Running Doesn’t Make You Forget; It Helps You Remember

Contrary to some opinions, and to the findings of a well-known 2014 study published in the journal Science suggesting that running made mice forget things, a new study has found that there is no connection between running and the loss of memories. A news release from researchers at Texas A&M reports that researchers at the school did basically the same experiment as the 2014 study, but they used rats instead of mice, because rats are more like humans physiologically. This time, the researchers found that rats who ran further had much greater neurogenesis in their hippocampus (growth of new neurons in the part of the brain that holds memories), and all rats who had access to a wheel (and therefore ran at least some), had greater neurogenesis than the sedentary group. On an average, they ran about 48 miles in four weeks, and neuron formation doubled in the hippocampus of these animals. They also found that despite differing levels of increased neurogenesis, both moderate runners and brisk runners (those who ran further than average) showed the same ability as the sedentary runners to recall the task they learned before they began to exercise. This means even a large amount of running (akin to people who perform significant amount of exercise on a daily basis) doesn’t interfere with the recall of memory.