Brief Exercise May Benefit Memory by Altering Brain Ripples

Many different strategies and techniques exist to help maintain or improve a person’s memory. Often, many of these methods emphasize keeping the brain active.

These brain-training activities often focus on stimulating specific regions of the brain involved in memory, such as the hippocampus . In particular, the hippocampus plays an important role in memory consolidation , the process by which newly formed memories are strengthened into long-term memories.

Previously, neuroscientists have documented “ ripples ” of brain activity relevant to memory in mice and rats. However, they had been unable to confirm this link in humans.

Now, a new study, published in Brain Communications , suggests that brief sessions of physical exercise could alter human brain activity, triggering waves of ‘ripples’ that may support the brain to process and store information more effectively. These findings provide some of the first direct evidence explaining how exercise benefits cognition in humans at the neural level.

Researchers have long known that physical activity is associated with improvements in memory and other cognitive functions.