This example shows that the impact of education (and culture) on cognitive test performance is almost as large as the effect of age itself. Education increases brain reserve capacity and thus decreases the likelihood of memory loss and intellectual decline. My colleague Dr. Yaakov Stern published a paper in the Journal of the American Medical Association demonstrating that highly educated people can mask memory loss by “talking around the problem’’ in the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease. Presumably, their association cortex around the hippocampus is better developed, giving them a “cognitive reserve” that can be brought into play when the brain’s frontline attempt at recall fails. So if you’re highly educated, even subtle memory loss may be more serious than it seems, because it says that your strong cognitive reserve is breaking down.
The Kentucky Nuns Controversy
In a study of nuns residing in a convent, David Snowdon and his colleagues from the University of Lexington in Kentucky examined the autobiographical essays that all the candidate nuns were required to write when they joined the convent. The young nuns who had low “idea
density” (number of ideas per every ten words) were significantly more likely to be diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease (diag nosed by brain autopsy) in their old age, compared to nuns who had written essays with high idea density when they joined the convent.
Does this mean that the template for developing Alzheimer’s disease in old age is already set when we are young? We know that there is a strong genetic component to this disease, but for some reason it does not show up clinically until we are much older. Could it be that the educational process, and the additional mental challenges that galvanize us in many of our occupations, can stave off the
illness for years, maybe even an extra decade? If that were true, it would represent one of the most intriguing interactions between genetics and environment.
But if you step back and think about this issue a little, you will recognize a few flaws in this tale. First, “idea density” is a poorly studied concept that does not directly follow from education or intelligence. Second, based on the results of the nuns study, the number of people with Alzheimer’s disease should be far greater in underdeveloped countries with low levels of education and high levels of illiteracy, but cross-national studies show that this is definitely not the case. Stay tuned as further research helps to clarify this puzzle.
Techniques to Improve Your Memory
There are many books devoted to memory improvement by using a variety of tricks and techniques. I will not discuss techniques used by high school and college students to cram for exams, and instead will focus only on those methods that can help prevent age-related memory loss in people above the age of forty.
1. Pay attention. Pay attention to what needs to be learned or remembered. This seems obvious, but it’s easy to lose track and forget things when you are pulled in many directions by personal or career demands. Reducing stress, and making a strong effort to maintain your concentration whenever necessary, are essential to improving your memory.
2. Heighten your sensory awareness. Heightened sensory awareness is essential to maintaining peak attention. Auditory memory makes use of the patterns, the rhythms of speech. Simple phrases, connected words that can be strung into a tune, these are techniques used by
advertisers to zero in on your sensory awareness and get you to remember. The Nike, or Michael Jordan, phrase “Just do it!” is something most of you will always remember, even if you have mild memory loss. Or the small elderly woman yelling, “Where’s the beef?’’ in the hamburger ad. Three factors help imprint these memories in your brain:
a. The dramatic nature of their content.
b. The emotions they evoke in you.
c. Frequent repetition that helps create a permanent auditory memory.
Taken From: The Memory Program How to Prevent Memory Loss
and Enhance Memory Power
