Physical exercise can improve cognitive functions and promote learning and memory, especially when performed in close temporal proximity to the encoding of information. This benefit may occur due to circulating stress hormones released in response to acute exercise. When administered after encoding, acute stress typically enhances the consolidation of emotional stimuli. However, whether acute exercise also selectively modulates emotional memories remains to be explored. Likewise, the potential role of sex in moderating these effects has not been addressed so far. Here, we tested whether a single bout of aerobic exercise after learning boosts the consolidation and thus long-term memory for emotional versus neutral visuospatial stimuli. Healthy men and women learned an object-location task and subsequently were exposed to a vigorous-treadmill running task or control intervention. Memory was assessed 24 h later. Acute exercise significantly increased heart rate and salivary cortisol in both sexes and selectively facilitated the consolidation of emotional stimuli. In particular, we found improved memory for negative items in women and better recall of positive items in men following exercise exposure. This memory benefit was positively related to the increase in heart rate and cortisol in both men and women, suggesting that the favorable effects of acute exercise on emotional memory may be mediated via a co-activation of the sympathetic nervous system and the hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenocortical axis. Our findings thereby provide first evidence for the improvement of emotional memory consolidation by acute physical exercise that appears to rely on similar neuroendocrine mechanisms as psychosocial stressors. Given that exercise is healthy, cost-effective and practical in nature, it constitutes an ideal behavioral intervention strategy for boosting memory in clinical and educational settings alike.

体育锻炼可以改善认知功能，促进学习和记忆，特别是在时间紧迫地接近信息编码的情况下。这种益处可能是由于响应急性运动而释放的循环应激激素而产生的。当在编码后给药时，急性压力通常会增强情绪刺激的巩固。然而，急性运动是否也选择性地调节情绪记忆仍有待探索。同样，到目前为止，性别在减轻这些影响方面的潜在作用尚未得到解决。在这里，我们测试了学习后单次有氧运动是否可以增强巩固能力，从而促进情绪和中性视觉空间刺激的长期记忆。健康的男人和女人学会了对象定位任务，随后接受了剧烈的跑步机运行任务或控制干预。24小时后评估记忆。急性运动可显着提高男女的心率和唾液皮质醇水平，并有选择地促进情绪刺激的巩固。特别是，我们发现运动后女性对负性物品的记忆力得到了改善，而男性对正性物品的记忆力得到了更好的回忆。这种记忆的好处与男女心率和皮质醇的增加呈正相关，这表明急性运动对情绪记忆的有利影响可能是通过交感神经系统和下丘脑-垂体-脑的共同激活来介导的。肾上腺皮质轴。因此，我们的发现提供了通过急性体育锻炼改善情绪记忆巩固的初步证据，体育锻炼似乎依赖于与社会心理压力源相似的神经内分泌机制。鉴于锻炼是健康的，具有成本效益的和实用的，因此它构成了一种理想的行为干预策略，可增强临床和教育环境中的记忆力。