According to a study conducted by a cognition expert, Ronald C. Petersen, Between 15% and 20% of people over the age of 60 consult a doctor because they fear deterioration of their memory which is accentuated with age.
Undoubtedly, the cognitive deterioration that occurs naturally over the years it is a public health problembut specialists assure that There’s so much to do preserve the brain’s capabilities, if not intact, in a good way.
Richard Restackneuroscientist at the Faculty of Medicine and Health of the George Washington Hospitalassured that cognitive decline is not an inevitable fact. in his book The Complete Guide to Memory: The Science of Strengthening Your Mind He detailed several of the keys that allow to improve memory.
Restak, as detailed The New York Times, He is the author of over 20 books on the mind and has decades of experience counseling patients with memory issues. The psychic has put together a few tools that can help improve memory.
The neuroscientist assured that his goal with this book was “overcoming everyday memory problems” and for this he considered every aspect of memory and how it is it connects to creative thinking, the impact of technology on memory, and how memory shapes identity.
The expert said that the most critical type of memory and for which he urges practicing daily exercises to strengthen it is working memory, which lies between immediate recall and long-term memory, linked to intelligence, concentration and success. Strengthening all memory capacities, he added, is key to avoiding later problems.
sharp restak 10 “sins” or “stumbling blocks that can lead to lost or distorted memories”. Seven of them were taken from the psychologist and student of the subject of memory Daniel Lawrence Schacter. It is, on the one hand, ‘sins of omission’, such as distraction, and other ‘sins of commission’, such as distorted memories. Restak added three more: technological distortion, technological distraction and depression.
“We are what we remember”, assured the author and, following his book, these are some of the tips for developing and maintaining a healthy memory.
1- Pay more attention
Occasionally attention problems are mistaken for memory lapses. And he gave the following example: if you forget the name of a person you met at an event, it may be because you were talking to several people at the same time and you did not not pay attention when the name was mentioned.
“Inattention is the number one cause of memory difficulties,” Restak said. “That means you haven’t encoded the memory correctly,” he explained.
One technique he recommended for remembering information like a name is, pay attention and visualize the word or associate it with an image. And he recounts a personal experience: recently, he says, he had to memorize the name of a doctor, the doctor king (an easy example, he admitted). So she imagined a male doctor “in a white coat with a crown on his head and a scepter instead of a stethoscope in his hand,” she said.
2- Challenge memory on a daily basis
He proposed the following: When you go out shopping instead of writing it down on paper or on the phone, memorize the items to buy. But, in case you decide to take what is written, when you get to the store, do not immediately take the list out of your pocket, but remember what to buy.
“Try to see the items in your mind,” Restak said, and only refer to the list at the end if necessary. Another way to exercise is memorize a cooking recipe. Frequent cooking is actually a great way to improve working memory, he said.
Another daily way is do not activate GPS when he goes out with the car but try to memorize the path. A small study from 2020 suggested that people who used GPS more often over time showed more pronounced cognitive decline in spatial memory three years later.
3- Mind games
Some board games like bridge or chess are excellent for memory, but are also more games simple, assured the expert. For example, one of his favorite games, he says, is one where one or more players think of a favorite person, place or object and another starts a interrogation to guess it, to which will answer “answer yes or no”. this way In order to do it right, the interrogator must memorize all the answers that come up.
Another of the memory exercises that was tested by Restak requires pen and paper or tape recorder audio. I explain it this way: first, remember all the presidents of the united states (of course, they can be replaced by those of any country)starting with President Biden and going back in time to, say, Franklin D. Roosevelt. They will be written or recorded. Then do the same in reverse from Roosevelt to Biden. then name only Democratic presidents and only Republicans. Finally, they will be named alphabetical order, said.
The challenge, he proposed, can also be done with the players of the favorite sports team or with the favorite authors, etc. The important thing is to engage the working memory“retain the information and move it in your mind”, restak wrote.
4- Read more novels
“People, when they start having memory difficulties, they tend to switch to non-fiction reading,” he said. For this reason, it is an early indicator of memory problems, he considered, is abandonment of fiction.
The doctor assured that in the several decades that he has treated patients, he has verified that fiction requires an active behavior from the reader with the text from beginning to end. “You have to remember what the character did on page 3 by the time you get to page 11”, he explained, otherwise the thread of the story will be lost.
5- Beware of technology
As mentioned above, Restak has added to the “memory sins” detected by Schacter, three others, two of which are related to technology.
The first is what he called “technological distortion”. Storing everything on your phone means you “don’t know,” Restak said, and it can erode mental capacity. “Why bother focusing, concentrating and straining to visualize something when a cell phone camera can do all the work for you?”he writes in his book.
the second way where technology alters memory, it is because it often distracts from the tasks we are performing. “The biggest obstacle to memory these days is distraction,” he writes. Since many of these tools were designed with the goal of creating addiction on the person using them and as a result people often get distracted by them. Today, people can check their emails while watching Netflix, talking to a friend, or walking down the street. All this prevents you from concentrating on the present moment, which is essential for encoding memories, he said.
6- Consult before emotional situations
The expert warned that mood is an important element in what is remembered or forgotten and recommended to consult a mental health professional if you think it is necessary.
He also pointed out that depression, among other psychological conditions, can decrease memory capacity. Among “people referred to neurologists for memory problemsone of the main causes is depression,” he said.
Nextemotional state “affects the type of memories you remember. The seahorseor “memory entry center”, according to Restak, and the tonsilthe part of the brain that manages emotions and emotional behavior, are linked, so “When they are in a bad mood or depressed, they tend to remember sad things,” he explained. Treatment of depression, either chemically or through psychotherapy, often also leads to memory retrieval.
7- Determine if memory loss is a problem
Restak assured that not all memory issues are problematic. For example, not remembering where did you park your car in a huge garage full of vehicles is quite normal. However, forgetting how you got to the parking lot in the first place indicates possible memory problems, said.
Restak pointed out that There is no simple solution to what should be of concern for memory lapses, and much depends on the context. For example, it is normal for someone to forget a hotel room number, but not their home address. If you’re worried, it’s best to consult a medical expert, he concluded.
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