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Aging News & Information
Senior Citizens Improve Memory with Rote Learning
Followed by Long Rest
Brain is like a
muscle that should be exercised in retirement years
November 27, 2006 - A new study offers senior
citizens a simple way to combat memory loss: memorization. Researchers
found that older people who engaged in an intensive period of rote
learning followed by an equally long rest period exhibited improved
memory and verbal recall. The study was presented today at the annual
meeting of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA).
We didnt see an immediate improvement following
the intensive memorization period, said Jonathan McNulty, B.Sc., H.Dip.,
of Diagnostic Imaging at the School of Medicine and Medical Science,
University College Dublin in Ireland.
However, after a six-week rest, the volunteers
manifested both metabolic changes in the brain and improved memory
performance.
As people age, they often begin to experience
forgetfulness and may have difficulty learning new material.
Approximately 40 percent of people over age 60 have some kind of memory
difficulty.
Mild, age-related memory loss is caused by the loss
of brain cells over time, along with changes in brain chemistry. The
researchers studied how repeated cognitive exercise impacts memory and
recall, as well as the health of brain cells involved in memory.
The study involved 24 healthy older adults between
the ages of 55 and 70. The volunteers engaged in six weeks of intensive
rote learning, memorizing a newspaper article or poem of 500 words,
followed by six weeks of rest.
An extensive battery of learning and memory tests
was administered before and after the six-week learning period. Magnetic
resonance spectroscopy (MRS), a special type of magnetic resonance
imaging, was performed on half of the volunteers before and after the
intensive learning session, and again six weeks later.
MRS was used to measure changes in N-acetylaspartate,
creatine and choline, three metabolites in the brain that are related to
memory performance and neural cell health.
At the end of the six-week learning session, no
changes in the brain metabolism or memory performance were observed. But
following the rest period, all of the volunteers experienced
improvements in their verbal and episodic memory - they were better able
to remember and repeat a short story and a list of words and to recall
events that occurred earlier in the day or week.
These behavioral changes correlated with metabolic
changes identified by MRS in the left posterior hippocampus, a
memory-related brain structure.
Unlike other studies on memory involving specific
training regimes, memorizing is an everyday activity that anyone can
undertake, said co-author Richard Roche, Ph.D., of the Department of
Psychology at National University of Ireland in Maynooth.
The brain is like a muscle that should be
exercised through the retirement years as a defense against dementia,
cognitive lapses and memory failure.
Editor's Notes:
Co-authors are Paul Brennan, M.D., Colin P.
Doherty, M.D., D. McMackin, M.D., S. Sukumaran, M.D., I.H. Robertson,
Ph.D., M.A. Mangaoang, Ph.D., S.M. OMara, D.Phil., Sinead L. Mullally,
Ph.D., J. Hayden, B.A., J. Prendergast, B.Sc., and M. Fitzsimons, Ph.D.
RSNA is an association of more than 40,000
radiologists, radiation oncologists, medical physicists and related
scientists committed to promoting excellence in radiology through
education and by fostering research, with the ultimate goal of improving
patient care. The Society is based in Oak Brook, Ill.
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November
2, 2006 - In the long run, a drink or two a day may be good for the
brain, according to researchers who have found moderate drinking a
couple of alcoholic drinks a day for humans improved the memories of
laboratory rats and say the discovery could have implications for
Alzheimer's.