Effect of acute physical exercise on motor sequence memory

Abstract

Acute physical exercise improves memory functions by increasing neural plasticity in the hippocampus. In animals, a single session of physical exercise has been shown to boost anandamide (AEA), an endocannabinoid known to promote hippocampal plasticity. Hippocampal neuronal networks encode episodic memory representations, including the temporal organization of elements, and can thus benefit motor sequence learning. While previous work established that acute physical exercise has positive effects on declarative memory linked to hippocampal plasticity mechanisms, its influence on memory for motor sequences, and especially on neural mechanisms underlying possible effects, has been less investigated. Here we studied the impact of acute physical exercise on motor sequence learning, and its underlying neurophysiological mechanisms in humans, using a cross-over randomized within-subjects design. We measured behavior, fMRI activity, and circulating AEA levels in fifteen healthy participants while they performed a serial reaction time task before and after a short period of exercise (moderate or high intensity) or rest. We show that exercise enhanced motor sequence memory, significantly for high intensity exercise and tending towards significance for moderate intensity exercise. This enhancement correlated with AEA increase, and dovetailed with local increases in caudate nucleus and hippocampus activity. These findings demonstrate that acute physical exercise promotes sequence learning, thus attesting the overarching benefit of exercise to hippocampus-related memory functions.

A single session of moderate intensity exercise influences memory, endocannabinoids and brain derived neurotrophic factor levels in men

“…In the present work, the data from 18 participants was used in the analyses. We agree that this may seem borderline for fMRI studies, but please note that we used a powerful within-subjects cross-over randomized design to maximize the statistical power from our sample similar to Marin Bosch 63 . Second, the fact that all included participants were regularly exercising healthy young male participants, may have induced a selection bias and may limit the generalizability of our findings.…”

“…First, we estimated the required sample size based on a previous study using the exact same associative memory task and a similar acute physical exercise session 24 . The resulting estimated sample size was 15 participants, which corresponds to the exact sample size of a recent study using a similar exercising and biomarker protocol focusing on motor sequence memory 63 . In the present work, the data from 18 participants was used in the analyses.…”

The Effects of Acute Cardiovascular Exercise on Memory and Its Associations With Exercise-Induced Increases in Neurotrophic Factors

“…Yet, this is contradictory to results in rodents reporting very reliable exercise-induced functional and structural changes in the hippocampus after exercise (reviewed in Cotman et al, 2007 ; van Praag, 2008 ). Moreover, fMRT results in humans showed task-dependent modulations of hippocampal activity after acute exercise (Bosch et al, 2020 ). Future studies contrasting hippocampus-dependent learning tasks and hippocampus-independent learning tasks in humans might shed light on the question of whether there is a task-dependent effect of physical exercise in phases of early memory consolidation (McNerney and Radvansky, 2015 ).…”

Effects of Exercise Training on the Autonomic Nervous System with a Focus on Anti-Inflammatory and Antioxidants Effects

“…A second group with subjects who performed a single cycle of aerobic exercise at 45% maximum power and a third group with subjects who did not undergo any type of exercise 20 min after learning a motor skill. The conclusions of the study were that exercise intensity plays an important role in modulating the effects that a single PE course has on the consolidation phase after learning motor skills [ 191 ].…”