Crane's bill.
3 Ways to Improve
Memory
Ray Lumpp
The human brain is one of the most mysterious and
powerful tools in the modern world.
This magical organ interprets reality through synapses
and neurons, forming subjective thoughts, qualities, and memories, which form
our identities. Using up to twenty percent of the energy
we consume, our brain is always working and always
changing. As we grow, the connections between regions of the brain reinforce
each other, fortifying our memory, until a certain age
at which, either naturally, through “disuse,” or through
memory loss diseases such as Alzheimer’s,
we begin to lose control of our
memories. But we are not necessarily doomed to forget
our brief passage through this life before our brain
finally shuts down:
here are three ways you can enhance your memory through
lifestyle changes.
1. Self-Awareness
Understanding how your brain makes memories is crucial to
improving memory function.
As you experience the world, the sensory information
received is encoded through your short-term memory—visually, acoustically, and
semantically—and stored in various regions of your brain
with your working memory. Through the long-term process
of recollection, your brain reconstructs the memory from storage, meaning that
the more times you access a memory,
the more likely it is to change (the opposite is true of
“commonplace” memories
which you rarely revisit, such as this morning’s shower,
yesterday’s commute, etc.).
The act of recollecting is a helpful exercise in
improving memory itself.
What you notice in certain memories upon recalling them
also affects their ability to be recalled. Becoming aware of what draws your
attention to certain memories and choosing to focus
on different points of view can force your brain to make
new associations,
strengthening your neural network and placing the memory in a context.
Keeping a journal is possibly the best way to
improve self-awareness, but literal self-awareness
with mirrors, cameras, microphones, or audiences also
improve the accuracy of memory.
Our memories fade with old age because our brain becomes
less effective at encoding and retrieval as we discontinue learning. Learning
and socialization arouse various parts of the brain
—language, perception, problem-solving, motor
coordination—all at once, and are undoubtedly
the cornerstones of a bright, sharp, longitudinal memory.
2. Stress
Reduction
Stress has a significant detrimental effect on
memory formation. If any strong emotion is present during an event, the neurons
active during this event produce strong connections with each other. When the
event is recalled, the neurons will more easily and speedily make the same
connections (which can be disastrous for those suffering from PTSD or drug
addiction withdrawal).
These memories also tend to be warped or focused on
extreme details rather than
the greater context of the scene—another way
self-awareness can promote healthy memories.
Get plenty of
sleep! Neuroimaging studies have shown activation patterns in the sleeping
brain which mirror those recorded during the learning of tasks from the
previous day,
suggesting that new memories may be solidified through
such rehearsal.
Coupled with a nightly recollection of the day prior, or
even a dream journal,
sleep can be a very powerful tool for managing memories.
Meditation, a
form of mental training to focus attention, also seems to increase the control
over brain resource distribution, improving both
attention and discipline.
The changes are potentially long-lasting, as meditation
may have the ability to strengthen
neuronal circuits as selective attentional processes
improve.
Playing music
also improves various aspects of memory through abstract connections in the
brain between acoustic, semantic, and language-processing regions. Research
shows that children
who participated in one year of instrumental musical
training showed improved verbal memory, whereas no such improvement was shown
in children who discontinued musical training.
3. Diet and
Exercise
Exercise has been shown to improve cognitive performance
on encoding and retrieval
of information, and has been found to regulate
hippocampal neurogenesis,
which promotes the survival of newborn neurons and helps
form new memories.
Physiological activity also provides the brain increased
blood-flow and oxygen levels,
which, along with the right diet, keep the brain healthy.
There are many “brain foods,” but only a certain group of
fruits and vegetables provide direct benefits to the facilitation and
maintenance of memory processes—flavonoids.
Flavonoids are photochemicals found in plant-based foods
and valued for their antioxidant properties, and are found in onions,
leeks, broccoli, parsley, celery, soybeans, citrus fruits,
berry fruits, tomatoes, green teas, red wines, and cocoa.
Glucose also plays an important role in improving memory,
as it can pass from blood to the brain, providing energy and boosting neural
metabolism.
Excess intake levels of fat and calories are harmful to
memory function.
Saturated fats and cholesterol are especially high-risk
foods for the onset of Alzheimer’s,
not to mention the myriad other health risks associated
with these food groups.
http://www.lifehack.org/articles/lifestyle/3-ways-to-improve-memory.html
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