Memory Maximizers: Exercise & Cerebral Blood Flow; Improving Information Recall
Exercise to Help Decrease Cerebral Blood Flow?
You may think that increasing blood flow in the brain is a healthy strategy, providing a boost in oxygen and nutrients to brain tissue. Aerobic exercise can be especially helpful in this regard, improving circulation throughout the body. However, there is a circumstance in which you may want to actually reduce cerebral blood flow. People with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) can sometimes experience an abnormal increase in cerebral blood flow. MCI is a stage of cognitive decline between normal, age-related thinking skills changes and dementia. MCI isn’t always a precursor to dementia, and people can live productive and rewarding lives despite some noticeable deficits in memory and cognition. However, one of the results of MCI is that the brain responds to being in a “crisis mode” by increasing blood flow to help compensate for not being able to function normally. Yet in a study published in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease, researchers found that regular aerobic exercise (four 30-minute sessions of moderate-intensity treadmill walking) helped reduce this compensatory blood flow and helped improve scores on thinking skills and memory tests. The study also found that the exercise training helped improve blood flow in the brains of healthy adults without MCI. Their cognition and memory test scores also improved. The takeaway from the study is that consistent aerobic exercise is associated with improved memory and thinking skills, whether you have MCI or are still enjoying optimal brain health.
Piggyback New Information Onto Old Information for Better Recall
Your ability to recall a name or other learned bit of information depends on how well it is learned at the outset. There are countless strategies to help you efficiently learn and store new information. But one particularly effective memory booster relies on your ability to match newly acquired information with similar knowledge already secure in your memory. The idea is that by piggybacking a new name or other piece of news onto something that matches it or immediately calls it to mind, you are giving newly learned info a place alongside memories that are well established. For example, if you meet a woman named Sue, you can help remember her name by linking her to someone else you know named Sue. The more you rehearse and reinforce that match, the more likely you’ll be to recall Sue’s name when you see her again. Rehearsing new information strengthens the neuronal circuit that carries the info. Think of it as adding a branch to a tree. Piggybacking new information onto old should make it easier to recall what you have learned the next time you need it.
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