What’s one of the best method to improve your memory as you age? Seems, it depends, a recent study suggests. But your fourth-grade math teacher can have been onto something with that phrase to make it easier to remember how you can work out a sophisticated problem: Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally.

A recent study led by researchers from the University of Michigan and Penn State College of Medicine compared two approaches for individuals with an early type of memory loss.

The 2 are mnemonic strategy training, which goals to attach what someone is trying to recollect to something else like a word, phrase or song (reminiscent of the Dear Aunt Sally mnemonic), and spaced retrieval training, which steadily increases the period of time between tests of remembering something.

Individuals with mild cognitive impairment, which might but doesn’t all the time result in a later Alzheimer’s disease diagnosis, were higher capable of remember information when using one in all these cognitive training approaches. Nevertheless, the information, and brain scans that exposed which areas of the brain were more energetic, showed each activity works otherwise.

“Our research shows that we can assist individuals with mild cognitive impairment improve the quantity of data they learn and remember; nevertheless, different cognitive training approaches engage the brain in distinct ways,” said lead and corresponding creator Benjamin Hampstead, Ph.D. Hampstead is a professor of psychiatry at Michigan Medicine and the VA Ann Arbor Healthcare System. He directs the Research Program on Cognition and Neuromodulation Based Interventions and leads the Clinical Core and co-leads the Neuroimaging Core on the federally funded Michigan Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center.

“Mnemonic strategy training increased activity in brain areas often affected by Alzheimer’s disease, which likely explains why this training approach helped participants remember more information and for longer,” Hampstead said “In contrast, those completing rehearsal-based training showed reduced brain activity, which suggests they were processing the knowledge more efficiently.”

Hampstead and his team worked with Krish Sathian, MBBS, Ph.D., professor and chair of Penn State’s Department of Neurology and director of Penn State Neuroscience Institute. Sathian noted that cognitive training approaches are more likely to turn out to be increasingly essential in synergy with the brand new pharmacological treatments on the horizon for those with neurodegenerative disorders.

Moving forward, Hampstead said researchers and clinicians can use the sort of information to assist discover the best-fit non-pharmacologic treatments for his or her patients with memory impairment.

Source:

Michigan Medicine – University of Michigan

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