When Dr. Wendy Suzuki started working out at a gym, she noticed the benefits right away. That gave rise to some powerful research ideas for the neuroscientist, specifically, how exercise affects memory.

Suzuki, a professor of neural science and psychology at New York University’s Center for Neural Science, has devoted her career to understanding the science behind memory.

As a graduate student at the University of California, San Diego, she earned the Donald B. Lindsley Prize for her use of anatomical and behavioral techniques to show that two previously unappreciated areas of the brain play a critical role in long-term memory abilities.

After completing a post-doctoral fellowship at the National Institute of Mental Health, she accepted a faculty position at NYU, where she runs the Suzuki Laboratory: For the Study of Learning, Memory and Cognition.

Working with NYU students over the course of a semester, Suzuki conducted an experiment comparing their productivity and ability to learn coupled with exercise. The breakthrough findings revealed exercise actually improved brain function.

Suzuki will discuss her research at Cary Hall on Thursday, March 1, as part of Cary Library’s Lexington Reads program. In advance of the talk, Suzuki spoke to the Lexington Minuteman from her laboratory in New York to discuss the significance of her team’s work.

Why is memory an important area of study?
In the brain, you’re learning or retrieving or strengthening or consolidating new memories. I’m interested in one specific kind of memory called episodic memory — the memory for everyday events in your life, like that great dinner you had last week or the party you went to … It’s really kind of important because it builds our personal histories. You wouldn’t be the same person. You are the sum of what your experiences and memories are.

How did the exercise study come about?
I focus on is trying to understand the effect of aerobic exercise on learning and cognition — how an exercise might improve long-term, as well as episodic, memory function, but also attention, being able to focus attention on things you need to focus … We studied several different populations, including NYU undergrads, as well as the effects of aerobic exercise in lifelong drug addicts, which was probably one of the most rewarding studies … We didn’t get a large enough subject pool in the end of [the] drug addict study, [but] I could see for myself what exercise was doing.

What were your findings?
We compared the performance before and after the exercise period and found a significant improvement … I had high functioning neuroscience undergraduate students and [actually] found out they were not very active. The majority of them were not doing a lot of exercise during the week except for my class, so they increased their aerobic intake, and even the bright undergrads improved their memory and coding abilities. That suggests all of us have this capacity, not just when you’re elderly or in decline, but [that] all of us have the capacity to improve our ability for learning.

Did you have a personal connection to this as well?
I had never studied humans …  [I had] studied memory in animal models. I started going to the gym and I found this class I really got addicted to [called] ‘Im Tim Sati.’ It’s physical movement, like dance and yoga, with positive affirmations … I went back to the office [at a time when] this was a big grant writing period for me, and I noticed how much going to the gym helped me in my writing … I was like, ‘I want to understand that.’ I said, ‘I’m going to figure out a way to study this in humans.’

What does your research mean for the future?
The really exciting news from the research in the field is that even people with early stage dementia can benefit from an increase in aerobic exercises. It’s not like once you [develop] the early signs, it can’t help you. It can actually help. Now, will it cure Alzheimer’s? No. These are more indirect findings, correlational findings, that show the more you tend to exercise over your lifetime, the lesser chance you have of developing dementia when you get older. I wish I could make everybody in the world, or at least the United States, understand that is a very powerful piece of information … That should make everybody get up off their butts and start exercising more ... It doesn’t have to be when you’re older. It can start at any time.