Have I turned off the gas? Where have I left the keys? What was I coming to the kitchen to do? These are some of the questions we often ask ourselves. Of the three, the last one is perhaps the most interesting, the one that involves a form of memory with which we are not very familiar: the prospective memory.
What exactly is prospective memory? This form of memory is what refers to our ability to remember planned or future actions, to remember intentions. It could be remembering what we were going to look for in the refrigerator or the dentist’s appointment on Thursday.
Prospective memory is something we deal with in our daily lives, but it is not a concept that many people are familiar with. Neither do the experts: research on this form of memory was, until the beginning of this century, virtually nonexistent.
But in recent years we have managed find out some key aspects of this memory. For example, we now have an idea of which brain regions work for the correct functioning of future memory. A 2010 study found three regions of the brain whose activity was linked to prospective memory results: the parahippocampal gyrus, the left inferior parietal lobe, and the left anterior cingulate.
However, there is still much to investigate in this regard. Other studies, for example, have given greater importance to the activation of the right lobe in relation to this memory. Othersfor example, emphasize the role of the anterior prefrontal cortex and the medial temporal lobe. But it’s not all neurobiology.
Things we forget
Why do we forget what it is that we were going to write down on the shopping list? Prospective memory is not very different in this from other forms of memory. Here attention is key. In one interview for RAC1 radiothe neuropsychologist Saul Martínez-Horta explained, starting from “what did I come to the kitchen to do”, he explains how it is that we have this facility to forget things.
Distractions are one of the main factors that affect this memory. If we go to the kitchen to get salt, but in the meantime we remember that we left the oven on, this second fact will make us confused and make it more likely that we will forget about the salt.
In Martínez-Horta’s own words “Normally what makes us forget what we should do is the saturation of the system and the distraction mediated by another event. brain capacity “It is limited and sensitive to distraction, so it is relatively easy for us to direct our attention to something other than what we are doing.”
Concentration is, therefore, key if we want our prospective memory (or our memory in general) to have more of itself. Memory can be trained, but generally the exercises that allow us to do it They are not useful beyond of the memory function they seek to train. That is to say, there is no evidence that solving crossword puzzles will make us remember to buy popcorn for when we have visitors.
That does not mean that we are helpless. Some healthy habits impact in our brain’s ability to perform its tasks, and although studies focused on prospective memory are scarce, it may be a good idea to incorporate them.
A varied diet, exercise and sleep properly they can help us with our memory. Perhaps, they can also help us remember what it is that we were looking for in the closet before receiving WhatsApp from our brother-in-law.
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Image | Cottonbro studio
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