van Dongen Eelco V, Kersten Ingrid H P, Wagner Isabella C, Morris Richard G M, Fernández Guillén
Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Radboud University and Radboud University Medical Center, P.O. Box 9101, 6500 HB Nijmegen, the Netherlands.
Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Radboud University and Radboud University Medical Center, P.O. Box 9101, 6500 HB Nijmegen, the Netherlands.
Curr Biol. 2016 Jul 11;26(13):1722-1727. doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2016.04.071. Epub 2016 Jun 16.
Persistent long-term memory depends on successful stabilization and integration of new memories after initial encoding [1, 2]. This consolidation process is thought to require neuromodulatory factors such as dopamine, noradrenaline, and brain-derived neurotrophic factor [3-7]. Without the release of such factors around the time of encoding, memories will decay rapidly [3, 5, 6, 8]. Recent studies have shown that physical exercise acutely stimulates the release of several consolidation-promoting factors in humans [9-14], raising the question of whether physical exercise can be used to improve memory retention [15-17]. Here, we used a single session of physical exercise after learning to exogenously boost memory consolidation and thus long-term memory. Three groups of randomly assigned participants first encoded a set of picture-location associations. Afterward, one group performed exercise immediately, one 4 hr later, and the third did not perform any exercise. Participants otherwise underwent exactly the same procedures to control for potential experimental confounds. Forty-eight hours later, participants returned for a cued-recall test in a magnetic resonance scanner. With this design, we could investigate the impact of acute exercise on memory consolidation and retrieval-related neural processing. We found that performing exercise 4 hr, but not immediately, after encoding improved the retention of picture-location associations compared to the no-exercise control group. Moreover, performing exercise after a delay was associated with increased hippocampal pattern similarity for correct responses during delayed retrieval. Our results suggest that appropriately timed physical exercise can improve long-term memory and highlight the potential of exercise as an intervention in educational and clinical settings.
长期记忆的维持依赖于初始编码后新记忆的成功稳定和整合[1,2]。人们认为这种巩固过程需要神经调节因子，如多巴胺、去甲肾上腺素和脑源性神经营养因子[3-7]。如果在编码时没有释放这些因子，记忆将迅速衰退[3,5,6,8]。最近的研究表明，体育锻炼能急性刺激人体释放几种促进巩固的因子[9-14]，这就提出了体育锻炼是否可用于改善记忆保持的问题[15-17]。在此，我们在学习后进行单次体育锻炼，以外源增强记忆巩固从而改善长期记忆。三组随机分配的参与者首先对一组图片-位置关联进行编码。之后，一组立即进行锻炼，一组在4小时后进行锻炼，第三组不进行任何锻炼。其他方面，参与者接受完全相同的程序以控制潜在的实验混杂因素。48小时后，参与者返回磁共振扫描仪进行线索回忆测试。通过这种设计，我们可以研究急性运动对记忆巩固和与检索相关的神经加工的影响。我们发现，与不锻炼的对照组相比，在编码后4小时（而非立即）进行锻炼可改善图片-位置关联的保持。此外，延迟后进行锻炼与延迟检索期间正确反应的海马模式相似性增加有关。我们的结果表明，适时的体育锻炼可以改善长期记忆，并突出了锻炼作为教育和临床环境中一种干预手段的潜力。
