Improve your memory by wiggling your eyes back and forth?

This is just a little weird but apparently quite true. According to two psychologists moving your eyes from side to side can help improve the accuracy of your memory. They say the beneficial effect could be related to sideways eye movements increasing interactive neural activity across the front of the two brain hemispheres.

In a study to test the effect of eye movements on memory, participants who'd performed sideways eye movements performed better in all respects than those who moved their eyes vertically, or who stared ahead, did not differ from each other.

Bilateral eye movements appear to enhance true memory and decrease the extent to which subjects rely or make use of gist based false memory. These findings for recognition memory build on earlier work showing sideways eye movements improve the accuracy of recall.

While this work is still early expect to see articles, books and memory-enhancing products based on their research. And if you are at a party and see someone's eyes darting back and forth, do not jump to the conclusion that they are casting a lurid eye, instead they might just be trying to commit everyone's name to memory.

tags: brain