Brain Signal Predicts Working Memory Prowess ******************************************** Some people are better than others at remembering what they have just seen — holding mental pictures in mind from moment to moment. An individual’s capacity for such visual working memory can be predicted by his or her brainwaves, researchers funded by the NIH’s National Institute of Mental Health have discovered. A key brain electrical signal leveled off when the number of objects held in mind exceeded a subject’s capacity to accurately remember them, while it continued to soar in those with higher capacity, report University of Oregon psychologist Edward Vogel, Ph.D., and graduate student Maro Machizawa. Analogous to a computer’s RAM, working memory is the ever-changing content of our consciousness. It’s been known for years that people have a limited capacity to hold things in mind that they’ve just seen, varying from 1.5 to 5 objects. “Our study identifies signals from brain areas that hold these visual representations and allows us to coarsely decode them, revealing how many objects are being held and their location in the visual field,” explained Vogel. To find out if the amplitude of detectable signals reflects the number of objects held in visual memory, the researchers presented 36 subjects with a series of trials containing an increasing number of objects. Subjects briefly viewed a picture containing colored squares, followed by a one-second delay, and then a test picture. They pressed buttons to indicate whether the test picture was identical to — or differed by one color — from the one seen earlier. The more squares a subject could correctly identify having just seen, the greater his/her visual working memory capacity. Subjects averaged 2.8 squares. ================================================== See for yourself by trying Trevor Ponder’s training programs: http://xxxxxxx.elememory.hop.clickbank.net - PDF book ================================================== Electrodes on the scalp recorded neural activity during the one-second delay to pinpoint signals reflecting activity of brain areas involved in holding the images in working memory. Asking subjects to remember just one of two sets of colored squares that appeared on the left and right sides of the screen revealed signals near the opposite rear side of the head as emanating from the brain area involved. The researchers found that the more squares a subject correctly identified, the higher the spike of corresponding brain activity — up to a point. Amplitude of the signal for correct trials was much higher than incorrect ones, suggesting that the delay activity specifically reflects the maintenance of successful representations in visual memory. Neural activity of subjects with poorer working memory scores leveled off early, showing little or no increase when the number of squares to remember increased from 2 to 4, while those with high capacity, who correctly remembered more squares, showed large increases. Using a similar task with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), a research team at Vanderbilt University reports in the same issue of Nature that the posterior parietal cortex, an area at the top rear part of the brain, is the brain area responsible for holding representations in visual working memory — and likely source of the signal in the Oregon study. “Simply by measuring the amplitude increase across memory array sizes, we can accurately predict an individual’s memory capacity,” said Vogel. Since working memory capacity is strongly predictive of performance on a broad array of cognitive abilities — reasoning, language, flexible problem solving — Vogel foresees the physiological measure as finding applications in assessing individuals who are behaviorally or verbally impaired, such as in cases of stroke or paralysis. The technique has also been used to study development of cognitive abilities in pre-verbal children. Having a Great Memory Between The Ages of 20 and 50 *************************************************** People aged 20 to 50 often talk about the need for a ‘good’ memory but what actually constitutes a ‘good’ memory? You could for example remember the exact minute that the bus turned up on a particular day or the exact time that you started eating your lunch yesterday but are these memories really that helpful when you can’t remember where you left your house keys last night? Most people are happy to remember the important things in their life and aren’t looking to develop a ’super’ memory or a photographic mind. So the basic goal of most 20 to 50 year olds must be to remember what they need to remember and if they forget the rest then it’s no big loss. So what do you need to remember? ====================================== Right now, go to http://xxxxxxx.elememory.hop.clickbank.net and get your copy of Elements of Memory! ====================================== - Important facts to do with your day to day life. For example you need to remember your PIN number, your passwords to various internet sites, your mobile phone number and so on. You don’t however need to remember the phone number of local Chinese or the closing time of the nearest supermarket as this information is publicly available and easily found. - The important people in your life. You should try to remember likes and dislikes, personal preferences, facts about their lives that are interesting and other such stuff. - Information relating to your job. It doesn’t matter whether you work in an office, on a building site or in a factory, there are going to be things about your job that you need to remember for everybody’s safety. Obviously there are thousands of things that happen each day which you can afford to forget - unless you want to develop your memory abilities by training your brain to remember everything that occurs. Some people have been known to do this and in isolated cases their ’super’ memories have bought them success, wealth and even fame. If this appeals to you then there are hundreds of training programs available today which claim to be able to teach you how to remember names and faces, number sequences and even the value of pi to 1000 decimal places. You can also buy herbal remedies that are thought to stimulate the brain and aid in the memory process. At some point though, human memory begins to diminish and this is a fear that most people have today, regardless of their current age. It isn’t unusual for people to sit there trying to remember something that they knew weeks before, only to struggle with the answer. The ‘tip of the tongue’ syndrome affects us all at some point and shouldn’t be taken as a sign of impending memory loss. So what does it mean to have a good memory? As long as you can remember the things that are important to you and the way you run your daily life then that’s all you need. Everything else is a bonus that can be retained through brain training and other memory improving methods. If you decide you want to improve your memory for later in life then that is what you should do however most people manage to get by quite adequately with just the basics. ====================================== Right now, go to http://xxxxxxx.elememory.hop.clickbank.net and get your copy of Elements of Memory! ====================================== Science Proves: Memory Improves Through Training ************************************************ Can human beings rev up their intelligence quotients, or are they stuck with IQs set by their genes at birth? Until recently, nature seemed to be the clear winner over nurture. But new research, led by Swiss postdoctoral fellows Susanne M. Jaeggi and Martin Buschkuehl, working at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, suggests that at least one aspect of a person’s IQ can be improved by training a certain type of memory. ================================================== See for yourself by trying Trevor Ponder’s training programs: http://xxxxxxx.elememory.hop.clickbank.net - PDF book ================================================== Most IQ tests attempt to measure two types of intelligence–crystallized and fluid intelligence. Crystallized intelligence draws on existing skills, knowledge and experiences to solve problems by accessing information from long-term memory. Fluid intelligence, on the other hand, draws on the ability to understand relationships between various concepts, independent of any previous knowledge or skills, to solve new problems. The research shows that this part of intelligence can be improved through memory training. “When it comes to improving intelligence, many researchers have thought it was not possible,” says Jaeggi. “Our findings clearly show this is not the case. Our brain is more plastic than we might think.” Jaeggi, Buschkuehl and Walter Perrig from Bern University, Switzerland, along with Jon Jonides, their National Science Foundation-supported colleague from the University of Michigan, reasoned that just as crystallized intelligence relies on long-term memory, fluid intelligence relies on short-term memory, or “working memory,” as it is more accurately called. This is the same type of memory people use to remember a phone number or an e-mail address for a short time, but beyond that, working memory refers to the ability to both manipulate and use information briefly stored in the mind in the face of distraction. Researchers gathered four groups of volunteers and trained their working memories using a complex training task called “dual n-back training,” which presented both auditory and visual cues that participants had to temporarily store and recall. Participants received the training during a half hour session held once a day for either eight, 12, 17 or 19 days. For each of these training periods, researchers tested participants’ gains in fluid intelligence. They compared the results against those of control groups to be sure the volunteers actually improved their fluid intelligence, not merely their test-taking skills. The results were surprising. While the control groups made gains, presumably because they had practice with the fluid intelligence tests, the trained groups improved considerably more than the control groups. Further, the longer the participants trained, the larger were their intelligence gains. “Our findings clearly show that training on certain memory tasks transfer to fluid intelligence,” says Jaeggi. “We also find that individuals with lower fluid intelligence scores at pre-test could profit from the training.” The results are significant because improved fluid intelligence scores could translate into improved general intelligence as measured by IQ tests. General intelligence is a key to determining life outcomes such as academic success, job performance and occupational advancement. Researchers also surmise that this same type of memory training may help children with developmental problems and older adults who face memory decline. But, that remains to be seen, because the test results are based on assessments of young, healthy adult participants. “Even though it currently appears very hard to improve these conditions, there might be some memory training related to intelligence that actually helps,” says Jaeggi. “The saying ‘use it or lose it’ is probably appropriate here.” via the NSF ================================================== See for yourself by trying Trevor Ponder’s training programs: http://xxxxxxx.elememory.hop.clickbank.net - PDF book ================================================== Brain Facts *********** Some interesting facts you might be interested in - The human brain, with roughly 100 billion neurons, can be equated to a computer with a 1,000,000,000,000 bit per second processor. Even more fascinating: by 2020, computers will be able to do this (according to Moore’s Law which has proven quite accurate in predicting how computer speeds will increase over time). - The brain is not sensitive to pain, even though it processes pain signals. - It only takes one week of learning to juggle in order for your brain structure to change. This is more evidence that the brain keeps growing. - The amygdala - where intense, personal, long-term memories are stored - is also the place where fear is processed. - Hyperthymestic Syndrome is a rare condition of a memory that is actually too good. Exemplified by Jill Price, the condition doesn’t mean you remember everything, and is different than a “photographic memory”. In Price’s case, she remembers every event in your life. - Your brain uses less power than your refrigerator light! In a day, it only uses a bout 12 watts of power (the same as contained in two large bananas). - Although the brain is only 3 per cent of the body’s weight, it consumes 17 percent of the body’s total energy. - Frequent jet lag can damage memory. Because stress hormones are released during jet lag, they damage temporal lobe and memory. ================================================== See for yourself by trying Trevor Ponder’s training programs: http://xxxxxxx.elememory.hop.clickbank.net - PDF book ==================================================