X-Message-Number: 27406
From: "Basie" <>
Subject: Trivia clogs memory  
Date: Sun, 4 Dec 2005 13:24:27 -0500

Trivia clogs memory
Last updated: Friday, December 02, 2005
Forgetting trivial information can boost the brain's ability to remember the 
things that really matter, US researchers report.
A University of Oregon team found that awareness - visual working memory - 
doesn't depend on extra storage space in the brain, but rather on the 
brain's ability to ignore what is irrelevant. The researchers likened this 
ability to a nightclub bouncer who manages crowds. Controlling what gets in
"Until now, it's been assumed that people with high capacity visual working 
memory had greater storage but actually, it's about the bouncer - a neural 
mechanism that controls what information gets into awareness," study author 
Edward Vogel, an assistant professor of cognitive neuroscience, explained in 
a prepared statement.

The findings contradict the widely held view that a person's memory 
capacity - which is strongly linked to intelligence - is determined 
exclusively by the amount of information that you can stuff into your head 
at one time.

The study has a number of implications, the researchers added. It could lead 
to the development of more effective methods of optimising memory, as well 
as improved diagnosis and treatment of cognitive problems in people with 
attention-deficit disorder and schizophrenia.

The findings were published in the November 24 issue of Nature. - 
(HealthDayNews)

Read more: Brain, memory and cognition

December 2005

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