Keeping memory sharp
March 29th 2011 19:19
Recently while browsing The New York Times Book Review online, I came across a review of a book by Joshua Foer titled “Moonwalking with Einstein: The Art and Science of Remembering Everything.” The Penguin Press published the work.
The first question I asked myself was: “Do we really want to remember everything?” And then, “Is remembering both an art and a science?”
Flash back to high school where I was made to memorize parts of Virgil’s “Aeneid,” not to mention Latin declensions and French irregular verbs. And way before that my mother, Columbia, insisted I memorize the multiplication tables, thinking that would help my math skills. Thanks, Mom.
When I was very young, I had almost a photographic memory. Not only could I remember verbatim what I had read, I could also tell you whether that information was on the right or the left page, near the top or closer to the bottom.
While I have put the Foer book on my “read it someday” list, my favorite book about keeping memory sharp is still “Keep Your Brain Young” written by Dr. Guy McKhann of Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and Marilyn Albert, Ph.D., of Harvard Medical School (published in 2002 by John Wiley & Sons Inc. of New York). I once met Dr. McKhann at an AARP conference I attended in Portland shortly after the book was in print.
Memory does change with age, the authors tell us. Indeed we all know about senior moments and tip-of-the-tongue syndrome. In the latter, we can be in the midst of relating something when suddenly a key word or name escapes us. But minutes later, long after the conversation has progressed, we suddenly blurt out the correct word or name, as if the lapse had never happened.
And while, according to the doctors, “It takes longer for the average older person to take in new information and retain it ... evidence indicates that if an older person takes the time to learn something well, he or she will remember it as accurately as someone many decades younger. Thus, although older people think they are forgetting things more easily, what is really happening is that they may not be learning them well in the first place.”
The authors offer advice like concentrating, making learning conscious and deliberate. “Don’t overload your circuits” by too much multi-tasking, they say.
Among other practical suggestions, the most obvious is making lists or notes. I do it constantly and leave them in noticeable places. Another thing I’ve done is give up speed dial on my telephones. Instead, I exercise my brain by dialing numbers from memory. It’s working.
Other memory-sharpening suggestions from Doctors Khann and Albert and others include playing chess or bridge, board games, working crossword and math puzzles like KenKen, studying foreign languages, learning a musical instrument. And above all, staying physically active too.
The authors say, “Physical activity increases at least one chemical in the brain that protects it and helps it grow; this chemical is called nerve growth factor.”
So here’s to the function of memory. You can still maintain it, and you can still cherish it.
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