Page 52 - The Memory Program How to Prevent Memory Loss and Enhance Memory Power

Page 41

and practice are necessary to develop such talents. Associative thinking, which is controlled by the
parahippocampus and parts of the frontal lobe, involves taking a new piece of information and
linking it to another piece of data that lies stored in memory. We all do this from time to time, but the
creative person tends to do it more often and can sometimes take big leaps by connecting ideas that
many would consider to be quite distinct and separate. The creative individual recognizes the
importance of this new connection, builds on it, and is off and running.

Einstein's Brain

Therefore, from a theoretical perspective, the association areas in the parahippocampus and the
frontal lobes should be better developed in highly creative people. The initial autopsy evaluation of
Albert Einstein's brain revealed that it was a normal size, and the association areas in his cerebral
cortex were not large. But a recent reexamination showed that his brain lacked the Sylvian fissure,
which borders the temporal lobe, and had a slight enlargement in the lower part of the temporal lobe
near the association areas. These results were given big play in the media, but they don't really
resolve any issues. Maybe Einstein wasn't the best prototype to study, because he made quantum
leaps to develop entirely new fields virtually from scratch, leaving bread-and-butter associative
thinkers behind in the dust. Maybe the unique connections within his brain were simply beyond the
detection capability of standard neuropathologic methods.

The Nobel Prize: Old Winners, Young Winners

In general, aging does have a negative impact on creativity, and this is probably due to the decay in
association cortex nerve cells over time. Nobel Prize winners invariably complete their
groundbreaking work in their thirties and forties, although the rest of the world may take a few
decades to catch on and give them their just reward. But creativity does not disappear as you grow
older. Rather, it gets modified by a lifetime of experience that results in your balancing new ideas
with common sense and judgment, leading to what is commonly called wisdom. As a matter of fact,
some people continue to be creative even after developing severe memory loss. After Willem de