The Power of Distractions Over Memory
The research has confirmed that distractions become a real problem for aging brains. If you are like me, this isn’t big-time news! Younger brains are able to filter out distractions and still remember what they focused on. (eg. Homework with the TV on and still retain the information they were studying – not recommended) This is what the researchers found through fMRI imaging: memory encoding showed increased activity in the hippocampus (center for learning and memory) in both younger and older brains. However, older brains activated two other regions of the brain (auditory cortex and prefontal cortex – associated with external environmental monitoring) that normally stay quiet. Activity in these areas accounted for memory encoding failure. This was unique to older brains only. This means that older brains were processing too much irrelevent information through these two brain regions. That resulted in memory encoding failure – the hippocampus didn’t have a chance.
What kind of external environment would cause older brains to react this way? Basically noise is the issue. When there is too much activity/noise going on around you, your brain is unable to filter out irrelevent information and you can’t capture information to encode for memory. As an example, let’s look at a business luncheon where you are networking for new contacts. First, the pressure is on and your brain isn’t too happy about that. But no worries, you have trained your brain to be comfortable in this environment. Meeting new people for the first time is quite challenging to your brain. There is no context available to compare this person to in order to create a connection. You go about networking and you concentrate hard on remembering names and details. Later that day you want to capture all that information you have in your head. But only bits and pieces are coming through. You can’t remember names of people you met that day! What happened? Your brain was overwhelmed with all of the environmental noise and it couldn’t encode those names. I have found myself thinking about how I had to remember a name and I completely miss the introduction because of my internal thoughts. I know – this didn’t happen when I was younger! Give yourself a break and exchange business cards and put notes on them while you are talking. It will save a lot of embarressment when you see this person again.
The electronic brain games work on concentration and focus. Trust me, if your mind wanders a nano-second you get the big red X for a mistake. Research results released late last year showed that these games need to include noise. Our brains are so amazing that we can learn to filter environmental noise with practice. Cognitive function improves with this type of training. Although the concentration and focus exercises are important, older brains need the noise component to reverse aging brain changes.
There is an entirely different way of learning to filter noise and distrations. WebMD reports that people experienced in meditation are able to use their brains in ways others can’t; to tune out distractions and concentrate on what they are doing. Meditators have changed their brains so that they have less activity in areas of the brain associated with distractions. There will much more about meditation and the effects on the brain later. This is just a little teaser on the many benefits of meditation and the brain.
So to recap – you are not losing your marbles when you can’t remember something you just heard or saw. Think back on the environmental circumstances when you were hearing or seeing the information for the first time. Did your brain ever have a chance at encoding that information into memory? Acknowledge that distractions cause problems for all of us. Reduce the noise and give all of your attention to the person or task at hand. Good Luck!!
Have questions or interested in learning more? Contact me at patricia@myboomerbrain.com