How Exercise Affects Our Memory • Hacker News Board

Re: How Exercise Affects Our Memory

#11

Post by mruts » Sat, May 04, 2019, 1:54 AM UTC

maxerickson wrote: post #5

opportune wrote: post #3

Sample size: 26. Confounding variable: all older people. Also the exercisers did not perform significantly better in the memory test! They only had higher activation in the regions of the brain associated with memory! Really a garbage conclusion from the actual article

The memory test was designed not to measure performance (the names presented were preselected so that performance with each of them exceeded 90%). For a real effect, a sample size of 26 is going to show it just fine.

Depends on the effect size.

Re: How Exercise Affects Our Memory

#12

Post by sonnyblarney » Sat, May 04, 2019, 1:56 AM UTC

opportune wrote: post #3

Sample size: 26. Confounding variable: all older people. Also the exercisers did not perform significantly better in the memory test! They only had higher activation in the regions of the brain associated with memory! Really a garbage conclusion from the actual article

Surely.

But I know that this is true for me. I can tell at the end of the day whether I worked out or not just by how I feel.

Without workouts I feel foggy, slow, unmotivated.

Doing cardio I feel 25.

Same for others so I hope they continue this research.

Re: How Exercise Affects Our Memory

#13

Post by hinkley » Sat, May 04, 2019, 2:00 AM UTC

pishpash wrote: post #9

bumby wrote: post #7

I think there's decent evidence that low intensity exercise can increase BDNF which helps increase neural connections. Not really the same as this study, but a different effect of exercise on the brain

Methinks sleep increases memory performance more.

If exercise helps you sleep better, A -> B -> C

Re: How Exercise Affects Our Memory

#14

Post by hawaiian » Sat, May 04, 2019, 2:02 AM UTC

Anecdotally, long periods of exercise (cycling 50+ miles in a single session, once a week) seem to nuke my short-term memory for a few hours, but over time this habit seems to have improved my short-term memory for things such as phone number extensions.

Re: How Exercise Affects Our Memory

#15

Post by LeonB » Sat, May 04, 2019, 2:03 AM UTC

hinkley wrote: post #13

pishpash wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Methinks sleep increases memory performance more.

If exercise helps you sleep better, A -> B -> C

Sleep helps you exercise better moreso than the inverse.

Re: How Exercise Affects Our Memory

#16

Post by 0xcde4c3db » Sat, May 04, 2019, 2:54 AM UTC

bumby wrote: post #7

I think there's decent evidence that low intensity exercise can increase BDNF which helps increase neural connections. Not really the same as this study, but a different effect of exercise on the brain

As I recall there is such evidence, but there's also evidence that commonly encountered concentrations of particulate air pollution drastically reduce that increase in BDNF. So it's not entirely clear what mechanisms all have to be working well to see that particular benefit.

Re: How Exercise Affects Our Memory

#17

Post by x11 » Sat, May 04, 2019, 3:46 AM UTC

It might sound dumb, but whenever I'm stuck and I need to solve a hard coding problem, a long walk does the trick.

Re: How Exercise Affects Our Memory

#18

Post by agumonkey » Sat, May 04, 2019, 4:04 AM UTC

x11 wrote: post #17

It might sound dumb, but whenever I'm stuck and I need to solve a hard coding problem, a long walk does the trick.

Do trips also work (car, train, or else) ?

Also being in a different location unleashes a lot of inspiration very often.

Re: How Exercise Affects Our Memory

#19

Post by interfixus » Sat, May 04, 2019, 4:33 AM UTC

Hardly even anecdotal, just my personal experience: I always disliked sports, and I would't dream of entering a 'fitness center' or whatever they're called. I do a minute or two with hand-weights every morning, I walk my dog, and I bike [pedals, not motor] a bit - the oldfashioned way, nothing fancy or spandexed about it. But am often puzzled by everyone's physical passivity: I don't really get the point of escalators, for example. I tend to trot up the stairs if they are available, in the process generally overtaking the stand-still folks on the conveyor. It seems to work: I'm sixty and in very decent shape and excellent health.

As for kickstarting my brain when it goes mushy, honestly I find driving at least as efficient as walking or biking. Change of scenery, not having to think, seems to do the trick for me.

Re: How Exercise Affects Our Memory

#20

Post by jfoutz » Sat, May 04, 2019, 5:16 AM UTC

yjftsjthsd-h wrote: post #4

opportune wrote: post #3

Sample size: 26. Confounding variable: all older people. Also the exercisers did not perform significantly better in the memory test! They only had higher activation in the regions of the brain associated with memory! Really a garbage conclusion from the actual article

... Isn't increased brain activity a sign of worse performance? Because when your brain is actually operating efficiently, it doesn't need to light up very many neurons to do what it needs to do.

Not hard to imagine the degenerate case though.

Hey, remember X? Nope.

Checking more things before returning the negative result might be better.