One of the ways that medical science is making progress in treating Alzheimer’s and dementia is simple research into the way the brain works. A recent study shows that you will form memories better if you are relaxed.

We know this already. When we’re tense or upset, we don’t think as well. We think better when our minds are relaxed. This study seems to suggest that we also form memories better when we’re relaxed.

Exactly how that helps us doesn’t readily appear from the study. But the important thing to realize is that scientists are working and making strides in understanding how the brain works. The more they know about this mysterious organ, the more they’ll be able to devise treatments for limiting or conquering Alzheimer’s and dementia.

Click through to read the article from Reuters. Beware that the article is slightly technical.

Scientists find how relaxed minds remember better | Reuters

The findings suggest that if doctors were able to optimize the state of the brain, by ensuring it was relaxed, and then synchronize the delivery of the things it needed to learn, the outcome, or memory, might be better, she said.

The research team studied eight volunteers who were shown 100 photos of a range of objects and allowed to view each for one second. Fifteen to 30 minutes later they were shown another 100 photos — 50 new ones and 50 from the first set — and asked to recall which ones they had seen before and say how confident they were in their answers.