Ready to Learn?

Ready to Learn? Brain Scans Can Tell You link
Anne Trafton
August 19th, 2011

A team at MIT studied the parahippocampal cortex (PHC) and found that when it is active you are less likely to remember what it is you are studying or doing at the time. The PHC is generally considered to have to do with memory recall and is itself wrapped around the hippocampus, the part of the brain that has to do with memory formation.

Traditionally, scientists have believed that memory is based on the inherent memorability of specific events, with strongly emotional events likeliest to be remembered. More recently, cognitive neuroscientists have found that the brain’s ability to consolidate, store and retrieve information is also important. “The significance of this study is that it suggests that beyond the inherent memorability of things, and how well the memory systems are working, there’s a huge role to be played by how well prepared you are to process what’s coming in,” Turk-Browne says.

Theoretically this method could be used to determine when a student is best prepared to learn new material, or to monitor workers who need to stay alert, but they still have a ways to go to make that possible or available to the general public.