Memory Movement

In this edition of The Rundown, a new action camera hits the market, not all exercise intensities affect your brain equally and craving fatty foods is more about your gut than your tastebuds.

The Rundown

Camera Action. DJI announced its newest action camera, the Osmo Action 3. The design borrows from the 2019-released Osmo Action and couples it with the sensor and shooting capabilities of last year’s Action 2. The new version has significant dual touchscreens, improved battery life, faster charging, and a new quick-release mounting system.

Memory Movement. Exercise boosts your mental and cognitive health but not all forms and intensities affect your brain equally. A recent Dartmouth study suggests that specific intensities of exercise over a long period of time are connected to different aspects of memory.

For the study, 113 Fitbit users performed a series of memory tests, which focused on episodic memory (like what you did yesterday), spatial memory (locations, like where you parked your car) and associative memory (connections between concepts or other memories).

They also answered questions about their mental health and shared their fitness data from the previous year, including average heart rates, daily step counts, and time spent exercising in different heart rate zones.

The more active participants showed better memory performance overall. But, specific areas of improvement depended on activity intensity.

People who exercised at moderate intensities performed better on episodic memory tests. Those who often exercised at high intensities did better on spatial memory tests.

Lead author Jeremy Manning says there is a complicated dynamic at play between physical activity, memory and mental health that can’t be summarized in single sentences like “walking improves your memory” or “stress hurts your memory.” Instead, specific forms of exercise and mental health “seem to affect each aspect of memory differently.”

With additional research, the team believes that practical applications of the study could include things like designing specific exercise plans to help students prepare for an exam or reduce symptoms of depression.

Gut+Brain=Cravings. New research from Columbia University’s Zuckerman Institute set out to investigate the source of our appetites and discovered a new connection between the gut and the brain that drives our desire for fat.

The team studied mice and found that fat entering the intestines triggers a signal and when that signal is conducted along nerves to the brain, it drives a desire for fatty foods.

For the experiment, mice were given bottles of water with dissolved fats and bottles of water with sweet substances that are not known to affect the gut. Over several days, the mice developed a strong preference for the fatty water.

The choice for fatty water continued even when the scientists genetically modified the mice to remove their ability to taste fat using their tongues. The researchers then reasoned that fat must be activating specific brain circuits driving the animals’ response to it and searched for that circuit.

The research raises the possibility of interrupting this gut-brain connection to help prevent unhealthy choices and address overeating.

Replay

This week’s vintage moment in sports culture is brought to you by a “Where’s Waldo?” moment as Babe Ruth spends some time with fans in 1926. Photo: Corbis/Bettman.