From: imbibe@mindspring.com   
      
   Why We’re All Forgetting Things Right Now   
   By Elizabeth Bernstein, April 5, 2022, WSJ   
      
   Short, temporary instances of forgetfulness—those ‘senior moments’—   
   are happening to more of us more often these days, memory experts say.   
   We’re finding it difficult to recall simple things: names of friends   
   and co-workers we haven’t seen in a while, words that should come easily,   
   even how to perform routine acts that once seemed like second nature.   
      
   We’re living in yet another moment of big change as we return to   
   offices, create new routines and find our footing in yet another new   
   normal. (And don’t forget a scary war in Europe on top of that.) All   
   this change consumes cognitive energy, often much more than we think,   
   neuroscientists say. It’s no wonder we can’t remember what we had for   
   breakfast. Our minds are struggling with transition moments.   
      
   “Our brains are like computers with so many tabs open right now,”   
   says Sara C. Mednick, a neuroscientist and professor of cognitive   
   science at UC Irvine. “This slows down our processing power, and   
   memory is one of the areas that falters.”   
      
   The chronic and cumulative stress of the past two years has taken   
   its toll, too. Research led by Dr. Shields shows that people who   
   have experienced recent life stressors have impaired memory. Stress   
   negatively affects our attention span and sleep, which also impact   
   memory. And chronic stress can damage the brain, causing further   
   memory problems, says Dr. Shields, an assistant prof in the dept of   
   psychological science at the U. of Arkansas.   
      
   The deluge of info coming at us on multiple channels is cluttering   
   our brains, too. We’re terrible at paying attention, constantly   
   scrolling our phones while we’re doing other things, which neuro-   
   scientists say makes it hard to encode memories in the first place.   
   And it can be hard to remember something out of context, such as the   
   name of the co-worker suddenly talking to us in person, rather than   
   on Zoom.   
      
   Then there’s the sameness of our lives during the pandemic. How   
   are we supposed to remember a specific event when each day was   
   exactly the same as every other?   
      
   “Memory benefits from novelty,” says Zachariah Reagh, a cognitive   
   neuroscientist and assistant prof of psychological and brain sciences   
   at Washington U. in St. Louis. “When all of our experiences blend   
   together, it’s hard to remember any of them as distinct.”   
      
   Michelle Triant, 39, blames two Covid-tinged years for why she   
   recently forgot the name of her own body part. When her 4-year-old   
   daughter asked her: “Mommy, did I grow in your tummy?” Triant sensed   
   an opportunity for an anatomy lesson and started to explain. “No,   
   sweetheart, actually, you grew in my… ” but drew a blank. She stuttered   
   for a moment, hoping to retrieve the right word.   
      
   Her 7-year-old daughter piped up: “She means uterus,” she told her   
   younger sister. “Babies grow in the mom’s uterus but her belly gets   
   bigger which is why that’s confusing.”   
      
   “Oh, to have the memory of a first-grader,” says Triant, who lives   
   in Spokane Valley, Wash.   
      
   Memory declines with age, but medical science isn’t clear exactly   
   when. People age cognitively at different rates.   
      
   https://www.wsj.com/articles/why-were-all-forgetting-things-righ   
   -now-11649166214   
      
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