Playing video games, tennis may enhance memory

Attention-grabbing experiences release memory-enhancing chemicals in brain, helping to store memories that occur just before or soon after the experience, the study mentioned. "Activation of the locus coeruleus (part of the brainstem) increases our memory of events that happen at the time of activation and may also increase the recall of those memories at a later time," said Robert Greene, Professor at the Peter O'Donnell Jr. Brain Institute at UT Southwestern Medical Center's Texas Institute for Brain Injury and Repair, at Dallas in Texas. The study, published in the journal Nature explains at the molecular level why people tend to remember certain events in their lives with particular clarity as well as unrelated details surrounding those events.