What is your earliest memory? A frightening fall down the stairs? Blowing out candles on your third birthday? Or perhaps it is a trip to the hospital to visit a newborn sibling? Whatever the content, it is probably short and rather hazy. Adult recollections of infancy and early childhood are typically fragmentary. We forget so…
I remember my mother’s vegetable garden when I was a child, corn plants tall like skyscrapers. I remember when I fell out of a tree and everyone from the neighbor’s barbecue rushed over to see if I’d broken a bone. Remember, remember… the verb itself is poetic, connotating the essence of experience. The notion of…
Learn how current researchers are developing insights about the components of working memory, and what this might mean for our understanding of how we think and learn. “Four-Nine-Seven, Oh-Two-Five-Four. Got it?” “Sure. See you later!” As soon as I hung up the phone, I realized that I had no paper or pen. As I rifled…
For many people, the word “neuroscientist” conjures up the images of men in white coats dispassionately conducting research in a lab. Sue Halpern, on the other hand, took a much different approach to learning about the brain. The author of Can’t Remember What I Forgot: The Good News from the Frontlines of Memory Research, Halpern…
Scan the vitamin aisle in your local supermarket and you’ll find plenty of products promising to improve brain function. With names like “Memory Complex,” “Neuro Optimizer,” “Brain Elevate,” and “Sharp Thought,” they tout the remarkable powers of compounds from phospholipids and omega-3 fatty acids to acetyl-L-carnitine, citicoline, and Gingko biloba. Manufacturers claim these supplements will…
Everyday life can be filled with stressful situations. Giving a presentation at work, taking an important test, going on a first date-even thinking about the last time you felt “stressed out” can make you sweat a little and bring back the physical sensations that often go along with stress: muscle tension, a headache, an upset…
