Your Brain, Your Memory, and Your Future
We often think of memory as the ability to recall past events and experiences, with an emphasis on the past. But researchers are now looking at how our memory affects our ability to imagine, or anticipate the future. They are identifying ways we use our memory beyond the ability to recall past experiences, including the ability to prepare for future events and even better understand another person’s personality and imagine how they would respond in a given situation.
This is related to dementia and Alzheimer’s in that as a person’s memory fades, so does their ability to read other people and the ability to prepare for a future experience. Often the person with dementia has a great memory for long past events, but they don’t remember details. It’s what they remember about those past events that is the key. What is important is what is called “episodic memory.” It’s the ability to remember the little details about the past experience that is crucial.
For example, in one study, one group of university students was asked to engage in a detailed simulation of how they would study for an exam. The other group was just to imagine that they did well on the exam–no details. The group that did the detailed simulation ended up performing better in the test than those who just imagined the genrality–that they would do well.
While a person whose memory is fading may appear to remember a lot, they do not recall the specific details. They may be able to reminisce about the past. But that’s not episodic memory. Episodic memory means we can recall many specific details about that particular experience. That’s what is important.
As a person remembers specific details, the same part of the brain is activated as when they are asked to anticipate something in the future. The hippocampus and the prefrontal cortex are mainly involved, and these key parts of the brain are likely to show changes as we age. That means as we remember less, we will also begin to miss out on anticipating our future. It also means that we become less and less goal oriented.
Also affected by memory loss is the ability to imagine what someone else might be feeling in a given situation. They have a harder time anticipating how another person might react to something they say or do in any given situation. This is part of what makes older people more vulnerable to other’s taking advantage of them.
The key seems to be to keep an active memory by focusing on as many details as possible!
Question: How’s your ability to remember the episodic details?