My cousin began to complain of poor memory and distraction. That's what a young neurologist told her.

Encyclopedic memory has long been considered a sign of the mind. Many of us admire the show, where polymaths answer the most tricky questions, easily remember names and dates. Perfect memory has many advantages, but most of us do not have such a memory.




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Often people complain of poor memory, ask experts how to improve memory and attention. Is it really worth doing? exercises to improve brain functionDo you have drugs? If you constantly forget the names of your colleagues and don’t remember where you left your phone, don’t worry. That doesn’t mean something is wrong with you, quite the opposite! According to recent research, those who often forget may be smarter than others.



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History has preserved evidence of many scattered celebrities. So, it is said that the father of classical physics Isaac Newton could get lost in his own house, and when he went outside, he forgot where he went. The outstanding composer and chemist Alexander Borodin constantly forgot the name of his wife and could leave the house not quite dressed.



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Canadian neuroscientists led by Paul Frankland came to the conclusion that forgetfulness is not a defect, but a consequence. Natural mechanism of adaptation of the brain new conditions. It allows you to free the brain from outdated information and replenish it with new relevant knowledge to make the most intelligent decisions in changing circumstances. By analogy with a computer, we can say that the brain clears working memory.



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Paul Frankland found that the nature of forgetfulness lies in the hippocampus. As soon as new neurons appear in this area, they begin to rewrite the information already available. This is done to make it easier for a person to adapt to new conditions.

Experiments in mice have shown that animals cope faster with the test task if they clear the memories of the old. And the faster the environment changes, the faster old facts need to be removed.



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It reminded me vividly of a phrase from the movie everyone loved since childhood: “The human brain is an empty attic where you can stuff anything you want.” The fool does this: he drags the necessary and unnecessary there. And finally there comes a time when the most necessary thing is not put there. Or it's hidden so far away you can't reach it. I do things differently. I only have the tools I need in my attic. There are many of them, but they are in perfect order and always at hand. I don't need any extra junk.”

In our time, when the volume of information increases explosively, the relevance of this statement is especially great. “Junk” must give way in time to the more important.





What do you do if you don’t like such a strange mechanism of our brain and want to remember more interesting things? How to improve adult memory? There are effective exercises that will strengthen the ability to remember information. Memory can be trained like muscles!

Of course, this article does not call for forgetting everything. But if you forgot to buy milk today, know that the brain is doing its job.

Please share this article with your forgetful friends so they don’t feel stupid the next time they forget something!