Research: Memory encoding

10 March 2006

Whether you remember something depends on neural activity before the memory is captured, a team at University College London (UCL) has discovered.

The results suggest that getting into the 'right frame of mind' beforehand should help people memorise new information.

During the research, led by Dr Leun Otten, participants were asked to concentrate on words on a computer screen. Before each word, a symbol appeared telling the volunteers to decide whether the word represented a living or non-living thing, or whether the first and last letters of the word were in alphabetical order.

Volunteers' brain activity was scanned throughout using an EEG (electroencephalogram), which records electrical brain activity through the scalp.

Participants were better at remembering words that followed the living/non-living symbol, rather than the one for alphabetical order. This suggests that thinking about meaning better primes the memory to store new information.

Notably, the researchers could see this priming activity in the brain's frontal region - where conscious 'thinking' is generally carried out - between the presentation of the symbol and the viewing of the word. Stronger activity here was followed by more accurate recall.

The research team is now looking into how this kind of brain activity helps long-term memory.

Dr Leun Otten is a Wellcome Trust Research Career Development Fellow and Honorary Lecturer at the Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience and Department of Psychology at UCL.

External links

• Otten LJ et al. Brain activity before an event predicts later recollection. Nature Neurosci 2006.
• Memory aided by meaning (Nature news: 26 February 2006)
• You will remember this (UCL press release: 26 February 2006)