Dr Jenny Brockis » memory

Menopausal brain fog – it’s a girl thing and only temporary

solutions — Sun, 18 Mar 2012 15:00:29 +0000

Some things in life are less than fair. Not only do many women experience “Pregnancy brain” and “Mummy brain” when our ability to retain relevant information sometimes appears to go to mush, it also appears we can joyfully expect to experience “Menopause brain” when transitioning from being fertile to becoming infertile.

“Menopause brain” is nothing new, in fact 60% of women going through menopause will report memory problems, yet this has remained an area where fabulously little research has been undertaken to try and understand what is really going on with our brains at this time in our lives.

What has been reported, is that not only do many women experience significant changes with their memory, but because these changes occur typically in our late forties and early fifties, we become frightened that these changes could herald the first signs of cognitive impairment and Alzheimer’s disease. That fear of course then compounds the brain’s inability to think clearly and a vicious cycle can ensue.

So first things first: there are brain changes, which occur in the menopausal brain that can affect memory.
These changes reflect a physiological change and are not the first signs of neurodegenerative disease i.e. Alzheimer’s.

So what is going on here?

Back in 2009 a study on 2362 women aged between 42 and 52 looked at

• Verbal memory
• Working memory (short term)
• Speed of processing information

The women were tested at four different stages of transition through menopause i.e. pre- menopause (regular periods), early peri- menopause (some irregularity of periods), late peri-menopause (no period for 3 – 11 months) and post menopause.

As I mentioned earlier, up to 60% of women will report memory difficulties during menopause and this study confirmed that during the early and late peri menopause, women do not learn as well as when they are in the other stages.

The good news is that this effect appears to be temporary. Our ability to learn returns to pre menopausal levels once we become post menopausal.

Phew!

The other interesting note here is the role of hormones (or rather HRT) on our verbal memory and processing speed.

Taking HRT before menopause appears to help verbal memory and processing speed.
But taking HRT postmenopausally has no effect on these skills.

This suggests there is a critical window of opportunity for the benefit of oestrogen and progesterone supplementation here. However much depends on the individual and their relative risk factors for consideration of using HRT at all.

Another study in 2009 examined the relationship between peri menopausal memory complaints and performance in relation to other relevant factors such as hormone levels, mood state, and sleep quality. In this small study of 24 women, there was no association of memory complaint and performance on tests of retentive memory. What they did show was memory complaints were linked to poorer memory encoding (i.e. learning) and depressive symptoms.

Miriam Weber PhD a neuropsychologist at the University of Rochester Medical Centre has now published the findings of a new study in the journal Menopause. In this study 75 women aged 40 to 60 who were in early peri menopause underwent a series of cognitive tests to look at their

• Ability to learn and retain new information (encoding memory)
• Ability to mentally manipulate new information (using working or short term memory)
• Sustain attention over a period of time (paying attention)

They were also asked about any symptoms associated with menopause such as hot flushes, depression, and anxiety and sleep difficulty. Plus they underwent blood tests measuring oestrogen and FSH levels.

The study showed that those women who had noted memory problems were the ones who demonstrated difficulty with learning, retaining and manipulating new information.

The examples given of difficulty experienced included

“Calculating the tip after a meal at a restaurant, doing mental math, or adjusting a flight itinerary for a journey”

They were also noted to have difficulty staying on task i.e. paying attention.

Remembering specific items for example on a grocery list and recalling them when in a shop were not an issue.

The actual hormone levels were found to have no association with the memory complaints, though experiencing difficulty sleeping or anxiety and depression symptoms did.

What can we do to help?

The best thing to do if you are experiencing memory difficulty associated with the peri menopause would be to

1. Address any sleep problems. Talk to your GP. Follow good sleep hygiene practice.

2. Address anxiety or symptoms of depression. Talk to you GP about the different options you could choose to ameliorate these.

3. Find and use strategies to help you with encoding and retaining information. This could include simple tricks such as
• Repeating a new price of information out loud
• Saying it back to another person for confirmation
• Practice attention building skills such as meditation to help stay on task for longer.

And of course relax, it’s only your “Menopause brain” playing up and the good news is that by the time the post menopausal state is reached, your brain fog will have cleared and you can then enjoy the wisdom and serenity that being post menopausal will bring.

Refs:
1. Miriam T. Weber, Mark Mapstone. Memory complaints and memory performance in the menopausal transition. Menopause. 2009 Jul-Aug;16(4):694-700.

2. American Academy of Neurology (2009, May 25). Menopause Transition May Cause Trouble Learning. ScienceDaily. Retrieved March 18, 2012, from http://www.sciencedaily.com¬ /releases/2009/05/090525173427.htm

3. Miriam T. Weber, Mark Mapstone, Jennifer Staskiewicz, Pauline M. Maki. Reconciling subjective memory complaints with objective memory performance in the menopausal transition. Menopause, 2012; 1 DOI: 10.1097/gme.0b013e318241fd22

Exercising to fuel the brain

solutions — Tue, 06 Mar 2012 09:07:36 +0000

Physical exercise is a fantastic way to stimulate our brain function. It has been shown in numerous studies to boost our cognitive skills of memory and learning. Children who exercise are known to perform better academically. Older adults can also boost their memory and thinking skills by undertaking regular exercise of thirty minutes of aerobic activity (enough to get the heart rate up).

Whilst it is known that exercising leads to more oxygen and nutrients getting to the brain, how the brain uses fuel during the actual process of exercise, hasn’t been understood until fairly recently.

Our neurons don’t store fuel themselves and their primary energy source is glucose. Our brain uses 20% of all the energy we put into our body as fuel, despite only accounting for 2% of our actual body weight. Hence the need to supply our greedy brain with a regular amount of food.

Another discovery a few years back, was that our other brain cells or astrocytes, which act as support agents for our neurons, can store fuel in the form of glycogen. It is this glycogen that is important for the normal function of all of the cells in our brain.

In 2011 scientists from the University of Tsukuba in Japan undertook a study on astrocyte glycogen in rat brains. They suspected that this brain glycogen was used by the neurons as a fuel reserve during times when blood glucose levels were low i.e as in when exercising. In prolonged exercise, our muscular glycogen stores will typically get depleted, so the scientists looked at measuring muscle and brain glycogen in the rats after running them on treadmills at varying intervals of 30, 60 and 120 minutes and comparing levels to a non exercising group.

What they found was that after 30 and 60 minutes of running, the muscle and liver glycogen stores were depleted whilst the rat brain glycogen levels remained the same. But after 120 minutes running, the brain glycogen levels dropped in 5 different areas of brain, consistent with respective blood and brain glucose levels. In other words the glycogen stores from the astrocytes had been broken down and the energy released, and subsequently used by the energy hungry neurons.

In 2012 the same group of scientists did further studies,(again using rats)this time looking at the effect of exhaustive running on brain glycogen levels after a single running session and after 4 weeks of regular moderate intensity running.

After the single session of running on the treadmill, the rats were allowed to rest and feed prior to having their brain glycogen levels measured. What the scientists found was that the rats brains had over compensated with up to 60% more glycogen being stored in the astrocytes. This then dropped back to normal levels within 24 hours.
In the second case, after four weeks of exercise training this extra compensation level became the new “normal”, especially in those areas of the brain associated with learning and memory. The longer lasting super compensation of the cortex and hippocampus is thought to probably be a training adaptation to meet the increased energy demand of a brain in someone who exercises regularly.

So what does this imply for us as exercising humans?

Having a greater amount of fuel reserve in the astrocytes may explain why our thinking skills improve if we exercise regularly. Our brain then has a better and larger fuel supply to enable us to think and remember better.

So next time you have been for a bit of a burn, don’t forget to top up afterwards with a carbohydrate rich snack such as a banana to boost your brain glycogen levels.

Refs:
Matsui T, Soya S, Okamoto M, Ichitani Y, Kawanaka K, Soya H. Brain glycogen decreases during prolonged exercise. J Physiol. 2011 Jul 1;589 (Pt 13):3383-93. Epub 2011 Apr 26.

Matsui T, et al. Brain glycogen supercompensation following exhaustive exercise. J Physiol. 2012 Feb 1;590 (Pt 3):607-16. Epub 2011 Nov 7.

These boots were made for walking and helping to preserve memory

solutions — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 14:04:16 +0000

Physical exercise is known to be an essential lifestyle choice for anyone who wants to maintain their cognition. It boosts oxygen and nutrient supply to the brain as well as stimulating the release of neurochemicals, such as BDNF, (brain derived neurotrophic factor) which enhances the maintenance of existing neurons as well as stimulating the birth of new brain cells in a process called neurogenesis.

Previous studies have reported that people who exercise regularly, not necessarily with vigorous exercise but with a daily routine of 20-30 minutes of say walking, benefit the most in terms of maintaining memory and thinking skills.

Brain scan studies have shown exercise slows down brain shrinkage, which develops due to loss of neuronal connections. A U.S. study reported that walking for 6 -9 miles per week was associated with helping to maintain memory as well as reducing brain shrinkage. Other studies have shown that regular moderate exercise can reduce a person’s relative risk of dementia or Alzheimer’s disease and that certain forms of exercise such as ballroom dancing are particularly good because they produce cross-training for the brain.

One area of the brain that is associated with learning and memory is called the hippocampus. This brain area typically shows damage early in Alzheimer’s disease. Being able to maintain the size of one’s hippocampus is important as a means of reducing relative risk of cognitive decline.

One study reported in early 2011 showed that walking for 40 minutes three times a week produces an increase in hippocampal volume, significant enough not only to show up on brain scans but translating into one to two years of better cognition by preventing hippocampal volume loss.

In the study, 120 subjects in their mid sixties either walked for 40 minutes three times a week along with a warm up and cool down session while the control group did less aerobic stretching and toning exercises, yoga and resistance training with rubber bands.

After one year follow up brain scans showed that the control group had hippocampal volume loss of 1-2% while the walking group had increased in volume by 2%. Both groups showed improvements in spatial memory but this was more marked in the walking group. The walking group also had higher levels of BDNF the neurochemical associated with enhancing neuronal support and neurogenesis.

None of us can avoid the ageing process. Hippocampal loss is a common finding with ageing. However moderate exercise appears to be able to reverse this trend that could mean a lower risk of memory problems and Alzheimer’s disease in older age.

So what would you choose? A sedentary lifestyle associated with continuing brain shrinkage and hippocampal loss or a lifestyle, which incorporates daily regular exercise to ensure you keep your memory intact and sharper for longer?

I’ve already made my choice. What’s yours?

Ref:
Erickson, K.I., Voss, M.R., Prakash, R.S. et al
Exercise training increases size of hippocampus and improves memory PNAS 2011 108 (7) 3017-3022; published ahead of print January 31, 2011, doi:10.1073/pnas.1015950108

Thinking with zinc – its role in the brain

solutions — Mon, 03 Oct 2011 22:49:37 +0000

What is zinc?

Zinc is a mineral found in nearly every cell of our body and is involved in many different chemical reactions. One important role of zinc is in transport for the formation of some proteins.

You may have taken zinc as part of a multivitamin or used it when you have caught a cold. It boosts our immune system and is believed to shorten the length of the illness. And most kids will have had zinc applied to delicate skin to protect from sunburn.

Where do we get our zinc?

The best sources of zinc from our diet is found in seafood such as oysters and crabmeat, red meat, poultry, baked beans, pecans, milk and fortified foods such as breakfast cereals.

What is the role of zinc in the brain?

Scientists have been looking at the role of zinc in our brain. In 2009 a molecular sensor was devised to analyse how much zinc is found in different cells. For example, it was discovered that in the pancreas gland, insulin is packaged around zinc ions. In type two diabetes, this packaging process appears to be defective – this may give further clues as to the molecular changes involved relating to zinc and the development of type two diabetes. As type two diabetes is a risk factor for dementia, being able to reduce the risk at this level would be an important step forward.

Zinc as a regulator of brain cell communication

In the brain, communication between neurons relies on neurotransmitters, special brain chemicals that are packed into vesicles, which also contain zinc. Zinc gets into the brain via special ion channels and glutamate receptors.
It enters the neurons via protein gates called ZIP transporters. Researchers have found that removing these ZIP protein gates in certain areas of the brain such as the hippocampus can protect them from injury.

The hippocampus is the area of the brain where lots of zinc has been found in the neurons. It turns out that having the right amount of zinc at the level of the synapse is essential for normal neuronal communication and function. Too little or too much can lead to neuronal dysfunction or even cell death.

Zinc and Memory

Zinc has been shown to enhance neuronal communication. A team from the Duke University Medical Centre showed that increases in glutamate, the brain’s main excitatory neurotransmitter, enhances this zinc effect and this is thought to be important for memory function. Certain cells in the hippocampus with high levels of zinc were shown to be associated with a particular form of memory formation.

Zinc and Epilepsy

The hippocampus is an area of the brain susceptible to epileptic seizures. In epilepsy those neurons with high levels of zinc are thought to worsen the epilepsy through excessive enhancement of communication. During a seizure these hippocampal cells are then particularly susceptible to damage at a time when they may also be exposed to injury through loss of oxygen and glucose.

Research at the Baylor College of Medicine has shown that if two types of ZIP protein genes were removed, there was less damage to the hippocampal nerves following a seizure. This may help for the future management of epilepsy by leading to the development of drugs targeting removal of the ZIP proteins which will reduce zinc entry into the brain and help to protect the brain’s memory circuits. People who have epilepsy will often remark that their memory is affected in the post ictal or recovery state.

Dr. Jeffrey L. Noebels,Professor of neurology, neuroscience and molecular and human genetics at BCM Director of the Blue Bird Circle Developmental Neurogenetics Laboratory was quoted as saying “These findings pave the way for the development of a new type of neuroprotective medicine for conditions such as seizures, stroke, brain trauma and other neurodegenerative disorders. Many laboratories are looking for such drugs, and this provides an important clue.”

Refs:
Imperial College London (2009, August 31). Think Zinc: Molecular Sensor Could Reveal Zinc’s Role In Diseases.

Enhui Pan, Xiao-an Zhang, Zhen Huang, Artur Krezel, Min Zhao, Christine E. Tinberg, Stephen J. Lippard, James O. McNamara. Vesicular Zinc Promotes Presynaptic and Inhibits Postsynaptic Long-Term Potentiation of Mossy Fiber-CA3 Synapse. Neuron, 2011; 71 (6): 1116 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuron.2011.07.019

Jing Qian, Kaiping Xu, Jong Yoo, Tim T. Chen, Glen Andrews, and Jeffrey L. Noebels. Knockout of Zn Transporters Zip-1 and Zip-3 Attenuates Seizure-Induced CA1 Neurodegeneration The Journal of Neuroscience, 5 January 2011, 31(1):97-104; doi:10.1523/JNEUROSCI.5162-10.2011

Could a sniff of insulin preserve memory?

solutions — Wed, 14 Sep 2011 12:50:14 +0000

A new study has found that the use of intranasal insulin produced an improvement in memory and cognitive function in a small group of people with either amnesic cognitive impairment or mild to moderate Alzheimer’s disease.

The role of insulin in Alzheimer’s has been extensively investigated. In the brain, abnormalities of insulin levels and activity have been known to be associated with the pathophysiology of Alzheimer’s. Type two diabetes (where a person has abnormal resistance to insulin) is a recognised risk factor for Alzheimer’s disease.

Having a normal blood sugar is important for our normal thinking skills and memory.
I’m sure many of us recognise how we don’t think so well either when we are really hungry when our blood sugar levels are really low, or conversely when we get that sugar high after eating a high sugar snack. The sugar fix is the signal for our body to release the hormone insulin which then restores our blood sugar to normal.

Using the insulin intranasally allowed the researchers to supply the brain with an extra shot of insulin, without producing any peripheral effect on blood sugar levels. This was important as the symptoms associated with having too low a blood sugar are not insignificant and include dizziness, confusion, heart palpitations, feeling anxious and altered vision.

In the study the intranasal insulin was administered over a 4 month period. One hundred and four subjects received either a 20 IU or 40IU dose of insulin or a placebo saline spray daily.
Those given the 20 IU insulin dose showed an improvement in memory that wasn’t apparent with the higher dose and both groups showed less decline in cognitive skills compared to the control group. There was also an improvement in functional ability for example in being able to handle money in those with Alzheimer’s who received the insulin spray.

This is a fabulous early study, which is now being followed up to involve a larger group of people over a longer period of time.

But the key for managing early Alzheimer’s disease, still remains in having an early diagnosis. This remains elusive for the present.

Intranasal treatments for delivery medication directly to the brain are not new. Earlier this year I blogged about how one research team have been investigating the use if intranasal Viagra as a means of preventing Alzheimer’s and stroke.

Ref:
Suzanne Craft; Laura D. Baker; Thomas J. Montine; Satoshi Minoshima; G. Stennis Watson; Amy Claxton; Matthew Arbuckle; Maureen Callaghan; Elaine Tsai; Stephen R. Plymate; Pattie S. Green; James Leverenz; Donna Cross; Brooke Gerton. Intranasal Insulin Therapy for Alzheimer Disease and Amnestic Mild Cognitive Impairment: A Pilot Clinical Trial. Archives of Neurology, 2011; DOI: 10.1001/archneurol.2011.233

In remembering 9/11 – how well do we actually remember?

solutions — Tue, 13 Sep 2011 04:11:32 +0000

That morning I was in the kitchen, busying myself with getting the kids organised for school, when I heard the radio commentators discussing “the terrible event” and “how it didn’t seem real”. What were they talking about?
I turned on the TV and there it was in technicolour surrealism: an aeroplane crashing deliberately into the World Trade Centre. Still finding it difficult to comprehend what was happening, I scooped up the kids and headed off to the day’s work. During the day I listened to the continuing reports on the radio and watched the news that night with the video footage being replayed over and over in it’s ghastly montage.

Ten years on and we remember those events.

But how well do we actually remember them?

We know how flukey our memories are and how susceptible to change. Those memories with the strongest emotional attachment are supposedly the most robust – which is why it is easier for us to remember where we were and what we were doing at the time.

Psychologists have recently completed a ten year survey (not yet fully analysed) of 3000 people who were followed up after 9/11. Surveys were conducted at intervals of one week, one year, three years and now ten years after the event. This is the longest prospective study of how flashbulb memories erode over time.

A flashbulb memory is one created usually by a sudden traumatic and large-scale event, which metaphorically burns a unique mnemonic experience into our brain. The term came from the work of two psychologists Brown and Kulik in 1977, when they studied the impact on memory, following the assassination of president J.F.Kennedy.

In traumatic events because the imagery remains very vivid, we are usually confident in our memory. However that confidence is not necessarily matched by accuracy according the findings of this project.

Emotion, especially fear, has helped in evolutionary terms to keep us safe. It’s the trigger for the flight, fight or freeze response. When we are fearful, we are in a state of high alert taking in information in a narrow focussed way. We don’t usually see what’s going on in the periphery. The part of our brain that regulates our emotions is called the amygdala and when we are highly aroused, it works along with the area concerned with learning and memory called the hippocampus to embed our strongest memories.

Mention 9/11 and everyone immediately knows what you are talking about- it had such an emotional and historical impact on the world.

In the survey it was found that whilst most people retained accuracy in remembering the actual event, personal recollections were hazier. I had for example, forgotten that my husband was away in Jakarta at that time.

Reviewing the video footage ten years on, it was apparent, to me at least, that yes I had forgotten some of the salient images.
However, if I were to look at those images and discuss what happened on a more frequent basis, I would expect my overall recall to improve. In the study the psychologists have also looked at how much our interaction and conversations with others about these traumatic events, moulds or reshapes our own memories.

In remembering 9/11, I pay tribute to those who lost their lives, to their families who continue to grieve, and to those that lived. To the many people who displayed tremendous feats of courage and selflessness that day I remain truely grateful.

Ref:
The memory consortium comprises: Randy Buckner (Harvard University); Andrew Budson (Harvard Medical School); John Gabrieli (MIT); William Hirst (New School University); Marcia Johnson (Yale University); Cindy Lustig (University of Michigan); Mara Mather (University of California – Santa Cruz); Kevin Oschner (Columbia University); Elizabeth Phelps (New York University); Daniel Schacter (Harvard University); Jon Simons (University of Cambridge); and Chandan Vaidya (Georgetown University).

Building brain fitness in older life, is it ever too late to start?

solutions — Mon, 05 Sep 2011 22:23:40 +0000

It is NEVER to late to start building brain fitness.

One of the common misconceptions I frequently hear, is that we lose our ability to process and retain new information, as we get older. With ageing, up to 50% of us will experience some memory decline – we forget our appointments, we forget people’s names more frequently, and misplace our keys and glasses. However, just because our speed of mental processing slows down and it takes a little longer for us to process and retain new information, doesn’t mean that we have lost that ability, and it can be improved.

Brain fitness implies having your brain perform to the best of its ability every day, regardless of age.

Building brain fitness incorporates not only exercising your brain with mental activities and memory training, but also attention to lifestyle choices of healthy nutrition, physical exercise and stress management.

In the first study of its kind, the results of a six week educational program in the States has shown not only did participants show improvement in memory tests, they also reported feeling that their memory was working better.
And if you think that your memory is working well, you are more likely to maintain a happier, more positive outlook on life, which also promotes better brain function.

In this study, 115 residents from two community-based homes were enrolled into the program. The average age was 81 years. Some of them had reported memory complaints but none had been diagnosed with dementia or were taking medication for memory. Half the group remained as controls. The other half underwent memory tests both before and after the program.

Different forms of memory were evaluated including: immediate verbal memory, delayed verbal memory, retaining verbal information, memory recognition and verbal fluency.
Their perceptions of how good their memories were, were based on frequency and severity of forgetting, retrospective functioning and mnemonics use.

In the program memory enhancing techniques were taught along with stress reduction exercises, the importance of daily physical exercise and eating a healthy diet with plenty of antioxidants.

The results of two one hour session per week for six weeks revealed an objective significant improvement in memory (apart from verbal fluency) and also subjectively improved memory performance.

The results are very encouraging and suggest the value of these programs for older people to assist with normal age related memory loss.

Lifestyle choices make a difference.

The good news is that EVERYONE can benefit across the lifespan. You are never to old to start and never to young to begin.

Building brain fitness is as easy as remembering your N.A.M.E ®

N for nutrition with brain healthy foods
A for attitude and stress management
M for mental challenge
E for exercise – the physical sort

So, no excuses, it’s time to start building your better brain health right now.

What have you got planned to incorporate into your life from today that will help build your brain?

Ref:
Miller, K. J., P. Siddarth, et al. (9000). “The Memory Fitness Program: Cognitive Effects of a Healthy Aging Intervention.” American Journal of Geriatric Psych Publish Ahead of Print: 10.1097/JGP.1090b1013e318227f318821.

Fish oil supplements: do they really help our brain?

solutions — Mon, 29 Aug 2011 02:50:22 +0000

The answer appears to be “yes”.

I am often asked about the role of fish oil supplements and whether we should be all taking them on a regular basis.
Some challenge my suggestion that we should all be eating fish several times a week for our cognitive health. “But where is the proof that eating fish or taking fish oil capsules can protect your brain” they ask.

A large number of studies from around the world have now supported the positive findings indicating the benefit to memory and cognition we gain from eating fish.
Fish provides us with an excellent source of Omega 3, an essential fatty acid that we can only derive from our diet. The brain uses Omega 3 in forming part of the cell membrane that surrounds every neuron or brain cell. In other words it is a vital component contributing to the structural integrity of all our neurons.

But many people struggle for a number of reasons to eat enough fresh fish. Taking fish oil as capsules or in liquid form appears to be a suitable alternative. Some fish oil manufacturers claim taking fish oil is good for cognitive health.

But is there proof?
Findings from a new study reported at the International Conference on Alzheimer’s Disease in Paris recently, suggest that taking fish oil does indeed confer protection to the brain against cognitive decline.

This was demonstrated in two ways. Firstly those taking fish oil regularly were found to maintain a higher brain volume, especially in the area of the cortex and hippocampus: two areas concerned with memory and thinking.

The other finding was that those taking fish oil supplements, tested higher on baseline cognitive functioning tests throughout and after the study.

The study included 819 individuals who had normal cognition, mild cognitive impairment or Alzheimer’s disease. Of this group, 117 subjects reported taking fish oil supplements regularly.

It was noted, that the benefits were only a positive association for those without cognitive impairment. This confirms previous findings, that fish oil supplementation is of no clinical benefit once cognitive impairment is present.
It was also only a positive association in those individuals who were APOE4 negative. So there is a genetic influence on the outcome.

In the general population, testing for APOE4 is not routine, one reason being that testing positive for the gene has no bearing on whether the gene will or will not be expressed and 60% of those with Alzheimer’s disease do not carry this gene.

So should we be taking fish oil supplements?
Regardless of whether we know our APOE4 status or not, it appears that that are substantial potential benefits to do so. I have been using fish oil supplements now for a number of years and intend to continue.

What about you? Do you take supplements and if not, does this research persuade you to consider using them?

Ref:
Lifespan (2011, August 17). Fish oil’s impact on cognition and brain structure identified in new study. ScienceDaily. Retrieved August 28, 2011, from http://www.sciencedaily.com /releases/2011/08/110817120220.htm

Are we outsourcing our brains to the Internet?

solutions — Mon, 25 Jul 2011 22:32:49 +0000

If I’m listening to a song with my husband and can’t remember the name of the singer, I’ll usually ask him if he knows.

In trivia quizzes I am usually useful for the medical questions but useless for the sports ones, that’s where a particular friend comes in handy.
This sharing of information we need and obtain from others is called “transactive memory”.

This was first described 30 years ago as meaning the division of the work or remembering shared information which is great as it frees us up from having to have duplicate sets of memory.

Today we now have so much more access to other information beyond our family members, books and encyclopaedias.
So where do we go to now when we have a question we want answered?

Well it’s quite likely to be Google.

The way we use the Internet today has drastically changed our ability to obtain information. But is it changing how our brain uses that information for future use as well?

That was a question that a researcher Betsy Sparrow recently set out to answer and her findings are really interesting.

And probably as you would expect, she found that people would often anticipate using the Internet to look up the answers to questions they weren’t sure of.

What was also interesting was that people were better able to remember the information, if they were told they would not be able to save it for future reference. Plus those who were asked to remember the information and where it was saved on their computer actually had better recall for where to find it than the actual information itself.

What does this mean?

Well perhaps using the Internet allows our brain to not have to do so much work, especially if we are confident the information will always be there.
We just need to know where to look for it. As another psychologist Roddy Roediger from Washington University said “why remember something if I know I can look it up again?”.

He also suggests that because we now have access to an ever-increasing information rich environment, this could be contributing to the so-called “Flynn effect”. This is the gradual increase in IQ score that has been observed over the last century.

What have you noticed for yourself or for your family in terms of their studying habits?

Do you think the Internet is useful in this way, or do you worry that we are outsourcing our brains too much to modern technology?
Let me know, I’d love to hear what you think.

Ref:
Sparrow,S., Liu,J., Wegner, D.M. Google effects on memory: Cognitive consequences of having information at our fingertips. Science. 14 July 2011 DOI 10.1126/science.1207745

Bohannon, J. Searching for the Google effect on memory. Science. Vol 333 15 July 2011 pg 277

Losing brain plasticity as we age

solutions — Mon, 06 Jun 2011 02:28:43 +0000

Have you noticed how with age and UV exposure some plastics change, becoming more brittle? Well, it seems that as we get older, our plastic brain loses some of its plasticity too.

Our middle aged brains start to notice that it gets harder to learn stuff and keep it in our heads. It takes more effort to pay attention to what we are doing and more practice to embed new memories. We’ve found out that part of this is due to a slowing down of the brains’ processing speed and our increasing levels of distractibility. But new research now indicates that there is another reason for this; our lovely plastic brain becomes less plastic.

What does this mean?

When we talk about our brain being plastic, we are referring to the ability of neurons to form new connections (synapses) with other neurons. This occurs at the level of the dendrites, fine branches that sprout out from the neurons. These dendrites have “spines” which can develop into the new synapses, These synapses are formed and lost, as part of normal rewiring of the brain.

When we are learning new information, the neurons are actively forming new synapses. However some neural pathways or connections become redundant and without use or stimulation, these synapses simply get resorbed. This then frees up more space for yet more new connections to form, so it’s a great system.

The part of the brain we use for our higher level of thinking such as planning, organising, decision-making and our working memory is the prefrontal cortex. This is the part of the brain that is the last to fully mature in humans and is the area most likely to be affected by the effects of ageing.

High levels of stress and cortisol are known to cause neurons to shrink and for synaptic connections to be lost. Fortunately, once the stress is removed, our plastic brain allows new synapses to reform.

The effect of ageing on our brains plasticity.

New research from the Mount Sinai School of Medicine has shown that the brains of middle aged and elderly rats were less able to adapt to a behavioural stress response. In other words they were less able to learn from the experience. The neurons of the younger rats did change, showing normal plasticity and rewiring. Previous studies in 2010 examining the effect of the stress response in older rat brains had found a lack of a plastic response here as well.
Does this mean that stress doesn’t affect us as much as we get older? No, it means that with age, we lose some of our resiliency to stress; our brain is less able to respond, or to produce new synapses after the stress has been removed.

Our somewhat fragile and demanding prefrontal cortex is continually rewiring itself in response to all the stimulation and experience it encounters every day. Like plastic bottles however, our level of plasticity appears to diminish with age, we become less able to respond to either learning or stress.

With brain fitness training we are encouraged to “use it or lose it.”
To keep our mental sharpness and brain plasticity, it appears essential we continue to provide our brain with a variety of new and challenging activities.

Ref:
E. B. Bloss, W. G. Janssen, D. T. Ohm, F. J. Yuk, S. Wadsworth, K. M. Saardi, B. S. McEwen, J. H. Morrison. Evidence for Reduced Experience-Dependent Dendritic Spine Plasticity in the Aging Prefrontal Cortex. Journal of Neuroscience, 2011; 31 (21): 7831 DOI: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.0839-11.2011

Dr Jenny Brockis » memory

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