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Study Everyone can save huge amounts of information through training
There are certain people, so-called memory athletes who can memorize incredible amounts of information in a short time. For example, such individuals are able to remember the order of a complete card deck in less than twenty seconds. Researchers are now investigating whether normal people with the right training are also capable of such services.
Researchers at the Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behavior at Radboud University in the Netherlands found in an investigation that the brains of the best memory athletes do not differ from the brains of normal humans. This could mean that every person with the right training is capable of exceptional memory. The physicians published the results of their study in the medical journal "Neuron".
Certain types of training allow normal people to remember large numbers of combinations of numbers or sequences of objects in a very short time. (Image: contrastwerkstatt / fotolia.com) Experts are looking for differences in brain activity
"We were particularly interested in how so-called masters of remembrance differ from ordinary people," explains author Dr. Martin Dresler from Radboud University. Are there any measurable changes in the brain of such memory athletes? To find out, the experts examined about two dozen masters in memory sports. These 23 people were among the top 50 memory athletes in the world. There are nowhere people who can memorize more information. Dresler added.
Researchers perform MRI scans of the brains
The scientists performed MRI scans on the brains of the memory athletes. In addition, they also examined the brains of 23 normal subjects. These participants were adapted in their age, gender and even the IQ to the memory athletes. When the physicians compared the brain scans, they could find no significant differences. This result was a bit surprising, says dr. Dresler.
Parts of the brain are active in concert with memory athletes
When the physicians performed functional MRI scans that measure brain activity with the help of blood supply to certain areas, they noticed a subtle difference. When memory athletes were asked to recite a list of previously memorized words, some parts of the brain were in unison, say the authors. There were 25 connections among the different parts of the brain that seemed to be particularly important. The scientists did not find this kind of unified activity in the brain of the regular participants.
Memory athletes train their brains with special methods
Memory-related parts and areas of spatial learning seemed to interact a lot with memory athletes. This statement makes perfect sense, considering the methods used by memory athletes to store large amounts of information, the researchers explain. They are not born with extraordinary memory skills, but all learn in the same way to develop seemingly supernatural memory skills.
World record holder uses his visual memory
Boris Nikolai Konrad, one of the authors of the study, holds the world record for memorizing faces and names. He is able to remember 201 people in 15 minutes. The researcher began the memory training as a kind of high school hobby, having previously watched the memory championships on television. "I use my visual memory when trying to remember a person," explains Konrad. For example, if this person is called Müller, he imagines this person looking at a mill.
Save sequences by the memory palaces training method
For more abstract memory challenges, such as memorizing the exact order of hundreds of digits, so-called memory palaces are built. This method has been known since the ancient Greeks. It works by remembering a specific building or place, the researchers explain. This is very familiar to the memory athletes and sufferers create, so to speak, a spiritual path through this building. The first building I used for this method was my parents' house. When I was in high school and started training, I still lived with my parents in this house, explains Konrad.
How does the memory palace training method work??
"I began to remember a sequence of going through the house. The path started in my room. The first place would be my bed there, the second the shelf above my bed, then the desk, the computer on the desk, the window, the mirror and so on, "the expert explains. To remember abstract information, such as a list of numbers, he would translate numbers into pictures and then distribute them mentally through his house, Konrad adds.
Memory athletes convert numbers into pictures
For example, if he remembered the number 1202, Konrad turned the pairs of numbers into pictures. For this he uses the so-called major system. For the scientist, combination 1 and 2 stands for a dinosaur, for example. So I would put a dinosaur on my bed, this picture is strange and can therefore remember well, explains Konrad. 0 and 2 would be a sun, so I would imagine a sun shining over my bed, the researcher adds. So the scientist would then go on and on to remember all the numbers.
Other volunteers were divided into three groups for training
In a second part of the study, the physicians recruited 51 university students. One third of these participants began with the so-called memory palace training for a period of six weeks. The exercises were personally conducted once a week by Konrad, in addition, the subjects trained at home on their computer for half an hour a day, explain the scientists. The second group of participants did a different kind of memory training, the last group did not do any special kind of exercises, say the authors.
After completing the training, participants should remember a list of words
After the six weeks, the subjects were taken to a lab and asked to remember a list of words. The researchers used functional MRI devices to scan the brains in different states. This happened while they were resting, and later again when they recited the list of words.
Memory Palace training changed the brain activity of the participants
The memory-training group changed participants' brain activity, similar to the memorizing masters. These differences were observed both in the resting state, as well as in the enumeration of the noted objects or numbers, explain the physicians. Four months after their training, the volunteers returned to the lab and received a new memorization list.
Memory Palace training leads to the best results
Users of the method of the so-called memory palace training achieved in comparison to the other participants really good results. In addition, the areas in the brain were still linked to each other in a new way in these subjects. Dresler and colleagues. (As)