{"id":553,"date":"2017-02-22T14:15:38","date_gmt":"2017-02-22T14:15:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.blog-thebrain.org\/?p=1310"},"modified":"2022-01-04T19:50:11","modified_gmt":"2022-01-04T19:50:11","slug":"to-retain-information-better-wait-a-few-hours-then-go-for-a-run","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.blog-thebrain.org\/advanced\/2017\/02\/22\/to-retain-information-better-wait-a-few-hours-then-go-for-a-run\/","title":{"rendered":"To Retain Information Better, Wait a Few Hours, Then Go for a Run!"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignleft  wp-image-5671\" title=\"BDNF\" src=\"https:\/\/www.blog-lecerveau.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/BDNF.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"181\" height=\"154\" \/><\/p>\n<p>The study that I want to tell you about today was done by Eelco V. van Dongen and his colleagues and is entitled \u201cPhysical Exercise Performed Four Hours after Learning Improves Memory Retention and Increases Hippocampal Pattern Similarity during Retrieval.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>This study\u2019s findings can be summed up as follows: if you have just made a new mental association and want to remember it better, wait a couple of hours, and then go do some exercise! In van Dongen\u2019s study, three groups of subjects performed a memory-encoding task. One group performed exercise immediately after, one did so four hours after, and the third did not perform any exercise at all. When the three groups were tested for their retention of the encoded memory two days afterward, the group that had exercised four hours after the task showed the best retention among the three groups.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>As van Dongen and his co-authors describe in this article, the persistence of <span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thebrain.mcgill.ca\/flash\/a\/a_07\/a_07_p\/a_07_p_tra\/a_07_p_tra.html#2\"><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">long-term memory<\/span><\/a><\/span> depends on consolidation processes that in turn appear to depend on neuromodulating substances such as <span style=\"color: #008080;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thebrain.mcgill.ca\/flash\/i\/i_01\/i_01_m\/i_01_m_ana\/i_01_m_ana.html#2\"><span style=\"color: #008080;\">dopamine, noradrenaline<\/span><\/a><\/span>, and <span style=\"color: #008080;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thebrain.mcgill.ca\/flash\/i\/i_09\/i_09_m\/i_09_m_dev\/i_09_m_dev.html#3\"><span style=\"color: #008080;\">brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF)<\/span><\/a><\/span>. If the brain does not release such substances shortly after it learns something, that something will be quickly forgotten. Several recent studies have shown that in humans, physical exercise stimulates the release of such consolidation factors. Van Dongen\u2019s study thus seems to confirm the validity of this phenomenon and suggests some practical applications in educational settings.<\/p>\n<p>I was going to end this post there, but then I remembered another study, by Sama F. Sleiman and her team, entitled \u201cExercise promotes the expression of brain derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) through the action of the ketone body \u00ce\u00b2-hydroxybutyrate\u201d. This study explains how Sleiman and her colleagues determined that a substance that forms in the brains of mice when they exercise intensely is the precursor to BDNF, which encourages the development of new nerve cells in the hippocampus, and thus the encoding of new memories.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/mindblog.dericbownds.net\/2016\/08\/to-remember-something-better-wait-then.html?utm_source=feedburner&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Mindblog+%28MindBlog%29\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"color: #008080;\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" style=\"border: 0pt;\" src=\"https:\/\/www.blog-lecerveau.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/i_lien.gif\" alt=\"i_lien\" width=\"15\" height=\"15\" \/> To remember something better, wait, then exercise. <\/span><\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.cell.com\/current-biology\/abstract\/S0960-9822(16)30465-1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.blog-lecerveau.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/a_exp.gif\" alt=\"a_exp\" width=\"15\" height=\"15\" \/> <span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">Physical Exercise Performed Four Hours after Learning Improves Memory Retention and Increases Hippocampal Pattern Similarity during Retrieval <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The study that I want to tell you about today was done by Eelco V. van Dongen and his colleagues and is entitled \u201cPhysical Exercise Performed Four Hours after Learning Improves Memory Retention and Increases Hippocampal Pattern Similarity during Retrieval.\u201d This study\u2019s findings can be summed up as follows: if you have just made a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4],"tags":[284,20],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.blog-thebrain.org\/advanced\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/553"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.blog-thebrain.org\/advanced\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.blog-thebrain.org\/advanced\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.blog-thebrain.org\/advanced\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.blog-thebrain.org\/advanced\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=553"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.blog-thebrain.org\/advanced\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/553\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":921,"href":"https:\/\/www.blog-thebrain.org\/advanced\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/553\/revisions\/921"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.blog-thebrain.org\/advanced\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=553"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.blog-thebrain.org\/advanced\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=553"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.blog-thebrain.org\/advanced\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=553"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}