Memory

“Memory is the diary that we all carry about with us.”

Oscar Wilde

It is a brain function that is essential for our learning and therefore for our survival. Thanks to it we can better adapt to the needs of our environment.

From a morphological point of view, memory is closely related to the hippocampus, although several brain regions influence the process. Interestingly, the meaning of words is stored in the right hemisphere, childhood memories are kept in the temporal cortex, and the frontal lobes are in charge of perception and thought.

Types of memory

There are three different types according to the multi-store model of Richard Atkinson and Richard Shiffrin, which states that information passes through different stores as it is processed. We therefore make the following division.

Sensory memory

Short-lived, it records information through the senses. It processes a large number of stimuli, which remain for the time needed to select and identify them for further processing.

Short-term memory

Also known as operational or working memory. Its capacity is limited, holding only a few items for a short period of time. It is broken down into four parts.

• Visuospatial sketchpad. It is in charge of actively maintaining information (images). It would be used, for example, when learning a route.

• Episodic buffer. A system specialized in integrating information from different sources. In this way it represents visual, verbal, spatial and temporal information.

• Phonological loop. It works with verbal information. It helps maintain the inner speech process involved in short-term memory, as happens when we memorize a phone number.

• Central executive. Its role is to control and regulate the working memory system.

Long-term memory

It allows us to retain information for the longest time. Within it we distinguish two types.

• Explicit or declarative memory: the conscious store of information. Within this type of memory we distinguish episodic memory (what we remember are facts or events, lived experiences placed in space and time) and semantic memory (the recognition of the meaning of objects, vocabulary or general knowledge).
• Implicit or procedural memory: refers to learned actions or sequences of acts, most of which we perform automatically without having to think about each gesture or movement (they are usually hard to put into words).

What is memory for?

Memory is the store of our memories and experiences. Thanks to it we remember who we were with yesterday, where we went on vacation, conversations we have had before, our academic knowledge, professional experience, etc.

Thanks to memory we are who we are; we learn and change according to our relationships and the needs of our environment.

That is why diseases such as Alzheimer’s, in which memory is gradually lost, little by little erase the essence of the person.

Assessment and cognitive stimulation of memory

Seeing a specialist in the event of cognitive impairment is essential. The professional will put their experience at your service to find the best method to work on memory through cognitive stimulation.

Cognitive stimulation brings together all the activities aimed at maintaining or improving mental functioning and slowing down decline through different exercises with the help of stimulation programs. At NeuronUP we offer a wide variety of cognitive stimulation exercises focused on memory training.

NeuronUP exercises to rehabilitate memory

At NeuronUP we have a range of activities to exercise memory, for example in conditions such as Alzheimer’s. For episodic memory, one of the exercises is Animal Pairs, which involves finding the pairs among all the face-down cards, turning them over two at a time and turning them back if they do not match. Another example, in this case for semantic memory and widely used by our users with people with Alzheimer’s, involves matching items to the category they belong to.

Read our articles about memory

Bibliography

• Atkinson, R.C.; Shiffrin, R.M. (1968). «Chapter: Human memory: A proposed system and its control processes». En Spence, K.W.; Spence, J.T., eds. The psychology of learning and motivation 2. New York: Academic Press. pp. 89-195
• Ruiz-Vargas, J. M. (2010). La memoria a corto plazo. En: Manual de psicología de la memoria, pp. 147-179. Madrid: Síntesis.
• TirapuUstárroz, J. y Grandi, F. (2016). Sobre la memoria de trabajo y la memoria declarativa: propuesta de una clarificación conceptual. PanamericanJournal of Neuropsychology, 10 (3): 13-31.
• Tirapu-Ustárroz, J. y Muñoz-Céspedes, J.M. (2005). Memoria y funciones ejecutivas. Revista de Neurología, 41 (8): 475-484.
• Cowan, N. (2008). What are thedifferencesbetweenlong-term, short-term, and workingmemory? Progress in BrainReserarch, 169: 323-338.