A research group from the University of Tsukuba and the University of California, Irvine in the United States found that people with higher physical activity and higher endurance have better "pattern recognition ability" (ability to discriminate similar memories), which is essential for accurate memory. discovered.
Previous studies have confirmed that people with higher endurance, an indicator of daily physical activity, have better memory than those of their peers who do not.It seems that this background is related to the increase in neurogenesis (production of new nerve cells) that occurs in the hippocampus, which is responsible for cognitive function, in the part called the dentate gyrus, with habitual exercise. Has been done.
On the other hand, the relationship between the pattern recognition ability of the dentate gyrus and movement has been largely unknown.Therefore, in this study, pattern recognition ability was measured using a special memory test in 75 healthy young adults, and the relationship with physical activity and endurance was investigated in a cross-sectional manner.As a result, it was clarified that the person with more physical activity has higher endurance and better pattern recognition ability.
From this study, it is possible that people with an active lifestyle and higher endurance have better dentate gyrus function, that is, hippocampal neurogenesis may increase.This research group has already confirmed that pattern recognition ability increases in the short term with transient exercise, but this effect also exists in the long term (increasing endurance through daily physical activity is memory ability. It is a result that suggests that it will lead to improvement.
In the future, we plan to use the latest brain function measurement method to verify the intracerebral mechanism of the relationship between endurance and memory obtained in this study.
