Exercising four hours after studying is the best tactic to strengthen memory. This is what a new research carried out by experts from the Donders Institute at the Radboud University Medical Center (Netherlands) raises it, who have shown that physical exercise optimizes the information retrieval process, although only if it is carried out four hours after the learning; never immediately after.
If we are already more than used to reading about the health benefits of sport , we now discover that the learning process can be boosted by doing physical exercise after a specific time: four hours.
To reach this conclusion, the researchers examined the effects of a single exercise session after studying memory consolidation and long-term memory (using magnetic resonance imaging) with a group of 72 volunteers who learned 90 image associations and locations for 40 minutes before dividing them into three different exercise groups (with 35 minutes of cycling with maximum intensity of 80% heart rate) for the experiment: the first, exercised immediately after learning; the second, four hours later; finally, the third group did not perform any type of exercise, as a control group.
“The results show that we can improve memory consolidation by playing sports after learning, ” says Guillén Fernández, leader of the study.
The results revealed that those who exercised four hours after the learning session maintained or hoarded the information better 48 hours later, compared to those who exercised immediately or those who did not exercise.
According to experts, exercise “properly programmed can improve long-term memory, which highlights the potential of sport as an intervention in educational and clinical centers. Anyway, more research is required to optimize the best cycle of study and exercise, and to understand how memories can benefit more ”, clarifies Fernández.
The study has been published in the journal Current Biology.
