title: A single session of exercise as a modulator of short-term learning in healthy individuals.
abstract: A single session of aerobic exercise is linked to faster motor responses; however, the effect on rate of short-term learning is less clear. The objective was to evaluate the influence of a single bout of aerobic exercise on the rate of short-term acquisition of a shape-letter association task requiring a motor response.
  
  
  
  23 [11 females, age 20.8±2.7years] healthy young adults were evaluated using a randomly assigned crossover design which was counterbalanced for order before and after moderate (exercise) and light (control) intensity cycle ergometry. Participants performed 3 blocks, with each block consisting of one round of training and testing. During training, participants were tasked with learning 6 unique shape-letter associations. Subsequent testing required a key press response to a visually presented shape pattern. Response time and error rates were used to assess acquisition over the 3 blocks of testing.
  
  
  
  Mean response time was faster post-exercise relative to the other testing periods, and approached statistical significance compared to post-control (p<0.07). However, no significant difference in response time reduction (difference between test block 1 and test block 3) was identified between the four evaluations (pre and post the exercise and control conditions). Error rate reduction (test block 1 minus test block 3) revealed that individuals had the smallest change in error rate post-exercise (p<0.05). Follow-up analyses revealed fewer errors in test block 1 and test block 2 post-exercise which approached statistical significance (p=0.06) suggesting near-perfect error rates were obtained after only 2 testing blocks post-exercise compared to 3 blocks in the other testing periods.
  
  
  
  Support for augmentation of short-term learning was mixed as errors were reduced post-exercise while response time was not different between evaluations. Future work should include neurophysiological evaluation and a retention test to better elucidate the influence of aerobic exercise on rate of short-term learning.
authors.affiliation: Rehabilitation Science Institute, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada; Mobility Research Team, Toronto Rehabilitation Institute, Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Electronic address: mike.sage@mail.utoronto.ca.
authors.forename: Michael D
authors.initials: MD
authors.lastname: Sage
authors.affiliation: Department of Kinesiology, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada.
authors.forename: Kit B
authors.initials: KB
authors.lastname: Beyer
authors.affiliation: Department of Kinesiology, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada.
authors.forename: Mark
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Laylor
authors.affiliation: Department of Kinesiology, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada.
authors.forename: Carmen
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Liang
authors.affiliation: Rehabilitation Science Institute, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada; Department of Kinesiology, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada; Canadian Partnership for Stroke Recovery, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
authors.forename: Eric A
authors.initials: EA
authors.lastname: Roy
authors.affiliation: Rehabilitation Science Institute, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada; Mobility Research Team, Toronto Rehabilitation Institute, Toronto, Ontario, Canada; Department of Kinesiology, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada; Canadian Partnership for Stroke Recovery, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
authors.forename: William E
authors.initials: WE
authors.lastname: McIlroy
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001245:Association Learning / Q000502:physiology*; D015444:Exercise; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011597:Psychomotor Performance; D011930:Reaction Time; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Arousal; Exercise; Learning; Memory; Response time