The Mnemonic Effects Of Cognitive-motor Entrainment On Long-term Episodic Memory

PURPOSE: Completing two tasks concurrently often leads to a decline in the performance quality of one or both tasks. However, an emerging body of literature suggests that cognitive-motor entrainment may alleviate dual-task costs. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the mnemonic effects of entraining cognitive processes with physical activity production. METHODS: In two crossover repeated-measures experiments, participants learned unique 40-word lists under three conditions: a cognitive-motor entrained, a traditional dual task, and a stationary control condition. RESULTS: In experiment 1, when participants learned words in a treadmill walking cognitive-motor entrained condition, they retained more information during free-recall long-term episodic memory assessments when compared to a stationary control (main effect of time (F(2,70) = 65.87, p < 0.00, ηp2 = 0.65) and condition (F(2,70) = 3.63, p = 0.03, ηp2 = 0.10), but no time*condition interaction (F(4,140) = 1.73, p = 0.14, ηp2 = 0.05)). In experiment 2, when words were studied under the cycle ergometer-entrained dual-task condition, they were more easily free-recalled during delayed long-term memory testing than the word lists studied under the traditional dual-task or control condition (main effect of time (F(2,70) = 94.07, p < 0.001, ηp2 = 0.73) and condition (F(2,70) = 3.87, p = 0.03, ηp2 = 0.10), but no interaction (F(4,140) = 0.95, p = 0.14, ηp2 = 0.03)). In both experiments, no conditional differences were found concerning long-term recognition memory or motor performance variation (p > 0.05; coefficient of variation of gait parameters or cycling cadence). CONCLUSIONS: These findings suggest that cognitive-motor entrainment may enhance long-term episodic memory retention regardless of the incorporated physical activity mode. Further neuroimaging research is needed to clarify a cognitive-motor entrainment intervention's underlying mechanistic effects and elucidate how the stimuli presentation's rhythmicity may confound the measured effects.