Daily HealthBeat Tip

Try to remember

From the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, I’m Ira Dreyfuss with HHS HealthBeat.

What was that telephone number again? I knew it a second ago.

As we age, many of us notice more lapses in short-term memory. But it might not be our memories going – just that we’re more easily distracted.

Researcher Adam Gazzaley of the University of California’s Berkeley and San Francisco campuses tested that. He had people remember some pictures while they got other pictures to distract them. Meanwhile, imaging machines scanned their brain activity.

Gazzaley says most older people’s brains didn’t filter distractions as well as younger people’s brains did.

So, should we try to remember things in less-distracting places?

"This would be ideal but living in a modern world it seems to be hard to avoid distractions. They’re all around us." (six seconds)

His study in the online journal Nature Neuroscience was supported by the National Institutes of Health.

Learn more at www.hhs.gov.

HHS HealthBeat is a production of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. I'm Ira Dreyfuss.

Last revised: December 30, 2005

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