Brain, memory and reading

Brain, memory and reading: how to become smarter and know more than others. #Cognitive In 2016, information appeared in the media about a very significant discovery: in the course of research by American scientists, it was concluded that the memory capacity of the human brain is 1 petabyte. Neurologists Terry Seinowski and Kristen Harris, studying how hippocampus neurons function, found that synapse accounts for approximately 4.7 bits of memory. According to Seinowski, this means that the measurements obtained increase the conservative estimate of the amount of memory by 10 times, at least up to a petabyte, about the amount of all text information on the Internet. And without the research of American scientists, it is clear that each of us, the owner of such a complex organ as the human brain, has great potential for development. A person can read thousands of books in his life, learn at least a couple of dozen languages ​​and assimilate a really large amount of information. 

However, memory is not so simple, and in reality it is impossible to remember the size of 1 petabyte. As you know, there are two main types of memory: short-term and long-term. The first is the ability to keep in mind a strictly limited amount of knowledge lasting up to 20 seconds. Further, if you do not return to this data, the information is erased. Non-volatile memory includes an incomparably larger amount of data that can potentially be stored for a lifetime. This also includes what we know about the world around us at the everyday level (for example, that an apple is a fruit), and what is difficult to “get” from memory (for example, the formulation of Newton's second law: it seems that everyone learned, but information is somewhere very deep). By the way, science still knows cases when a person remembers everything or almost everything. This is called hyperthymesia, a syndrome of exceptional autobiographical memory. Because of this pathology, patients with hyperthymesia can recall any moment of every day of their lives and describe such memories as uncontrollable associations that arise, for example, when they see a certain date on the calendar. So far, scientists cannot unambiguously explain what is the reason for the occurrence of this syndrome. However, we, "mere mortals", have access to much more modest opportunities. And in this sense, the easiest way to help improve memory lies on the surface - this is reading. How to pump your brains American scientist Robert Wilson and a group of colleagues for six years observed elderly subjects (of which there were almost 300 people). After the death of the subjects, the brains of each were examined for pathological changes. It turned out that people who read more than average throughout their lives were 32% less likely to have memory problems, while people who did not read at all lose memory 48% faster than those who devote an average amount of time to this activity. ... Truthfully speaking, one cannot strictly take the thesis “reading books is a panacea for memory”, because there is a huge set of other factors and some reservations. First, reading can be very different: here the type of text information, and its structure, and the actual medium (paper, e-book, smartphone) matter. Secondly, the reading process can proceed in different ways depending on the situation (noise around, on the move, in silence and rest, etc.), the degree of nervous excitement and even the attitude to the text (critical assessment of information, thoughtful reading, reading "Diagonally", involvement in interesting material). However, it cannot be denied that thoughtful reading is training memory, since it is important to "keep" in mind a large set of new facts, details and sequence of events in order to continue to grasp the further meaning of the text. On the other hand, there is an obvious feedback from this process, which is very difficult to get elsewhere in the same quality. Firstly, reading helps to broaden the horizons of knowledge about the world around us and increase vocabulary, and therefore our memory improves in a qualitative sense. Secondly, books are the main enemy of clip thinking (that is, fragmented, ragged perception), which reduces our ability to assimilate knowledge and analyze information. When reading literature, we have to concentrate and hold our attention for a long time on the object of the story; when scrolling through the news feed, exactly the opposite happens. And it should be noted that those who prefer books are less likely to have trouble falling asleep, relax better and improve the quality of dreams. How to read correctly Like any training, "mental" is also based on the main principle - regularity. It is considered optimal to read daily in free time in a calm environment, without the accompanying noise around. If your schedule does not allow you to allocate a full 1-2 hours for this activity, break this time into intervals (20-30 minutes each). Secondly, do not strive to read faster in order to "swallow" more books. In theory, the average person can read about 3,000 books in their lifetime.