They were able to directly compare the findings of these studies, amassing data from nearly 3,000 participants, Ph.D. student and lead author of the study Sarah Aghjayan notes in a news release. For this study, a team of researchers from the University of Pittsburgh wanted to look at exercise as it relates to healthy aging and, namely, memory retention. To do so, they gathered data from 36 studies, creating a huge pool of statistics to find existing links and connections that had previously gone unnoticed.