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Humans Have Astonishing Memories, Study Finds
By Clara Moskowitz, LiveScience Staff Writer
posted: 08 September 2008 05:01 pm ET
Excerpt:
https://www.livescience.com/health/080908-detailed-memory.html
In a recent experiment, people who viewed pictures of thousands
of objects over five hours were able to remember astonishing details afterward about
most of the objects.
"People had never tested whether people could remember
this much detail about this many objects," said researcher Timothy Brady,
a cognitive neuroscientist at MIT. "Nobody actually pushed it this
far."
"To some extent it's about attention, actively encoding
specific details into memory," he told LiveScience.
"If we tried really hard we actually could remember when someone's
birthday was: if you say to yourself, 'The birthday is on this day and that
relates to these other things that I remember.'"
Basically, he said, we can remember most things we put our
minds to, if we invest enough attention and effort into trying to store them in the first place.
- Video:
Attention Training - Video:
A Turn-off Switch for Alzheimer's - Top
10 Mysteries of the Mind - ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~AND
Study: Zen Meditation Really Does Clear the Mind
By Charles Q. Choi, Special to LiveScience
excerpt:
posted: 02 September 2008 11:27 pm ET
The seemingly nonsensical Zen practice of "thinking about not
thinking" could help free the mind of distractions, new brain scans
reveal.
This suggests Zen meditation could help treat attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder (so-called ADD or ADHD), obsessive-compulsive disorder, anxiety disorder, major depression and other disorders marked by distracting thoughts.
"There is already some evidence that a behavioral therapy
incorporating elements of mindfulness training derived from meditation
can be beneficial in reducing relapses in major depression," Pagnoni
noted.
Pagnoni added that the default mode network might be especially vulnerable to Alzheimer's disease.
"Although we enter the field of wild speculations here, could the
practice of meditation, by providing regular intervals of respite in
the incessant working of the default network, have — if mildly —
protective effects for Alzheimer disease?" he conjectured.
https://www.livescience.com/health/080902-zen-meditation.html
The research, funded by a National Institutes of Health grant, is detailed online Sept. 3 in the journal PLoS ONE.
