Sport and memory go hand in hand

After an intensive sports session, the memory performance are much better. @DR  - By exploring the benefits of sport in memory and motor learning, scientists from the University of Geneva are opening up promising perspectives for school programmes and in the prevention of Alzheimer's disease. After an intensive sports session, the memory performance are much better. @DR  If sport is good for the body, it also seems to be good for the brain. By evaluating memory performance following a sport session, neuroscientists from the University of Geneva demonstrate that an intensive physical exercise session as short as 15 minutes improves memory, including the acquisition of new motor skills. How? Through the action of endocanabinoids, molecules known to increase synaptic plasticity. This study, to be read in the journal Scientific Reports , highlights the virtues of sport for both health and education. School programmes and strategies aimed at reducing the effects of neurodegeneration on memory could indeed benefit from it. Very often, right after a sporting exercise - especially endurance such as running or cycling - one feels physical and psychological well-being. This feeling is due to endocannabinoids, small molecules produced by the body during physical exertion. «They circulate in the blood and easily cross the blood-brain barrier. They then bind to specialise cellular receptors and trigger this feeling of euphoria. In addition, these same molecules bind to receptors in the hippocampus, the main brain structure for memory processing,» says Kinga Igloi, lecturer in the laboratory of Professor Sophie Schwartz, at UNIGE Faculty of Medicine's Department of Basic Neurosciences, who led this work. «But what is the link between sport and memory?