Running helps preserve your memory by fighting stress that weakens signals in your brain
- A study by researchers at Brigham Young University found that running can improve memory by protecting against the negative effects of stress
- The study exposed groups of mice to stressful situations and/or exercise
- Findings revealed that exercise helps strengthens connections in the hippocampus, the part of the brain responsible for learning and memory
Jogging may be the answer to jogging your memory as new research reveals it strengthens signals in the brain.
Exercise has long been known to help combat stress, but a study by Brigham Young University suggests that it can also help combat forgetfulness.
The researchers found that running helps protect against the negative effects of stress on the hippocampus - the part of the brain responsible for learning and memory.
'It's empowering to know that we can combat the negative impacts of stress on our brains just by getting out and running,' the study's senior author Jeff Edwards, PhD, said.
A new study suggests that running helps preserve memory formation and recall by protecting the brain from the negative effects of stress
Within the hippocampus, memory formation and recall work best when the connections between neurons, called synapses, are strengthened over time, a process called long-term potentiation (LTP).
Chronic or prolonged stress, however, weakens the synapses and with them the LTP, negatively impacting memory.
Seven out of 10 adults in the US suffer from stress or anxiety on a daily basis, according to the most recent Anxiety and Depression Association of America survey.
'Of course, we can't always control stress in our lives, but we can control how much we exercise.'
To study the link between memory, stress and exercise, researchers divided mice into four groups: sedentary no stress, exercise no stress, exercise with stress, and sedentary with stress.
The mice were then exposed to stress inducing situations, such as walking on an elevated platform or swimming in cold water, and/or put on a running wheel depending on their grouping.
To determine how the variables affected each group's memory, the researchers used electrophysiology to measure the LTP in the animals' brains.
They found that the stressed mice who exercised had considerable higher LTP rates than those who had not exercised.
The researchers also used a maze-running experiment to test the mice's memories. The stressed mice who exercised performed just as well as non-stressed mice who exercised.
Additionally, the exercising mice made significantly fewer memory errors in the maze than the sedentary mice.
The findings suggest exercise is an effective way to protect learning and memory mechanisms from the negative cognitive impacts of chronic stress on the brain.
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