Aerobic endurance exercise benefits memory and affect in young adults.
Abstract
Exercise seems a simple and widely practised behaviour that activates molecular and cellular signalling cascades involved in various central nervous system processes. Despite impressive results obtained in animal studies, fitness interventions have produced less reliable effects in humans, particularly in young adults. In the present study we tested the hypothesis that an individually adapted exercise training consisting of three running sessions of 30 minutes per week for 6 weeks, has the potential to improve visuospatial and verbal memory, concentration performance, and affect in young and healthy adults. Twenty-eight students participated and underwent a graded fitness test to assess individual fitness. The experimental group took part in an aerobic running programme, whereas the control group were asked not to vary their everyday activities. We found a significant increase in visuospatial memory performance and a significant increase in positive affect on a .05 alpha level of significance. However, we observed no effects of running training on concentration performance and verbal memory. We conclude that physical activity can possibly serve as a means to improve positively valenced aspects of affect and benefit visuospatial but not verbal memory in young adults.
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In preadolescent children and young adults, aerobic exercise is selectively associated with improved performances on spatial memory tasks and not with less hippocampus dependent tasks such as attention, verbal memory, or item recognition tasks.
“Moreover, some studies have demonstrated in preadolescent children and young adults that AE is selectively associated with improved performances on contextual (Chaddock et al., 2010, 2011; Monti et al., 2012) and spatial (Stroth et al., 2009; Herting and Nagel, 2012) memory tasks and not with less hippocampus dependent tasks such as attention, verbal memory, or item recognition tasks.”
From Aerobic Exercise as a Tool to Improve Hippocampal Plasticity and Function in Humans: Practical Implications for Mental Health Treatment (2016) · cites this paper as Stroth et al., 2009
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- Authors
- Stroth, S., Hille, K., Spitzer, M., & Reinhardt, R.
- Affiliations
- Universität Ulm (DE)
- Corresponding author
- Stroth, Sanna
- Venue
- Neuropsychological Rehabilitation
- Publisher
- Informa UK Limited
- Published
- 2009-01
- Volume
- 19
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 223-243
- ISSN
- 0960-2011 (ISSN-L)
- 1464-0694
- OpenAlex
- W2115192115
- Cited by
- 232
- References
- 46
- Citations by year
- 2026: 4 · 2025: 7 · 2024: 19 · 2023: 11 · 2022: 6 · 2021: 21 · 2020: 22 · 2019: 25 · 2018: 15 · 2017: 14 · 2016: 9 · 2015: 20 · 2014: 15 · 2013: 13 · 2012: 11
- FWCI
- 4.45
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Neuropsychological Rehabilitation (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Physiology › Physical Activity and Health
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Cognitive Functions and Memory
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Complementary and alternative medicine › Cardiovascular and exercise physiology
- Keywords
- aerobic exercise, running training, memory, visuospatial memory, verbal memory, concentration, positive affect, young adults, physical activity
- MeSH terms
- Adult, Affect, Analysis of Variance, Cognition, Female, Follow-Up Studies, Humans, Male, Memory, Neuropsychological Tests, Physical Endurance, Running, Exercise, Young Adult
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