ArticleNeural plasticity2016
The Effects of Acute Physical Exercise on Memory, Peripheral BDNF, and Cortisol in Young Adults.
Article in Neural plasticity, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to trial NCT03934385 (Optimizing Exposure Therapy With Mental Rehearsal), which is not on this map. Cited by 75 papers, 4 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Optimizing Exposure Therapy With Mental Rehearsal
Who cites it
75 citing papers in PubMed, 4 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 180 citations in OpenAlex.
- The effects of acute exercise on long-term episodic memory: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Frontiers in cognition · 2024Pooled it
- Cognitive benefits of exercise interventions: an fMRI activation likelihood estimation meta-analysis.Brain structure & function · 2021Pooled it
- The Effects of Tai Chi and Qigong Exercise on Psychological Status in Adolescents: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.Frontiers in psychology · 2021Pooled it
- The Immediate Effects of Acute Aerobic Exercise on Cognition in Healthy Older Adults: A Systematic Review.Sports medicine (Auckland, N.Z.) · 2019Pooled it
- Effects of Heat Exposure on Kynurenine Pathway Metabolism-Comparison Between Exertional and Exogenous Heating of the Human Body.Acta physiologica (Oxford, England) · 2025Trial
- Brain-Derived neurotrophic factor and inflammatory biomarkers are unaffected by acute and chronic intermittent hypoxic-hyperoxic exposure in geriatric patients: a randomized controlled trial.Annals of medicine · 2024Trial
- Effects of a high-intensity interval training session and chocolate milk on appetite and cognitive performance in youth aged 9-13 years.European journal of clinical nutrition · 2021Trial
- Aerobic Exercise as an Adjuvant to Aphasia Therapy: Theory, Preliminary Findings, and Future Directions.Clinical therapeutics · 2018Trial
- Physical Activity and Adolescent Brain Structure, Mental Health, and Academic Outcomes.JAMA network open · 2026Article
- Physiological predictors of exercise-induced increases in circulating BDNF isoforms and net cerebral lactate exchange in healthy adults.Frontiers in physiology · 2026Article
- Hidden in plain sight: verbal declarative memory effects of exercise are eight times larger than aggregate estimates suggest.Frontiers in human neuroscience · 2026Article
- Vitamin D Associated with Exercise Can Be Used as a Promising Tool in Neurodegenerative Disease Protection.Molecules (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Review
- Expatriates' Cultural Intelligence Mediates the Relationship Between Lifestyle and Performance: A Cross-Sectional Analysis and a Longitudinal Pilot Study.Brain and behavior · 2025Article
- Brain derived neurotrophic factor and secreted amyloid precursor protein-α response to moderate and high intensity exercise.Physiological reports · 2025Article
- Memory persistence enhancement by post-learning moderate exercise requires de novo protein synthesis in the dorsal hippocampus.PloS one · 2025Article
- BDNF methylation associated with stress in women: Novel insights in epigenetics and inflammation.Brain, behavior, & immunity - health · 2024Article
- Article
- Acute Effect of Simultaneous Exercise and Cognitive Tasks on Cognitive Functions in Elderly Individuals with Mild Cognitive Impairment.Diseases (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- Effects of menstrual cycle on cognitive function, cortisol, and metabolism after a single session of aerobic exercise.PloS one · 2024Article
- A comprehensive study of the academic benefits and practical recommendations to include resistance training programs in institutional education.Frontiers in psychology · 2024Review
15 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
In animals, physical activity has been shown to induce functional and structural changes especially in the hippocampus and to improve memory, probably by upregulating the release of neurotrophic factors. In humans, results on the effect of acute exercise on memory are inconsistent so far. Therefore, the aim of the present study was to assess the effects of a single bout of physical exercise on memory consolidation and the underlying neuroendocrinological mechanisms in young adults. Participants encoded a list of German-Polish vocabulary before exercising for 30 minutes with either high intensity or low intensity or before a relaxing phase. Retention of the vocabulary was assessed 20 minutes after the intervention as well as 24 hours later. Serum BDNF and salivary cortisol were measured at baseline, after learning, and after the intervention. The high-intensity exercise group showed an increase in BDNF and cortisol after exercising compared to baseline. Exercise after learning did not enhance the absolute number of recalled words. Participants of the high-intensity exercise group, however, forgot less vocabulary than the relaxing group 24 hours after learning. There was no robust relationship between memory scores and the increase in BDNF and cortisol, respectively, suggesting that further parameters have to be taken into account to explain the effects of exercise on memory in humans.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.