La neurociència de la tècnica dels palaus de memòria

El blog Boing-Boing comenta un article recent de la revista Neurons sobre una de les tècniques que faig servir (i que expliquem) al projecte de màgia i ciència: els palaus de memòria. Consisteix en associar conceptes que cal recordar, per exemple la llista de la compra al supermercat, amb els espais físics del nostre habitatge. L’article de Neurons es titula Mnemonic Training Reshapes Brain Networks to Support Superior Memory, i el seu abstract és

Memory skills strongly differ across the general population; however, little is known about the brain characteristics supporting superior memory performance. Here we assess functional brain network organization of 23 of the world’s most successful memory athletes and matched controls with fMRI during both task-free resting state baseline and active memory encoding. We demonstrate that, in a group of naive controls, functional connectivity changes induced by 6 weeks of mnemonic training were correlated with the network organization that distinguishes athletes from controls. During rest, this effect was mainly driven by connections between rather than within the visual, medial temporal lobe and default mode networks, whereas during task it was driven by connectivity within these networks. Similarity with memory athlete connectivity patterns predicted memory improvements up to 4 months after training. In conclusion, mnemonic training drives distributed rather than regional changes, reorganizing the brain’s functional network organization to enable superior memory performance.

Com diu Boing-Boing,

The study seeks to find physical, functional neural correlates to memory training, and it does, though the small sample size — and even smaller sample of “memory athletes” (23 of them!) calls the enterprise into question. It seems logical that mindful mental practice, repeated intensively for many days, would cause functional reorganization that an fMRI could pick up, but is that the whole story? How much does that reorganization correlate to memory performance? Does it endure?

I encara més interessant és que, en aquest cas, es confirma la bondat d’una pràctica que prové de l’antiguitat… i que no se’n sabia el fonament. En aquest cas, aquesta pràctica “tradicional” ha resultat tenir un fonament físic (neural) clar – cosa que ja tothom sospitava.

En definitiva, en un test la gent que va fer servir aquest sistema per memoritzar, després d’un temps van mostrar molta més capacitat de memòria que el grup de control.

Em sembla un tema ben interessant, útil… i atractiu i divertit. Per cert, Boing-Boing esmenta el llibre Tricks of the Mind, d’en Derren Brown, que recomano.