Memories… It’s not just a song, but a prescription for health!

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Human Brain Evolution
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We are not necessarily getting dumber- but we are getting lazier.  Tribalists could recite whole histories for their communities.  Jewish scholars would recite whole tractates (books of law, running hundreds of pages) of Talmud (this was generally true in my father’s time- not so long ago).  Americans knew the Constitution of the United States.  But, we’ve changed.

When I was a boy, it was not unusual for all my peers to remember the phone numbers of everyone in our class.  Of course, most of us could not call everyone at once- I was one of the very, very few who did not have a party line.  [OK- for your youngsters, way back when, phone numbers were actually clusters of “extensions”; our phone lines would be shared among a whole street block- you could eavesdrop (not nice), but you may have to wait to call someone until no one else was using their phone.]  How many of us now remember the phone numbers for our children, parents, and friends.  (No- not the short cut on your smart phone, but, to recite them right now.)

Now, with our improvements, we no longer employ our brains in the same fashion. And, it has profound affects on our ability to succeed in school and business.  Some of us can still recall these jumbles of facts- but many of us even fail to recall how to find such information in our repositories (libraries, files, computers).  These failings seem related to aging maladies such as dementia and Alzheimer’s.  If we don’t “exercise” our brains, we are more susceptible to such diseases.

So, we desperately seek chemicals to help us learn and memorize.  Caffeine and nicotine are temporary memory enhancers- they can help us remember things ONLY if ingested when we are learning new items (and maybe when retrieving them).  (Yes, drinking coffee during late night study sessions is a “smart” move.)

Our brain operates like an electrical circuit, where impulses are transmitted through nerve fibers over long distances.  Think fiber optics- a very thin, very efficient cable carries our information to the various portions of our bodies.  In our brain, Nfasc186 and Nfasc155 (Neurofascin proteins) (Dr. Peter Brophy, University of Edinburgh) are critical for such transmissions (in neurons and glia, respectively)- they insure that the impulse has the right characteristics for transmission. But, that’s not enough to enhance our memories.

Dr. Dudai (and Drs. Shema, Haramati, Ron, Hazvi, Chen, and Sacktor of Weizman Institute and SUNY Downstate) found that infusing an enzyme (PKM-zeta, a protein kinase) into rats augmented the characteristics of a learned event (avoiding a sweet drink that made them sick).  (PKM-zeta is a critical enzyme to the storing of memories.)  This is a vital finding, since we had considered “long term” memories were not affected by situations and would generally fade away (six days is a long term memory in rats).   However, the researchers do not think this will help us recall every detail of what we encounter- just a few selected items.

These findings are akin to work published by Dr. Cristina Alberini’s group (Mt Sinai School of Medicine, NY) in Nature. They found they could enhance the persistence of a specific memory, by using a different brain substance (IGF-II) critical to learning (memory consolidation).  Here, rats avoided being shocked in their feet more effectively when their hippocampus was infused with this compound.

But, the actual choice of chemicals and their administration is, at best, a long time away.  The best way we can insure our memories is to use them.  Don’t rely on our smartphones to call our friends and relatives.  (Yes, store them there- as a crutch, but dial the numbers directly).  Memorize a poem or two- one you like and moves you.  Learn a foreign language- and use it.  Do crossword puzzles (which will force you to learn and retain all sorts of arcane information, and to make various associations).   Play Scrabble (I am always available for a great game).  It’s the best way we have to stave off Alzheimer’s and dementia.

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8 thoughts on “Memories… It’s not just a song, but a prescription for health!”

  1. Great point about our brains growing lazier. I think we fool ourselves into thinking that because we take in so much information during the day that we are exercising our brain. You pointed out some good ways to really get our brain working and they sound like they would be fun to do as well.

    1. Hello, Sherrie:
      We need to work to keep our faculties sharp- and to insure our children do as well. Otherwise, Watson- and his kin- will more than eat our lucnh. They’ll give us orders :-)!

  2. Great post, Roy. I guess the old saying “Use it or loose it” is true. I read and review books. I think the ability to summarize a book is a good mental exercise.
    I can relate to what you said about remembering telephone numbers. I have all my numbers on my phone…I don’t even know my husband’s number.
    Janette Fuller recently posted..Confessions Of A Book Blogger

    1. I agree- reading a book and letting it evoke memories and thoughts serves the purpose, as well. (Not like we [ok, maybe just me, but I doubt it] did in Junior High School.)
      Don’t forget- we are all in this together!
      Take care, Janette.
      Roy

  3. Hi Roy,

    I am going to brag here 🙂 While I do have numbers on my phone, I make it a point to remember the main ones just because I like the memory game LOL. I know some people who don’t even know their own telephone number and the excuse they use is that they don’t call themselves. As I live in Italy, I am for sure always learning the language and now need to start using it more often.

    I really enjoyed this post!
    Diana recently posted..WAHM Solution on Passion- Innovation and Tattoos

    1. Hi, Diana: Some of us have your number, too 🙂 Thanks for the comment- and keep on exercising that brain. Your clients depend upon it!
      Roy

  4. Great post, Roy! I remember a few years ago when a friend asked me why I didn’t have another friend’s number stored in my phone because I dialed the number. I did have it in my phone, but I remembered the number from the time before I had it stored. It seems like we are letting machines do the work for us that we used to be able to do ourselves.

    It’s not entirely bad to delegate, but I know people who have honestly asked me what a number times 10 was or a certain percentage of 100, and then reached for a calculator when I told them that they should be able to figure it out. Examples like these remind me why it is so important to keep the basic skills, even if someone isn’t a mathematical genius or blessed with a photographic memory.

    1. Steve- I used to know all the area codes and zip codes. (I still know most- but with the explosion of cell phone numbers and the abandonment of logic in their assignation, I bowed out.)
      I also agree that folks rely on calculators to add two numbers (like 5 and 10), or to compute a tip (come on, folks, if it’s good service, give 20%- that means you double the number and knock off a digit!).
      Anyway, I hope folks wake up- or you and I will be the only two talking to one another in our rocking chairs, with the rest of the folks suffering from dementia and/or Alzheimers. (It’s still called use it or lose it!).
      Thanks for your comment.

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