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Exercising To Stay Mentally Fit, Tyler Hammond, Dr. Jerffrey Edwards

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Both exercise and stress have an impact on learning and memory. Exercise appears to have positive effects on learning and memory while stress appears to have negative effects on learning and memory. Previous work in our lab has demonstrated that exercise enhances long-term potentiation mediated by electrical stimulus in the hippocampus and that stress decreases long-term potentiation mediated by electrical stimulus in the hippocampus. Long-term potentiation is a measure of the strengthening of the synapses following an electrical stimulus intended to model learning and memory. The hippocampus is the area of the brain commonly deemed responsible for long-term declarative memories.