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Can’trememberwhere you put yourglasses? Blanked on your new col-league’s name? “Forgetting thesetypes of things is a sign of how busywe are,” says Zaldy S. Tan, MD, di-rector of the Memory DisordersClinic at Beth Israel DeaconessMed-ical Center in Boston. “When we’renot paying good attention, the mem-ories we form aren’t very robust, andwe have a problem retrieving the in-formation later.”The key, says Harry Lorayne,

author of Ageless Memory: Simple

20memorytricksyou’llneverforget

RETRAIN

YOURBY PAT R I C I A C U R T I S

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Secrets for Keeping Your Brain Young,is to get your brain in shape. “We ex-ercise our bodies, but what good isthat great body if you don’t have themental capabilities to go with it?”Sure, you could write everythingdown, keep organized lists and leaveelectronic notes on your BlackBerry,cell phone or PDA. But when youdon’t have access to those aids, or ifyou want to strengthen your brain,try these expert-recommended strate-gies to help you remember.

Brain Freeze #1“WHATTHEHECK ISHISNAME?”> Pay attention.When you’re in-

troduced to someone, really listen tothe person’s name. Then, to get a bet-ter grasp, picture the spelling. Ask, “Isthat Kathy with aK or aC?”Make a re-mark about the name to help lock itin (“Oh, Carpenter—that was mychildhood best friend’s last name”),and use the name a few times duringthe conversation and when you saygoodbye.> Visualizethename. For hard-to-

remember monikers (Bentavegna,Wobbekind), make the name mean-ingful. For Bentavegna, maybe youthink of a bent weather vane. Pictureit. Then look at the person, choosean outstanding feature (bushy eye-brows, green eyes) and tie the nameto the face. If Mr. Bentavegna has abig nose, picture a bent weather vaneinstead of his nose. The sillier theimage, the better.

>Creatememorableassociations.Picture Joe Everett standing atopMount Everest. If you want to remem-ber that Erin Curtis is the CEO of anarchitectural firm, imagine her curt-sying in front of a large building, sug-gests Gini Graham Scott, PhD, authorof 30Days to aMore PowerfulMemory.> Cheat a little. Supplement these

tips with somemore concrete actions.When you get a business card, afterthe meeting, jot down a few notes onthe back of the card (“red glasses, livesin Springfield, went to my almamater”) to help you out when youneed a reminder.

Brain Freeze #2“WHERE INTHEWORLDDIDI LEAVEMYGLASSES?”> Give a play-by-play. Pay atten-

tion to what you’re doing as you placeyour glasses on the end table. Remindyourself, “I’m putting my keys in mycoat 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 toput your keys, glasses, cell phone orany other object you frequently use (ormisplace) in the basket—every time.

Brain Freeze #3“WHATELSEWAS ISUPPOSEDTODOTODAY?”> Startaritual.To remind yourself

of a chore (write a thank-you note, goto the dry cleaner), give yourself anunusual physical reminder. You ex-pect to see your bills on your desk, soleaving them there won’t necessarily

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Good Boy Deserves Favors” to learnmusical notes. Make up your own de-vice to memorize names (Suzanne’skids are Adam, Patrick and Elizabeth,or “APE”), lists (milk, eggs, tomatoes,soda, or “METS”) or computer com-mands (to shut down your PC, hitControl+Alt+Delete, or “CAD”).> Use your body. When you have

no pen or paper and are making amental grocery or to-do list,

remember it accord-ing to major bodyparts, says Scott.Start at your feetand work yourway up. So if youhave to buy glue,cat food, broccoli,chicken, grapes

and toothpaste, youmight picture your foot

stuck in glue, a cat on yourknee 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 fromyour chest and a toothbrush in yourmouth.>GoRoman.With theRoman room

technique, you associate your grocery,to-do or party-invite list with the roomsof your house or the layout of your of-fice, garden or route to work. Again,the zanier the association, the morelikely you’ll remember it, says Scott.Imagine apples hanging from the chan-delier in your foyer, spilled cereal allover the living room couch, shampoobubbles overflowing in the kitchen sinkand cheese on your bedspread.

remind you to pay them. But place ashoe or a piece of fruit on the stack ofbills, and later, when you spot the out-of-place object, you’ll remember totake care of them, says Carol Vorder-man, author of Super Brain: 101 EasyWays to a More Agile Mind.> Sing it. To remember a small

group of items (a grocery list, phonenumber, list of names, to-do list), adaptit to a well-known song, says Vorder-man. Try “peanut butter, milk andeggs” to the tune of “Twinkle, Twin-kle, Little Star,” “Happy Birthday” oreven nursery rhymes.> Trymnemonicdevices.Many of

us learned “ROY G BIV” to rememberthe colors of the rainbow, or “Every

CHALLENGE #1Study the photo onpage 136. Thenturn thepage,wait aminute, and try toremember 12 ormore things about it.If you get 11 ormore, you have greatrecall. Nowchallenge yourself witha busier picture, in a book,magazineor even on yourwall, suggestsmemoryexpert Carol Vorderman, author ofSuper Brain: 101 Easy Ways to aMore Agile Mind. This time,try for 24.

Men may bemoanwomen’s uncannyability to rememberevery word andnuance of anargument weekslater, but there’sa scientific basisfor the gender gap.“Men and women

are different in everysystem of the body, andnowhere is this moretrue than in the brain,”says Marianne J. Legato,MD, founder of thePartnership for Gender-Specific Medicine atColumbia University.Because of a higherrate of blood flow tocertain parts of the brain(including those thatcontrol language) aswell as higher concen-trations of estrogen,women’s memories havebeen shown to be supe-

rior to men’s in a coupleof key areas:> The spoken word.

“This includes storiesread aloud from books,as well as verbal argu-ments,” says Dr. Legato,author ofWhyMenNever Remember andWomen Never Forget.These things becomemore firmly fixed inwomen’s memories,are better “packaged”and can be recalled

more easily later, againthanks to enhancedblood flow to thebrain.> Unpleasant,

frightening orstressful experi-ences. Estrogenactivates a largerfield of neurons in

women’s brains duringan upsetting experience,explains Dr. Legato, sothey experience thestress in greater andmore precise detail.“Simply rememberingan unpleasant incidentcan bring back the sameterrible sadness andagitation to womenthat they experiencedat the time,” adds Dr.Legato. On the plus side:Women may be bettereyewitnesses at crimeand accident scenes.

M a u r e e n M a c k e y

Brain Freeze #4“WHAT’SMYPASSWORDFORTHISWEBSITE?”> Shape your numbers. Assign a

shape to each number: 0 looks likea 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, aboomerang; 8, a snowman; and 9, a ten-

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nis racket. To remember your ATM PIN(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 through9 (knee for 3, wine for 9, etc.). Then

WHOREMEMBERSWHAT?

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BoostyourbrainpowerwithourMindMedleygameatrd.com/mind.

CHALLENGE #2Give yourself aminute to study thelist ofwords below, from 30 Days to aMore Powerful MemorybyGini GrahamScott. Then close themagazine andwrite down asmany of thewords as youremember. How’d youdo? Give yourselfone point for each correctword.

create a story using the rhymingwords: A nun (1) in heaven (7) bangedher knee (3), and it became sore (4).

Brain Freeze #5“THEWORD ISONTHETIPOFMYTONGUE.”> PracticeyourABCs. Say you just

can’t remember the name of thatmovie. Recite the alphabet (aloud orin your head). When you get to theletter R, it should trigger the namethat’s escaping you: Ratatouille. Thistrick works when taking tests too.

Brain Freeze #6“I JUSTCAN’TMEMORIZEANYTHINGANYMORE!”> Read it, type it, say it,hear it.To

memorize a speech, toast or test ma-terial, read your notes, then type theminto the computer. Next, read themaloud and tape-record them. Listento the recording sev-eral times. As youwork onmemo-rizing, remem-ber to turn offthe TV,

> BOX> LAMP>COUCH>NIGHT>MOON

>PENCIL>WOOD>HOUSE>BOOK>TELEVISION

Scoring9-10 Impressive!You’re an expert.7-8Great job. Keepup the goodwork.5-6You’re aboutaverage. Try againin a fewdays.Less than 5Yourmemory needs atune-up. Practice thetips on these pages tostrengthen your skills.

unplug your iPod and shut down yourcomputer; you’ll retain more.> Usecolor.Give your notes some

color with bolded headings and bul-leted sections (it’s easier to remem-ber a red bullet than running text).>Makeamap. Imagine an intersec-

tion and mentally place a word, factor number on each street corner.

Andrew Engel was completely con-fused. Just days into his freshmanyear at Rutgers University, he was sit-ting in Sociology 101, listening toother students chime into a discus-sion. He had no idea what they weretalking about. He had done his home-work, paid attention to lectures andtaken notes, but nothing was famil-iar. Everyone is so much smarter thanI am, he thought. It was a foreign feel-ing, as he’d always been a good stu-dent and had graduated high schoolwith a 3.9 GPA.The rest of his day progressed like

an episode of The Twilight Zone. Hegot lost, again, on his way to the cafe-teria, even though he’d been there afew 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?

He was acting like a person withAlzheimer’s disease—but he was only17. By the end of September, he’ddropped a class andwas studying witha tutor, yet he was still struggling. Hedecided he had no choice but to dropout, telling his bewildered parents hewasn’t cut out for college.Andrew had long wanted to get a

degree and work in health care, andwas crushed that his dream had beenderailed. He was also distraught aboutbeing separated for the first time fromhis identical twin brother, Jason, alsoa student at Rutgers. He cried for mostof the long ride to his parents’ housein Maryland.They thought it was anxiety and

took Andrew to see a psychiatrist. Thedoctor couldn’t pinpoint a cause andblamed stress. But Andrew continuedto act strangely and had trouble find-

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>>IWILLREMEMBER

An extraordinary story ofmemory lost and foundB Y C Y N T H I A D E R M O D Y

Thanks todrive,determination—andhisGPS—AndrewEngel,30, isfindinghisway.

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ing the right words when speaking.He asked, “What’s for dinner?” afterhe’d just eaten. He got disorienteddriving the streets he knew so welland, while running errands, forgotwhy he was out. “It was weird. I’dnever had health problems before,”Andrew says. “I felt it had to be psy-chological. That I was overwhelmedand it was clouding my mind.”

Devastating DiagnosisAndrew’s mother grew increasingly

concerned about his unusual behav-ior, and when he started to show

physical symptoms, including an un-quenchable thirst and frequent uri-nation, she hustled him off to thedoctor. A brain scanmade 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 makesnew memories and could be fatal ifleft untreated. Andrewwas scared, buthe was relieved that there was a rea-son for his odd behavior.“He basically had amnesia,” says

Andrew’s neuropsychologist, DavidSchretlen, PhD, of Johns Hopkins Hos-pital in Baltimore. “This is the kind ofmemory that people lose as they getolder, especially Alzheimer’s patients.”Memories are imprinted on the

brain like data on a hard drive. All theinformation Andrew had downloadedbefore the tumor (autobiographicaldetails, motor skills and what helearned in school) was intact. But thetumor had damaged the software used

to save new information, which is whythe amnesia became glaringly obvi-ous only when he was at college, in anunfamiliar environment.Doctors removed part of the tumor

and zapped the rest with radiation,leavingAndrew so sick that he dropped30 pounds. The cancer was gone, buthis relief was short-lived, as hewas toldhe’d probably never return to school.He had an above-average verbal IQ of120, but his memory recall score was68, comparable with that of a personwho is developmentally challenged.His only career optionwould 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 coulddo it, but I was really motivated. Iwanted to give it all I could to get mymemory back.”His parents feared he was setting

himself up for failure and asked him tocheck with his doctors, neuropsychol-ogist Dustin Gordon, then a post-doctoral fellow, and his supervisor,Schretlen. Andrew was looking for away to retrain his brain and improvehis memory. The doctors had rarelyseen someone so determined, so theyagreed to devise strategies to help An-drew absorb information in class andwhile studying, as well as techniquesfor organizing his thoughts so he couldwrite papers. He would have to workten times harder than other studentsand, if he became overwhelmed, pos-sibly have to quit school.

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ANDREWCRAMMED12HOURSADAY,

Six months later, Andrew is at hisdesk 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 hismemory problem during the inter-view. “It didn’t concern me,” Cacca-misi says. “Those ten years in schoolshowed Andrew’s perseverance.” He

still uses the strategies from college,along with computer calendar re-minders and the tools we all rely onto organize our frenzied lives. “Whatworks best is repetition and usingmore than one way to remembersomething,” Andrew says. “I’ll writeit, say it, record it and listen to it.”Of course, an imperfect memory is

still frustrating. He likes movies butloses track of plots. He vaguely re-members a family trip to Hawaii andis trying to convince his parents thatthey should return. Then there are hisbeloved Redskins. Though he can’t re-member scores, he could tell you ifthey won. And when they lose? Some-times, he says, it’s good to forget. �

Extreme DedicationAndrew began by auditing an Eng-

lish class at nearby Howard Commu-nity College. Eventually he discoveredthat reading things at least five timesincreased his chance of retaining in-formation. In class, he wrote detailednotes, and a note taker supplementedwhat he missed. He reread his notesseveral times a day, then retyped themand the textbookmaterial. He crammed12 hours a day, seven days a week,breaking only for class, meals or aworkout. To remember lists and data,

he used acronyms and mnemonics.When he took the class for credit

the next semester, he got an A. “I washappy,” he says, “but unsure how I’ddo in my other classes.” He enrolledat the University of Maryland, Balti-more County, taking just one or twocourses a semester toward a bache-lor’s of science in health policy andadministration.While he’d found a way to compen-

sate in the classroom, everyday lifewas still a challenge. He carried mapsand lists when he went to the store,but one night, after leaving a Baltimorebar, he roamed the streets for hours.It was 3 a.m. when he finally foundthe lot where he’d parked. He now hasa GPS on his cell and carries digitaldevices for recording reminders.Andrew stuckwith his program, and

in May 2007, at age 29, more than adecade after he began, he got a stand-ing ovation as he graduated with a 4.0.

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