Brain mechanism for durable memories revealed
10 Dec 2015 by Evoluted New Media
Rehearsing information immediately after being given it may be all you need to make it a permanent memory, scientists from the University of Sussex suggest.
Rehearsing information immediately after being given it may be all you need to make it a permanent memory, scientists from the University of Sussex suggest.
By studying the brain activity of 26 participants the research team found that the area of the brain activated when laying down a memory – posterior cingulate – is also activated when rehearsing that memory. They suggest this area is linked to the integration of information into knowledge and its resistance to forgetting.
Research leader Dr Chris Bird said: “We know that recent memories are susceptible to being lost until a period of consolidation has elapsed. In this study we have shown that a brief period of rehearsal has a huge effect on our ability to remember complex, lifelike events over periods of 1-2 weeks. We have also linked this rehearsal effect to processing in a particular part of the brain – the posterior cingulate.”
In the study, published in the Journal of Neuroscience, the team showed the participants 26 short videos taken from YouTube with a narrative element. For 20 of the videos, the participants were given 40 seconds to recall details from the video and for the remaining six videos this rehearsal period was not given. In two weeks’ time they were asked to remember details about the videos they had seen.
The results showed that participants were still able to recall many details of the videos they had rehearsed, whereas the non-rehearsed videos were largely forgotten.
Also, the scientists used MRI scans to observe the activation of the posterior cingulate when laying down a memory and when rehearsing it. By matching the degree of brain activity when the participants watched and rehearsed the videos, the team managed to predict how well the videos were remembered.
“The findings have implications for any situation where accurate recall of an event is critical, such as witnessing an accident or crime. Memory for the event will be significantly improved if the witness rehearses the sequence of events as soon as possible afterwards,” said Dr Bird.
Paper: http://www.jneurosci.org/content/35/43/14426.full.pdf+html
