Neuroscientist Shares Brain Training Exercises He Does Every Day

How often do you long for a better memory?

Maybe you’re giving a presentation or revising for exams, or maybe you just always forget where you put your keys. Whatever it is that you are trying to remember, memory plays a crucial role in our day-to-day lives.

Just like our muscles, our memory needs to be exercised to reach its full potential. It is also something that needs to be trained.

Boris Konrad is a neuroscientist and World Memory Champion who holds several Guinness World Records for memory. Newsweek spoke to Konrad about what he does to keep his memory in top shape.

“Memory is a skill, not an innate talent,” Konrad told Newsweek. “Most relevant to preserve a healthy memory is using and challenging it. I like to play a quick game out of memory sports a few times per week. To do so, I might memorize 100 digits in a minute or a deck of playing cards.”

To the untrained memorizer, this sounds like a daunting task. But Konrad uses a special trick to recall long lists of information.

“This is possible only due to the use of mnemonic techniques such as the memory palace,” he said.

Popularized by Sherlock, the memory palace method works by visualizing a place you know well and mapping out a path through that location. Along your path, you pick out specific key points to which you ascribe a single piece of information.

Then, when you have assigned all of your key points, it’s time to walk through your memory palace, solidifying each of those associations. The more you repeat the exercise, the stronger these associations will be.

“Our research has shown that just six weeks of daily training in those mnemonics leads to both changes in neural networks as well as more durable memory performance with more efficient neural coding,” Konrad said.

But these pattern-based exercises are not the only ways Konrad keeps his memory refreshed.

“Besides mnemonics, I try to use some short mindfulness exercises daily,” Konrad said. “This might be as brief as stopping for five minutes in a small forest on my way to work and just observing nature with all senses mindfully.

“When reading, I also make use of the positive effects of retrieval practice. This means after reading an article or a section in a book, if I think it was worth to be remembered, I will spend just a minute or two to recapture what I just read without looking at the text. I do the same thing after meetings, video calls, and phone calls.”

Our surrounding environment can also help us with these exercises: “We can adapt our surroundings to our advantage,” Konrad said. “Consider integrating mnemonic elements into your environment. For instance, if you’re learning a new language, you might label household items with their names in the target language. Set cues where you see them frequently, that remind you to do both brief breaks to keep your mind sharp over the course of the day as well as doing some memory tasks to keep your memory challenged and healthy.”

However, externalizing your memory—i.e. writing everything down—might make you more organized, but it doesn’t always lead to better recall.

“If we externalize most of our memory, it is to no surprise our own memory will get worse—and that the opposite is true if we use our memory more,” Konrad said.

Even without playing these brain games, our daily lives can provide opportunities for brain training without you even realizing it.

“Even without any memory training, someone who always worked with people and was interested in names will have a better memory name than someone who rarely meets new people and always believed they cannot remember names,” Konrad said.

But even with regular training, not everyone will be a memory champion—a lot of it also comes down to our genetics and our lifestyle.

“In most memory tasks, including everyday memory performance and learning in various environments, the use of the right memory strategies and some training can allow anyone to achieve massive gains,” Konrad said. “[But] looking at peek performances genetics do play a role. In large enough groups, memory performance in various tasks is quite highly correlated with IQ, for example.

“Lifestyle and environmental factors also play a significant role in affecting our memory, both positively and negatively.”

Starting with the negatives, Konrad pointed towards stress, sleep and diet.

“Stress, in particular, over time can interfere with the brain’s ability to store and retrieve information,” he said. “Sleep deprivation also impairs cognitive function, including memory, while a poor diet, especially one high in sugars and saturated fats, can have a long-term negative impact on brain health.

“Your brain cleans up your memory while we sleep and deep sleep seems to be important for that. Reducing the light exposure at night, having consistent bedtime routines not just for the kids but also yourself, and having bedroom temperature and stiffness of the mattress most comfortable to you can all help.”

Everyone can benefit from brain training, and these memory games can support our overall emotional and cognitive health.

“The brain, much like any other organ in the body, benefits from regular ‘exercise,'” Konrad said. “This doesn’t mean you need to memorize a deck of cards daily or become a walking encyclopedia. Simply keep your brain engaged.

“It could be through reading, puzzles, learning a new skill, or even something as simple as taking a different route to work to break the routine. Variety and challenge keep the brain flexible, and that, in turn, supports better memory function.”

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