Exercise and Memory

Our memory is crucial to our daily functioning, our identity, and how we interact with the world around us. Maintaining memory functioning is therefore important in many ways. Exercise positively affects our memory. Even a single exercise session can directly boost different memory types, including working, procedural, and episodic memory. Due to these benefits, exercise has great potential as an intervention in different settings, such as schools or rehabilitation centers, and as a prevention strategy. In this chapter, we first give an overview of what memory is and why it is so relevant to our mental health. Next, we briefly discuss how, for whom, and under which circumstances exercise improves memory functioning. Then, we will summarize the literature of experimental studies investigating the direct effect of exercise on different memory types, while acknowledging current limitations and potential future directions. Finally, we briefly highlight the potential of exercise as intervention to preserve and improve memory.