Memory Researchers Explain Latest Findings on Improving the Mind, Stopping Memory Loss
Presentations focus on the brain and sleep
SOURCE: American Psychological Association
“REM sleep is important for pulling together all the information we process on a daily basis and turning it into memories we can use later,” said Mednick. “This helps us to understand more about the benefits of sleep and to help people maximize their sleep schedules for optimal productivity and memory retrieval.”
People’s memories may also help them imagine their future, according to researcher Daniel L. Schacter, PhD, a psychology professor at Harvard University. Schacter and his colleagues have been conducting brain imaging research that suggests that the ability to remember past events may be crucially involved in people’s ability to imagine events that have not happened yet and even simulate these “future” occurrences.
Studies show certain brain regions that have traditionally been associated with memory, such as the medial temporal lobe, appear to be similarly activated when people imagine future experiences in brain imaging studies, according to Schacter. “Memories of things that have already happened to us apparently support the formation in our minds of future events by taking and recombining stored information into an event we imagine will happen,” Schacter said during a plenary address. “This can have far-reaching implications for how we think about memory and its function.”
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