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 "The present study suggests that simple exercise is better than
cognitively demanding exercise during working hours," lead author
Keita Kamijo, an assistant professor on the faculty of sports
sciences, Waseda University, Tokyo, told Reuters Health by email.
Kamijo and coauthor Ryuji Abe enrolled 28 men and had them perform
tasks that challenge what's known as working memory. Working memory
is what allows people to maintain and update information in their
brains about things they're working on, such as assignments, goals
and strategies.
The men took the working-memory challenges before, immediately
after, and 30 minutes after three different test periods on three
different days. The test periods were assigned in random order and
lasted 25 minutes each. In one, the men simply exercised on a
stationary bike. In another, they performed a cognitive task while
sitting on the bike, but they didn't exercise. And in the third,
they did both at the same time: they exercised on the bike and
performed a cognitive task.
Studies have shown that aerobic exercise has a rapid beneficial
effect on people's ability to plan, pay attention, remember, and
juggle tasks. The researchers expected, therefore, to see
improvements in accuracy and reaction times on the working memory
challenge after both periods in which the men exercised on the bike,
Kamijo said.
The positive effects of the exercise-only intervention became
evident 30 minutes after cycling.
But the exercise-cognition intervention resulted in "cognitive
fatigue," the investigators reported in the journal, Medicine &
Science in Sport & Exercise.
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Kamijo said the effects of acute exercise on cognitive function
shouldn't greatly differ between the sexes.
Dr. John Ratey, associate clinical professor of psychiatry at
Harvard Medical School in Boston, told Reuters Health by phone,
"We've known for some time that exercise improves working
memory...The big take away here is that too much exercise may
exhaust your brain for the next little while."
To improve your memory and attention span in the short term at work
or school, it's best to do exercise not complicated by other
demands, said Ratey, who was not involved in the research.
Tai chi, yoga or high intensity intervals that make your heart rate
soar are examples of cognitively challenging exercises that may
overwhelm the brain at first, said Ratey.
For long term cognition, however, those kinds of exercises are
healthy, too. "It is possible that a greater amount of load on the
brain is required for chronic improvements in cognitive function, as
with the overload principle of strength training," Kamijo said.
Ratey said, "A good 80 to 90 percent of people will get more
aroused, less tired, have more energy and be more motivated if they
make a habit of exercise. The more involved with others and
challenges they bring to themselves, the better they'll build the
brain up over time and improve their memory, attention span and
their ability to deal with stress."
SOURCE: http://bit.ly/2NKmHco Medicine & Science & Sports &
Exercise, online August 28, 2018.
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