Acute aerobic exercise enhances associative learning in regular exercisers but not in non-regular exercisers.

ABSTRACT:

Introduction

Physical exercise has repeatedly been reported to have advantageous effects on brain functions, including learning and memory formation. However, objective tools to measure such effects are often lacking. Eyeblink conditioning is a well-characterized method for studying the neural basis of associative learning. As such, this paradigm has potential as a tool to assess to what extent exercise affects one of the most basic forms of learning. Until recently, however, using this paradigm for testing human subjects in their daily life was technically challenging. As a consequence, no studies have investigated how exercise affects eyeblink conditioning in humans. Here we hypothesize that acute aerobic exercise is associated with improved performance in eyeblink conditioning.

SUBMITTER: Gultig KD 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11747211 | biostudies-literature | 2024

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature