RETRAIN

YOUR
BRAIN
BY PAT R I C I A C U RT I S

>> 20
memory
Can’t remember where you put your
glasses? Blanked on your new col-
league’s name? “Forgetting these
types of things is a sign of how busy

tricks we are,” says Zaldy S. Tan, MD, di-

rector of the Memory Disorders
Clinic at Beth Israel Deaconess Med-
you’ll ical Center in Boston. “When we’re
not paying good attention, the mem-
never ories we form aren’t very robust, and
we have a problem retrieving the in-

forget formation later.”

The key, says Harry Lorayne,
author of Ageless Memory: Simple
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I L L U S T R AT E D B Y C H R I S T O P H N I E M A N N 97
Secrets for Keeping Your Brain Young,
is to get your brain in shape. “We ex-
ercise our bodies, but what good is
that great body if you don’t have the
mental capabilities to go with it?”
Sure, you could write everything
down, keep organized lists and leave
electronic notes on your BlackBerry,
cell phone or PDA . But when you
don’t have access to those aids, or if
you want to strengthen your brain,
try these expert-recommended strate-
gies to help you remember.
Brain Freeze # 1
“WHAT THE HECK IS
HIS NAME?”
> Pay attention. When you’re in-
troduced to someone, really listen to
the person’s name. Then, to get a bet-
ter grasp, picture the spelling. Ask, “Is
that Kathy with a K or a C?” Make a re-
mark about the name to help lock it
in (“Oh, Carpenter—that was my
childhood best friend’s last name”),
and use the name a few times during
the conversation and when you say
goodbye.
> Visualize the name. For hard-to-
remember monikers (Bentavegna,
Wobbekind), make the name mean-
ingful. For Bentavegna, maybe you
think of a bent weather vane. Picture
it. Then look at the person, choose
an outstanding feature (bushy eye-
brows, green eyes) and tie the name
to the face. If Mr. Bentavegna has a
big nose, picture a bent weather vane
instead of his nose. The sillier the
image, the better.
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> Create memorable associations.
Picture Joe Everett standing atop
Mount Everest. If you want to remem-
ber that Erin Curtis is the CEO of an
architectural firm, imagine her curt-
sying in front of a large building, sug-
gests Gini Graham Scott, PhD, author
of 30 Days to a More Powerful Memory.
> Cheat a little. Supplement these
tips with some more concrete actions.
When you get a business card, after
the meeting, jot down a few notes on
the back of the card (“red glasses, lives
in Springfield, went to my alma
mater”) to help you out when you
need a reminder.
Brain Freeze #2
“WHERE IN THE WORLD DID
I LEAVE MY GLASSES?”
> Give a play-by-play. Pay atten-
tion to what you’re doing as you place
your glasses on the end table. Remind
yourself, “I’m putting my keys in my
coat pocket,” so you have a clear mem-
ory of doing it, says Scott.
> Make it a habit. Put a small bas-
ket on a side table. Train yourself to
put your keys, glasses, cell phone or
any other object you frequently use (or
misplace) in the basket—every time.
Brain Freeze #3
“WHAT ELSE WAS I
SUPPOSED TO DO TODAY?”
> Start a ritual. To remind yourself
of a chore (write a thank-you note, go
to the dry cleaner), give yourself an
unusual physical reminder. You ex-
pect to see your bills on your desk, so
leaving them there won’t necessarily
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CHALLENGE # 1
Study the photo on page 136. Then
turn the page, wait a minute, and try to
remember 12 or more things about it.
If you get 11 or more, you have great
recall. Now challenge yourself with
a busier picture, in a book, magazine
or even on your wall, suggests memory
expert Carol Vorderman, author of
Super Brain: 101 Easy Ways to a
More Agile Mind. This time,
try for 24.
remind you to pay them. But place a
shoe or a piece of fruit on the stack of
bills, and later, when you spot the out-
of-place object, you’ll remember to
take care of them, says Carol Vorder-
man, author of Super Brain: 101 Easy
Ways to a More Agile Mind.
> Sing it. To remember a small
group of items (a grocery list, phone
number, list of names, to-do list), adapt
it to a well-known song, says Vorder-
man. Try “peanut butter, milk and
eggs” to the tune of “Twinkle, Twin-
kle, Little Star,” “Happy Birthday” or
even nursery rhymes.
> Try mnemonic devices. Many of
us learned “ROY G BIV” to remember
the colors of the rainbow, or “Every
Good Boy Deserves Favors” to learn
musical notes. Make up your own de-
vice to memorize names (Suzanne’s
kids are Adam, Patrick and Elizabeth,
or “APE”), lists (milk, eggs, tomatoes,
soda, or “METS”) or computer com-
mands (to shut down your PC, hit
Control+Alt+Delete, or “CAD”).
> Use your body. When you have
no pen or paper and are making a
mental grocery or to-do list,
remember it accord-
ing to major body
parts, says Scott.
Start at your feet
and work your
way up. So if you
have to buy glue,
cat food, broccoli,
chicken, grapes
and toothpaste, you
might picture your foot
stuck in glue, a cat on your
knee looking for food, a stalk of broc-
coli sticking out of your pants pocket,
a chicken pecking at your belly but-
ton, a bunch of grapes hanging from
your chest and a toothbrush in your
mouth.
> Go Roman. With the Roman room
technique, you associate your grocery,
to-do or party-invite list with the rooms
of your house or the layout of your of-
fice, garden or route to work. Again,
the zanier the association, the more
likely you’ll remember it, says Scott.
Imagine apples hanging from the chan-
delier in your foyer, spilled cereal all
over the living room couch, shampoo
bubbles overflowing in the kitchen sink
and cheese on your bedspread.
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WHO REMEMBERS WHAT?
Men may bemoan more easily later, again
women’s uncanny thanks to enhanced
ability to remember blood flow to the
every word and brain.
nuance of an > Unpleasant,
argument weeks frightening or
later, but there’s stressful experi-
a scientific basis ences. Estrogen
for the gender gap. activates a larger
“Men and women field of neurons in
are different in every women’s brains during
system of the body, and an upsetting experience,
nowhere is this more explains Dr. Legato, so
true than in the brain,” rior to men’s in a couple they experience the
says Marianne J. Legato, of key areas: stress in greater and
MD, founder of the > The spoken word. more precise detail.
Partnership for Gender- “This includes stories “Simply remembering
Specific Medicine at read aloud from books, an unpleasant incident
Columbia University. as well as verbal argu- can bring back the same
Because of a higher ments,” says Dr. Legato, terrible sadness and
rate of blood flow to author of Why Men agitation to women
certain parts of the brain Never Remember and that they experienced
(including those that Women Never Forget. at the time,” adds Dr.
control language) as These things become Legato. On the plus side:
well as higher concen- more firmly fixed in Women may be better
trations of estrogen, women’s memories, eyewitnesses at crime
women’s memories have are better “packaged” and accident scenes.
been shown to be supe- and can be recalled Maureen Mackey

Brain Freeze #4 nis racket. To remember your ATM PIN

“WHAT’S MY PASSWORD
FOR THIS WEBSITE?”
> Shape your numbers. Assign a
shape to each number: 0 looks like
a ball or ring; 1 is a pen; 2 is a swan;
3 looks like handcuffs; 4 is a sailboat;
5, a pregnant woman; 6, a pipe; 7, a
boomerang; 8, a snowman; and 9, a ten-
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(4298, say), imagine yourself on a sail-
boat (4), when a swan (2) tries to at-
tack you. You hit it with a tennis racket
(9), and it turns into a snowman (8).
Try forgetting that image!
> Rhyme it. Think of words that
rhyme with the numbers 1 through
9 (knee for 3, wine for 9, etc.). Then
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create a story using the rhyming unplug your iPod and shut down your
words: A nun (1) in heaven (7) banged computer; you’ll retain more.
her knee (3), and it became sore (4). > Use color. Give your notes some
color with bolded headings and bul-
Brain Freeze #5 leted sections (it’s easier to remem-
“THE WORD IS ON THE TIP ber a red bullet than running text).
OF MY TONGUE.” > Makeamap. Imagine an intersec-
> Practice your ABCs. Say you just tion and mentally place a word, fact
can’t remember the name of that or number on each street corner.
movie. Recite the alphabet (aloud or
in your head). When you get to the
letter R, it should trigger the name
that’s escaping you: Ratatouille. This
CHALLENGE # 2
trick works when taking tests too. Give yourself a minute to study the
list of words below, from 30 Days to a
Brain Freeze #6 More Powerful Memory by Gini Graham
“I JUST CAN’T MEMORIZE Scott. Then close the magazine and
ANYTHING ANYMORE!” write down as many of the words as you
> Read it, type it, say it, hear it. To remember. How’d you do? Give yourself
memorize a speech, toast or test ma- one point for each correct word.
terial, read your notes, then type them
into the computer. Next, read them > PENCIL > BOX
aloud and tape-record them. Listen > WOOD > LAMP
to the recording sev- > HOUSE > COUCH
eral times. As you > BOOK > NIGHT
work on memo-
> TELEVISION > MOON
rizing, remem-
ber to turn off
Scoring
the TV,
9-10 Impressive!
You’re an expert.
7-8 Great job. Keep
up the good work.
5-6 You’re about
average. Try again
in a few days.
Less than 5 Your
memory needs a
tune-up. Practice the
tips on these pages to
strengthen your skills.
Boost your brainpower with our
Mind Medley game at rd.com/mind.
101
 IWILL
REMEMBER
>> An extraordinary story of
memory lost and found
BY CYNTHIA DERMODY
Andrew Engel was completely con-
fused. Just days into his freshman
year at Rutgers University, he was sit-
ting in Sociology 101, listening to
other students chime into a discus-
sion. He had no idea what they were
talking about. He had done his home-
work, paid attention to lectures and
taken notes, but nothing was famil-
iar. Everyone is so much smarter than
I am, he thought. It was a foreign feel-
ing, as he’d always been a good stu-
dent and had graduated high school
with a 3.9 GPA.
The rest of his day progressed like
an episode of The Twilight Zone. He
got lost, again, on his way to the cafe-
teria, even though he’d been there a
few hours earlier. Back at his dorm,
he greeted his roommate with a “Hi,
how’s it going?” all the while thinking,
What the heck is his name again?
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He was acting like a person with
Alzheimer’s disease—but he was only
17. By the end of September, he’d
dropped a class and was studying with
a tutor, yet he was still struggling. He
decided he had no choice but to drop
out, telling his bewildered parents he
wasn’t cut out for college.
Andrew had long wanted to get a
degree and work in health care, and
PHOTOGRAPHED BY STEPHANIE KUYKENDAL
was crushed that his dream had been
derailed. He was also distraught about
being separated for the first time from
his identical twin brother, Jason, also
a student at Rutgers. He cried for most
of the long ride to his parents’ house
in Maryland.
They thought it was anxiety and
took Andrew to see a psychiatrist. The
doctor couldn’t pinpoint a cause and
blamed stress. But Andrew continued
to act strangely and had trouble find-
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Thanks to drive,
determination—
and his GPS—
Andrew Engel,
30, is finding
his way.
ing the right words when speaking.
He asked, “What’s for dinner?” after
he’d just eaten. He got disoriented
driving the streets he knew so well
and, while running errands, forgot
why he was out. “It was weird. I’d
never had health problems before,”
Andrew says. “I felt it had to be psy-
chological. That I was overwhelmed
and it was clouding my mind.”
Devastating Diagnosis
Andrew’s mother grew increasingly
concerned about his unusual behav-
ior, and when he started to show
ANDREW CRAMMED 12 HOURS A DAY,
physical symptoms, including an un-
quenchable thirst and frequent uri-
nation, she hustled him off to the
doctor. A brain scan made it clear: An-
drew had a malignant brain tumor.
The size of a peach pit, it was press-
ing on the part of the brain that makes
new memories and could be fatal if
left untreated. Andrew was scared, but
he was relieved that there was a rea-
son for his odd behavior.
“He basically had amnesia,” says
Andrew’s neuropsychologist, David
Schretlen, PhD, of Johns Hopkins Hos-
pital in Baltimore. “This is the kind of
memory that people lose as they get
older, especially Alzheimer’s patients.”
Memories are imprinted on the
brain like data on a hard drive. All the
information Andrew had downloaded
before the tumor (autobiographical
details, motor skills and what he
learned in school) was intact. But the
tumor had damaged the software used
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to save new information, which is why
the amnesia became glaringly obvi-
ous only when he was at college, in an
unfamiliar environment.
Doctors removed part of the tumor
and zapped the rest with radiation,
leaving Andrew so sick that he dropped
30 pounds. The cancer was gone, but
his relief was short-lived, as he was told
he’d probably never return to school.
He had an above-average verbal IQ of
120, but his memory recall score was
68, comparable with that of a person
who is developmentally challenged.
His only career option would likely be
a highly supervised manual-labor job.
“Even as they told me this, I knew I
wanted to try to go back to school,”
Andrew says. “I didn’t know if I could
do it, but I was really motivated. I
wanted to give it all I could to get my
memory back.”
His parents feared he was setting
himself up for failure and asked him to
check with his doctors, neuropsychol-
ogist Dustin Gordon, then a post-
doctoral fellow, and his supervisor,
Schretlen. Andrew was looking for a
way to retrain his brain and improve
his memory. The doctors had rarely
seen someone so determined, so they
agreed to devise strategies to help An-
drew absorb information in class and
while studying, as well as techniques
for organizing his thoughts so he could
write papers. He would have to work
ten times harder than other students
and, if he became overwhelmed, pos-
sibly have to quit school.
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Extreme Dedication
Andrew began by auditing an Eng-
lish class at nearby Howard Commu-
nity College. Eventually he discovered
that reading things at least five times
increased his chance of retaining in-
formation. In class, he wrote detailed
notes, and a note taker supplemented
what he missed. He reread his notes
several times a day, then retyped them
and the textbook material. He crammed
12 hours a day, seven days a week,
breaking only for class, meals or a
workout. To remember lists and data,
BREAKING ONLY FOR MEALS.
he used acronyms and mnemonics.
When he took the class for credit
the next semester, he got an A. “I was
happy,” he says, “but unsure how I’d
do in my other classes.” He enrolled
at the University of Maryland, Balti-
more County, taking just one or two
courses a semester toward a bache-
lor’s of science in health policy and
administration.
While he’d found a way to compen-
sate in the classroom, everyday life
was still a challenge. He carried maps
and lists when he went to the store,
but one night, after leaving a Baltimore
bar, he roamed the streets for hours.
It was 3 a.m. when he finally found
the lot where he’d parked. He now has
a GPS on his cell and carries digital
devices for recording reminders.
Andrew stuck with his program, and
in May 2007, at age 29, more than a
decade after he began, he got a stand-
ing ovation as he graduated with a 4.0.
Six months later, Andrew is at his
desk in the offices of Erickson Retire-
ment Communities in Catonsville,
Baltimore, where he works as an op-
erations associate. He’d told his fu-
ture boss, Russ Caccamisi, about his
memory problem during the inter-
view. “It didn’t concern me,” Cacca-
misi says. “Those ten years in school
showed Andrew’s perseverance.” He
still uses the strategies from college,
along with computer calendar re-
minders and the tools we all rely on
to organize our frenzied lives. “What
works best is repetition and using
more than one way to remember
something,” Andrew says. “I’ll write
it, say it, record it and listen to it.”
Of course, an imperfect memory is
still frustrating. He likes movies but
loses track of plots. He vaguely re-
members a family trip to Hawaii and
is trying to convince his parents that
they should return. Then there are his
beloved Redskins. Though he can’t re-
member scores, he could tell you if
they won. And when they lose? Some-
times, he says, it’s good to forget. ■
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