By Carole Carson | Submitted to The Union
My husband jokingly told me he thought maybe I was religious because I kept talking about the hereafter, as in, “What did I come in here after?”
If, like me, you find yourself walking into a room wondering what you came for, be assured you are not alone. Common to individuals of any age, what we are experiencing is the “doorway effect.”
Indeed, researchers found that walking through a doorway resets memory. Recent temporary memories are discarded, hence the puzzling problem of not remembering what we came into a room for.
Ongoing research on how the brain records, processes, utilizes, stores and retrieves vast quantities of information is being conducted under the umbrella of the national BRAIN Initiative. Until we get the benefit of the research, however, we still have the practical problem of how to preserve our own unique memory capability.
By Carole Carson | Submitted to The Union
“What are we, if not an accumulation of our memories?” asks S.J. Watson, author of the international bestseller “Before I Go to Sleep.”
Memory is fundamental to our well-being. It links our past with the present, allowing us to draw on our experiences to help us today. Simultaneously, it provides continuity with what will be. And if you think about it, even creativity is driven by memory.
Memory capabilities and deficits are inherited. Yet because a functioning memory is so critical to our welfare, we can still take steps to protect our inheritance. Based on my research, I’ve categorized five ways memories are damaged below.