N Backing & Dream Recall

[hiphopo...@yahoo.com]

I notice that when I'm in the middle of playing dual n back or
position n back, sometimes vague memories of dreams will pop into my
head. My hippocampus has some healing to do. I am recovering from
years of depression. So I rarely have past dreams or life events pop
up in my head. I think the dreams that pop up in my head are from a
long time ago. Maybe they are life events. They are vague enough
memories to seem like dreams. I have this theory that even if dual n
back doesn't improve long term memory directly by improving the
condition of the hippocampus, it might still improve it by another
means. Even if someones long term memory isn't very good, it would
seem to me that by gaining a larger working memory capacity,they would
increase the amount they can store in it. they shouldn't be able to
increase the percentage of things they can remember though (unless
dual n back does improve the hippocampus). It would seem one would be
able to remember more things long term if they had more things going
on in their head. I don't know if this makes sense, I just got done
playing an hour and a half of a mix of position 6 back, crab position
4 back, and crab position 5 back. i'm pretty exhausted. also it seems
that the larger ones working memory is, the better chance of
remembering long forgotten events. the reason being is because they
have the ability to make more connections that help them recall. Maybe
I will start to recall long forgotten childhood events as my working
memory capacity gets larger. I heard that everything we ever
experience is recorded in our brains. i guess what seperates a genius
from someone else, is they have better access to their memories.

[Attila]

Interesting theory :) I have a coworker who's been doing n-back now
for a bit and his immediate (previous night) dream recall has greatly
increased. I haven't noticed an increase but my dream recall is
already quite good.

I do see one issue with your theory, though it might actually explain
some of your findings. While the hippocampus plays a major role in
memory it's not the only place that stores memory. Do some research
into 'Patient H.M.' he was a famous patient who had his hippocampus
removed in an attempt to cure his epilepsy. This left him without the
ability to form new memories. If you've ever seen the movie 'Momento'
it's kind of like that. He couldn't recall anything more than a few
minutes (short term memory is held with neurotransmitter chemicals,
not structures in the hippocampus). He did however remember his entire
life up to the point of his surgery. This implied that all of his long
term memories were NOT stored in the hippocampus but elsewhere in the
brain.

It's one of the coolest bits of neuroscience history in my opinion, if
nothing else there's some nice vids on youtube.

Back to your theory while it may or may not be beefing up your
hippocampus, maybe it's having some effect on the connections in other
parts of your brain said to be stimulated by n-back, causing old
memories to fire. Really I have no idea though, either way cool
results! Thanks for sharing :)

On Apr 10, 2:57 am, "hiphopopotam...@yahoo.com"

[☉]

This has been discussed long ago in the forum.

I can add to it again, in any case: after several months of not
playing with n-back, I started playing dual audio n-back (n=2 max)
last night, and was able to wake up feeling refreshed and alert after
about 6.5 hours of sleep this morning. This is similar to my initial
experience with DNB and QNB, particularly when I played them before
going to sleep. Generally, I require 8.5-10 hours of sleep to feel
that well after a night's rest, so it is a benefit I'm considering is
worth the effort. I.e., if I can take an hour's time of n-back
training to only use 6-7 hours of time to sleep, then I've effectively
reduce my sleeping requirement by 1-2 hours, time which could be used
elsewhere.

The predominant theory, I believe, is that this increased recall and
improved sleep quality relates to the increased theta-band activity
(i.e., focus) required to complete n-back tasks. If you observe the
Wikipedia article on same, you will note that the "hippocampal theta
rhythm" is mentioned: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theta_rhythm . Dual-
Audio N-back requires such focus from me right now, since it isn't
like the visual tasks at which I typically excel (read: feel more
comfortable doing). (I'm testing methods that may or may not survive
the selection process.) Further, the period of learning the task is
definitely there, which requires one to focus, so I don't find it all
that surprising that this is one of the side-effects of doing a new
and somewhat demanding cognitive task. The exposure to a new task and
the directed effort to master it, I think, has a good deal to do with
the increased dream recall and improved sleep quality (as well as the
sudden intrusion of memories otherwise left in the subconscious as you
mention).

Today, I purchased the Emotiv headset (not the SDK version) to see if
neurofeedback in the theta band (or any other band) will yield similar
results – naturally, besides the other neurofeedback capabilities it
provides. It will be a while until I receive it, though. If I get
interesting, if not potentially useful, results with it (and I plan to
take it quite seriously), I plan to share some information in the
forum later.

I would say, at any rate, that memory is a necessary, but not a
sufficient, condition of genius.

argumzio


On Apr 10, 3:57 am, "hiphopopotam...@yahoo.com"