different activity types and next-day cognitive performance, the research team adjusted for numerous factors that could have skewed the results, including the amount of moderate or vigorous physical activity participants undertook on the test day.
They also considered participants’ average activity levels and sleep quality over the eight-day tracking period, as those habitually more active and typically enjoying higher-quality sleep fared better in cognitive tests.
The team found that compared to an individual’s average, increased moderate or vigorous physical activity was linked to better working memory and episodic memory (memory of events) the next day. Greater overall sleep was associated with improved episodic and working memory and psychomotor speed (a measure of how swiftly a person detects and responds to the environment). More slow-wave sleep was tied to enhanced episodic memory.
Conversely, spending more time sedentary than usual was correlated with poorer working memory the following day.
This study is among the first to assess next-day cognitive performance using a “micro-longitudinal” design, tracking participants as they went about their daily lives instead of confining them to a laboratory.
Among the study’s limitations, the researchers pointed out that the participants were a cognitively healthy group, suggesting the results might not hold for those with neurocognitive disorders.
The study involved researchers from the UCL Institute of Epidemiology & Health Care, UCL Division of Surgery & Interventional Science, and the University of Oxford, and was funded by the UK’s Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC).
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