Effect of Acute Physical Exercise on Memory (SPEMO)

University of Geneva, Switzerland

Status: Completed

Conditions: Acute Physical Exercise

Treatments: Other: high intensity physical exercise; Other: rest; Other: moderate intensity physical exercise

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT04680494

PB_2017-00360

Details and patient eligibility

About

An increasing amount of studies show the beneficial effect of regular exercise on cognitive and brain functions and especially in the memory domain. Yet little is known of what happens within an acute bout of exercise and whether it would also yield cognitive effects. The literature clearly shows that molecules such as brain derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) and endocannabinoids (mainly anandamide, AEA) are heavily involved in neural plasticity mechanisms and increase when we exercise hinting at possible mechanisms underlying memory improvement after exercise.

This protocol assesses the effects of acute exercise on associative and motor sequence memory, their underlying neural activations (measured using fMRI) and blood biomarkers (BDNF and AEA). A related aim is to assess the effect of exercise intensity, therefore three exercising conditions (rest, moderate intensity and high intensity) were included. Finally, a 3-month delayed retest visit is also realized to assess effects of acute exercise on long-term memory consolidation.

Enrollment: 25 patients

Sex: Male

Ages: 18 to 38 years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Male
• Right-handed,
• Exercising regularly (at least twice per week).
• VO2max comprised between 40ml/kg/min and 65ml/kg/min.

Exclusion criteria

• Psychiatric and neurological history

Trial design

Primary purpose: Other

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Crossover Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

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25 participants in 3 patient groups

Rest

Experimental group

Description:

Participants rest quietly for 30 minutes, sitting on a chair. They may read magazines not involving motion-related elements

Treatment:

Other: rest

Moderate intensity exercise

Experimental group

Description:

Participants cycle on a cycle ergometer during 30 minutes at 65% of their maximal cardiac frequency

Treatment:

Other: moderate intensity physical exercise

High intensity exercise

Experimental group

Description:

Participants cycle on a cycle ergometer during 15 minutes at 75% of their maximal cardiac frequency. This session also includes 3 minutes of warm-up and three minutes of cool down at 50% of their maximal cardiac frequency

Treatment:

Other: high intensity physical exercise