The Only Skill that Matters: The Proven Methodology to Read Faster, Remember More, and Become a SuperLearner

by Jonathan A. Levi

Even if you try, you can’t help but memorize these new locations. In a 2017 study conducted on mice, researchers found that when we enter a new place with novel sensory stimuli, a small region of the brainstem known as the locus coeruleus is activated in response.7 This, in turn, triggers a flood of dopamine into the CA3 region of the hippocampus, causing it to store a memory of the location and its details. Researchers now believe that this influx of dopamine boosts the CA3 region’s ability to strengthen the synapses and form a memory of the new location. Perhaps most interestingly of all, researchers found that this response was not triggered for other types of memories. Instead, it actually appears to be specific to the memorization of new environments. In other words, research has finally figured out why the memory palace works so well. It all boils down to neurochemical changes that occur when we activate the parts of our brains concerned with location.