Reconnecting with your childhood face can unlock forgotten memories.
New memories are likely to be lost unless they are consolidated correctly.
New memories are likely to be lost unless they are consolidated correctly.
Rehearsing a memory for just 40 seconds could be the key to permanent recall.
When rehearsing a memory, the same area of the brain is activated as when laying it down.
This brain region — the posterior cingulate — is also the part that is damaged in Alzheimer’s disease.
Dr Chris Bird, who led the research, said:
“We know that recent memories are susceptible to being lost until a period of consolidation has elapsed.
In this study we have shown that a brief period of rehearsal has a huge effect on our ability to remember complex, lifelike events over periods of 1-2 weeks.
We have also linked this rehearsal effect to processing in a particular part of the brain — the posterior cingulate.”
In the study people were shown 26 YouTube clips.
For most of the videos, people spent 40 seconds going over the events.
They did this either mentally or out loud.
Two weeks later, non-rehearsed videos were mostly forgotten.
In contrast, people remembered many of the details of the videos they had spent just 40 seconds rehearsing.
It didn’t matter if they went over them mentally or out loud.
Brain scans revealed that the more the activity matched when watching and rehearsing, the more people could remember.
Dr Bird said:
“The findings have implications for any situation where accurate recall of an event is critical, such as witnessing an accident or crime.
Memory for the event will be significantly improved if the witness rehearses the sequence of events as soon as possible afterwards.”
The study was published in the Journal of Neuroscience (Bird et al., 2015).
Psychologists asked people to play a classic memory game, sometimes called Concentration or Pairs — half were allowed to take notes.
Psychologists asked people to play a classic memory game, sometimes called Concentration or Pairs — half were allowed to take notes.
Making notes can actually reduce what you remember.
In a reverse of what many people expect, writing down information causes it to be flushed from memory.
We seem to intentionally forget what we write down.
To prove it psychologists asked people to play a classic memory game, sometimes called Concentration, Pairs or just Memory.
A whole pack of cards is spread out across the table face-down.
Then each person turns over two cards, looking for a matching number (or picture) card.
You repeat this, turn by turn, and the winner is the person who gets the most pairs.
For the study, half were allowed to make notes about the locations of the cards, the other half not.
Here’s the trick, though: those allowed to make notes had them taken away before they were tested on the locations and identities of the cards.
The study’s authors write:
“One might have predicted that the note-taking group should show evidence of having better memory for the identity and location of the cards, as it could be argued that the form of studying that they were engaged in was more active and elaborate than the forms used by the study group.”
However, the study showed the exact reverse, as the authors explain:
“[the results showed] participants in the note-taking group remembered significantly less location information than did participants in the study group.
These results are suggestive that note-takers intentionally forgot the location information.”
The reason, then, is that the brain says to itself: “Well, I’ve written this information down, so there is no need to remember it!”
The authors write:
“Not unlike a person using a day planner to keep track of appointments, the results indicate that participants relied on their notes as an external store for the cards’ locations.”
So, be careful what you make a note of, especially if you think you might lose the notes!
The study was published in the journal Memory & Cognition (Eskritt & Ma, 2014).
Maintaining memory is about more than just keeping the mind active, eating right and exercise.
Higher consumption of these foods was linked to improved memory by the study.
Higher consumption of these foods was linked to improved memory by the study.
Eating more fruits and vegetables protects against memory loss, research finds.
Fruits and vegetables also help reduce the risk of heart disease.
Higher consumption of protein-rich foods was also linked to improved memory by the study.
A previous study, though, found that it is vegetables, more so than fruits, that really help to preserve memory.
Green leafy vegetables showed the strongest association with a better memory in that study.
More than two servings of vegetables per day was linked to the slowest rates of cognitive decline in older people.
Vegetables contain high amounts of vitamin E, which lowers the risk of cognitive decline.
Green leafy vegetables are also a key component of the MIND diet, which is frequently linked to memory improvements and reducing the risk of dementia.
Two other foods in the Mediterranean diet that have been individually linked to improved memory are nuts and mushrooms.
Set against these beneficial foods, one of the main enemies of healthy brain aging is sugar.
Eating too much sugar is linked to brain shrinkage.
Similarly, red meats, organ meats, butter and high-fat dairy can increase Alzheimer’s risk.
Unfortunately, these last two sentences pretty much define the so-called ‘Western diet’.
In other words, what many eat in the modern Western world is bad for the memory and bad for the brain overall.
The latest study included 139,096 older Australians who were tracked over almost a decade.
Along with the finding that fruits, vegetables and protein improved memory, the researchers also found that cereals may be protective for those over 80.
Dr Luna Xu, the study’s first author, said:
“Our present study implies that the healthy eating suggestions of cereals consumption in the prevention of memory loss and comorbid heart disease for older people may differ compared to other age groups.”
Memory loss is one of the most common early symptoms of dementia.
People suffering from dementia often have other conditions, said Dr Xu:
“The dietary intervention in chronic disease prevention and management, by taking into consideration the fact that older populations often simultaneously deal with multiple chronic conditions, is a real challenge.”
Diet is key to fighting these conditions, said Dr Xu:
“To achieve the best outcome for our ageing population, strong scientific evidence that supports effective dietary intervention in preventing and managing co-occurring chronic conditions, is essential.”
The study was published in the International Journal of Public Health (Xu et al., 2020).
The secret to better memory is not more practice, it is strategic rest.
A physical trick that helps you remembering to do things later.
It fights the stress hormone which damages the brain’s ability to learn and remember.
Afterwards, people responded faster and had stronger short-term memory.
Afterwards, people responded faster and had stronger short-term memory.
The caffeine in two cups of coffee is enough to jump start short-term memory.
Short-term memory is the type used for keeping things in consciousness for a short period.
Dr. Koppelstätter, the study’s first author, said it is…
“…like looking up a telephone number in the phone book and storing the number until you’ve dialed it.”
For the research, 15 people were given either the equivalent of two cups of coffee or a placebo, then asked to do a standard memory test.
Those given caffeine responded faster and had stronger short-term memory.
Brain scans also revealed that caffeine was linked to higher activation of the frontal lobes, where working memory is partly located.
Dr. Koppelstätter said:
“What is exciting is that by means of fMRI we are able to see that caffeine exerts increases in neuronal activity in distinct parts of the brain going along with changes in behavior.”
The study was published in the journal Neuroimage (Koppelstätter et al., 2008).
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