Lisa Genova, a neuroscientist and bestselling author, dives into the intricacies of memory and cognitive health. She discusses how stress can shrink your brain and shares nine tactics to boost memory, such as practicing attention, securing quality sleep, and even using Google as a helpful tool. Genova emphasizes the importance of mental resilience and offers practical tips like meditation and self-testing, reassuring listeners that occasional forgetfulness is perfectly normal. These strategies aim to foster a stronger, healthier mind.
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insights INSIGHT
Attention Is The Gatekeeper Of Memory
Your brain never remembers what you don't pay attention to.
Forming memories requires deliberate attention at the moment of encoding.
insights INSIGHT
Chronic Stress Shrinks The Memory Center
Chronic stress impairs memory by shrinking the hippocampus and inhibiting neurogenesis.
Stress hormones like cortisol and adrenaline adapt you for action not thoughtful encoding.
volunteer_activism ADVICE
Use Mind-Body Practices To Restore Your Brain
Do yoga, meditate, practice mindfulness, or exercise to counteract stress and restore hippocampal size.
These activities have been shown to reverse stress-related hippocampal shrinkage.
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Stress shrinks your brain. Neuroscientist Lisa Genova explains how to strengthen it.
It may not feel like it when you can't find your phone or "lose" your sunglasses sitting atop your head, but your memory is an amazing ability -- and one we want to protect. So it's little wonder that any blips or blank spaces can send us spiraling into concern.
Some recall issues here and there are normal, says neuroscientist and author Lisa Genova, and not every lapse means looming problems. (And don't worry, forgetting names is a surprisingly tough thing for our brains to do!) But, Genova says, there's ways we can improve our memory, increase resilience and recall and be more comfortable with ourselves and our minds.
From making lists and getting Google's help to giving yourself a pop quiz, getting some meditation in, and just plain paying attention, these tips will have your steel trap gleaming.
0:00 Introducing the problem
1:19 #1: Practice paying attention
1:45: #2: Bulk up your hippocampus
3:18 A 9-second meditation you can try
3:59 #3 Secure your sleep
5:14 #4 Drink caffeine
5:36 #5 Create associations (the Baker-Baker Paradox)
6:36 #6 Repetition
7:14 #7 Write it down
8:03 #8 Self-testing
8:31 #9 Just Google it
9:14 Forgetting is human
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About Lisa Genova:
Lisa Genova is the New York Times bestselling author of the novels Still Alice, Left Neglected, Love Anthony, Inside the O’Briens, and Every Note Played. Still Alice was adapted into an Oscar-winning film starring Julianne Moore, Alec Baldwin, and Kristen Stewart. Lisa graduated valedictorian from Bates College with a degree in biopsychology and holds a PhD in neuroscience from Harvard University. She travels worldwide speaking about the neurological diseases she writes about and has appeared on The Dr. Oz Show, Today, PBS NewsHour, CNN, and NPR. Her TED talk, “What You Can Do to Prevent Alzheimer’s,” has been viewed more than five million times. The New York Times bestseller REMEMBER is her first work of nonfiction.
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