Can You Train Your Memory to an Expert Level?

It’s often perceived that memories are the architecture of our history. They’re how we learn, recollect and store our life’s journey from childhood into old age. But memories are a delicate and complicated entity. They’re not stable or reliable, changing with perception over time which in turn, makes them difficult to control. Read on to see how you can improve your memory.

Where did I put…

Have you ever felt the frustration of losing your car keys for umpteenth time? Or struggled to remember that old childhood friend’s name from the past? These are daily struggles for many people. But, what if there are ways to help boost your memory skills? A new scientific study has revealed that you could in fact train your memory to remember just as well as so-called memory champions.

Scientists studied the brains of 23 top competitors in the World Memory Championships. The findings, based on brain scans of the chosen 23, showed actually that he brain anatomy of these memory masters was not superior. They did, however, display changes in brain connectivity. Neuroscientists therefore found they could train people with regular memory skills to emulate the experts.

Training your memory

 "A good memory is something you could learn and you could train for," lead researcher, Dr Martin Dresler, of Radboud University Medical Centre in Nijmegen, the Netherlands, told the BBC. "And if you use strategic mnemonic training memory strategies you can really considerably increase your memory, even if you have a very bad memory at the start."

In this study, the strategy Dresler chose was memory of loci training, which is used by many world class memory athletes. Using this method, items on a list are associated with a recalled place. Those in the study who trained using the loci method showed considerable improvement in their ability to recall lists of words.

After training, brain scans of this group showed patterns that more closely resembled those of memory champions than scans taken prior to training. It represents an exciting beginning to understanding how memory training can improve brain connectivity. Scientists agree, of course, that further research is now needed on a larger sample before conclusions can be validified.

So how can you use these findings to improve memory?

This study proves that with a little bit of training you have the ability to coach your brain to retain information. This can be achieved by applying well established easy to learn memory boosting techniques. The ancient art of mnemonic memory training is actually very easy to do and is something you can learn to do yourself at home without a scientist in sight.

Hellmut D Sachs writes a practical guide for anyone who wishes to improve their memory. He maintains that we can all follow steps to boost brainpower and help us to stay on top of the demands of a busy modern world. Ultimately, it’s satisfying to think that most of us are born with the same brain construction as masterminds. All of our brains are full of untapped potential just waiting to be trained!

Modelling the human brain

While this research looks at training the brain, there are several diseases which affect the brain more deeply. Researching treatments for these diseases can often involve animals as a way to replicate or model human brains – as well as their bodies. But is this necessary? As explored in the article ‘Human Models for Human Disease: The Animal Replacement Centre of Excellence’, developing replacements for animals where possible is in the interest of scientific accuracy, as well as the animals themselves.