Why did I used to, but now I can't, remember songs?
July 5th 2008 23:29
Signature Tune
One girlfriend, herself an avid music enthusiast, posited the theory that maybe we learned the lyrics to the songs of our youth because back in the day, we actually had the time - and we cared enough - to study them.
"When was the last time you actually sat down with a new album, like we used to when we were 17, and listened over and over to the lyrics until you knew them by heart?" she asked pointedly.
Extracted from: Globeandmail.com - see link above for full article
So in the interests of science I e-mailed my friendly neighbourhood neurosurgeon, the renowned Dr. Andres Lozano, a professor of neurology at the University of Toronto and the Canada Research Chair in Neuroscience. With apologies in advance for the silliness of my question, I asked him if there was any reason why I cannot seem to retain new song lyrics when I can sing the words to every lousy song I ever heard two decades ago.
Ten minutes later, he called me back. "I have five minutes before I have to go into surgery," Lozano said, "so I thought I'd quickly get back to you. No, it's not a silly question at all. And the reason you are experiencing this has to do with the way memory works."
Memory, he explained, is a three-step process. "First, you have to process the information, then you have to store it and then you have to retrieve it." Then he added - helpfully, given the musical context - "if we were talking about a tape recorder, there would be the microphone, the tape and the playback."
What brain researchers have found is that "as we age, the playback section is the most robust: it's much easier to retrieve something than to lay down new information." Which is why centenarians can remember every lyric of the big band music they danced to when they were teenagers, but for the life of them can't recall what they had yesterday for lunch.
What's more, Lozano offered, is that in the same way everybody can remember exactly what they were doing when John F. Kennedy was shot, "it proves to be much easier to store information if it's being processed in an emotional context.
"So maybe it's easier to remember the songs of your youth simply because they meant so much more to you at the time," he said, signing off, on his way to look inside someone else's head.
Turns out not only that there is some scientific basis for the idea of old dogs and new tricks, but that my girlfriend, who knows a lot about music and precious little about science, is right on the money.
| 52 |
| Vote |
Add To: 
subscribe to this blog
Comment by Miswanderlust
Killer Beats
Ramble On
Hipnotherapy
Great post! Very interesting!
Mis