How to exercise the memory so as not to forget

Memory is a brain function that allows us to record new experiences and remember previous ones. Memory is to preserve, store and be able to recall what we have learned. Memory is essential for everyday life.

How does memory work?

The cerebral cortex is the seat of memory, just as it is for language, reasoning or motor or gestural abilities. The brain works as an integrated whole, although it is also true that different parts of the brain have specific functions for motor skills, thinking, language and others. Thus it is understood that when certain areas of the brain are damaged, the damage selectively produces selective deficiencies in certain functions: for example, a small lesion caused by a cerebral infarction can hinder language and produce aphasia.

What we learn, the information that arrives through the sensory organs of vision, hearing, touch, smell and taste alerts the limbic system. A part of the limbic system, called the hippocampus, is specially stimulated to record the information in memory. The hippocampus is a structure formed by nuclei of neurons located in the temporal (or lateral) parts of the brain, on both sides of the brain. A lesion of this structure produces an input deficit of memory experience, so that nothing new can be learned and even part of the recent memory is lost.

From the hippocampus, information is distributed throughout the cerebral cortex and is stored according to its content and quality: words, faces, colors, reasoning concepts, etc.

The effort of remembering involves the activity of many brain areas, among which is very important the set of neural networks that exist in the frontal part (anterior) of the brain, which convey the working memory, the one we use in our daily life.

When the brain filters the information coming from the sensory organs, it also makes an important effort of inhibition in order not to allow the entry into the memory of information that is not very useful, depending on the emotional interest of the moment. With age there is a deterioration of this inhibition capacity, as well as a decrease in learning capacity. As a result, more perceptions enter but it is difficult for us to record them, hence we get anxious more easily or it is difficult to separate the different jobs that are in the mind.

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Can we exercise our memory to prevent its deterioration?

If the number of synapses is related to brain stimulation and learning, it is logical to think that when we retire and lose work stimuli, it is good to resort to techniques that maintain the plastic stimulation of the brain to continue forming new synapses and thus maintain mental capacities.

It is well known the beneficial effect of the study of a language, of computer techniques, or of a discipline that had previously interested us, for example the history of art. Perhaps the most stimulating activity for brain plasticity is the pursuit of musical activity. People who play an instrument provide a very complete stimulation. There are also other alternatives, such as board games with a certain complexity: cards, chess, and dominoes. Some researchers claim that playing cards is equivalent to reading a book.

The truth is that these activities involve an effort of concentration and the need to make decisions, to imagine the game of allies and opponents and to follow a strategy. It is also a great help to maintain the socialization of the elderly, another way to maintain neuronal plasticity.