Exercise & Memory Laboratory, Department of Health, Exercise Science and Recreation Management, The University of Mississippi, Oxford, MS 38677, USA.
Exercise & Mental Health Laboratory, School of Psychology, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen 518060, China.
Medicina (Kaunas). 2019 Sep 5;55(9):568. doi: 10.3390/medicina55090568.
Long-term potentiation (LTP), the functional connectivity among neurons, is considered a mechanism of episodic memory. Both acute exercise and learning are thought to influence memory via an LTP-related mechanism. Limited research has evaluated the individual and combined effects of acute exercise and learning strategy implementation (e.g., 3-R technique, cue-integration) on memory, which was the purpose of this study.
For Experiment 1, participants ( = 80; M = 20.9 years) were randomized into one of four experimental groups, including Exercise + Learning (E + L), Learning Only (L), Exercise Only (E), and Control Group (C; no exercise and no learning strategy implementation). The exercise stimulus involved an acute 15-min bout of lower-intensity (60% of heart rate max) walking exercise and the learning strategy involved the implementation of the 3-R technique. Experiment 2 ( = 77; M = 21.1 years) replicated Experiment 1 but addressed limitations (e.g., exposure level of the memory task) from Experiment 1 and employed a higher-intensity bout of exercise (77% of heart rate max). Experiment 3 ( = 80; M = 21.0 years) evaluated these same four experimental conditions but employed a cue-integration learning strategy and a moderate-intensity bout of acute exercise (64% of heart rate max).
These three experiments demonstrate that both learning techniques were effective in enhancing memory and we also provided evidence of a main effect for acute exercise (Experiment 3). However, we did not observe consistent evidence of a learning by exercise interaction effect.
We demonstrate that both acute exercise and different learning techniques are effective in enhancing long-term memory function.
长时程增强（LTP）是神经元之间的功能连接，被认为是情景记忆的一种机制。急性运动和学习都被认为通过与 LTP 相关的机制影响记忆。有限的研究评估了急性运动和学习策略实施（例如，3-R 技术、线索整合）对记忆的单独和联合影响，这是本研究的目的。
在实验 1 中，参与者（n = 80；M = 20.9 岁）被随机分为四个实验组之一，包括运动+学习（E+L）、仅学习（L）、仅运动（E）和对照组（C；不运动且不实施学习策略）。运动刺激包括 15 分钟的低强度（60%最大心率）步行运动，学习策略涉及实施 3-R 技术。实验 2（n = 77；M = 21.1 岁）复制了实验 1，但解决了实验 1 的局限性（例如，记忆任务的暴露水平），并采用了更高强度的运动（77%最大心率）。实验 3（n = 80；M = 21.0 岁）评估了这四个相同的实验条件，但采用了线索整合学习策略和中等强度的急性运动（64%最大心率）。
这三个实验表明，两种学习技术都能有效增强记忆，我们还提供了急性运动的主要效果的证据（实验 3）。然而，我们没有观察到一致的证据表明学习与运动存在交互效应。
我们证明了急性运动和不同的学习技术都能有效增强长期记忆功能。
