Protective effects of physical activity on episodic memory during aging are explained by executive functioning.

"data and analytic methods (r script) are freely available from open science framework database ( https://osf io/kqnga/? availability of data and materials this research was not preregistered. data and analytic methods (r script) are freely available from open science framework"

"data and analytic methods (r script) are freely available from open science framework database ( https://osf io/kqnga/?"

"Declarations Ethics approval and consent to participateIn compliance with the Declaration of Helsinki, the protocol was approved by the Ethics Committee for Research on the person of the Universities of Tours and Poitierss (CER-TP number 2022–10-02). Consent for publicationAll authors consent to the publication of the manuscript. All research participants gave written consent to participate in the study and to the publication of the study results. Competing interestsThe authors declare that they have no competing interests. Competing interests The authors declare that they have no competing interests."

"Funding Not applicable."