An Investigation of the

Relationship between
Multiple Exercise and
Memory Systems
Michael Cervantes, Catherine Dunbar,
Shelby Holerud, Allie Serres
Intro
Memory:

● Relational Memory (Declarative Memory)

○ Connect faces to names
○ Street signs to routes
● Working Memory
○ Short-term memory
● Procedural Memory (Implicit Memory)
○ “How to”
○ Involved in motor learning
○ Ex: how to drive a car or ride a bike
Intro
Exercise:

Three energy systems:

1. ATP-Pc→ Anaerobic Power

○ Vertical Jump

2. Glycolytic→ Anaerobic Capacity

○ 1-Minute Step-Up

3. Oxidative→ Aerobic Capacity

○ Treadmill VO2max estimation

Intro
Background/Correlation:

Aerobic Fitness: Relational Memory

● Improves relational memory in children and older adults (Chaddock, et al.

2010; Schwarb, et al. 2017)
● Aerobic fitness increases overall brain functions
○ Better memory performance in aging animals (Colcombe, et al. 2004)

Working Memory and fitness

● Muscular fitness and aerobic capacity had direct correlation to performance

on Working Memory test in children ( Kau, et al. 2017)
Methods
Memory Tasks:

Procedural

Mirror Tracing

Relational

Face-Scene

Working

Operation Span Task

Methods
Exercise Tasks:

Vertical Jump

1-Minute Step Test

12 minute run
Methods
Participants: Average age = 20.3 SD = 0.98

40 participants were recruited, with 10 sprint/power athletes, 10 intermittent athletes,

10 endurance athletes, and 10 non-athletes. 20 female and 20 male participants

Sprint/power: baseball, softball, track sprinters and throwers

Intermittent: volleyball, basketball, soccer

Endurance: swimming, cross country

Non-athletes: not currently competing in intercollegiate sports

Methods
Analysis of Memory & Exercise Test Outcomes:

Procedural

Average Performance on first two trials vs last trial

Relational

Signal Detection

Working

Mean proportion of elements within an item that were recalled correctly

Methods
Peak anaerobic power (vertical jump):
Peak Power (W) = 78.5 x ____________ + 60.6 x ____________- 15.3 x _______ -1308 = ________ W
Jump height (cm) body mass (kg) height (cm)

Anaerobic Capacity (1-Minute Step-Up):

Anaerobic Capacity (AC) in units of (kgm/sec) =[F x D/t] x1.33 x 9.81 W

VO2 max (12-Minute Run):

VO2max = (35.97 x miles) - 11.29.
Results

P-Values:

● Procedural=0.941
● Working=0.379
● Relational=0.188
Results

P-Values:

● Procedural=0.631
● Working=0.518
● Relational=0.066
Results

P-Values:

● Procedural=0.230
● Working=0.300
● Relational=0.428
Discussion
No Significant Difference
● Fail to reject the null hypothesis

Other research
● Aerobic and Relational shows significance (Chaddock, et al. 2010; Schwarb, et al.
2017)
● Very little research has been done on relationship between working or procedural
memory and exercise

College Students
● All other research in this area has been done on children, or older adults.
Limitations
● Time of day
● Distraction
● Effort level for fitness tests
● Difficulty in recruiting sedentary non-athletes
● Location
● Non-athletes were still very active
Future Directions
● More controlled environment
● Better representation of athletes
● Wider range of participants
● Adjusted testing
Acknowledgements
Dr. Jake Kurczek, Loras College Neuroscience Advisor

Dr. Elaina Biechler, Loras College Kinesiology Advisor

References
Chaddock, L., Erickson, K. I., Prakash, R. S., Kim, J. S., Voss, M. W., VanPatter, M., Kramer, A. F. (2010). A
neuroimaging investigation of the association between aerobic fitness, hippocampal volume, and
memory
performance in preadolescent children. Journal of Brain Research, 1358, 172-183. doi:
http://doi.org.10.1016/j.brainres.2010.08.049

Colcombe, S. J., Kramer, A. F., Erickson, K. I., Scalf, P., McAuley, E., Cohen, N. J., … Elavsky, S. (2004).
Cardiovascular fitness, cortical plasticity, and aging. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the
United States of America, 101(9), 3316–3321. http://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0400266101

Kao, S. C., Westfall, D. R., Parks, A. C., Pontifex, M. B., Hillman, C. H. (2017). Muscular and aerobic fitness, working
memory, and academic achievement in children. Journal of Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise, 49(3),
500-508. doi: 10.1249/MSS.0000000000001132.

Schwwarb, H., Johnson, C. L., Daugherty, A. M., Hillman, C. H., kramer, A. F., Cohen, N. J., & Barbey, A. K. (2017).
Aerobic fitness, hippocampal viscoelasticity and relational memory performance. Journal of NeuroImage,
Questions?