Moderate exercise such as walking 'boosts memory power'

Walking for 40 minutes a few times a week is enough to preserve memory and keep ageing brains on top form, research shows.

Moderate exercise increased the size of the hippocampus, an area of the brain that makes memories, in 120 volunteers.

The year-long trial, published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, showed performance on memory tests also improved.

Exercise may buffer against dementia as well as age-related memory loss.

The latest work looked at healthy people in their 60s rather than people with Alzheimer's or other forms of dementia.

But the findings have important implications for ageing societies faced with a dementia time bomb.

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Even modest exercise may improve memory and help protect the brain from normal decline caused by ageing”

Dr Simon Ridley of the Alzheimer's Research Trust

In the UK, 820,000 people have dementia, and this figure is set to double by 2030.

Until a cure is discovered, finding cheap and simple ways to reverse this trend is imperative, say experts.

Little and often

Professor Kirk Erickson and colleagues from the University of Pittsburgh in the US set out to investigate the impact that even moderate exercise might have on preserving memory.

They split their 120 volunteers into two groups. One group was asked to begin an exercise regimen of walking around a track for 40 minutes a day, three days a week, while the others were limited to doing simple stretching and toning exercises.

Brain scans and memory tests were performed at the start of the study, halfway through the study and again at the end.

Scans revealed hippocampus volume increased by around 2% in people who did regular aerobic exercise. The same region of the brain decreased in volume by 1.4% in those who did stretching exercises, consistent with the decrease seen in normal ageing.

Both groups showed some improvement over time on memory tests. In the walking group, the improvement appeared to be linked with increased size of the hippocampus.

Professor Erickson said: "We think of the atrophy of the hippocampus in later life as almost inevitable. But we've shown that even moderate exercise for one year can increase the size of that structure.

"The brain at that stage remains modifiable."

Dr Simon Ridley of the Alzheimer's Research Trust said that although the study does not look at memory loss in Alzheimer's or dementia, it suggests "it's never too late to start exercising to help keep our brains healthy".

"Even modest exercise may improve memory and help protect the brain from normal decline caused by ageing.

"Increasing evidence suggests regular exercise and a healthy diet may help reduce our risk of developing dementia as well as reaping numerous other benefits from living a healthy lifestyle."

Source:http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-12325285

How can musicians keep playing despite amnesia?

Scientists are trying to understand how amnesiacs can lose all memory of their past life - and yet remember music. The answer may be that musical memories are stored in a special part of the brain.

When British conductor and musician Clive Wearing contracted a brain infection in 1985 he was left with a memory span of only 10 seconds.

The infection - herpes encephalitis - left him unable to recognise people he had seen or remember things that had been said just moments earlier.

But despite being acknowledged by doctors as having one of the most severe cases of amnesia ever, his musical ability and much of his musical memory was intact.

Now aged 73, he is still able to read music and play the piano and once even conducted his former choir again.

Now researchers believe they are closer to understanding how musical memory is preserved in some people - even when they can remember almost nothing of their past.

At a Society for Neuroscience meeting in Washington this month, a group of German neurologists described the case of a professional cellist, referred to as PM, who contracted herpes encephalitis virus in 2005.

He was unable to retain even simple information, such as the layout of his apartment.

But Dr Carsten Finke of Charite University Hospital in Berlin says he was "astonished" that the cellist's musical memory was largely intact and that he was still able to play his instrument.

The brain's medial temporal lobes, which are largely destroyed by severe cases of herpes encephalitis are "highly relevant" for remembering things such as facts and how, where and when an event happened.

"But this case and also the Clive Wearing case suggest that musical memory seems to be stored independently of the medial temporal lobes," Dr Finke says.

Read full article:http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-15791973

Improving people's memory by punishing their correct answers

A well-established finding in psychology is that successfully retrieving information from memory serves to consolidate the storage of that information. Each time your brain's filing clerk tracks down the right information, the more likely he is to find it another time. Psychologists call this the testing effect - practising retrieval of information is far more effective than simply re-studying that same material.Read more:


http://bps-research-digest.blogspot.com/2011/07/improving-peoples-memory-by-punishing.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+BpsResearchDigest+%28BPS+Research+Digest%29

Memory – Not as Good as We Think

One of the more controversial topics within cognitive psychology is whether or not there are repressed memories and if so, can they accurately be recovered. In order to understand how memories might become repressed, we need to first understand the memory system.

Memory includes both learning and then some sort of recollection. We have to store information first in order to pull it back out of storage later for use. Thus, the process of memory can be affected at either of these two stages — learning or recall. If information is never learned and therefore stored, it can never be remembered. However, if information was learned but something affects the process of retrieving it from storage, then it is possible that with additional help that information could be recalled. This is the basic idea underlying repressed memories. Something was learned and put into storage but a person is not able to retrieve the memories because something is blocking them. Therefore, from what we know of the memory system, repressed memories are technically feasible.

link:

http://brainblogger.com/2011/07/14/memory-not-as-good-as-we-think/

Brain-practice paves way for long-lasting memories

New study has suggested that training the brain could make a person’s memory long-lasting.
Researchers from McMaster University found that when individuals were shown visual and abstract patterns, they are able to recall very specific information from what they learned one to two years earlier.
Link: http://www.dnaindia.com/health/report_brain-practice-paves-way-for-long-lasting-memories_1560213

“You and your memory”

You and your memory

by Amit Kumar

The human brain has extraordinary ability to adapt and change. This ability is known as neuroplasticity. With the right stimulation, your brain can form new neural pathways, alter existing connections, and adapt and react in ever-changing ways.

You can harness the natural power of neuroplasticity to improve your cognitive abilities and memory by doing simple things.

Care:

• Stress is one of the brain’s worst enemies. Avoid taking unnecessary stress.
• Drink 1.5-2.0 lit water each day.
• Get out (in the daylight) and get plenty of fresh air.
• Exercise your body to exercise your brain.
• Research shows that sleep is necessary for memory consolidation, with the key memory-enhancing activity occurring during the deepest stages of sleep.
• Create opportunity to laugh often, be entertaining.
• Boost your self esteem with your creativity.
• Do loads of brain games such as crossword, puzzles, Sudoku.
• Meditation improves focus, concentration, creativity, and learning and reasoning skills.
• Brain boosting foods: - omega-3 fatty acids, limit your saturated fat intake; eat more fruit and vegetables (5-10 portion in a day).
• Give your brain a workout:-“use it or lose it.”

Enhancing your ability

• Pay attention- It takes about eight seconds of intense focus to process a piece of information into your memory.
• Use your all senses as much as possible.
• Convey information to what you already know.
• Simplify rather than memorizing isolated details. Practice explaining the ideas to someone else in your own words.
• Rehearse learned information- spaced rehearsal” is more effective than cramming, especially for retaining what you’ve learned.

Roots of Memory Impairment Resulting from Sleep Deprivation Identified

Roots of Memory Impairment Resulting from Sleep Deprivation Identified

ScienceDaily (May 18, 2011) — From high-school students to surgeons, anyone who has pulled an all-nighter knows there is a price to be paid the next day: trouble focusing, a fuzzy memory and other cognitive impairments. Now, researchers at Penn have found the part of the brain and the neurochemical basis for sleep deprivation's effects on memory............................

link: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/05/110517171118.htm