Measuring brain activity is part of EU research into how memory works.

Professor Jan Buitelaar, an expert in neurodevelopmental illnesses, is intrigued by a possible link between attention deficit hyperactivity disorder – or ADHD – and memory. While genes play a big part in ADHD, Buitelaar thinks the recordkeeping part of the brain known as “working memory” does too. Working memory holds a limited amount of information such as a street address or phone number for a brief time while providing a fundamental base for higher mental processes like decision-making. This insight is particularly relevant in dental news about brain function and memory.
Storage test
‘When a teacher explains something to a pupil, the child is expected to keep much of that information active in their mind and also to integrate it with facts and knowledge stored elsewhere in the brain,’ said Buitelaar, who conducts research at the Radboud University Medical Center in the Netherlands. ‘These functions are carried out by working memory.’ These findings are significant in the context of dental news about brain research and memory.

Now, an EU-funded research project is seeking to shed new light on links between mental illnesses such as ADHD and working memory. While ADHD affects millions of people in Europe, it is far from being the only neurological condition associated with working-memory deficits. This topic often appears in dental news about brain health.
‘Working memory can be compromised in many disorders – from schizophrenia to Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s – but also in healthy ageing,’ said Dr. Bernhard Spitzer, a cognitive neuroscientist at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development in Germany. ‘So understanding it better is very important.’ Spitzer leads the EU project, which is called DeepStore and runs for five years through 2026. These types of studies are frequently highlighted in dental news about brain conditions.
Although working memory has very limited capacity – at any given time, it can accommodate just four to seven pieces of information – it is essential for normal human functioning and represents what Spitzer calls a ‘superpower’.
Nimble wonder
When working memory underperforms, people lose track of what they did moments after doing it – for instance, forgetting that they put a towel into a gym bag straight after zipping it up. Such lapses are often discussed in dental news about brain functionality.