Study: Exercise Improves Memory, Helps Alleviate ADHD

http://www.wired.com/playbook/2012/05/exercise-memory-and-adhd/

By Beth Carter May 25, 2012

We’ve long known exercise has a wonderful effect on the brain. It makes you happier, evens your temperament and can even mitigate the painful withdrawal from heroin addiction. Now evidence suggests being active improves cognition and memory and could alleviate the symptoms of ADHD in kids.

In a series of studies, Dartmouth researchers discovered these benefits vary according to age, and a specific gene appears to determine the degree to which exercise helps. This raises the possibility that exercise could be a treatment for attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder.

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In research published in the journal Neuroscience, Bucci’s team studied sedentary Dartmouth undergrads who couldn’t or wouldn’t exercise more than once every two weeks or so. They were divided into two groups, having one group exercise regularly on a treadmill and the other remain sedentary. A subset did not exercise until the day of testing to see if there were any acute effects. The subjects took memory tests before and after the study, with the goal of determining if students would perform better if they exercised. Turns out there is a specific gene that determines the extent to which exercise helps.

All genes have two copies, or alleles. In most people, the amino acid valine is present at the 66th amino acid position in the genetic code. But in some people, methionine has been substituted for valine in one or both alleles. This is the switch-up Bucci and his colleagues have pinpointed as one reason exercise provides better cognitive and memory improvements for some people but not others.

“The expectation was that exercise after four weeks could make you do better,” said Bucci. “The most striking thing, however, was that this was only true with the people who had this growth factor. If you had some substitution you did not get the benefits — the activity of that growth factor seemed to have a big effect.”