BRAIN POWER

Exercise empowers the mind.

Wouldn’t it be wonderful to remember more of what we study? What if we told you that you could with just a little exercise? Would you find time to exercise just a little bit to retain more knowledge and improve your grades? Well, there is science to support the claim. Physical activity and exercise is best known for its effects on the appearance of us, but its hidden effects are just as appealing. Declarative memory must take a long and complicated pathway throughout our brains. These pathways can be cleared up and made more efficient with the increased blood flow to the brain by exercise. This means that “exercise appears to influence memory function at multiple mechanistic levels, particularly the memory encoding and consolidation phases” (Loprinzi, Edwards, & Firth, 2017, p. 2074). Imagine finishing a final exam and walking out of the class without that feeling of just not knowing whether or not your answers were right. Just a little bit of exercise might make that a reality.