Thursday, April 16th 2026
A short session of physical exercise can create “waves” of activity in the brain that help store and retrieve memories.
Memory can be very unpredictable. Whether we’re trying to remember people’s names, remember a list of things we need from the shop, or prepare for an important exam or job interview, information that we had in our head one minute ago can slip away the next minute, reports the BBC.
But there’s an easy way to instantly improve your memory when trying to learn new information – ride an exercise bike for a few minutes or go for a brisk walk. fast.
Research shows that we can improve memory by doing aerobic exercise, or cardio.
Exercising the body has long been known to improve cognitive abilities – as I covered in my Live Well for Longer newsletter course. Physical activity improves our performance on various tasks and strengthens areas of the brain that are susceptible to aging, potentially slowing cognitive decline. But physical exercise can also strengthen an area of the brain important for memory – the hippocampus, and therefore can have a positive effect on our memory. Moderate exercise several times a week has been found to increase the size of the hippocampus. Other studies have shown that the timing of the exercise also matters – taking a walk four hours after learning can improve memory retention and recall later, compared to exercising immediately after learning. Stretching exercises, in comparison, did not offer any memory benefits.
Until now, it has been difficult for scientists to understand the processes that occur. A new study sought to do just that.
Neuroscientists looked inside the heads of 14 people immediately after exercise and observed tiny bursts of electrical activity moving between brain cells, or neurons, known for their importance in consolidating memories. These “brain waves” are a phenomenon where many neurons are activated simultaneously, says Michelle Voss, a neuroscientist at the University of Iowa who led the study. They play a key role in how the brain packages and stores memories during sleep and periods of rest. (All the participants had drug-resistant epilepsy, but the study looked at parts of the brain that were healthy and produced normal electrical signals.)
The team monitored the participants’ brains to see what happened after a brief burst of activity. They found that after exercise there was an increase in waves in the hippocampus, as well as in other areas that the hippocampus connects to. Researchers believe this helps the brain consolidate memories. “These impulses were also more synchronized with neural activity in the rest of the brain,” says Voss.
Her team collaborated with neurosurgeons who monitor electrical activity in patients being prepared for epilepsy surgery. These patients temporarily had electrodes implanted in their brains, which meant the team could observe electrical activity before and after exercise on the exercise bike. Although the participants did not do any learning as part of the study, previous studies have shown that “waves” may be a candidate for consolidating memories.
“This provides us with a unique opportunity to understand how the human brain works by directly measuring electrical signaling, which is the main currency of how the brain works,” says Voss. These waves occur too quickly to be picked up by standard brain scans, making this the first study to show how exercise directly affects the brain’s electrical activity.
She believes this synchronization may provide a biological explanation for why people often remember information better if they exercise shortly after learning. And a short burst of activity was enough to boost brain waves — showing that even short bursts of activity can benefit our memory.
Voss hopes this paper will help reframe public health messages about physical activity and help us think better about aging, especially since strengthening areas important to memory can help protect the brain from cognitive decline.
At the same time, we know that regular bursts of activity provide a range of other benefits for the brain and body. Research shows that a single workout can improve focus for up to two hours afterward, as well as immediately increase levels of the feel-good hormone dopamine. A recent study showed that the more we exercise and the fitter we are, the more the brain benefits from every single workout. Any physical activity is clearly beneficial, but this new study showed that the benefits to the brain increase the more active we are.
This is because a higher level of cardiovascular conditioning and muscle mass allows the body to produce more of a protein important for forming new brain connections, called Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor (BDNF).
“There is a reason to stay active because you will benefit more every time,” he says. Flaminia Ronca, an exercise physiology researcher at University College London, who led the study. “If you continue the exercise for six weeks, you will get more out of each future session.”
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Source: prizrenpost
