How to reduce memories of negative events.
The method was more effective than ‘free recall’, where people remember whatever they can in any order they like.
The method was more effective than ‘free recall’, where people remember whatever they can in any order they like.
Clustered recall is the key to remembering what really happened, new eyewitness research finds.
This means remembering things from one category at a time.
So, if you were trying to remember what you did last Thursday, start with the location and concentrate on that.
Next, remember everything you can about what you were doing, next what people said, and so on.
The new study used the same technique to test people’s memory for a video of a woman being mugged.
Dr Craig Thorley, the study’s author, explained:
“Using this system, we prompt eyewitnesses to first remember what the people involved in the crime looked like, then the what those people did, then the environment the crime took place in.”
The study was designed to help eyewitnesses of crimes remember more.
The usual method is called ‘free recall’, where people remember whatever they can, in whatever order they like.
However, the study found that clustered recall was more effective.
Dr Thorley said:
“I think it’s likely that asking people to focus on one category of information at a time, such as what the people involved looked like, focuses their memory on that category and they offer more details related to it than they otherwise would.”
This method likely relies on the fact that the brain stores and recalls related information together.
Dr Thorley said:
“It’s the first study to compare CCR to free recall.
We interviewed people using both methods and found using CCR produced superior results, with the people using it remembering more correct information about the crime.
It also increased the amount of different details they remembered.”
The study was published in the journal Memory (Thorley, 2018).
Prolonged stress weakens the synapses — the connections between brain cells — in the hippocampus.
Prolonged stress weakens the synapses — the connections between brain cells — in the hippocampus.
Running reverses the damaging effects of chronic stress on critical areas of the brain, new research finds.
Stress can damage the functioning of the hippocampus, a structure of the brain important for memory and learning.
Running, however, protects the brain’s ability to learn and recall information, even under stress.
Dr Jeff Edwards, the study’s first author, said:
“Exercise is a simple and cost-effective way to eliminate the negative impacts on memory of chronic stress.”
Prolonged stress weakens the synapses — the connections between brain cells — in the hippocampus.
The study on mice, though, found that running over a 4-week period negated these negative effects.
Stressed mice who exercised did just as well on a maze-running experiment as non-stressed mice who exercised.
The mice who exercised also had stronger connections between the synapses in their brain.
Naturally, the best memory and learning performance is achieved in a low stress, high exercise environment.
Dr Edwards said:
“The ideal situation for improving learning and memory would be to experience no stress and to exercise.
Of course, we can’t always control stress in our lives, but we can control how much we exercise.
It’s empowering to know that we can combat the negative impacts of stress on our brains just by getting out and running.”
The study was published in the journal Neurobiology of Learning and Memory (Roxanne et al., 2018).
Usually when we recall emotional memories, the brain pumps out stressful neurochemicals…
Usually when we recall emotional memories, the brain pumps out stressful neurochemicals…
One of the purposes of dreaming is to take the edge off emotional memories, research suggests.
While dreaming, which we do during 20% of our sleep, the brain chemistry related to stress powers down.
This enables us to process emotional memories without the same jolts of fear and anxiety.
People in the study who looked at a series of emotional images felt much less disturbed by them after sleeping.
Those who looked at them in the morning first, then in the evening, without sleeping, reported a higher emotional reaction.
Brain scans also showed lower emotional reactivity in the amygdalas of those who slept.
Dr Matthew Walker, who led the study, said:
“The dream stage of sleep, based on its unique neurochemical composition, provides us with a form of overnight therapy, a soothing balm that removes the sharp edges from the prior day’s emotional experiences.”
The research was inspired by the treatment of war veterans experiencing post-traumatic stress disorder.
This type of dream therapy may be inefficient in veterans since when a…
“…flashback is triggered by, say, a car backfiring, they relive the whole visceral experience once again because the emotion has not been properly stripped away from the memory during sleep.”
Dr Els van der Helm, the study’s first author, said:
“During REM sleep, memories are being reactivated, put in perspective and connected and integrated, but in a state where stress neurochemicals are beneficially suppressed.”
Dr Walker explained that the research was inspired by the side-effect of a blood pressure drug.
It happened to reduce levels of norepinephrine in the brain.
Dr Walker said:
“We know that during REM sleep there is a sharp decrease in levels of norepinephrine, a brain chemical associated with stress.
By reprocessing previous emotional experiences in this neuro-chemically safe environment of low norepinephrine during REM sleep, we wake up the next day, and those experiences have been softened in their emotional strength.
We feel better about them, we feel we can cope.”
The study was published in the journal Current Biology (ven der Helm et al., 2011).
The drink helps fight the effects of a high-fat, high-sugar diet.
The drink helps fight the effects of a high-fat, high-sugar diet.
Green tea may help protect against memory problems linked to a poor diet, new research finds.
It could also help brain insulin resistance and reduce obesity.
Dr Xuebo Liu, who led the study, said:
“Green tea is the second most consumed beverage in the world after water, and is grown in at least 30 countries.
The ancient habit of drinking green tea may be a more acceptable alternative to medicine when it comes to combatting obesity, insulin resistance, and memory impairment.”
The conclusions come from a study on mice.
It found that a catechin called EGCG (epigallocatechin-3-gallate) had beneficial effects on the brains of mice.
All were fed a high-fat diet, high-sugar diet analogous to that consumed in many Western countries.
Half, though, were given the EGCG, the active ingredient in green tea.
Those given the EGCG were better able to resist the deleterious effects of the high-sugar, high-fat diet.
They put on less weight and were less cognitively impaired.
Dr Thoru Pederson, Editor-in-Chief of the academic journal in which the study was published, said:
“Many reports, anecdotal and to some extent research-based, are now greatly strengthened by this more penetrating study.”
The study was published in the journal The FASEB Journal (Mi et al., 2017).
Image credit: Arthur
Simply remembering everything that happens to us is not the point of memory.
Simply remembering everything that happens to us is not the point of memory.
Forgetting is the key to having a useful memory, a new psychology paper argues.
Simply remembering everything that happens to us is not the point of memory.
Our memories should help to guide us in making intelligent decisions in the situations we find ourselves.
Dr Blake Richards, one of the study’s authors, said:
“It’s important that the brain forgets irrelevant details and instead focuses on the stuff that’s going to help make decisions in the real world.”
In fact, the brain works hard to forget the right things, said Dr Richards:
“We find plenty of evidence from recent research that there are mechanisms that promote memory loss, and that these are distinct from those involved in storing information.”
The brain forgets by weakening the connections between synapses and through the creation of new neurons.
New neurons ‘delete’ old memories as they create new networks that overwrite what was stored there.
This may help explain why children forget so much: they are producing so many new neurons in the hippocampus.
The process of forgetting is beneficial because it helps us dump outdated or useless information, said Dr Richards:
“If you’re trying to navigate the world and your brain is constantly bringing up multiple conflicting memories, that makes it harder for you to make an informed decision.”
Forgetting also helps us to generalise old information to new situations.
In other words, we get the gist but forget the details and use this to inform future decisions.
What we remember and what we forget comes down partly to the environment we are in.
Dr Richards said:
“One of the things that distinguishes an environment where you’re going to want to remember stuff versus an environment where you want to forget stuff is this question of how consistent the environment is and how likely things are to come back into your life.”
The study was published in the journal Neuron (Richards & Frankland, 2017).
For the research 166 people carried out cognitive tasks while the blood flow in their brains was measured.
For the research 166 people carried out cognitive tasks while the blood flow in their brains was measured.
Higher omega-3 fatty acids levels are linked to greater blood flow in memory and learning areas of the brain, new research finds.
Omega-3 fatty acids have been shown to fight changes in the brain linked to dementia.
Dr Daniel G. Amen, the study’s first author, said:
“This is very important research because it shows a correlation between lower omega-3 fatty acid levels and reduced brain blood flow to regions important for learning, memory, depression and dementia.”
For the research 166 people carried out cognitive tasks while the blood flow in their brains was measured.
Those with higher levels of omega-3 fatty acids had greater blood flow through key brain areas.
The most important omega-3 fatty acids here are eicosapentaenoic acid and docosahexaenoic acid, known as EPA and DHA.
Dr William S. Harris, co-author, said:
“Although we have considerable evidence that omega-3 levels are associated with better cardiovascular health, the role of the ‘fish oil’ fatty acids in mental health and brain physiology is just beginning to be explored.
This study opens the door to the possibility that relatively simple dietary changes could favorably impact cognitive function.”
The study was published in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease (Amen et al., 2017).
Magnets could eventually be used to compensate for memory problems caused by dementia.
Magnets could eventually be used to compensate for memory problems caused by dementia.
Scientist have used magnetic stimulation to improve people’s memory, new research reports.
Transcranial magnetic stimulation, or TMS, helped people remember things they had heard more accurately.
The magnetic stimulation worked when it matched the natural theta waves of the brain.
Dr Sylvain Baillet, one of the study’s authors, explained:
“For a long time the role of theta waves has been unclear.
We now know much more about the nature of the mechanisms involved and their causal role in brain functions. For this study, we have built on our strengths at The Neuro, using MEG, EEG and TMS as complementary techniques.”
The results suggest that magnetic stimulation could have all kinds of uses, said Dr Philippe Albouy, the study’s first author:
“Now we know human behavior can be specifically boosted using stimulation that matched ongoing, self-generated brain oscillations.
“Even more exciting is that while this study investigated auditory memory, the same approach can be used for multiple cognitive processes such as vision, perception, and learning.”
The study was published in the journal Neuron (Albouy et al., 2017).
Image credit: Saad Faruque
Studies find that sex, doorways, social media and the correct supplements can all help boost your memory.
Studies find that sex, doorways, social media and the correct supplements can all help boost your memory.
Here are 7 everyday ways to boost your memory.
(Click the links for longer descriptions of the studies.)
Telling someone else a piece of information helps you to remember more, psychological research finds.
People in the study who immediately told others a piece of information could remember more later and they remembered it for longer.
Dr Melanie Sekeres, the study’s lead author, explained:
“This has to be actively replaying or re-generating the information — for example, by telling someone the particulars, as opposed to just simply re-reading the textbook or class notes and studying it again later.”
Regular sex is linked to a better memory in women, new research finds.
Other research has also hinted that the same may well be true for men.
The theory is that regular sex helps to grow new brain cells in the region of the brain linked to memory.
The type of memory tested in the study was working memory.
Working memory is our ability to hold and process information in the conscious mind.
It is considered one of the most important aspects of memory.
When passing through doorways, our brains ‘file’ memories away, making it difficult to recall what we were doing, research finds.
It is as though doorways are unconsciously signalling: “That’s enough of that, now we’ll do something different.”
As a result, active memories are shunted out of consciousness.
If you have previously been blaming this on poor memory, then think again.
Posting everyday, personal experiences to social media boosts memory for them, new research finds.
Professor Qi Wang, who led the research, said:
“If people want to remember personal experiences, the best way is to put them online.
Social media — blogs, Facebook, Twitter, and others alike — provide an important outlet for us to recall memories, in the public space, and share with other people.”
Even healthy young people can improve their memory by increasing their omega-3 intake, research finds.
The six-month study showed that omega-3 supplements increased people’s working memory.
Working memory is vital to holding pieces of visual, verbal or other information in your mind while you manipulate them.
Better working memory has been linked to improved learning, attention and other vital outcomes.
It’s natural for memory to break down under stress.
Except, if you do certain types of learning, even stress cannot hurt memory.
Retrieval practice — the sort where you take practice tests — builds surprisingly robust memories.
Dr Ayanna Thomas, the study’s senior author, said:
“Typically, people under stress are less effective at retrieving information from memory.
We now show for the first time that the right learning strategy, in this case retrieval practice or taking practice tests, results in such strong memory representations that even under high levels of stress, subjects are still able to access their memories.”
Sounds played during sleep can enhance memory and may even benefit sleep, recent research finds.
The sounds, though, need to be in sync with the brain’s natural oscillations to work.
In the study 11 people were played ‘pink noise’ while they slept.
This sounds like gentle hissing that goes up and down — much like the lapping of waves on the beach.
Here is some pink noise to try out.
Two-thirds of Americans are deficient in this dietary metal, which boosts memory and learning.
Two-thirds of Americans are deficient in this dietary metal, which boosts memory and learning.
Magnesium supplements could improve both memory and learning, research finds.
The conclusions come from a study on rats that were given magnesium-L-threonate.
This enhanced many forms of memory and learning in comparison to a control group.
Only one-third of Americans are thought to get the recommended amount of magnesium in their diet.
Magnesium is found in:
Professor Guosong Liu, who led the study, said:
“”We found that increased brain magnesium enhanced many different forms of learning and memory in both young and aged rats.
[…]Magnesium is essential for the proper functioning of many tissues in the body, including the brain and, in an earlier study, we demonstrated that magnesium promoted synaptic plasticity in cultured brain cells.
Therefore it was tempting to take our studies a step further and investigate whether an increase in brain magnesium levels enhanced cognitive function in animals.”
Dr Liu and colleagues developed a new compound of magnesium to help boost the levels in the brain.
The magnesium-L-threonate was used in rats of different ages.
The researchers found it increased the number of working synapses (connections between brain cells).
It also increased processes that are vital to both long- and short-term memory in the brain.
“Our findings suggest that elevating brain magnesium content via increasing magnesium intake might be a useful new strategy to enhance cognitive abilities.
Moreover, half the population of industrialized countries has a magnesium deficit, which increases with aging.
This may very well contribute to age-dependent memory decline; increasing magnesium intake might prevent or reduce such decline.”
The magnesium supplement worked despite the rats already getting sufficient levels of magnesium in their diet.
In other words it was necessary to boost the magnesium levels higher than ‘normal’.
The study was published in the journal Neuron (Slutsky et al., 2010).
Magnesium image from Shutterstock
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