Older adults who take efforts to stay physically active, particularly walking or jogging, perform better on memory tasks than those who are more sedentary, according to researchers.

The study, led by the Boston University Medical Center, examines the relationship between physical activity, memory and cognition in young and old adults. Their findings, the authors say, demonstrate that the effects of physical activity extend to long-term memory, the same type of memory that is negatively impacted by aging and neurodegenerative dementias such as Alzheimer’s disease.

For the research, the team gathered 29 young adults with ages 18 to 31 years old, as well as and 31 older adults who are 55 to 82 years old. The participants were asked to wear a small device, called an ActiGraph, which recorded information including how many steps each took, how vigorous the steps were and how much time it involved.

Participants also completed neuropsychological testing to assess their memory, planning and problem-solving abilities. In addition to standardised neuropsychological tasks of executive function and long-term memory, participants engaged in a laboratory task in which they had to learn face-name associations.

The researchers found that older adults who took more steps per day had better memory performance. The link between the number of steps taken was observed to be strongest with a task that required recalling which name went with a person’s face. This is the same type of everyday task that older adults often have difficulty with. In young adults, the number of steps taken was not associated with memory performance.

Everyone knows that physical activity is a critical component to ward off obesity and cardiovascular-related disease, according to the researchers. In a previous study published in BMJ, another group of researchers reveal that daily activities, such as fast walking and jogging, can curb the development of risk factors for heart disease and stroke by as much as 50 per cent.

“Knowing that a lack of physical activity may negatively impact one’s memory abilities will be an additional piece of information to motivate folks to stay more active,” says the new study’s corresponding author Scott Hayes, PhD, assistant professor of psychiatry at Boston University School of Medicine.

Staying physically active can take a variety of forms, from formal exercise programs to small changes, such as walking or taking the stairs, the authors say.

They note, however, that more research is needed to explore the specific mechanisms of how physical activity may positively impact brain structure and function. There is also need to clarify the impact of specific exercise programs or dose of exercise on a range of cognitive functions, Hayes points out.

The authors emphasise that the objective measurement of physical activity was a key component of the current study, as the majority of studies to date have used self-report questionnaires, which can be impacted by memory failures or biases.

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