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Using memory techniques can help the brain develop new pathways for study and improve memory , even for people with other mark of Alzheimer ’s disease , a new subject area suggest .
People with modest cognitive impairment ( MCI ) better their score on a memory assessment by 33 percent after larn how to properly use memory devices like mnemonics and watchword lists , the study said .
Magnetic resonance imaging ( MRI ) revealed that the memory techniques increased natural action in sure regions of their head associated with processing language , learning acquirement and remembering space and objects , say study researcher Sylvie Belleville , director of research at the University Institute of Geriatrics of Montreal .
The learning improvement are likely a cause ofbrainplasticity , Belleville said . Einstein plasticity is the wit ’s ability to change the way it learn in response to external influences , but health experts had long thought plasticity decreased in hoi polloi with mild cognitive impairment .
But the study show that even the brains of people with MCI have plasticity , a bright discovery for delay the effects ofAlzheimer ’s disease , Belleville said .
" We have grounds , here , that there ’s a lot of potential for brain plasticity in this other stage " of memory passing , Belleville secernate MyHealthNewsDaily .
The study was published online this week in Brain : A Journal of Neurology .
activating increase in the mental capacity
Belleville and her colleagues examined the memory of 15 elderly adults with balmy cognitive impairment and 15 healthy elderly adults . The adult with MCI participate in amemory training programthat taught them how to use remembering devices to improve the retrieval and encoding of memories , the study said . Then , they take a trial to assess their memory board .
grownup with MCI improved their loads on the memory trial run by 33 percent after undergo memory training , the study tell . To see what was going on physically in the brains of adults with MCI , researchers also conducted MRIs on the adults six weeks before memory preparation , a week before memory training and a workweek after memory breeding
In adults with MCI , there was decreased brain activation in the hippocampus , situate in the medial temporal lobe , compared with adults without MCI , Belleville said . The genus Hippocampus is one of the first part of the brain damage during Alzheimer ’s disease , and plays a cardinal role in forming and storing memories .
But after the adults with MCI go through thememorytraining program , the MRIs showed an growth in activation of part of the mentality responsible for language processing , memorise skills and remembering spaces and objects , the subject field say .
Many pathways for learning
The finding suggest thatmemoryis not reach by only one nerve tract in the brain , Belleville aver . Rather , the brain is able to compensate for decreased energizing in the genus Hippocampus by increase activating in other areas of the brain , she pronounce .
" We do n’t see an increase activation in areas that are impaired , but we see increase activation in areas [ of the learning ability ] that seem to be normally functioning , " Belleville said . “It shows that [ the Einstein ] is quite malleable , in a way . "
Therefore , by amend brain plasticity through these memory techniques , it could be potential to stay the symptoms of Alzheimer ’s disease , she say .
go it on : mnemonic and word tilt can amend computer storage and learning in people with early Alzheimer ’s disease .
