Imagine the route you usually take to the grocery store. Now imagine the many identifiable landmarks that exist between your home and the store, such as a specific garden, a stop sign, or a gas station.
Take these milestones and associate them with things you try to remember, such as grocery list items. So for the garden, we assign mustard. For the stop sign, we will add tomato sauce and, for the gas station, we will use relish. Once at the grocery store, you can retrieve these items simply by imagining your trip to the grocery store and associated attractions.
This mnemonic, called the “loci method,” has been around for centuries and is surprisingly effective. New research published in Science Advances on Wednesday suggests that this technique is good forlong-term memory and alsoterm record. In addition, the loci method reconnects the brain, allowing for better storage and retrieval oflong-term memories, according to new findings. The study was led by neuroscientist Isabella Wagner of Radboud University Medical Center in the Netherlands.
“It is so effective that athletes with memory, those who train and have superior memories, use them, too ” Jeni Pathman, an assistant professor at York University in Toronto, explained in an email referring to the technique.
This method, which dates back to ancient Greece, works well because it allows us to use familiar places or routes that serve as a kind of “scaffolding,” Wagner explained in an email. This allows us to incorporate new, but totally unrelated, information into a “structure” we already know, he said.
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“Plus, it definitely helps to form unusual, new, or even strange associations that capture attention,” Wagner said. “The combination of prior knowledge and novelty is very powerful in increasing memory.”
That the loci method is good forterm recall is well known, but its effect on long-term memories is little known, as is the effect of this technique on the brain. To find out, Wagner and his colleagues recruited 17 memory-leading athletes — all experts in the loci method — and 50 non-experts. These 50 individuals were assigned to three groups, one that underwent a rigorous six-week training course on the loci method, one group that received working memory training, and one group without memory training.
“We wanted to see if rookies could train the loci method to such an extent that they reached performance levels close to real memory champions and also if their brain processes become similar to those of trained champions,” Wagner explained.
All participants went through fMRI scanners before and after training, which was done to assess memory performance and study brain function.
With brain scans, scientists can “indirectly imagine the activity of neurons in the brain,” allowing them to identify the regions involved during the study of new information, during memory, or during rest. important to stabilize information in the brain in the long run, “said Wagner, to which he added:” That’s also why a good night’s sleep or a nap are very important! “
Regarding the memorization task, participants were asked to memorize random word lists. They were then shown triplets of words, that is, three words at a time, and asked if the words were presented in the same or different order compared to the way they appeared during training.
Four months later, participants were tested to see if they were still able to remember some of the memorized words from the training sessions. The loci group method remembered 50 words on average, the working memory group remembered about 30 words, and the untrained group averaged only 27 words.
“Performance was extraordinarily good after four months, demonstrating that participants were able to successfully use the loci method to improve their memory,” Wagner said. “That didn’t surprise us, as we were already expecting the training to have a lasting effect.”
Analysis of brain scans showed a decrease in activity in the lateral prefrontal cortex, posterior parahippocampal, and retrosplenial cortex, areas associated with task-based activation. By “task-based activation,” scientists refer to the brain processes that are occurring during the study and memory of random word lists. This was observed in both memory athletes and non-experts who received training.
“We found that training led to a decrease in brain activation in regions that are typically dedicated to (spatial) memory processing and that are important for long-term memory,” Wagner explained. “This surprised us a bit, as better performance is usually associated with greater commitment from different brain regions. What we’ve seen here is the opposite: training a decrease in activity in those regions so that an activation lower brain leads to better memory “.
This could be interpreted as “neural efficiency,” he said, as fewer resources could be needed to achieve improved performance.
At the same time, training resulted in an increase in neural connections between the hippocampus and the cortex. This helps store long-term memories, which could explain why participants ’memory was so good four months later.
“This study is important because, it not only showed that regular people can practice this technique to create long-lasting memories, but it also showed how it can affect their brain,” said Jeni Pathman, an assistant professor at York University. in Toronto, he said in an email. “Those who were part of the memory training group showed brain activity during learning and memory that was more similar to memory athletes.”
Pathman’s only complaint was the relatively small sample size, which she said was “understandable given the nature of this work.” As for the future work required, Pathman said it would be “important to extend this study on creating long-term memories to other age groups or to groups that may have more memory problems,” as they could also benefit. if.
Good point.
In fact, the loci method may be helpful for people with age-related cognitive decline, but future research will need to address it. For now, we can take advantage of these new findings as we garden, leave the stop signs, and start gasping as we walk through the grocery store.