Recently I received an invitation in the mail offering me a free brain care score. I was intrigued by this invitation, as the subject of the brain and mind has been of interest to me for a long time. Nothing in the invitation explained exactly what they would be doing to score my brain. I was simply told that this was important for people over 50 years of age. I definitely qualify!
Those of us in our “golden years” are well aware of the MMSE test, most commonly referred to as the Mini-Mental State Examination, that we must go through each time we visit our doctor. It consists of about 30 questions that we are asked and expected to answer. Midway through these questions we will be told three words, such as apple, table and penny, and we are told to remember them as we will be asked to repeat them later. Naturally, this immediately creates stress and anxiety, making it much more difficult for us to remember them! To the best of my knowledge, none of us have ever been told what the consequences will be if we can’t remember them. Will men in white coats immediately come and cart us off to a rest home? Will the words FAILED THE TEST be recorded in capital letters next to our name in the computer? What happens if we refuse to answer? Jail?
One of my relatives says she can never remember all three words! Not everyone has the same ability to remember things. I have always felt very fortunate, as when I was in school it was very easy for me to remember things — dates in history, multiplication tables, spelling, etc. I never forgot, “In 1492 Columbus sailed the ocean blue.” Yet there are many people who have no recollection of who discovered America! Some students had to study and study and tried as hard as they could, yet remembering schoolwork was very difficult for them. No two brains are the same!
I have a lot of questions about the brain. Most people have about the same size head, although I have heard some people referred to as having a “big head.” However, that expression has to do with something entirely different! My question is, “How can our brain hold all the information and memories that have been put into it over so many years? It is filled with a bazillion things! Do we have little chips in there like the computers that store everything?”
There is constant concern with older people about losing our short-term memory. Are we really losing the ability to store the things we see and hear now, or is it simply that our brains are so full that there is no room to put anything more in them? Is the brain simply like the closet we have filled with things we saved over the years? While we can go through our closets and take out things we no longer need, no one has found a way to clear our brain of unimportant information.
At what age do we start storing things in our brain? Is everyone different? Was my brain totally empty when I was born? I don’t have memories prior to being about 4 years old, and even then memories are limited. I assume our brain needs time to grow before memories and events will begin to be stored. Is everything stored or just certain things selected to be remembered if needed or wanted? If you have a memory from a certain day, are all the memories from that day stored?
So much was stored in my brain by the time I finished high school, yet today so much of it is forgotten. It makes me wonder how much of it was really important in living my life. Perhaps more of the basic needs in life should be taught.
You can be sitting very quietly and a certain word, a sentence, a picture, meeting someone — so many different things can trigger and bring up memories. They can be from many years ago or from yesterday. Many times the memories brought up are unexpected, things not thought about in years. Many are very pleasant and enjoyable. We all have bad memories that we wish we could completely forget; however, those are the ones that are the hardest to forget. They seem to make a deep impression and seldom go away.
There are new instruments and techniques available today to allow scientists to assess the living brain and monitor the nervous system activity as it happens, and to tell people the condition and the health of the brain. And there are ways being developed to help with some of the problems. Research is constantly being done. It would be quite a discovery if someone could find a way to read the brain like a book. So much could be learned! Would it be like the miners years ago in California — a gold rush — or would it be a bust?
Hopefully it would help to unlock the mystery of why people think and act as they do. However, I am not sure that would be a good discovery. There would be things we did not want people to know. There are times when some thoughts and memories should remain in the brain.
Although it might be interesting to know my brain care score, I am not going to take a brain test. I don’t always want people to know what I am thinking!
