Need to remember something? Exercise 4 hours later!

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2016-06/cp-ntr060916.php

Public Release: 16-Jun-2016
Need to remember something? Exercise 4 hours later!
Cell Press

A new study suggests an intriguing strategy to boost memory for what you've just learned: hit the gym four hours later. The findings reported in the Cell Press journal Current Biology on June 16 show that physical exercise after learning improves memory and memory traces, but only if the exercise is done in a specific time window and not immediately after learning.

"It shows that we can improve memory consolidation by doing sports after learning," says Guillén Fernández of the Donders Institute at the Radboud University Medical Center in the Netherlands.

•••••

The researchers found that those who exercised four hours after their learning session retained the information better two days later than those who exercised either immediately or not at all. The brain images also showed that exercise after a time delay was associated with more precise representations in the hippocampus, an area important to learning and memory, when an individual answered a question correctly.

•••••