In a new study, researchers have found strong links between working memory — a fundamental building block of a functioning mind — and three health-related factors: sleep, age, and depressed mood.
The research was conducted by a team of psychologists from the University of California Riverside.
Working memory is the part of short-term memory that temporarily stores and manages information required for cognitive tasks such as learning, reasoning, and comprehension.
Working memory is critically involved in many higher cognitive functions, including intelligence, creative problem-solving, language, and action-planning.
It plays a major role in how we process, use, and remember information.
The researchers found that age is negatively related to the “qualitative” aspect of working memory — that is, how strong or how accurate the memory is.
In other words, the older the person, the weaker and less precise the person’s memory.
In contrast, poor sleep quality and depressed mood are linked to a reduced likelihood of remembering a previously experienced event — the “quantitative” aspect of working memory.
The team also found that all three factors are interrelated. For example, seniors are more likely to experience negative moods than younger adults. Poor sleep quality is also often associated with depressed mood.
The researchers say although all three factors contribute to a common complaint about foggy memory, they seem to behave in different ways and may result from potentially independent mechanisms in the brain.
These findings could lead to future interventions and treatments to counteract the negative impacts of these factors on working memory.
The lead author of the study is Weiwei Zhang, an assistant professor of psychology at the University of California, Riverside.
The study is published in the Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society.
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