Imagine the route you usually take to the grocery store. Imagine the many identifiable landmarks that exist between your home and the store – such as a specific garden, stop sign or gas station.
Take these landmarks and associate them with things you are trying to remember, such as the items on your grocery list. So let’s allocate mustard for the garden. For the stop sign we add ketchup, and for the filling station we use flavor. Once you get to the grocery store, you can recall these items by rethinking your trip to the grocery store and the accompanying beacons.
This memory noun, called the ‘method of loci’, has been around for centuries, and it is surprisingly effective. New research published in Science Advances on Wednesday suggests that this technique is good for bothterm memory and also long-term revocation. What’s more, the method of loci rewires the brain, which allows for the improved storage and recovery of long-term memories, according to the new findings. The study was led by neuroscientist Isabella Wagner of Radboud University Medical Center in the Netherlands.
‘It is so effective that memory athletes, those who exercise and have excellent memories, use it, also,” 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”, as Wagner explained in an email. This allows us to embed new, but completely unrelated information, in a ‘structure’ we already know, she said.
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“On top of that, it definitely helps to form unusual, new or even bizarre associations that attract attention,” Wagner said. “The combination of prior knowledge and novelty is very powerful in promoting memory.”
That the method of loci is briefly goodterm recall is well known, but its effect on long-term memories is poorly understood, as is the effect of this technique on the brain. To find out, Wagner and her colleagues recruited 17 leading memory athletes – all experts in the method of loci – and 50 non-experts. These 50 individuals were divided into three groups, one who underwent a rigorous six-week training course in the method of loci, a group that received working memory training, and a group without any memory training.
“We wanted to see if beginners could train the method of loci to such an extent that they would reach performance levels close to the actual memory champions, and also whether their brain processes become similar to those of champions with training,” Wagner explained.
All participants were screened before and after the training by fMRI scanners, which were done to assess their memory performance and study brain function.
With brain scans, scientists can ‘indirectly give an idea of the activity of neurons in the brain’, so that they can identify regions that are ‘studying new information, while remembering or at rest, which is important for information in the brain’. to stabilize the brain for a longer term, ”said Wagner, adding:” This is also why a good sleep or a nap is very important! “
In terms of the memorization task, participants were asked to memorize lists of random words. There was then for the word triplets, i.e. three words simultaneously, shown and asked whether the words are presented in the same or different order compared to how they appeared during the training.
Four months later, the test was administered to the participants to see if they could still remember some of the memorized words from the training sessions. The method of the loci group recalled an average of 50 words, the work master group about 30 words and the untrained group averaged only 27 words.
“The performance was still remarkably good after four months, which showed that participants could still use the method of loci successfully to improve their memory,” Wagner said. “It was not very surprising to us, because we were already hoping that training would have a lasting effect.”
Analysis of the brain scans decreased activity in the lateral prefrontal, posterior parahippocampal, and retrosplenial cortical joints – areas associated with task-based activation. By ‘task-based activation’, scientists refer to brain processes that take place while studying and remembering random word lists. It has been observed in memory athletes and non-experts who have received training.
“We found that training led to reduced brain activation in regions that are usually engaged in (spatial) memory processing and that are important for long-term memory,” Wagner explained. ‘This was somewhat surprising to us, as better performance is usually accompanied by an increased involvement of different brain regions. What we have seen here is the opposite: reducing activity in these regions, so that lower brain activation leads to better memory. ‘
This can be interpreted as ‘neural efficiency’, she said, as fewer resources would be needed to achieve improved performance.
At the same time, the training led to the strengthening of neural connections between the hippocampus and cortex. This helps in storing long-term memories, which may explain why the memory of the participants was so good four months later.
“This study is important because it has not only shown that ordinary people can practice this technique to create long-lasting memories, but also how it can affect their brains,” said Jeni Pathman, an assistant professor at York University in Toronto. , said. said in an email. “Those who were in the memory training group showed activity in the brain during learning and remember what looked more like memory athletes.”
Pathman’s only complaint was the relatively small sample size, which she said was ‘understandable given the nature of this work’. Regarding the required future work, Pathman said it is “important to expand this study on creating long-term memories of other age groups or of groups that may have more memory problems,” as they may also benefit from it.
Good point.
Indeed, the method of loci may help with people with age-related cognitive decline, but future research will have to fend it off. For now, we can take advantage of these new findings as we garden through the grocery store, stop sign and gas station.