Differential effects of acute and regular physical exercise on cognition and affect

Abstract

The effects of regular exercise versus a single bout of exercise on cognition, anxiety, and mood were systematically examined in healthy, sedentary young adults who were genotyped to determine brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) allelic status (i.e., Val-Val or Val66Met polymorphism). Participants were evaluated on novel object recognition (NOR) memory and a battery of mental health surveys before and after engaging in either a) a four-week exercise program, with exercise on the final test day, b) a four-week exercise program, without exercise on the final test day, c) a single bout of exercise on the final test day, or d) remaining sedentary between test days. Exercise enhanced object recognition memory and produced a beneficial decrease in perceived stress, but only in participants who exercised for four weeks including the final day of testing. In contrast, a single bout of exercise did not affect recognition memory and resulted in increased perceived stress levels. An additional novel finding was that the improvements on the NOR task were observed exclusively in participants who were homozygous for the BDNF Val allele, indicating that altered activity-dependent release of BDNF in Met allele carriers may attenuate the cognitive benefits of exercise. Importantly, exercise-induced changes in cognition were not correlated with changes in mood/anxiety, suggesting that separate neural systems mediate these effects. These data in humans mirror recent data from our group in rodents. Taken together, these current findings provide new insights into the behavioral and neural mechanisms that mediate the effects of physical exercise on memory and mental health in humans.

Real-Time Associations Between Engaging in Leisure and Daily Health and Well-Being

“…A large body of evidence shows that exercise can produce benefits on mood and stress [39][40][41]. We did not measure what specific activities participants were doing when they reported leisure, but research suggests that some of the participants' reported leisure activities may have been exercisedbased [13].…”

“…When individuals engage in exercise, compared to when they do not, their heart rate increases [15,16]; exercise has also shown positive effects on improving positive mood, decreasing negative mood, and lowering stress [39][40][41]. For example, negative mood decreased and vigor increased after an aerobic exercise dance class compared to 15 min before the exercise [41].…”

The effect of differing intensities of acute cycling on preadolescent academic achievement

“…The role of exercise on adult cognition has been extensively researched (for reviews see Lambourne & Tomporowski, 2010;Tomporowski, 2003), with cognitive performance assessed during exercise (McMorris & Graydon, 1996), following acute exercise (Coles & Tomporowski, 2008;Hopkins, Davis, & Vantieghem, 2012;Tomporowski, et al, 2005), and following long-term exercise exposure (e.g. Castelli, Hillman, Buck & Erwin, 2007;Hopkins et al, 2012).…”

“…Castelli, Hillman, Buck & Erwin, 2007;Hopkins et al, 2012). These effects might be explained in terms of increased cerebral blood flow (Delp, et al, 2001) and heightened arousal due to exercise-induced changes in metabolic rate and reallocation of mental resources (Audiffren, 2009).…”

Effects of different delayed exercise regimens on cognitive performance in fimbria-fornix transected rats

“…Studies of healthy humans have found positive effects of exercise on cognitive measures in both children, younger adults, and elderly populations (see e.g. Guiney and Machado 2013, Hopkins et al 2012, Khan and Hillman 2014. Furthermore, findings from human studies suggest a beneficial effect of physical exercise regarding prevention of age-related cognitive impairment and potentially even development of Alzheimer's disease (Erickson et al 2011, Laurin et al 2001, Lindsay et al 2002.…”