Imagine the route you usually take at 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 landmarks and associate them with things you’re trying to remember, such as items on your food list. So, for the garden, let’s attribute mustard. For the stop sign, we will add ketchup, and for the gas station, we will use relish. Once you arrive at the grocery store, you will be able to remember these items simply by reimagining your trip to the grocery store and the associated landmarks.
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 for bothlong-term memory and alsorecalling the term. Moreover, the loci method reconnects the brain, allowing for improved storage and retrieval oflong-term memories, according to new discoveries. The study was led by neurologist Isabella Wagner at Radboud University Medical Center in the Netherlands.
“It is so effective that athletes with memory, those who train and have superior memories, use them, also,” Jeni Pathman, an assistant professor at York University in Toronto, explained in an e-mail, referring to the technique.
This method, which dates back to ancient Greece, works well because it allows us to use well-known places or routes that serve as a kind of “scaffolding,” as Wagner explained in an e-mail. This allows us to incorporate new – but completely independent – information into a “structure” we already know, she said.
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“Moreover, it certainly helps to form unusual, new or even bizarre associations that capture attention,” Wagner said. “The combination of prior knowledge and novelty is very strong to enhance memory.”
That the loci method is good in shortThe term memory 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 memory athletes – all experts in the loci method – and 50 non-experts. These 50 individuals were divided into three groups, one that underwent a rigorous six-week training course in the loci method, one group that received working memory training, and one group without memory training at all.
“We wanted to see if novices could train the loci method to such an extent that they would achieve performance levels close to real memory champions and also if their brain processes become similar to those of trained champions,” Wagner explained. .
All participants underwent fMRI scanners both 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 regions that are engaged during the study of new information, during memory, or during rest, which is important for stabilization. information from the brain for a longer term “, said Wagner, to which he added:” This is also the reason why a good night’s sleep or a nap is very important! ”
Regarding the memorization task, participants were asked to memorize random word lists. They were then shown triplets of words, ie three words at a time, and were asked if the words were presented in the same or different order compared to how they appeared during training.
Four months later, participants were given the test to see if they could remember some of the words memorized from the training sessions. The loci group method recalled an average of 50 words, the working memory group recalled about 30 words, and the untrained group averaged only 27 words.
“Performance was still remarkably good after four months, showing that participants were still able to successfully use the loci method to improve their memory,” Wagner said. “This was not very surprising for us, because we already hoped that the training would have a long-lasting effect.”
Analysis of brain scans showed low activity in the lateral prefrontal, posterior parahippocampal and retrosplenial cortices – areas associated with task-based activation. By “task-based activation”, scientists refer to the brain processes that take place 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 decreased 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, because better performance is usually associated with increased involvement of different regions of the brain. What we have seen here is the opposite: training has decreased activity in these regions, so that lower brain activation leads to better memory.
This could be interpreted as “neural efficiency,” she said, because fewer resources may be needed to achieve improved performance.
At the same time, training led to increased neural connections between the hippocampus and the cortex. This helps to store long-term memories, which could explain why the participants’ memory was so good four months later.
“This study is important because it not only showed that ordinary people can practice using this technique to create lasting memories, but it also showed how it can affect their brains,” said Jeni Pathman, an assistant professor at York University in Toronto. , he said in an email. “Those in the memory training group had brain activity during learning and memory, which was more similar to memory athletes.”
Pathman’s only complaint was the relatively small size of the sample, which he said was “understandable given the nature of this work.” Regarding future work needed, Pathman said it would be “important to extend this study of creating long-term memories to other age groups or groups that may have more memory problems,” as it could they also benefit.
Good observation.
Indeed, the loci method may be helpful for people with age-related cognitive decline, but future research will need to address this. For now, we can take advantage of these new discoveries while gardening, signaling the stop and refueling our way through the grocery store.