Have you ever wished that you could be thrown repeatedly into a swimming pool filled with murky water, and reliably find your way to a submerged platform? Probably not. But that is a common way to test the memory of mice. Mice who remember the location of the platform find it more quickly, and of course mice with better memories remember the location better. But what makes for a good memory in a mouse? Surprisingly, one of the answers is a group of foods that contains the antioxidant chemical epicatechin. A recent study in the Journal of Neuroscience found that mice who ate more of this chemical found the submerged platform more quickly than a control group of rats who did not get an epicatechin supplement.
So where can you get epicatechin? In some very tasty foods, actually. Blueberries, grapes, tea, and cocoa top the list. Personally, I like the prospect of eating more dark chocolate and drinking more tea. But the study suggests there is one more step I should take, to get maximum benefit to my memory: Exercise. Rats that ran a treadmill for two hours a day, and also go the epicatechin supplement had the best performance in the underwater maze. I hate treadmills, but if raking leaves or walking my dogs can work as a substitute, I’m already there.
Of course, there may be a few nit-pickers out there who will point out that mice are not exactly the same as people, and that finding a submerged maze may not involve the same memory systems as remembering material for a psychology quiz. Pick all you want, but you are not going to stop me from making a batch of blueberry muffins, and telling myself that they are good for me.
Wow, finally an idea that I can really get behind. If it is really
true that eating the correct foods can increase your memory I am on my
way to an A in Biology. How hard could it be to consume enough
chocolate to boost my memory to be able to cover 400 pages of college
biology? Wait, they don’t say how much I would have to eat to
accomplish this mind-boggling feat. Maybe chocolate has to share the
spotlight with healthier foods. OK, I can drink lots of tea and eat
blueberries and grapes. If the compound, epicatechin is found in other
healthy foods I am all set. Oh, I see another problem, exercise. Or
maybe I should say the possible lack of exercise. How much do I need?
It says that the rats ran on a treadmill for two hours a day. If
that is converted to people time does that mean I have to run for four
hours a day or perhaps six hours a day? I am not sure an A in biology
is worth it.
Not only did the addition of epicatechin increase the rat’s memory but
it also decreased the activity of genes playing a role in inflammation
and neurodegeneration. This could mean a big step toward finding a way
to stop or slow down the degeneration of people with Alzheimer’s. It
seems that the flavonols found in chocolate and blueberries correspond
to the antioxidants we are being told to add to our diets to slow
aging. According to an article about studies being done at Tufts,
antioxidants are powerful tools for slowing down the ageing process.
Part of the problem
with the aging brain is that it looses it’s ability to remember. I am
really glad that studies are finding ways to increase our memory and
learning ability before I am too old to use the results.
Just as a side comment, one of the things that I noticed about the
original study was that Mars, Inc sponsored it. They make chocolate
candy bars and cocoa. I wonder if any of the study results are
self-serving at all.
Comment by Anya Wasko — November 22, 2007 @ 5:17 pm
After reading this post, I became more interested in how exercise and physical activity boosts memory skills than the ways in which eating organic dark chocolate could amend memory, however, that is not to say I don’t appreciate blueberries, grapes, or tea. The effects exercise has on memory isn’t something we haven’t seen as we’ve already learned about this relationship when studying rats in cages earlier this year. Call it skepticism (although the evidence from the study in the Journal of Neuroscience seems legitimate), but I came across an article in the New York Times that discusses the improvement of “executive function,” an element in memory not due to eating certain foods but rather to exercise.
I completely support adding antioxidants to our diets in an effort to slow down the ageing process and therefore preventing memory loss. But I can’t help but feel that there is much more we can do to help prevent memory loss. Digestion of cocoa, blueberries, and other foods rich in antioxidants is a slow process. I’m not usually an impatient person, but I think I’d rather speed up the process of improving memory loss through exercise for it is capable in bettering what scientists call “executive function.” This function is the set of abilities that gives people the necessary skills in selecting a whole range of behaviors appropriate to certain situations. In addition, it encompasses the speeds at which we respond to and process stimuli and working memory. For example, improvement of executive function allows people to remember phone numbers after reading it off of address books and immediately dialing it.
It is said that executive function starts to deteriorate when people reach their 70s. However, exercise has proven to be useful. Elderly people who were generally athletic throughout their entire lives have much better executive functions than those who led less actively stimulating lives. Yet, there’s hope! Training programs developed for the elderly who haven’t been very athletic or active have found that seventy year olds who begin exercising already see an increase in executive function. One effective program involves jogging for thirty to sixty minutes a few times a week, which actually doesn’t sound so different from walking dogs. Increased blood flow leads to neurogenesis in the hippocampus and the strengthening of synapses, two crucial processes that epicatechin seems to hinder.
So, perhaps the combination of keeping and maintaining a healthy regimen with investing in a gym membership (and actually using it) would be the most effective in improving our memory. While we glean epicatechin from certain foods, regular exercise would compensate for the neurodegeneration that happens when we utilize epicatechin, and actually build stronger synaptic connections in addition to creating new neurons in the hippocampus.
Reference:
Aamodt, Sandra and Sam Wang. (2007). Exercise on the Brain. The New York Times. Retrieved November 25, 2007 from http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/08/opinion/08aamodt.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
Comment by Alex Fang — November 29, 2007 @ 10:45 pm
In the anxiety-filled months leading up to AP tests my junior year of high school, everyone seemed to have different advice as to what to do to prepare for the big day. My AP Lit teacher was the absolute worst when it came to memory strategies. In addition to traditional mnemonic devices and extra multiple-choice sets, she had our class learning how to “gut-test” (a complicated procedure involving many intricate hand movements that was sure to detract from the very limited time we had to actually take the test), and, to top it all off, she planned out an elaborative breakfast menu for the morning of the test. I don’t remember the entire menu, but I do know that blueberries and chocolate topped the list. I’m glad to see that, despite indications to the contrary, my AP Lit teacher was probably not completely crazy. Given the recent studies linking exercise to memory enhancement, it may be only a matter of time before the traditional desks and chairs are replaced by treadmills and stair-steppers.
It seems, however, that improving memory perhaps isn’t enough to ease the guilty conscious of someone who, like myself, has a bit too much of a sweet tooth: nutritionists warn that “chocolate is high in fat and sugar, which may undo any potential benefits” (in this BBC article). So it looks like I’ll have to stick with the grapes and blueberries next time—at least until those trips to the gym I keep meaning to make pan out.
These studies may not give us conclusive results that epicatechin really does improve memory, but until further results come out on the subject, is there really harm in eating a few more fruits and a bit of chocolate now and again? I doubt it. And if we really believe that going to these measures will quantifiably improve our memories, who knows what might happen? The power of belief has been known to do amazing things.
Comment by Kylie Cannon — December 4, 2007 @ 1:46 am
Growing up I’ve heard about many different foods that are supposed to boost your memory –bananas, beans, and even eggs, to mention a few. And how do these help? Well, bananas contain a lot of potassium, which helps the body’s circulatory system deliver oxygen to the brain. With more oxygen going to the brain, brain cell performance improves, the brain is more alert and so memory is enhanced. With regards to beans, they contain iron which helps promote healthy brain tissue and neurotransmitter production, impacting brain performance.
In one study, researchers at Boston University found that when healthy young adults were given the drug scopolamine, which blocks acetylcholine receptors in the brain, it significantly reduced their ability to remember word pairs (ACh is important in the formation of long-term memories). Now, eggs are rich in choline, which the body uses to produce the neurotransmitter acetylcholine. So eating eggs could help improve your memory.
And now, there’s this study pointing to the role of epicatechin in boosting memory. The mice given foods laced with the chemical showed “signs of blood vessel growth…Better blood flow to memory-related brain areas may have helped the mice remember the maze.” All in all, what we’ll realize from the array of information available to us is that there is no one way to boost memory.
These different foods boost memory in different ways. They basically all provide the brain with the things it needs to function as maximum performance – oxygen, good blood circulation, acetylcholine, iron, etc. As much as these foods can be beneficial to brain function, it is important to remember that too much of everything is bad. In trying to improve your memory by eating large amounts of chocolates or eggs, you could end up building up fat deposits, raising your cholestrol levels etc., which will supercede any benefits. The key is to maintain a good balanced diet, which would help you improve your brain performance, but not at the expense of the rest of your body.
Another important factor to remember is that one memory boosting method might not work for everyone. I for example eat several bananas a day. However, I do not feel that eating bananas has noticeably improved my memory. There was a time when learning with music helped improve my recall abilities (The Mozart Effect). Now, however, it just makes it harder for me to concentrate.
To be honest, mnemonic strategies, rehearsing and processing information more deeply are the only things that have consistently helped boost my memory. With these memory processes, anyone can be sure to get the desired effects.
Comment by Sena Quarm Goka — December 9, 2007 @ 10:51 pm
[...] substance, epicatechin , found in chocolate, has been shown to improve spatial memory. Specifically, it boosted the ability of rats to remember [...]
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