People Are Happiest At This Unexpected Time of Life (M)
Anxiety and depression peaks at a very surprising point in life.
Category: Memory
The Best Exercise To Quickly Improve Memory
Each exercise session was only 20-minutes long.
Each exercise session was only 20-minutes long.
Short bursts of high-intensity exercise provide a considerable boost to memory, research finds.
The study showed that healthy young adults increased their memory performance in a relatively short period of time.
Each exercise session was only 20-minutes long, during which they did short bouts of intense exercise.
Those with the greatest fitness gains saw increases in brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF).
This is a protein that supports the function, growth and survival of brain cells.
Dr Jennifer Heisz, the study’s first author, said:
“Improvements in this type of memory from exercise might help to explain the previously established link between aerobic exercise and better academic performance.
At the other end of our lifespan, as we reach our senior years, we might expect to see even greater benefits in individuals with memory impairment brought on by conditions such as dementia.”
For the study, exercise training was compared with a control group among 95 people.
The high-intensity exercise was particularly beneficial to high-interference memory.
When we try to retrieve something from memory, the retrieval process can be hampered by other similar memories.
For example, when trying to remember someone’s name beginning with the letter ‘J’, the memory might return ‘Jack’, ‘James’ and ‘Jeremy’, before you remember the man’s name is ‘Jeff’.
After exercise, people found it easier to recall memories in these sorts of situations.
Dr Heisz said they were now looking at older adults to see if the same findings held true:
“One hypothesis is that we will see greater benefits for older adults given that this type of memory declines with age.
However, the availability of neurotrophic factors also declines with age and this may mean that we do not get the synergistic effects.”
The study was published in the Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience (Heisz et al., 2017).
How Memory Works: 8 Brilliant Psychology Studies
Memory can be improved by the right amount of stress, reading, one’s location and even something as simple as saying a word out loud (or not).
Memory can be improved by the right amount of stress, reading, one’s location and even something as simple as saying a word out loud (or not).
In the search for a better memory, scientists have tried all kinds of techniques.
Some of the latest include using laser light to stimulate the prefrontal cortex and optogenetics to control neurons to bring ‘forgotten’ memories back.
In less high-tech realms, the right amount of stress, reading, one’s location and even something as simple as saying a word out loud (or not) have been found to enhance memory.
Still, being forgetful is actually surprisingly common, even among young people, so it is not necessarily a sign of senility.
These ideas and more are explored in these 8 psychology studies on memory from the members-only section of PsyBlog.
(If you are not already, find out how to become a PsyBlog member here.)
- ‘Forgotten’ Memories Can Be Reawakened By Light
- Unlocking The Secret To Memorizing New Words
- These Are The Physical Signs Of A Razor-Sharp Memory
- Forgetfulness Is Common Even Among Young — Sometimes With Tragic Consequences
- Painless Laser Therapy Improves Memory By 25% In Minutes
- How Reading Changes Your Brain
- The Amount Of Stress That Improves Your Memory
- Why We Remember More When In New Places
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The Type Of Dietary Fats That Damage Your Memory
A study shows that “good” or healthy fats and “bad” fats affect brain cells in different ways.
A study shows that “good” or healthy fats and “bad” fats affect brain cells in different ways.
Diets rich in saturated fat and or refined carbohydrates are linked to neurodegenerative disorders, neuroinflammation, and cognitive dysfunction.
In contrast, diets rich in polyunsaturated fats such as omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids may have neuroprotective and anti-inflammatory effects.
A study shows that “good” or healthy fats and “bad” fats affect brain cells in different ways.
The research suggests that high-fat diets will reduce polyunsaturated fatty acids and increase saturated fatty acids in the hippocampus.
The hippocampus is part of the brain important for the formation of new memories and learning processes.
The finding may explain the connection between high-fat foods and memory impairment, especially in older people.
Moreover, the study found that omega-3 DHA (docosahexaenoic acid) has the ability to reduce the negative effect of high fat foods-induced inflammation in brain cells.
Previously they showed that eating highly processed foods was linked to higher levels of inflammation in the brain accompanied with memory loss, but DHA supplements averted the issue.
DHA can lower inflammation by acting directly on microglia in response to issues such as traumatic brain injury, neurodegenerative disorders including Alzheimer’s, and brain infections.
Microglia are types of immune cells that are involved in brain development, and inflammatory responses to brain injury.
Dr Ruth Barrientos, the study’s senior author, said:
“The cool thing about this paper is that for the first time, we’re really starting to tease these things apart by cell type.
Our lab and others have often looked at the whole tissue of the hippocampus to observe the brain’s memory-related response to a high-fat diet.
But we’ve been curious about which cell types are more or less affected by these saturated fatty acids, and this is our first foray into determining that.”
DHA protects cells
For this study, microglia cells from animal tissue were taken and developed in the laboratory.
Then these microglia models were exposed to palmitic acid, the most common saturated fat in foods such as shortening, pork, beef, lard, palm oil, and cocoa butter.
The results revealed that palmitic acid caused changes in gene expression involved in the inflammatory response.
However, DHA treatment completely prevented or partially lowered alterations and so protected cells against inflammation.
Dr Michael Butler, the study’s first author, said:
“Previous work has shown that DHA is protective in the brain and that palmitic acid has been detrimental to brain cells, but this is the first time we’ve looked at how DHA can directly protect against the effects of palmitic acid in those microglia, and we see that there is a strong protective effect.
The protective effects of DHA might, in this context, be restricted to effects on gene expression related to the pro-inflammatory response as opposed to the metabolic deficits that the saturated fat also induced.”
Related
- Eating just one meal that is high in saturated fats ruins the ability to concentrate.
- Dry eye syndrome can be an outcome of omega-3 fatty acids deficiency.
- The right balance between omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids promotes healthy cognitive aging.
- A higher intake of fibre and lower intake of saturated fats can reduce belly fat.
- A mother who eats a high-fat diet can cause life-long changes in the brain of her child.
The study was published in the journal Frontiers in Cellular Neuroscience (Butler et al., 2023).
‘Forgotten’ Memories Can Be Reawakened By Light (M)
Contrary to what many believe, memories do not simply decay with time — ‘forgotten’ memories are still there encoded in the brain.
Smelling These Fragrances At Night Boosts Memory 226% In Older Adults (M)
The researchers hope that along with strengthening memory, the fragrances may help delay dementia.
These Are The Physical Signs Of A Razor-Sharp Memory (M)
‘Superagers’ tend to display these physical signs.
The Type Of Films And Stories That Make You Smarter
An unsettling feeling, like the absurdity of life, can engender the desired state.
An unsettling feeling, like the absurdity of life, can engender the desired state.
Surreal books and films could make you smarter, research finds.
Stories by Franz Kafka or films by master of the absurd David Lynch could boost learning.
Even an unsettling feeling, like the absurdity of life, can engender the desired state.
The reason is that surreal or nonsensical things put our mind into overdrive looking for meaning.
When people are more motivated to search for meaning, they learn better, the psychologists found.
Dr Travis Proulx, the study’s first author, explained:
“The idea is that when you’re exposed to a meaning threat –– something that fundamentally does not make sense –– your brain is going to respond by looking for some other kind of structure within your environment.
And, it turns out, that structure can be completely unrelated to the meaning threat.”
For the study, people read a Franz Kafka’s short story called ‘The Country Doctor’ — which involves a nonsensical series of events.
A version of the story was rewritten to make more sense and read by a control group.
Afterwards, both groups were given an unconscious learning task that involved spotting strings of letters.
Dr Proulx said:
“People who read the nonsensical story checked off more letter strings –– clearly they were motivated to find structure.
But what’s more important is that they were actually more accurate than those who read the more normal version of the story.
They really did learn the pattern better than the other participants did.”
In a second study, people were made to feel their own lives didn’t make sense.
This was done by pointing out the contradictory decisions they had made.
Dr Proulx said:
“You get the same pattern of effects whether you’re reading Kafka or experiencing a breakdown in your sense of identity.
People feel uncomfortable when their expected associations are violated, and that creates an unconscious desire to make sense of their surroundings.
That feeling of discomfort may come from a surreal story, or from contemplating their own contradictory behaviors, but either way, people want to get rid of it.
So they’re motivated to learn new patterns.”
The study only tested unconscious learning, it doesn’t tell us whether you would be able to use this trick intentionally.
Dr Proulx said:
“It’s important to note that sitting down with a Kafka story before exam time probably wouldn’t boost your performance on a test.
What is critical here is that our participants were not expecting to encounter this bizarre story.
If you expect that you’ll encounter something strange or out of the ordinary, you won’t experience the same sense of alienation.
You may be disturbed by it, but you won’t show the same learning ability.
The key to our study is that our participants were surprised by the series of unexpected events, and they had no way to make sense of them.
Hence, they strived to make sense of something else.”
The study was published in the journal Psychological Science (Proulx & Heine, 2009).
The Type Of Fat Linked To 10% Worse Memory (M)
The dietary fat that decreases memory performance is found in the most commonly consumed foods.
People Make Fewer Memory Errors In Their Second Language (M)
The benefits of learning a second language include increased attention, improved multitasking, better listening skills and reduced dementia risk.
