Description

A look inside the mind.  Examining how memories are made and forgotten.  Plus tips that can keep your memory sharp.

Learn more: Memory Jogging Puzzles Helpful Tool for People with Dementia

Transcript

Man 1: It weighs just three pounds, but ounce for ounce, your brain packs a complex punch. 100 billion neurons help build and store important memories. However, the process of forming and erasing memory is still a mystery. Imagine being able to remember every detail of your life. Jill: Random memory is always just flowing. Man 1: Jill Price has total recall. Man 2: Challenger, go with throttle up. Man 3: Challenger, go with throttle up. Man 1: She remembers the exact date of the space shuttle Challenger accident. Jill: That was Tuesday, the 28th of January, 1986. Man 1: And when Charles and Diana were Of course I do. Wednesday the 29th of July, 1981. Man 1: Doctors have named her near perfect memory hyper-thamestic syndrome, a blessing and a curse. Jill: Everyday, you are able to take the trash and put it outside. I've got 43 years of trash that just piles up. Man 1: How do memories form? Usually when the information is repeated, or requires us to use multiple senses, when we need it to survive, or when an event arouses emotion. Man 4: If you are emotionally excited about something, you're going to remember it better for a longer period of time. Dr. Lynch: It's difficult to convey the extraordinary complexity of what's sitting in between your ears. Man 1: Dr. Gary Lynch has captured images of memory formation in animals. Billions of neurons contain synapses that connect Dr. Lynch: Each one of these green dots in that tiny, little space is a synapse. Each one of these synapses is capable of changing and encoding part of a memory. Allen: No matter how much time passes, I don't think that it's really going to ease the pain any. Man 1: Since memories, pleasant and painful, are stored all over the brain, easing the worst of them is never easy. Allen: I had a real good friend of mine that, he was killed by a sniper. Man 1: Allen Meganson fought in Iraq and suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder. He lives with anxiety and nightmares. Man 5: Every time you remember something, that memory becomes biochemically active again. When it's biochemically active, it can be interfered with. Man 1: Experiments are now underway using drugs to interrupt a traumatic memory. In one study at New York's Downstate Medical Center, mice given a drug called Zip were able to forget receiving a mild shot. Man 5: It doesn't affect your ability to learn or to form new memories. It affects the ability to store the memories that you already have. Man 1: Medical [inaudible 00:02:55] are concerned about editing memories. Woman 1: So if you start changing somebody's memories, you can raise the question of whether or not you're changing their identity in some fundamental way. Man 1: Allen agrees. While he struggles with the repercussions of his wartime memories, he doesn't want to forget them. Allen: I may have these bad memories, but they make me the person I am today. Man 1: Stress and lack of sleep impair memory. Here are three ways you can improve yours. Number one, dance. Studies show long-time ballroom dancers reduce their dementia risk by 76%. Number two, learn a second language. Becoming bilingual can delay dementia by up to four years. Number three, exercise your brain with neurobics, which challenge the mind in unexpected ways. For example, close your eyes and find your keys in your purse, or rearrange items on your desk.

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