Need to recollect something? Exercise 4 hours later.

Here's a possible strategy for reinforcing memory — exercise 4 hours after learning something. In a study published on July 11, 2016 Current Biologyresearchers found that exercise after learning can improve your memory of recent information, but provided that done inside a selected time window.

In the study, 72 subjects learned 90 picture-location associations — mentally associating a picture with recent information — over a 40-minute period to enhance recall. They were then randomly assigned to considered one of three groups: one group exercised immediately, one other exercised 4 hours later, and the third didn’t exercise. The exercise routine consisted of 35 minutes of interval training on a fitness bike at an intensity of as much as 80% of maximum heart rate.

After 48 hours, the participants' memory was tested while their brains were scanned with an MRI. Those who exercised 4 hours after the training session retained information higher than the opposite two groups. The MRI also showed that the hippocampus, a brain region related to learning and memory, is more energetic when information is appropriately recalled.

Newly learned information is transformed into long-term knowledge through a process that requires specific brain chemicals which can be released during exercise, corresponding to dopamine, noradrenaline, and the expansion factor BDNF, in line with the researchers, but More research is required to know this phenomenon. It's also not clear why 4 hours was more useful, or whether one other time-frame might produce an analogous effect.