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20 minutes of education. Right, I shouldn't forget the 86 billion neurons. 86 billion brain neurons. Wait, stop.
Learn how memory works, why we forget, and practical tips to improve memory through attention, neuroplasticity, and regular brain training.
Key Takeaways
- Attention is essential for encoding memories correctly.
- Variety and regularity in mental activities strengthen brain synapses and improve memory.
- Neuroplasticity allows the brain to adapt and recover from damage.
- Memory formation involves complex biochemical and electrical processes at synapses.
- Consistent brain exercise prevents cognitive decline and enhances mental agility.
What the video covers
- Memory depends on attention and proper encoding of information at the moment of experience.
- The brain encodes memories through neural ensembles called engrams formed by synaptic connections.
- Neuroplasticity strengthens synapses through varied and regular mental activities, improving memory.
- The Default Mode Network can cause forgetting when attention is diverted during routine actions.
- Long-term potentiation is crucial for retaining memories by strengthening synaptic connections.
- Regular brain training, such as learning languages or new skills, enhances memory and cognitive speed.
- Neurotransmitters like glutamate play a key role in memory formation and synaptic strengthening.
- A well-developed brain can better resist damage from diseases like Alzheimer's.
- Techniques like rhythm, rhyme, and visualization aid memory encoding and recall.
- Memory is an active, dynamic process that can be updated and improved with practice.
Chapters
- 00:00Introduction and Importance of Memory
- 01:38How Memory Encoding Works
- 03:21Neural Ensembles and Engrams
- 05:07Neuroplasticity and Brain Training
- 06:35Personal Experience with Brain Exercise
- 08:10Synaptic Strengthening and Neurotransmitters
- 09:46Structural Brain Plasticity in Adults
- 13:15Memory and Sensory Integration
- 14:39Techniques to Improve Memory
- 15:14Active Process of Memory Recall and Updating
Full Transcript — Download SRT & Markdown
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What's the topic? Memory. The topic is memory. While trying to remember something important, you might omit or erase other important things from your memory. How many neurons did I mention?
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Did you remember? 86 billion. Sounds like a lot. How, then, do we forget elementary things? Simply put, memory is attention—specifically, how attentive you are at the moment you perform a certain action. Because our brain is an interesting operating
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system that, like a computer, encodes information. And if it's encoded incorrectly, it will be impossible to retrieve because it was saved with many bugs, that is, errors. Like, if you were walking around the room thinking about work while changing clothes, and
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then 10 minutes later you can't find your phone. But it's lying peacefully on the closet shelf next to your pants because at that moment you were focused on thoughts about work. And your attention wasn't focused on the phone
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at that moment, meaning it didn't record it. The brain switched to Default Mode, a mode of operation that is often called the "default mode network" in scientific literature. And your hands put the phone in the closet next to the pants on their own, because
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it's the simplest basic action. No need to invent anything. And our brain loves simple and predictable actions. It likes patterns, that is, working according to a known scheme. Pants in the closet, so the phone goes there too. But the problem is that you have to
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look for that phone later. Therefore, to improve memory, you actually need to develop the skill of correctly encoding information. So let's figure out how to do that. Everything in our brain is encoded and stored using our own electricity and chemicals. Modern
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neuroscience describes memory encoding as a multi-stage process involving mechanisms at molecular, cellular, neural, and systemic levels. Many levels. Essentially a whole bouquet of different flowers. Memory begins with perception. It could be an emotion, it could be physical, like tactile
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perception, it could be a smell—anything that activates our nerve cells. And these nerve cells connect to other cells at a point called a synapse. A synapse is a connection between cells where information is transmitted from one cell to another. All actions
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in your brain and mine take place in these synapses, where electrical impulses transmit various messages.
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Each experience activates a unique combination of sensory neurons. For example, imagine you see a dog come out of the water and shake itself off. Your visual cortex processes the movement and colors. The auditory cortex processes the surrounding sounds. Maybe
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some bugs are buzzing, or people are laughing. The olfactory cortex processes smells. That’s the distinct smell of a wet dog. Emotional centers assess how significant the event is, how much damage in the form of shock or a wet t-shirt this shaking dog has
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caused you. The hippocampus in our brain begins to integrate all of this. No single neuron represents the process of a wet dog shaking itself off.
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Instead, thousands or millions of neurons become active together, creating what neuroscientists call a neural ensemble or an engram. This engram is a physical change in the nervous tissue that encodes a memory.
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This means synaptic connections, these bridges between cells, or changes in the DNA of neurons. Biologist Richard Semon proposed this concept in the early 20th century. So, the shaking dog created a biochemical trace in your memory within the cerebral cortex. And
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it emerged in response to external stimuli, that is, what you saw, smelled, and felt physically. But how well this memory is encoded depends on the strength of your neurons. And this is the next stage in the encoding of our
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memory. It is this stage that confirms how important it is to constantly develop your memory by learning new things and doing varied activities, such as learning new words or languages, playing instruments, cutting potatoes in new ways—anything at all, as long
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as there is variety and regularity, because then a greater number of synapses in your brain will be strengthened. And as you already know, neurons communicate precisely through those bridges, the synapses. If two neurons are repeatedly activated together, the connection between them
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becomes stronger. That is, if you cut potatoes the same way every time or speak only one language, then only one synapse between neurons becomes strong, because you are using it constantly.
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But if you regularly do different and new things, then a greater number of synapses between the neurons in your brain become stronger. And this makes the brain as a whole much more developed and neuroplastic. This is the popular word "neuroplasticity." It’s
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like with muscles. If you stretch them regularly, the body will be flexible, but if not, you will be like a stiff little tree. The same thing happens with the brain. And, by the way, this training of the brain, which makes it
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more plastic, gives it a chance to recreate connections and prevent the brain from regressing to a primitive level in case of damage. In other words, in cases of diseases like Alzheimer's, the more developed the brain was
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before the disease, the less noticeable the damage from the disease will be. If a person regularly read, spoke several languages, and generally used and taught their brain new things, then as a result of the disease, some of this
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will certainly be lost, but the foundation will remain. But if there was only a base, then you understand for yourself that it is sadder, because it is precisely this base that will be lost, and it will be very, very
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noticeable. Here is an interesting experience of a famous historical figure. Dory the fish, a wonderful character whose memory worked perfectly except for the function of storing information, or more precisely, storing it for longer than 3 seconds. Because Dory had some problems with the
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phenomenon of long-term potentiation. This phenomenon helps us in long-term information retention. It is a lasting increase in synaptic strength following repeated activation. In English, there is a cool, simple expression: If you don't use it, you lose it. If you don't
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use it, you lose it. Meaning, you don't use your brain regularly, but ask ChatGPT to explain everything for you. The skill of thinking gradually fades away.
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I clearly noticed this in myself during my university studies, even before ChatGPT. When I was learning Hindi five days a week, my brain as a whole was extremely fast in every area. It would instantly supply the right word or the
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correct solution. And literally within the summer break, just a couple of months of chilling without daily brain exercise, I already felt that my brain wasn't super-fast; I'd be writing a poem and couldn't think of a cool rhyme for a few minutes, even though I
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usually throw out five different ones in the first few seconds. So, the brain is ready to respond to complex, regular training. Meaning you use a specific synapse many times. For example, if you learn new English words and then repeat
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them and do it regularly, a certain synapse in the brain—the bridge between neurons—becomes stronger, and these bridges are reinforced on a biological level. This means chemical substances in the brain, namely molecules, serve as building materials.
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And you are the supplier of these materials. When you repeat those new words you studied in English or Japanese, more glutamate is released in your brain. It is a neurotransmitter responsible for processes of thinking, learning, and memory formation. It also
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serves as a building material for other substances. This glutamate molecule interacts with various types of receptors, but two are the most important. These are AMPA receptors.
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They work like doors that open quickly upon the appearance of glutamate and let sodium ions into the cell. Meaning more building mat
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They let calcium ions into the neuron, meaning more building material. And then calcium activates signaling pathways, and the synapse becomes permanently stronger. The next time you see the word you learned, your brain will quickly identify it and provide
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the translation because neurons are activated much more easily with regular use. It's a different story how many were taught English in school, where there are heaps of separate chunks of information, but no bridges were built between them in the brain. Somewhere
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there is "London is the capital of Great Britain," and somewhere in another part of the brain is "Present Continuous" and words that still sound like some kind of spell to some. I recently found out that in the Soviet
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Union, there was a government decree that everyone in school should learn English, but they shouldn't be able to speak it. That was the curriculum: knowledge wasn't practiced or synthesized into a language system that could be used to connect with the
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Western world. If you, by the way, lived through your conscious years in the Soviet Union, please write in the comments about your experience learning English in school. I’m very interested in the statistics on this, because this fact truly surprised and
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disappointed me. Indeed. But we will deal with memory systematically. So let's move on to the next stage where the magic happens, namely, you gain weight because your brain is growing. A neuron has dendrite extensions, and like tree branches, they start to
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spread out as the brain learns. By the way, it comes from the Greek "dendron" —tree. They were named that way because they look like a tree. These dendritic extensions, or dendrites, receive information through synapses.
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And to increase the signal reception area, they begin to expand. But even that isn't enough for them. They also grow spines on themselves. And these tiny spines increase the surface area even further without changing the length of the extension itself.
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Dendrites increase a neuron's receptive field by 10-20 times, which enables a significantly larger number of synaptic contacts and, consequently, increases throughput between neurons. And a curious fact: they grow within a few minutes or hours. In this way, temporary electrical activity is
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converted into long-lasting physical changes. Scientists call this memory consolidation, meaning the merging and strengthening of elements so they become one whole. All this is so that when you recall something, you can produce the right word even faster and
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not be like Dory the fish. And that neuroplasticity—the ability of the brain to change and adapt—is precisely due to the ability of dendrites to grow or shrink. So, new tasks and challenges for the brain are like the gym for your body. And, by the
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way, physical activity also directly affects the formation and functioning of the brain. That is why at the world's best universities, sports disciplines are almost on par with others. And even the most talented mathematics student plays baseball. In the USA, for example, having sports
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achievements from competitions during your school years can help you get a scholarship to a great university, and not just for sports programs. And this is no coincidence. It has been scientifically proven that physical exercise increases the size of the
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hippocampus in the brain, meaning the potential for learning other subjects is higher if students develop physically on a regular basis. It also works for older people too. In a 2011 study, one year of moderate aerobic exercise increased the hippocampus
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volume by approximately 2%in elderly people. Their spatial memory also improved, and it was demonstrated that the adult brain remains structurally plastic. So, by developing physically, we increase our brain's potential in other ways as well. Specifically, a 2015 meta-analysis showed that both
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acute and regular physical exercise significantly increase brain-derived neurotrophic factor. This is a special protein that is often called fertilizer for the brain. It helps existing nerve cells live and create new connections, which is important for memory and learning. And this protein supports
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neuron survival, synaptic plasticity, and learning. And it doesn't just matter how old you are, or even what kind of creature you are. In a 1999 study, even in mice, voluntary running increased neurogenesis, that is, the process of forming new neurons.
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Learning and memory. This landmark study established that physical exercise promotes hippocampal neurogenesis, meaning new neurons literally grow there. Regular physical activity is especially important for brain development. So for all students, playing basketball, soccer, going to dance classes, and so on is
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foundational and an investment in your future or your children's future. If you have children, put them in sports.
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And let's return to our memory system. This brain—and yours as well—is like a library where memory fragments we talked about at the beginning, like emotions, physical sensations, and smells, are all stored in different sections on different shelves. And to
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recreate a memory in the moment, the hippocampus in our brain runs through these sections and pulls fragments of the needed experience and memory from different shelves. How did we feel?
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What sounds were around? What was the smell? I sometimes notice this in myself when I might doubt which of my acquaintances told me a story. Because I only remember my attitude toward the person at the moment they were telling
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it. And I know, for example, that this is how I feel about this person and that person. So, this story could have been told to me by two different people , but my attitude toward them is roughly the same. Meaning, what was
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vividly remembered was precisely this emotion of my attitude toward the person. So the hippocampus finds that on the shelf quickly, and then it has to run via bridges, or synapses, to other sections in the library to remember who exactly told it. But
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usually, I trust my brain very, very much and I know it is efficient. Therefore, if I don't remember who exactly told me this, it means it is unimportant information, because we are attentive to what is important to us.
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And as I said at the beginning, memory is primarily attention. So, if you forgot a story about the neighbor's son that your mom told you while you were buying groceries, most likely you didn't forget it. You just never
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focused your attention on that story. You were just listening to it in the background. My grandmother used to say a great phrase: "Never knew, never knew , and then forgot." That's sort of how it is. You just need to distinguish for
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yourself where you can switch off your attention and think about your own things while listening to someone in the background, and where you cannot.
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And you need to focus. And the more your brain is upgraded with skills and knowledge, the more you can trust it, because it will optimize memories to your benefit. But if you repeat things like that, eventually certain things
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become so deeply ingrained in the brain's system that they are easy to reproduce without involving the hippocampus. Like, they say you can’t forget how to ride a bike. The same goes for certain personal memories that have been told in families for decades.
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These are often some curious or cringey incidents. Especially cool ones. You and I remember stories where someone fell, threw up on someone as a child, or really offended or made you laugh, because emotions strongly influence encoding. The amygdala identifies
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emotionally significant events. Stress hormones like adrenaline, norepinephrine, and cortisol all increase the plasticity of the hippocampus under many conditions. That is why emotions increase the likelihood that memories will be consolidated, meaning integrated and strengthened.
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This is one of the reasons why all these curious moments are often the ones we remember most vividly. So you can try adding some emotion to the information you need to remember.
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Associate it with something funny that happened to you recently or with a person who irritates you. And there are also various memorization techniques.
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There is even an entire science called mnemonics. From Greek, it is the art of memory, mnemotechnics. It is a set of special methods and techniques that facilitate memorization and increase memory capacity by creating artificial associations. The most elementary forms
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of this science are rhythm and rhyme. Rhythm is a natural principle of organizing information. Many people apply it involuntarily. They repeatedly recite data while keeping the same rhythm or simultaneously picking rhymes for them. This is exactly how you know
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in a second what 7*7 is. Because that is the exact method used to learn the multiplication table. You do know it’s 49, right? Or did the hippocampus run across the bridge and fall into the abyss forever while trying to find the answer? If that’s
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the case, just take a look at the table . The memories will refresh quickly.
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However, it is necessary to note that memorizing using rhythm and rhyme does not guarantee an understanding of the information at all. Only its retention is ensured. A bit like a parrot. We just reproduce what we’ve learned.
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For some things, that is what’s needed to optimize life, but for others , understanding doesn’t hurt. And this is where other memorization techniques come in. There is a very interesting technique that used to be only on my Patreon, but now I’m
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giving it to you here. God, who is that ? Is that you supporting me on Patreon?
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Or did you donate to the channel's support on Buy Me a Coffee? God, thank you so much. To everyone who did. I saw everyone, and I see everyone. And by Christmas, I will be giving away—not giving away, but sending things to
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those who have regularly supported or are supporting me. Before Christmas, I’ll be sending out some cool specialized gifts from the channel— something useful, artistic, in short, you'll see. Even if you were subscribed to Patreon for a long time but
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unsubscribed, I still remember you, and I will write to you. Or you can write in the comments, for example, if you join just now, you can still jump on this bandwagon for pre-Christmas gifts from my channel and me. Thank you.
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That's it. Watch the episode, I won't keep you. It's called a memory palace. It is also known as the Cicero method, the Roman room, or the method of loci.
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It is a way of memorizing a list of items or concepts that uses spatial visualization of an environment well-known to you. To remember objects, they are mentally linked to specific physical locations, so we can later establish an order and recall what
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we've memorized. Cicero was an ancient Roman statesman, orator, and philosopher, and he used this method for speeches he recited from memory.
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Modern mnemonic competition champions claim they use this technique to memorize faces, numbers, and lists of words. So, what do you need to do?
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First, subscribe to the channel and like this video. Next, you need to choose a familiar place that we can easily imagine. It could be the interior of your room or a hall where a performance will take place. You need
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to make a list of the 10-15 largest objects in the room, arranged from left to right. In your imagination, you need to practice walking around this room and naming each object in a specific sequence. For example, it could be: one
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—door two—bed three—plant and so on. Now, to memorize a sequence of 10 words, you need to create an associative link between each word and the objects in our room. For example, we need to remember the order in which
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the jury members are sitting and their names. Let's start with the door. One. Imagine the first jury member by the door and say their name. Mykhailo Vaplavsky, door. Next, the following jury member is sitting on the imaginary bed. And we memorize: Héctor
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Jiménez-Bravo, bed. What kind of contest is this? If there were such a jury. That I don't know yet. Use your imagination and write in the comments what it could have been. To memorize a list of more than 10 words, use the
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technique of breaking each object into parts and placing the words from top to bottom or left to right. For example, the first three word-images can be placed on the upper part of the door.
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The middle, then, and then the lower part. The next three words are over the bed. One above the bed, the second in the bed, the third under the bed. Thus, using the same 10 objects, you can mentally link up to 30 words. If you
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need to remember even more, you create another room, house, or an entire palace in a similar way, which is where this method gets its name. By the way, last year I already did an episode on memory, but, well, it is memory,
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you’ve definitely forgotten it. You know, information gets updated and video sound improves, so I decided we need a new video about memory. Let's continue. It's the most relevant and interesting one. And the most interesting and secret stuff is over on
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my Patreon. I post screenshots of my notes and interesting facts there every week. So go ahead and subscribe. Even if you used a certain technique, were very focused in the moment, or even go for regular runs, that’s not
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everything that affects memory encoding . There is one more last and very important factor. It is sleep. Sleep is one of the most important stages of memory encoding. During slow-wave sleep , the hippocampus replays the neural activity patterns that occurred
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throughout the day. Meaning it repeats them all over again. It relives your entire day once more. That’s why they say it's better to learn a poem before bed, and you'll remember it much better tomorrow. The same applies to any other
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new skills or words. Overnight, our brain essentially hits the "save" button on all those new things you processed during the day. And different phases of sleep contribute in different ways. Deep sleep, for example, strengthens long-term memory. Light sleep integrates emotional experiences,
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supports creativity, and connects all your memories. But I won't talk too much about sleep, because, first of all , everyone living in Ukraine just rolled their eyes, since it's hard to sleep perfectly with all the air raid alerts at night. And secondly, because
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I have a separate video about sleep, where most of the information is based on one of the world's leading sleep experts, Matt Walker. It features interesting, sometimes very simple details that change the quality of your sleep, and therefore, the quality of
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your life and the quality of your memory. In general, remembering is an active process. Every time you recall a memory, it reactivates the neural network and temporarily destabilizes the memory, which allows it to be updated, and then it is stored again.
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This process is called reconsolidation. This means that when we retell our memories, we are essentially repackaging them. Therefore, memories are not perfect recordings. They are reconstructed every time we recall them , which explains why details can change over time. So your mom isn't lying when
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she says Aunt Lyuda ran naked along the beach. She just embellished the story a little bit with each new retelling. To brighten up my life, please like and subscribe so you can save time and develop your knowledge in various
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topics on a regular basis. See you later. Yeah.
Topics:memory improvementneuroplasticitybrain trainingattentionsynapseslong-term potentiationmemory encodingneurosciencecognitive healthlearning techniques
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