Forgetfulness is annoying – and sometimes scares us. But if we understand how memory works, we can train it. An expert explains what is important.
Sometimes it’s the everyday things that almost make us despair: Where are the car keys? What was I just about to say? And what’s wrong with my memory? Is this just normal forgetfulness – or is it a sign of an illness?
Neuroscientist: Forgetting names is normal
Our memory is not designed to store and remember individual things like the names of people we met at a party, explains neuroscientist Charan Ranganath. That’s why it’s normal to forget such things. Our brain functions much more like a filter: “Memory is the process by which our brain filters out what is important – that is, information that helps us find our way in an uncertain and constantly changing world,” says the psychology professor.
“We tend to focus on our weaknesses when it comes to memory, but for the most part we do a pretty good job of remembering what we need, thanks to the prefrontal cortex.” This part of the brain is active when people plan something or solve complex problems. That’s why, according to Ranganath, it also plays a central role in whether or not we remember something in everyday life.
You can train your memory
The problem: The performance of the prefrontal cortex decreases as we get older, and we damage it when we multitask too much, are stressed or don’t get enough sleep, explains Ranganath in the business magazine Fast Company.
But the prefrontal cortex can be strengthened, for example through physical activity and sport, mindfulness exercises and by turning off distractions (such as email and WhatsApp notifications).
Get out of the rut: collect new impressions for updates
According to Ranganath, it is also important to give the brain as much different food as possible (he speaks of diverse data) in order to train it and keep it fit. This food consists of experiences that we have.
To do this, we need to get out of our rut, discover other places and come into contact with people with different backgrounds and different perspectives, advises the expert.
We can, in turn, use these individual experiences: Our ability to remember events ensures that we continually update our knowledge and can thus adapt quickly and flexibly to new situations.
“On the other hand, if we spend too much time with the same people, in the same places and in the same situations, our memory atrophies. During the pandemic, for example, we sat in the same room every day and interacted with the same people (mostly via screens),” explains Ranganath. “The days seemed to last forever, and at the end of the week we had few memories of what we had done during that time.”
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