Researchers give you another reason as to why you should visit a gym. If you lift some weights then it can help to boost memory.
Lisa Weinberg, a graduate student of Georgia Institute of Technology and the lead researcher of the study suggests that people do not have to spend a lot of time exercising to boost their memory. A small weight lifting session of 20 minutes may also assist in enhancing memory.
The latest study is not the first, which claims that exercising is good for mental health of an individual. Previous studies have found regular exercising like running, gives a boost to the memory. However, the new study claims that people who lifted weight once in two days also showed signs of memory improvement.
The study involved participants who lifted weights and participants who would not workout. All the participants were shown 90 images (positive, negative and neutral) on a computer before the workout and they were not asked to remember the pictures.
Half of the participants were asked to sit at a leg extension resistance exercise machine and contracted and extended each leg for 50 times. Rest of the participants did not workout at all. The researchers also monitored the heart rate and blood pressure of individual participants. These participants also gave a saliva sample for the examination of neurotransmitter markers, which are associated to stress.
After 48 hours, all the participants of the study returned to the laboratory and were shown 180 images, which included 90 originals and 90 new ones. The team found that the group that did not workout remembered half of the original pictures while the group that worked out remembered 60 percent of the images.
Lisa also points out that even though the findings were based on weight lifting exercise, the same result can be achieved by other resistance activities like knee bends and squatting. The study concludes that weight lift exercise can improve episodic memory, which is the long-term memory of previous events.
"Even without doing expensive fMRI scans, our results give us an idea of what areas of the brain might be supporting these exercise-induced memory benefits," says Audrey Duarte, an associate professor in the School of Psychology, Georgia Institute of Technology. "The findings are encouraging because they are consistent with rodent literature that pinpoints exactly the parts of the brain that play a role in stress-induced memory benefits caused by exercise."
Experts want to establish the applicability of the new study to boost other kinds of memories. The study is significant as it can help find treatments for people suffering from memory impairment.
The findings have been published in the journal Acta Psychologica.
Check out a short video clip of Lisa Weinberg explaining the findings of the study.
