‘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.
Category: Memory
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.
Memory: The Weirdest Ever Fact is Actually True
This fact about memory might seem depressing, but it is critical to useful recall.
This fact about memory might seem depressing, but it is critical to useful recall.
Recalling one memory actually leads to the forgetting of other competing memories, a study confirms.
It is one of the single most surprising facts about memory, now isolated by neuroscience research.
Although many scientists believed the brain must work this way, it has been demonstrated.
Dr Maria Wimber, a cognitive neuroscientist and the study’s first author, said:
“Though there has been an emerging belief within the academic field that the brain has this inhibitory mechanism, I think a lot of people are surprised to hear that recalling memories has this darker side of making us forget others by actually suppressing them.”
The study monitored people’s brain activity while they tried to recall images they had been shown earlier.
By measuring activity in tiny sections of the brain, the neuroscientists were able to track individual memories.
They found that as one memory was recalled, others were suppressed.
Each subsequent time a target memory was recalled, it became stronger, while the others became weaker.
Dr Michael Anderson, a neuroscientist who co-led the study, said:
“People are used to thinking of forgetting as something passive.
Our research reveals that people are more engaged than they realize in shaping what they remember of their lives.
The idea that the very act of remembering can cause forgetting is surprising, and could tell us more about selective memory and even self deception.”
The process is believed to be critical to how memory and learning work.
Here’s how I’ve explained it previously:
“The idea that forgetting helps you learn seems counter-intuitive, but think of it this way: imagine if you created a brain that could remember and recall everything.
When this amazing brain was trying to remember where it parked the car, it would immediately bring to mind all the car parks it had ever seen, then it would have to sort through the lot.
Obviously the only one that’s of interest is the most recent.
And this is generally true of most of our memories.
Recent events are usually much more important than ones that happened a long time ago.
To make your super-brain quicker and more useful in the real world you’d have to build in some system for discounting old, useless info.
In fact, of course, we all have one of these super-brains with a discounting system: we call it ‘forgetting’.”
Dr Wimber suggested another situation in which forgetting is useful:
“Forgetting is often viewed as a negative thing, but of course, it can be incredibly useful when trying to overcome a negative memory from our past.
So there are opportunities for this to be applied in areas to really help people.”
He continued:
“It has significance for anything that relies on memory, but a really good example is that of eyewitness testimonies.
When a witness is asked to recall specific information about an event, and they are quizzed time and time again, it could well be to the detriment of associated memories — giving the impression that their memory is sketchy.
In fact, the repeated recall is causing them to forget these details.”
The study was published in the journal Nature Neuroscience (Wimber et al., 2015).
Forgetfulness Is Common Even Among Young — Sometimes With Tragic Consequences (M)
In the United States, since 1998 almost 1,000 children have died in the car after their caregiver forgot about them.
Exercise Stimulates Neurons In Brain’s Memory And Learning Centres
The beneficial effects of exercise on the hippocampus, an area critical for memory and learning.
The beneficial effects of exercise on the hippocampus, an area critical for memory and learning.
Being physically active is essential for maintaining mental health and what is more, improves hippocampal function related to learning and memory, a study shows.
Exercise stimulates the production of chemical signals important for neuronal development in the hippocampus.
Mr Ki Yun Lee, the study’s first author, said:
“The hippocampus is a crucial area for learning and memory, and therefore cognitive health.”
During physical activity our muscle fibres contract and by doing so certain chemical compounds are released into the blood vessels and circulated around the body, including the hippocampus.
Swimming, cycling, bicep curls, push-ups, sit-ups, squats, are examples of sporting activities that involve muscle contraction (tightening, lengthening, or shortening of muscles).
The researchers wanted to find out how muscle signals are converted and used for neuronal activity and development in the hippocampus.
Knowing the beneficial effects of exercise on the hippocampus could lead to specific exercise-based interventions to overcome neurological disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease.
Hippocampal neurons
For this study, samples containing mice muscle cells were obtained and kept in the lab in cell culture plates.
When the muscle cells were grown, they began to contract and release chemical signals in the plates.
Then those cultures containing chemical signals were added to another culture which held hippocampal neurons and astrocytes (supportive cells).
The team also used various techniques to track neurons’ electrical activity and so they were able to examine how the hippocampal cells were influenced by the chemical signals.
They found that hippocampal neurons, when receiving the chemical signals from contracting muscles, started to produce larger and more frequent electrical signals.
These suggest that neurons of the hippocampus were flourishing and healthy while at the same time developing a powerful network.
Furthermore, they looked at the mediating role of astrocytes in order to understand what biological mechanism links exercise to brain health.
Mr Lee said:
“Astrocytes are the first responders in the brain before the compounds from muscles reach the neurons.”
When astrocytes were removed from the cell cultures, the team saw that hippocampal neurons began to generate more electrical signals.
This indicates an absence of astrocytes, Mr Lee said:
“Astrocytes play a critical role in mediating the effects of exercise.
By regulating neuronal activity and preventing hyperexcitability of neurons, astrocytes contribute to the balance necessary for optimal brain function.”
He added:
“Ultimately, our research may contribute to the development of more effective exercise regimens for cognitive disorders such as ‘s disease.”
The study was published in the journal Neuroscience (Lee et al., 2023).
How to Triple What You Can Remember (M)
People can forget things they were paying attention to just one second later, unless…
