Over the last few months I have found myself doing daily word puzzles and in so doing, it appears my brain has been busy rewiring itself or reorganising/restructuring itself.
I used to be able to remember and recall names at the drop of a hat and I used to be quite good at pop-music and other trivia. But since Ken Bruce left radio 2, I don’t listen to as much pop radio as I used to and now I find it difficult to draw or “mine” the information from the repository in my brain.
Now it might be I’ve had a stroke and I don’t know about it and hence I can’t access that data as well as I used to or simply that by spending so much time on puzzles my brain has reorganised itself so that puzzle related information is easier to access than the other trivia information.
I must say I am surprised how noticeable the change is. As my puzzle solving skills have improved my face/name matching has deteriorated.
I have been trying to remember a name of one of the members of a boy band for a few days now and I have deliberately resisted the use of the internet to get this. I am actually shocked at how my mind is refusing to give me this information. I can visualise the member and I can remember the names of his fellow band mates but not him - the name simply won’t come to me !!!
That’s very interesting. I think the brain probably has a limit to the information that it can hold and therefore because you’ve been concentrating more on puzzles than music it has shuffled that information about and makes the puzzle stuff easier to recall than the music. If it’s any consolation I used to have issues we call in names of famous people before my stroke. I can’t recall the name of any famous people now and at times I forget my own name I think some of it is down to my stroke but some of it is also down to my age and having been through the menopause. Hope you recall the name of the boy band member soon. I would have looked it up by now
To spout Tom Jones, it’s “not unusual” for anyone to have their long-term memory get rusty, I’ve posted about this before and truly follow the theory that memory can be trained unless there is a generative disease or severe impairment, the hippocampus is one of the brain’s most protected resources. Keeping it limber is up to us because the brain is lazy and doesn’t want to go trawling through the archives but we can encourage it to be more efficient at doing that. I have been told I have a phenomenal memory by people who have not had a brain injury, and I generally enjoy oiling it, every morning without fail, I wake and spend half an hour recalling my dream that night as a meditative way to wake up and get my brain connected to memory for the day. No phones, no coffee, just eyes closed and recalling the night’s cognitive events.
That sounds vey interesting Rupert. I can’t remember any of my dreams or very very rarely. I wonder if I even dream. I think it is great that you wake up meditatively trying to recall your dreams. The way you write on this forum, I have to agree that you do appear to have a phenomenal memory as well as ability to communicate.
I think some of it is down to my stroke but some of it is also down to my age and having been through the menopause. Hope you recall the name of the boy band member soon. I would have looked it up by now 
