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The Role of the Time of Day in the Effects of Exercise on Memory in Heathy Young Adults

NCT04861818 · Status: RECRUITING · Phase: NA · Type: INTERVENTIONAL · Enrollment: 80

Last updated 2024-12-17

No results posted yet for this study

Summary

Cumulative evidence indicates that a single bout of exercise has beneficial impacts on memory in young adults. From a physiological perspective, acute exercise leads to changes of heart rate variability (HRV), which is associated with memory retrieval process. From a psychological perspective, acute exercise increases the arousal level and thus facilitates cognitive processing including memory storage and retrieval. Such HRV- and/or arousal-based effects of exercise on memory could be differed by the time of day in young adults based on their circadian rhythms of HRV. Moreover, young adults prefer afternoon or evening to morning in their circadian rhythms, demonstrating less wakefulness and lower memory performance in the morning relative to afternoon. Based on the potential psychophysiological mechanisms, exercise could impact young adults' memory differently by the time of day. The investigators aim to 1) determine the extent to which the time of day modulates how moderate-intensity cardiovascular exercise impacts verbal-auditory and visuospatial short- and long-term memory in young adults, and 2) consider potential psychological and physiological markers that may mediate exercise's effects on cognitive performance. As cognitive benefits of exercise might differ by the time of day, it is important to investigate such interaction and make the right recommendations of the timing of exercise for young adults in academic settings.

Conditions

  • Aerobic Exercise
  • Cognitive Change

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

Moderate-intensity aerobic exercise

Eligible participants will come into the lab on day 1 and 3 at the same time of day (either morning at 7-10am or afternoon at 3-5pm). They will be then randomly assigned for a rest or an exercise session prior to the memory test. For the rest condition, they will be required to sit and relax while watching Planet Earth for 30 minutes on a cycle ergometer. During the exercise session, they will complete a moderate-intensity cardiovascular exercise for 20 minutes following a 5-min warm-up and followed by a 5-min cool-down on a cycle ergometer. They will start the memory test immediately after the rest/exercise session.

Sponsors & Collaborators

  • University of North Carolina, Greensboro

    lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

  • Kyoung Shin Park, PhD · UNC Greensboro

Study Design

Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Purpose
BASIC_SCIENCE
Masking
NONE
Model
PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age
18 Years
Max Age
25 Years
Sex
ALL
Healthy Volunteers
Yes

Timeline & Regulatory

Start
2021-06-21
Primary Completion
2025-12-30
Completion
2025-12-30

Countries

  • United States

Study Locations

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Read the full study record

This page highlights key information. For complete eligibility criteria, study locations, investigator contacts, and the full protocol, visit the original record on ClinicalTrials.gov.

View NCT04861818 on ClinicalTrials.gov