Memory training

Memory improvement is the act of improving one's memory. Memory improvement is the act of improving one's memory. Medical research of memory deficits and age-related memory loss has resulted in new explanations and treatment techniques to improve memory, including diet, exercise, stress management, cognitive therapy and pharmaceutical medications. Neuroimaging as well as cognitive neuroscience have provided neurobiological evidence supporting holistic ways in which one can improve memory. Neuroplasticity is the mechanism by which the brain encodes experience, learns new behaviours and relearns lost behaviour if the brain has been damaged. Experience-dependent neuroplasticity suggests that the brain changes in response to what it experiences. London taxicab drivers provide a great example of this dynamic. They undergo extensive training for 2–4 years, learning and memorizing street names, layout of streets within the city and the quickest cross-city routes. After studying London taxicab drivers over a period of time, it was found that the grey matter volume increased over time in the posterior hippocampus, an area in the brain involved heavily in memory. The longer taxi drivers navigated the streets of London, the greater the posterior hippocampal gray matter volume. This suggests a correlation between a healthy person's mental training or exercise and their brains capacity to manage greater volume and more complex information. The increase in volume actually led to a decrease in the taxi drivers' ability to acquire new visuo-spatial information.