Memory Aids Let Old Brains Trump Young Brains

Rebecca Dutton
Home After a Stroke

January 24, 2011

I started to worry when the number of things I forgot to do kept growing.  My usual memory aids weren't working.  I live alone so there is no one to remind me not to screw up.  Out of desperation I put objects that must be taken care of immediately next to the stove.  When I cook I remember to retrieve a pillbox I place on top of my recipe box.  A Post-It note I stuck on the bottle of maple syrup reminds me to pick up ingredients I forgot to buy for a new recipe.  The pill bottle reminds me I'm out of allergy medicine.  The black mini-tripod reminds me to take photos for posts on my blog.  The stack of envelopes reminds me that bills had to be mailed ASAP so I wouldn't have to pay late charges.   My post office is across the street from my grocery store so you would think that remembering to mail things would be easy.   I keep telling myself I'll stop at the post office the next time I go to the grocery store and then I don't do it.

I beat myself up when I saw this pile.  Then I realized a child would never do what I had just done. Young brains are superb at learning new information quickly.  Yet every parent knows that children are not good at retrieving information when it would be useful.  Old brains have a mature frontal cortex behind the forehead that tells other parts of the brain what to do.  "Executive function" is the fancy name for what the frontal cortex does.  Unfortunately the frontal cortex doesn't mature until 21 years of age so adult brains have an important skill that sparkly young brains lack.

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Memory Aids Let Old Brains Trump Young Brains

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