Memory

“It’s our ability to remember that sets us apart we are the only creature that is concerned with our past. Our memory gives us voice they bear a witness to our history so that others might rejoice in our triumph and be warned of our failures” these are the words of mohinder Suresh in Heroes.

The memory process in the human brain is so complex that no computer has come close to the capacity of human as of yet however, it’s only a matter of time before computers will overcome the human brain power with the unification of nanotechnology and biotech resources, expected within the next 20-30 years. Scientist have been working unrelentingly in the past to understand how the human memory works and luckily they have been discovering, uncovering how we encode our memory and how we also retrieve them as well, and factors affecting the process. Understanding how this memory process works can help us take control of this unconscious process and put it into the best use. They are important for improving the quality of an individual’s memory recollection process. Alexander Smith in one of his quotes made it clear that a man’s real possession is his memory. In nothing else is he rich, in nothing else is he poor” so today; I ask you how rich are you? And how rich do you want to be? 

The Brain’s Evolutionary History.

The human brain is a miracle of evolution, it is the most complicated object in the known universe but to understand how it works, we really need to know how it evolved and were it came from.

The brain of our ancestors was really small its volume was about half a litre, but today the human brain is about three times bigger. As our ancient ancestors evolved they had to learn even more complicated skills they needed bigger better brains, brains that would be more powerful and more adaptable. Considering the brain and it’s growth rate it’s difficult to get across how rapidly the human brain enlarged from our ape-like ancestors to it’s present state, the bigger brained humans, in a period of two and half million years, it might seem a long time but in evolutionary time it’s remarkably quick (150,000 nerve cells per generation).

As a result just like a bigger engine is more expensive to run, the human brain uses up more energy than any other organ in the body, burning and whopping one fifth of the food that we consume and this makes the head hotter than the rest of the body. Our bodies invest so much to the brain because of its importance. The brain is what makes each one of us who we are it is the seat off consciousness. Aristotle believed that the brain regulates the body’s temperature according to him a runny nose was the cooling fluid leaking out of the brain. He reasoned that since the heart beats faster when you were excited it must be responsible for our feelings and thoughts. It easy to laugh at him now but Aristotle was the first person to think seriously about how the human body worked.

The brain is made up of nerve cells, who’s basic function are to fire, transmit and receive impulse, as codes of information to be executed by the receiving body (organ) there are about 100 billion of these neurons in the brain.

Technically the human brain beginning, most simply with the manner in which it is assembled, each of the hundred neurons connects to 10, 000 others, forging a grand total of somewhere between 100-1000 trillion connections strung together by 90 million meters of neural fibres, yet all of it’s neural density weighs between three to four pounds, and it set in side the cranium no more than 1 ½ litres in volume.

One particularly  important observation is that the neuron is not physically joined together at all there’s a tiny gap, called Synapse, to bridge this gap the neurons release minute quantities of chemicals (neurotransmitters) every time they are stimulated. They release chemicals that go between the gaps. The action of these as a result influence our thoughts, but here now you will begin to wonder how can all my thoughts and behaviour come from a collection of chemicals and little neurons, some people compare the brain to a computer, well the brain is much more like a termite mound, it’s all to do with the whole thing being greater than the sum of it’s parts. A termite’s colony is a good example, its an extraordinary, it’s as intricate as a city, it can dominate whole areas of the bush and wage war against other insects above all it can build it’s stupendous structures with columns and buttresses and air conditioning ducts. So where is the knowledge for this incredible organization kept? Where is its blue print? Not in an individual worker termite they are supremely dim with the brain the size of a pin head nor in the enormous squirming egg producing queen, the intricate behaviour of the colony emerges from the collective efforts of all the termites. In essence each one acting in harmony is capable of extraordinary feats; it makes no sense in search for the root of knowledge is single neurons in the brain or for that in one termite in a colony. Its best thought as a team of neurons acting in unison to give us all our skills each team based on a particular region of the brain, takes upon a different responsibility from our most advanced human ability such as language to the more basic one like movement. 

How the Memory works

The more you know about your memory, the better you'll understand how you can improve it.

The sound of your name, the taste of your mother's soup...the scent of the rains. These are memories that make up the ongoing experience of your life -- they provide you with a sense of self. They're what make you feel comfortable with familiar people and surroundings, tie your past with your present, and provide a framework for the future. In a profound way, it is our collective set of memories -- our "memory" as a whole -- that makes us who we are.

  A lot of people talk about memory as if it were a thing they have, like pretty face or a good skin. But your memory doesn't exist in the way a part of your body exists -- it's not a "thing" you can touch. It's a concept that refers to the process of remembering.

The memory is not a sort of tiny filing cabinet full of individual memory folders in which information is stored away, it is not a neural supercomputer wedged under the human scalp, the memory is far more complex and elusive than those -- and that it is located not in one particular place in the brain but is instead a brain-wide process.

 Fig. Diagram of the Brain.

In the diagram above each lobe can be thought of as a team of neurons engaged in specific functions.

The process of memory begins with encoding, and then proceeds to storage and, eventually, retrieval.

Every time you learn something, neural circuits are altered in your brain. These circuits are composed of a number of neurons (nerve cells) that communicate with one another through special gap junctions called synapses.

When you learn something, it is actually these synapses whose efficiency increases, thus facilitating the passage of nerve impulses along a particular circuit. For example, when you are exposed to a new word, you have to make new connections among certain neurons in your brain to deal with it: some neurons in your visual cortex to recognize the spelling, others in your auditory cortex to hear the pronunciation, and still others in the associative regions of the cortex to relate the word to your existing knowledge.

To learn this new word, you repeat it to your self several times, and this selects and strengthens the connections among these various circuits in your cortex, it is this new, durable association among certain neurons that will form your memory of this word. The strength of this association may of course depend on several factors too

 Fig. illustration of the brain and the manner of connections of it’s Neurons

 To remember the word days or years later, you will have to successfully reactivate these same neural circuits. Obviously, this will be easier if, when you first learned the word, you built these circuits to last, by repeating the word and thus sending the corresponding nerve impulses down them many times. In contrast, if you repeated the word only a few times, then the connections among the new neurons would be weaker, and the new circuit would be harder to reactivate, just like the muscles, the more you exercised it the more capable it becomes for its task.

All your memories (of events, words, images, emotions, etc.) thus correspond to the particular activity of certain networks of neurons in your brain that have strengthened connections with one another.

Improving your memory.

Having understood how the memory works the question one would then ask is, how do we improve our memory?

Improving the memory requires that certain habits towards things are adjusted, the way we see things, and associate with it. Our memory are usually much better than we think, almost every body can develop their memory further. Basically, by strenuous effort of will in conjunction with repeated practice, the memory might be compelled to do anything. Jayaram V. while writing on memory remarked that ‘a good memory is not a product of some special gift, except very rarely. It is mostly a product of organized and conscious effort on the part of each individual, fired by the need to know and remember or succeed in some specific way.  It is both an art and science which can yield wonderful results through persistent efforts. Even a little practice and some general awareness of the factors that lead to better memory may yield some positive results’. 

This now brings us to the factors of good memory.

• Interest
• Attention(mindfulness)
• Comprehension
• Repetition
• Review
• Recall
• Association
• Imagination

Interest: it is curiosity that keeps us going, a state in which you want to learn and witness more about something, this is the greatest the rule: "If you do not have or develop a sense of concern with and curiosity about something then you will not remember it." We remember what interests us. We remember that with which we can relate ourselves in some tangible way. We remember that which invoke our curiosity or that which touches us deeply. If you are interested in a particular subject or event, you are less likely to forget it. So to improve memory, you have to cultivate interest in the subject you want to remember

Attention: This is the second rule: If you are not interested you will not pay attention, and if you do not pay attention, you cannot commit to memory." Pay attention to the details. Look for distinguishing features. Compare and contrast things with things similar or dissimilar. See them as if you are seeing them for the first time. Shut down the mental noise as you observe and assimilate. Let your senses do their best. As the Buddhists say, "be mindful” and let the senses do the rest.

Paying attention has a lot to do with being mindful. Mindfulness essentially points to: Being aware of tending to the moment in which we find ourselves. Knowing that our past is gone, our future is not yet here. So what exists between them is the present moment and realizing that it’s only now that is living. If I can observe and not get caught up in my thoughts, it is all that I have. ‘The here and now’, the present becomes the link which holds what was and what will be. My past was a series of present moments which brought me to this present moment. My future should it happen will be a series of present moments established by only the kind of present moment in which I am now living, being, doing, observing, being aware or unaware, and attentive or inattentive.

This process of observation consists of four essential elements, namely concentration, focus, creative pause and conscious appreciation. Concentration and focusing are not one and the same. They serve the same purpose but in different ways. Concentration is in relation to a specific spot, while focusing is in relation to a specific area. In concentration you see minute details, while in focusing you see the larger picture, the parts as well as the whole. The creative pause helps you to look at things anew, from various angles and become consciously aware of what has been observed. As you pause, as you concentrate, as you focus your attention, you are likely to remember better.

 ‘The true act of memory is the act of attention’- Samuel Johnson, so also ‘the true act of learning is the art of memory’.

Broadly speaking, in life one is said to be learning everyday and it’s what we have learned that makes us what we are, it’s what we have learned that determines what we will become, but to truly learn one must learn how to pay attention, how to live in the present. 

Here are some guide lines on how to live in the present click here to download article by Jay Dixit he calls it The Art of Now: Six Steps to Living in the Moment.

Download

Comprehension: This is the third rule: You cannot remember what you do not understand. You remember what you can comprehend, what is familiar or that which makes some sense to you. It is very important that you analyze and try to understand what you are learning. Clear your doubts and seek clarifications, make mental notes or write explanatory notes, till you are sure that you understand fully what is to be remembered.

Repetition: This is the fourth rule: ‘Let the memory be engraved in your mind so that it can last for long’. let it not be like a foot print in the sand, to be blown away after a brief existence. Reread, rewrite, redraw, memorize till the subject is firmly fixed in your mind. Some subjects require more effort, some less, but in all cases more repetitions ensure better remembrance. when you create a memory, a pathway is created between your brain cells and new connections/route are made, this is like clearing a path through a dense forest. The first time that you do it, you have to fight your way through the undergrowth. If you don't travel that path again, very quickly it will become overgrown and you may not even realise that you have been down that path. If however, you travel along that path before it begins to grow over, you will find it easier than your first journey along that way. Successive journeys down that path mean that eventually your track will turn into a footpath, which will turn into a lane, which will turn into a road and into a motorway and so on. It is the same with your memory: the more times that you repeat patterns of thought, for example when learning new information, the more likely you will be able to recall that information. So repetition is a key part of learning because

Repetition can be considered a very strong factor for memory because as you repeat the subject you biologically strengthen the new neural connections that have been formed making it easier to remember.

Review: From time to time, review what is remembered. Review is a way of consolidating your memory, of keeping the neuron connections alive, of resurfacing that which has been pushed back by the new layers of knowledge.

Application: Apply what you have learned. Practice that which you have grasped. Put your theoretical knowledge to practical use. If you are learning a language and have learned new words, start using them in your conversation. If you have learned new techniques of operating some instrument or system, start putting those techniques into practice.

Recall: Review and recall serve the same purpose. But recall is slightly different from review in the sense that it is essentially a mental exercise, in which you deliberately try to remember what you have experienced some time in the past. In review you use external aids like books, papers, maps etc, where as in recall you rely more on your mind and your ability to think, visualize and reconstruct mentally what you want to remember.

Association: Certain things invoke the memory of certain other things. It is because of the associations we form mentally in our minds. Since all human knowledge is relative, we remember things in association with other things. We all tend to associate new knowledge with the old knowledge that is already stored in our minds. The process is akin to the way we organize information in files for ready reference. You can improve your memory by making this process a little more deliberate. Suppose you have learned something new about the Internet. Try to connect it with the information you already have in your mind about Internet. This will help you to establish continuity and connectivity and integrate your new knowledge with the existing knowledge. Whenever you learn something new, ask yourself, "How can I connect it with the information I already have? What is new in what I have learned now? Where can I place it in the context of the current data I already have?." This will help you to expand your knowledge base as well as improve your memory of the same.

Imagination: on imagination one can say that imagination was born out of the need to remember in your minds you would be asking questions like;  Does imagination help memory? Yes to some extent. For example, exaggerate in your imagination in some peculiar way what you have learned and the chances are you will remember it better. Suppose you have read something and want to remember it. Create an image map of it mentally or visualize the whole thing mentally as if you are seeing a film or a picture. Place the events and characters in that film as creatively as you can. Develop interesting associations. This will enable you to remember the subject more efficiently and also for longer periods. Students of history can greatly benefit from this exercise. So also the students of science, especially when they want to remember the various processes that take place at cellular, atomic or sub atomic levels which they cannot perceive through normal means.