Irvine : UCI Says Excitement Can Improve Memory : Costa Mesa

Researchers at UC Irvine have found a way to improve memory: Make life more exciting and you’ll remember more.

UCI’s “memory enhancement program” at the Irvine campus and also at the UCI Medical Center in Orange has found that people remember more when events are not routine.

Using a process called “significant event technique,” the university’s Memory Disorders Clinic teaches patients to replace monotonous routines with exciting activities. Dr. Curt Sandman, professor of psychiatry and co-director of the clinic, said he believes the process can help up to 20% of patients suffering memory loss because of age.

UCI psychobiologists’ research has found that unusual or exciting events “trigger a flood of neurochemicals in the body which aid the recall of those events,” university officials explained.

Sandman said a person can keep those neurochemicals flowing by breaking the pattern of routine in one’s life. “Memory loss may get worse with age because when people give up an active life, this internal neurochemical ‘cocktail’ is stirred up less and less,” Sandman pointed out.

He noted that traditional medical advice has advocated resorting to a routine to counter a failing memory, “but we’re discovering that’s probably the worst advice you can give someone,” Sandman said.