I began to
research this post because I was curious about the enormous variability of what
anyone remembers and forgets. The memory seems to be very fickle and yet is vital to who we are, a major part
of our identity. If we could not remember past events, we could not learn or
develop language, relationships, or identity.
Over the years,
I’ve noticed how our memory is affected by anxiety, depression, negative
thoughts like self-hate, anger and rage. In brief, our emotions noticeably
affect our recall.
Furthermore, as
people get older, many are concerned, but don’t want to hear about, memory
loss. Presumably, they don’t think there is anything they can do about it, or
if there is, it would require too much effort.
Researchers have
been studying the subject of memory and its loss for years. Learning ways to
prevent memory impairment is important, especially with longer expected life
spans and the increasing prevalence of Alzheimer’s disease, a terrible malady that
entails the loss of personhood in a gradual, downhill course. (Mercifully, we
now have medications that retard the process.)
Thanks to the
relatively recent fMRI (magnetic imagining of the brain in action), portions of
this organ involved in memory storage and retrieval have been identified,
although no specific cells and synapses can yet be connected to a specific
memory. Nor do we yet know if every memory exists forever in the mind of the
individual, stored somewhere in the brain.
In reviewing the
topic, I’ve corrected some of my misperceptions and found hope. Our minds and
memories are never static, as had been previously thought. In addition, a
memory is altered each time it is recalled. (another meaning for the saying,
“You can’t step into the same river twice.”) Memory formation includes
encoding, or the storage of information, recall or retrieval, and
consolidation. A July 1 article in the New York Times discusses the advantages
of forgetting (also referred to nowadays as “retrieval failure.”)! Knowledge
actually deepens as the individual attempts to retrieve the memory. This
process, known as reconsolidation, was first described years ago by the German
psychologist Hermann Ebbinghaus.
in The Brain
Book, Peter Russell says that memory is not like a container that gradually
fills up, but more like a tree growing hooks onto which the memories are hung.
Everything we remember creates another set of hooks on which more new memories can
be attached. So the capacity of memory keeps on growing. The more we know, the
more we can know.
Memory can be
remarkably enhanced as Joshua Foer relates in his entertaining 2011 book, Moonwalking
with Einstein:The Art and Science of Remembering Everything, in which he tells the
exciting journey of how he trained his “mediocre” memory to win the U.S. Memory
Championship. Great memories are learned. We remember when we pay attention,
find colorful associations, are deeply engaged, and find meaning in what we’ve
learned. He concludes that memory champions aren’t smarter, but rather practice
elaborative encoding, finding meaning through memory palaces, or colorful,
raunchy scenes to which huge amounts of data can be pinned.
In the course of
his story, Foer writes about fascinating cases of people with loss of memory
and those with extraordinary memory. Reassuring to note: A superior memory for everything isn’t
necessarily an advantage. In The Mind of a Mnemonist: A Little Book About a
Vast Memory, A.R. Luria writes about S, a man who remembered every detail.
Because he wasn’t able to sort out essential from non-essential information, he
couldn’t hold a job. In other words, to make sense of the world, we have to
filter our perceptions and to some degree, release our immediate memories.
Our brain is the
most powerful organ in our body, and its delicate nature leaves it vulnerable
to many types of damage and disease. Hugely complex, 100 billion neurons
passing signals to each other via 1000 trillion synaptic connections, it
continuously receives and analyzes sensory information of high-order thinking,
learning and memory that give us the power to think, plan, speak, imagine,
dream, reason and experience emotion. The brain occupies 2% of body’s mass but
uses up a fifth of all the oxygen that we breathe, and a quarter of all the
glucose. Foer emphasizes that in terms of energy, the brain is a most expensive
piece of equipment.
Conclusion:
Nurturing this vital organ, the house of our functioning and our identity, is
essential. Good nutrition and mental gymnastics, like crossword puzzles, card
games, reading and writing, stave off memory loss and even Alzheimer’s disease.
Memories are malleable and our ability to enhance them is available to any and
all of us.
