Rewire Your Brain: Think Your Way to a Better Life
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to remember things. At the end of the day, she remembered all the important plans that she needed to carry over to the next day. Then, just as we began to work on enhancing her memory skills, one of her daughters broke her arm. This abruptly halted her prog- ress. She reverted to her old habits, saying, “ What do you expect from me? I ’ m a single working mom. ” When I reminded her that she could take better care of her daughters if she got back to the program, she nodded knowingly and resumed where we left off. To develop durable memory skills, she had to be determined to stick to her effort, even when she had to care for her daughters. As Sylvia learned to organize her time, she noticed that her memories, too, were contingent on organization. That organization was used to develop memories based on associations. She learned to organize what she wanted to remember by linking each item, image, or piece of information into a coherent series of associations. Since she learned that her brain worked best to construct memories based on associations, she was more willing to make the effort to form the associations. I taught her a series of mnemonic devices that served as memory tricks to form associations. These became fun games, about which she said, “ Who would ever have thought I ’ d be rewiring my brain by playing memory games? ” Perhaps you ’ re like Sylvia and the 90 percent of people who would like to improve their memory. A Roper survey found that nine out of ten people complain that they have faulty memories. A majority of the people who were surveyed reported that they have gone into a room and forgotten why they went there. Could most of us be experiencing declining memories? c04.indd 71 c04.indd 71 1/29/10 10:11:05 AM 1/29/10 10:11:05 AM 72 Rew i r e Yo u r B r a i n As Sylvia discovered, memory is not a thing to be lost or found. Memory skills can be cultivated or left to atrophy. In today ’ s society, cell phones, BlackBerrys, instant messaging, and mass media bom- bardment combine to erode our attention and our memory skills. To improve your memory skills, you have to resist having your attention fragmented. You can still use your BlackBerry, but you ’ ll have to be present, focused, and organized. There ’ s a lot you can do to improve your memory, but there are also limitations. The following are some ways to improve your memory: • Improve your attention skills. • Learn how to use the different types of memory. • Use associations such as mnemonic devices. The following are some of the limitations: • Being able to pay attention to several things at once and remem- bering all with great accuracy. This is why you can forget to look for the correct road signs while you ’ re driving if you ’ re talking on your cell phone at the same time. Fortunately, many states are making it illegal to use a cell phone while driving. • Expecting to improve your memory without effort. Memory is not something you have or don ’ t have, like an inheritance. Your memory must be exercised to be enhanced. • Assuming that you will remember everything you ’ ve ever expe- rienced. Memories are not frozen in time like indelible snap- shots. They are constantly revised as you recall them, or they fade away if they are not used again. Attention: The Gateway to Memory Attention is critical for redirecting the resources in your brain and promoting neuroplasticity. Attention also serves as the gateway to memory. You might forget all the details of what a friend told you during a conversation at a party if you were only half listening to what she said. You will probably forget what little you do remember c04.indd 72 c04.indd 72 1/29/10 10:11:05 AM 1/29/10 10:11:05 AM C u l t i va t i n g M e m o r y 73 during the next conversation. If you place emotional importance on the next conversation, you will listen more attentively and remem- ber it later. Paying attention is a function of your frontal lobes. They tell the rest of your brain what is important and what should be remembered. To promote neuroplasticity and improve your memory requires that you engage your frontal lobes. The gateway to memory has to be open to remember, and your frontal lobes open the gate. Your PFC, and specifi cally the DLPFC, is responsible for main- taining working memory. Your working memory is called working because the short - term memories it holds relate to what your mind is working on at the moment. Your daily life involves going from one experience to another, using your working memory to navigate, and your working memory holds on to these experiences for up to thirty seconds. Generally, you ’ re able to weave a sense of continuity from one experience to the next. Thus, for instance, you ’ re able to remember that you ’ re on your way to your aunt ’ s house. Without your working memory, you ’ d forget to turn onto the correct street when you saw the street sign. Since your DLPFC is also a sort of executive control center, it plays a major role in determining what you pay attention to and what you remember. If something occurs that you want to remember — such as being told that the stock that you just bought will plummet soon because the company is about to declare bankruptcy — various neurotransmitters (especially norepinephrine and dopamine) help to elevate your attention and your anxiety. The synaptic acti- vation of the dopaminergic systems heightens your attention, and your DLPFC says, “ Remember this conversation. ” The feedback between the DLPFC and your hippocampus paves the way for the formation of a long - term memory. You ’ ll remember the stock tip (and the person who gave it to you) for some time to come. Working memory is therefore the route to long - term memory. If working memory is impaired, long - term memory will experience a famine of new information. If the road to long - term memory through working memory is blocked, the “ supplies ” (memories) can ’ t get through. If, for example, you spend your time at a party checking c04.indd 73 c04.indd 73 1/29/10 10:11:05 AM 1/29/10 10:11:05 AM 74 Rew i r e Yo u r B r a i n your e - mail on your BlackBerry and engaging in superfi cial conver- sations, your attention will be fragmented and your working memory compromised. The road is closed. Working memory can be disrupted in a number of ways. Since attention and concentration are so closely tied to working memory, any distraction, such as getting a text message on your cell phone, can hamper working memory. If you ’ re distracted by an e - mail about a colleague abruptly leaving the company for a new job, you will probably forget what you were holding in your working memory because your attention shifted to that other provocative piece of information. The initial demands of a good memory are as follows: • Attention is the key. The door is locked without it. Your PFC must be engaged so that you can pay attention to remember. • The more important a piece of information is to you, the stron- ger the memory will be in long - term storage. When I use psychological tests that measure working memory, I ’ m also measuring someone ’ s ability to pay attention. If I give a per- son tests that measure various other types of memory and fi nd that he or she is defi cient, I must try to rule out working memory as the cause. The bottom line is that if you don ’ t pay attention, you won ’ t be able to move a short - term memory into long - term memory. The Types of Memory Working memory and long - term memory differ in many ways. The main distinguishing factor is the length of time that a memory is stored, but another major difference is storage capacity: there is a limit to how much you can store in your working memory, whereas your long - term memory is not bound by such constraints. Long - term memory is an archive, yet that archive is in a con- stant state of being restocked. Long - term memories are not stored in fi xed areas of the brain; rather, storage seems to be a product of dynamic activity in and throughout many different areas of the c04.indd 74 c04.indd 74 1/29/10 10:11:05 AM 1/29/10 10:11:05 AM C u l t i va t i n g M e m o r y 75 brain. However, memories are biased to particular neural structures, as I will soon describe. Whether an experience, a piece of informa- tion, or an emotional impression becomes encoded in long - term memory depends on complex dynamics among the various neural systems. Your capacities to learn and to remember are highly overlapping functions. As your relationships with people deepen, your memories are shared in either implicit enactments or explicit discussions. If you recall something about your past — events, information, images, or content — it ’ s called Yüklə 1,07 Mb. Dostları ilə paylaş:
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