"The Hippocampus Hips and the Amygdala's Tres Amigos". It is a mouthful, and if you've only casually encountered this awkwardly put together jumble of words and recall it exactly in its entirety a day or two later, spelling and all, then you have an impeccable memory. You may not need to read this any further. But, if you are one of a certain age, emphasis on age, then you may want to because every now and then you find yourself helplessly grasping to recall something that defies recollection no matter how hard you squint and grimace. This makes a growing sector of the population fearfully dreadful of memory loss while advances in medicine have allowed for people to physically live longer. By the way, those jumbled words I put together were for a reason, that we will get into later.
The good news, an excellent one actually, is that not only is that recent studies show that however alarmingly frightful we've been led to believe, only 10% of 65 and older folks will develop dementia or Alzheimer's. More significantly, there are now proven ways to improve memory effectively as we advance in age.
However, it is part of our aging reality that forgetfulness is one inevitably acceptable part of growing old. We accept it, but should we take that without a challenge, as if to simply agree and surrender? "Accept", in this case, can arguably be defined as one defeatist attitude simply because we forget names so easily or where we last put our keys or wallet and why we sometimes go to the garage and we find ourselves standing there and realize we don't know what it was we were there to get or do. Or, we see a famous actor's face on TV that we know we used to know so well but can no longer recall his name. And what about the so called "tip-of-the-tongue" phenomenon that exasperates us to no end until we make the recollection.
Our brain is the single most powerful part of our anatomy if we are merely ranking magnitude of importance when it comes to function. Let us not forget though that without it, existence is absolutely impossible. People can go on living with missing limbs, one kidney or one lung, one eye, etc. Artificial hearts, kidney and heart donor organs have prolonged countless lives, heart/lung machines can temporarily keep people alive, people can go on living through dialysis machines, and a few more other advances in medicine will someday allow more replacement organs possible.
Indeed, there are hopeful practical possibilities. But a brain that is partially functioning or even temporarily affected as in a concussion or mental trauma is a critical anomaly. Brain damage as generally defined is a serious normal life ending condition.
If we worry about forgetfulness we should first and above all be in awe of how and why we remember. Quickly, let's make one quick comparison.
A supercomputer "Deep Blue" that beat a human chess champion (for the first time ever) was a roomful of high end CPUs (Central Processing Units) linked together into a powerful "thinking machine" that required a lot of electrical power and robust cooling system against 2-1/2 pounds of living tissue. All that Kasparov had to rely on was his experience as a chess player, what he had for lunch, some water and reserve energy in whatever body fat he had in store. Deep Blue had the support of several technicians during the match and a chess program put together by several engineers, programmers and chess players who used volumes of references of matches played by human chess champions in the past - an artificial array of memory.
We need to go over that to show that our brain is no slouch when it comes to memory and computing power while at the same time do all the simultaneous orchestration of the functions of every body part that must all work together to sustain one complex physiology.
We will not talk about the entire brain for that will be one gargantuan chore. Instead let's just focus on the two crucial components that are the repositories of how memories are created, sorted and recalled.
1. Hippocampus is from the Greek where "hippos" is horse, "kampos" for sea monster. Early physiologists/anatomists saw, as in the photo below, the hippocampus as looking like a seahorse. Within the folds of the brain's temporal lobe is a seahorse-like tissue that is responsible for creating and retrieving declarative and spatial memories; or, simply put, remembering facts and events and routes, pathways and directions. It is where we remember lines in a poem, dialogue in a movie, speeches, etc. and how we get back to our seats in a theatre after an intermission.
The amygdala is responsible for storing and retrieving memories involved in processing emotions, behavior, emotional control and learning as parts of the brain's ability to empathize, react to fearful stimuli and control of our emotions. Unfortunately, the amygdala can also be responsible for obsessive thoughts, harbor uncontrolled and unexplained phobias, or engage in aberrant behavior, for example. But without a doubt the amygdala pair is one powerful "computer chip" if we must relate our brain to a machine.
There is a long list of human mental powers, as in total recall, musical abilities to play an entire piano concerto from memory, or the conductor knowing exactly when the notes from a bassoon will be wafting above a field of swaying violas and violins in a 100-piece orchestra and ever always aware of every instrument's role and so on and on, but let's pick one other example.
When an NBA player makes a 3-point jump shot attempt, those two components of his brain enable him to leap from behind the 3-point line, make a correct orientation of where the hoop is, be mindful of the defender wanting to block the shot, release the ball with just the right trajectory and force from his fingertips and remember to land correctly back on the floor to avoid a twisted ankle and be ready to move again whether he made the shot or rush forward to recover a missed attempt. All of these happened within one second because the player's hippocampus and amygdala (H and A) learned, committed and processed to memory, practice after practice, to recall, adjust and execute the shot.
For us ordinary folks, what can we do to help our H's and A's make us better memory champions? Maybe, not champions to the point of reciting the value of Pi to the nth digit . Ordinary folks can easily recite the value to four decimal points, as in 3.1416 - enough for 99.9 per cent in solving math problems. The world record today stands at 70,030 decimal digits. Why? Because Suresh Kumar Sharma from India can. Keep in mind this is just one example among countless others who exhibit extraordinary feats of memory.
Cliff Klaven, the much maligned, often derided character in an erstwhile, popular TV sitcom, "Cheers", was a U.S. Postal worker whose role at the bar almost always revolved around his mastery of trivia, deemed by his friends as useless facts. Truth be told, there is nothing so trivial about trivia if you are a "Jeopardy" contestant along with millions of fans of the show around the world. I could be among those closet trivia fans although my reason for being one may be different from most.
Knowing, committing to memory, retrieving information as trivial as trivia is no different from lifting weights or running on a treadmill as in physical exercise. Our muscles are indifferent or oblivious to whether we are only lifting weights or laying bricks, cutting timber with an ax or saw, just as our leg muscles are not aware if we are running in place or away from predators or going after prey. They get exercised. Our H and A are exercised whether we are doing a crossword puzzle, playing bridge, chess, or committing to memory useless digits of Pi after 3.14159 26535 89793..
Now, we are told that exercise, literally the physical one, is a memory booster. Studies have shown that seniors engaging in ballroom dancing or line dancing have helped in improving their memories. If that is so, where cha-cha, Samba, Mambo, etc., are good for improving our memories, then I call these forms of exercises as involving the "hippocampus hips".
Any exercise that raises our heart rates and consequently blood flow to the brain helps in boosting memory retrievals and long term retention. Our brain may only be 2-2.5 % of our body weight but it demands 25% of the total energy consumption. Blood flow is the only way oxygen gets delivered to the brain, so the more we get that going the healthier the brain is in performing its functions.
The amygdala twins need their three friends - the Tres Amigos - to be in top shape: Diet, Exercise (that hippocampus hips provide) and Sleep. To aid us in remembering, we will go by the acronym, D.E.S.
Diet goes with little reminding on how important it is for our general health and overall maintenance of our physiology, but one caution is to avoid over indulgence, particularly in alcoholic consumption, marijuana, and other drugs. They are memory busters. There is little we can add to what has already been said about the right balanced diets for nutrition.
"Sleep, perchance to dream" from Shakespeare's Hamlet has more to say than the Bard of Avon may have ever imagined. As a species, a third of our daily existence, more or less, is to sleep. It cannot be underestimated nor ignored. Our H and A demand it. It might be the downtime for most of our body but H and A use the time to sort, organize and file memories we've experienced throughout the day. I am simplifying here but that explains dreams and why we have them. Now, how do dolphins and whales sleep? They are water bound air-breathing mammals, so what is their secret? Read up on it and begin your treasure hunting for trivia. Your H and A will appreciate the exercise.
We do not have to remember the jumbled words above. Just remember to move those hips and what D.E.S. stands for.
I don't or, more likely, can't dance but I hope my swimming routine gives enough hip actions for my hippocampus. We all would like to believe our D.E.S. levels are adequate but we should always be mindful of that.
Let's be mindful too that every modern invention or amenity in life almost always has another side, often in shades darker than gray. The couch and television are two of those that as a pair will likely be responsible for creating a path for an evolutionary diversity that in a thousand years (assuming our species will still be around) future anthropologists will identify as a new sub-species: "homo couch potato modernis". Please take this with a sense of humor, or instead simply realize that the couch and television are memory busters if used for far too long every day.
So, because I do not have total recall, below is how I make sure I know exactly where my wallet, driving glasses and car keys are at any moment I need them. My cell phone would be there too except I used it to take this photo. And this took my go-to hand eye coordination activity that is woodworking to make them.
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