Movement boosts memory: Investigating the effects of acute exercise on episodic long-term memory

Long-term memory is important for cognitive health across the lifespan. Previously research has indicated that a bout of exercise improves memory retention for approximately one week; however, its prolonged effects are unknown. This study investigated the effects of acute moderate-intensity exercise on long-term memory for 11 months. Participants engaged in the exercise intervention and seated rest control condition, followed by a word encoding memory task. Word retention in the exercise intervention was better than in the control condition at 6- and 8-weeks post-encoding. These findings suggest that exercise before encoding enhances long-term episodic memory recall for at least eight weeks. (c) 2024 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd on behalf of Sports Medicine Australia. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).