Learning and memory (part 4): 5 points to know

Our brain loves to move or… think about moving. For our brain there is no difference between reality and what is visualized. Hence the power of visualization.

procedural memory

learning school requires a lot of explicit memory, which allows us to retain the meaning of words or the function of things. It is in explicit memory that we store our knowledge of the world, that which we can express verbally.

But there is another very important type of learning, that of new movements, which relies on a distinct memory system called procedural memory. When we learn to tie our shoes, to ride a bicycle or to play tennis, we call on our procedural memory.

This makes it possible to gradually automate complex movements, so that after a while, they become unconscious. It is this freedom of thought that allows us, for example, to drive our car downtown while explaining something complicated to someone.

As for the explicit memory, it is the repetition which will allow the gestures to be automated and to pass in the memory procedural. This is commonly referred to as training or practice.

But once the general gesture has been memorized, there seems to be another way to improve the execution of a movement and that is simply to think about the gesture in question! Indeed, the simple mental repetition of the movement, a process called “mental imagery”, is commonly used by high-level athletes to get the precious fractions of seconds at the finish line.

Downhill skiers thus mentally rehearse the entire course of their race before beginning their descent. They imagine each turn, mentally make the appropriate weight transfers and try to feel the contact of their ski with the snow. In fact, for it to be effective, mental imagery must integrate the maximum number of sensory characteristics relevant to the action to be perfected.

Numerous studies have shown that when we imagine an action or when we actually perform the same action, the brain regions involved are very similar. Only the regions involved in the motor control of the action do not activate when we only imagine it.

Mentally visualizing a movement will therefore stimulate a majority of the brain regions required when actually performing the movement. This stimulation will make it possible, when we have to actually execute the movement, to solicit the corresponding assemblies of neurons more easily, and therefore to increase the efficiency of the movement.

Movement and oxygenation of the brain

But there are additional methods for enhancing procedural memory and motor skills in addition to mental images. Repetition done the old-fashioned way in physical education programmes and sports in general is crucial for another very straightforward reason: exercise enhances brain function by increasing brain oxygenation.The neurological level, with an increase in the generation of new neurones, their survival, and their resilience to damage and stress, is more evidence for this. This is in addition to better reaction times and scores on spatial or mathematical problems.