Effect of Acute Physical Exercise on Memory

Not Applicable

Completed

• Conditions: Acute Physical Exercise
• Interventions: Other: moderate intensity physical exercise; Other: high intensity physical exercise; Other: rest

• Registration Number: NCT04680494
• Lead Sponsor: University of Geneva, Switzerland

Brief Summary

An increasing amount of studies show the beneficial effect of regular exercise on cognitive and brain functions and especially in the memory domain. Yet little is known of what happens within an acute bout of exercise and whether it would also yield cognitive effects. The literature clearly shows that molecules such as brain derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) and endocannabinoids (mainly anandamide, AEA) are heavily involved in neural plasticity mechanisms and increase when we exercise hinting at possible mechanisms underlying memory improvement after exercise.

This protocol assesses the effects of acute exercise on associative and motor sequence memory, their underlying neural activations (measured using fMRI) and blood biomarkers (BDNF and AEA). A related aim is to assess the effect of exercise intensity, therefore three exercising conditions (rest, moderate intensity and high intensity) were included. Finally, a 3-month delayed retest visit is also realized to assess effects of acute exercise on long-term memory consolidation.

Detailed Description

Not available

Study Timeline

• Study Start: 2015-10-09
• Primary Completion: 2016-07-27
• Study Completion: 2016-07-27
• Status Verified: 2020-12
• Study First Submitted: 2020-12-11
• Study First Submitted QC: 2020-12-17
• Last Update Submitted: 2020-12-17
• Study First Posted: 2020-12-23
• Last Update Posted: 2020-12-23

Recruitment & Eligibility

• Status: COMPLETED
• Sex: Male
• Target Recruitment: 25

Inclusion Criteria

• Male
• Right-handed,
• Exercising regularly (at least twice per week).
• VO2max comprised between 40ml/kg/min and 65ml/kg/min.

Exclusion Criteria

• Psychiatric and neurological history

Study & Design

• Study Type: INTERVENTIONAL
• Study Design: CROSSOVER

Arm && Interventions

Group	Intervention	Description
Moderate intensity exercise	moderate intensity physical exercise	Participants cycle on a cycle ergometer during 30 minutes at 65% of their maximal cardiac frequency
High intensity exercise	high intensity physical exercise	Participants cycle on a cycle ergometer during 15 minutes at 75% of their maximal cardiac frequency. This session also includes 3 minutes of warm-up and three minutes of cool down at 50% of their maximal cardiac frequency
Rest	rest	Participants rest quietly for 30 minutes, sitting on a chair. They may read magazines not involving motion-related elements

Primary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
BDNF levels	up to 1 hour	we measure BDNF levels before and after physical exercise and rest, measured in ng/mL of serum.
endocannabinoid levels	up to 1 hour	we measure endocannabinoid levels before and after physical exercise and rest, measured in ng/mL of plasma.
cognitive measures - performance	Till the end of the study for each participant, i.e.3 months (long time retest)	we measure performance during cognitive tasks. Performance is measured as percentage of correct trials, with higher percentages corresponding to better performance - measured in percentages.
cognitive measures - reaction times	Till the end of the study for each participant, i.e.3 months (long time retest)	we measure reaction times during cognitive tasks. For reaction times, lower measures correspond to faster response times and therefore to better outcome - measured in milliseconds.
brain activations	up to 1 hour	we measure brain activations using fMRI during cognitive tasks