Interview: Finding the key to memory loss in older adults
Psychologist Ali Mair studies how long-term memory changes as we age, aiming to bridge lab findings with real-life experiences. She sees memory loss as inaccessible information, and the driver behind her research is to help people unlock it.
Ali won the best presentation award at the Reimagine Ageing Showcase at the University of Leeds in September, and we asked her some questions about her work.
Tell us about your research.
I’m a cognitive psychologist, and in the broadest possible terms that means I study how the mind works and the mechanics of how we think. I’m primarily interested in long-term memory. And in psychology, long-term memory means information that we retain over a period of time, from minutes to decades.
My two major areas of focus are how long-term memory changes as we age, and how we might be able to support memory function in people with memory impairments. Most of what we know about memory comes from tightly-controlled laboratory studies; in my research, I try to bridge the gap between what we know from the lab, and how memory functions in the “real world”, which is extraordinarily messy and complex.
In my research, I try to bridge the gap between what we know from the lab, and how memory functions in the “real world”, which is extraordinarily messy and complex.
One significant strand of my work investigates the use of wearable cameras to support memory function. What’s really exciting is that in healthy people, and even in quite severe cases of memory impairment, much of what we’re unable to remember is not actually lost, but rather has become inaccessible for one reason or another.
It’s like the information is locked in a box, and we have misplaced the key. As cognitive psychologists, our job is to find a key that will open the box. Early evidence suggests that photographs captured by wearable cameras could provide the perfect keys to unlock the forgotten information.
We’re now working on understanding exactly how these photos interact with human memory so that we can build a genuinely effective, and hopefully life-changing memory support system in future.
What made you get into this type of research?
I’ve always been interested in the details of how things work, and what drives me, on a personal level, is the desire to understand how and why things are as they are. I think I was originally drawn to the study of memory because, in one form or another, it underlies so much of what we do and who we are.
I was fascinated by accounts of patients who had lost the ability to remember – what must life be like under these circumstances? Of course, every situation is different, and the answer is that memory loss creates profound difficulties. Not just for the “patient”, but for those around them too, and especially for close family members who take on the role of carer, the strain can be immense.
So, a big driver behind the more applied side of my work is that I want to help improve people’s lives.
What has surprised you most in your work?
I’ve been surprised many times – things are not always as they seem! For example, we often have an overly simplistic view of how memory works, based on a kind of headline – “memory deteriorates as we age”, or “people with dementia can’t remember anything”. However, these “facts” are heavily dependent on the context. In many cases, older adults’ memory can be just as good as (or even better) than young adults’ memory.
What’s really exciting is that in healthy people, and even in quite severe cases of memory impairment, much of what we’re unable to remember is not actually lost, but rather has become inaccessible for one reason or another.
I once had a study participant with Alzheimer’s disease turn up to a meeting and present me with a box of blackberries from his garden. Not only did he remember who I was and that he was meeting me that day, but he also remembered that I like blackberries, remembered to pick them, pack them up, bring them with him when he left the house and, finally, take them out and give them to me when he saw me. That’s a surprisingly complex chain of activities, involving lots of different kinds of mental processes, with many chances for it to go wrong.
This person really struggled to remember the details of recent events, but the gifting of blackberries showed a surprising capability despite this. What has surprised me most in this line of work is just how complex and variable memory is.
If you had a wand – what would be the one and first thing you would improve for older people?
I don’t think there’s one single change that would improve life for all older people. If I had to choose though, I would probably change the societal perception that all older people are the same. Many of the older people I know don’t feel “old” and dislike the feeling of being “written off”.
In my opinion, it would be great if we, as a society, were better at recognising what older people can do, and the positive contributions they can make.
How do you (re)imagine a world where the ageing population is thriving?
This might scare some people off, but I imagine a future where we can make use of technology to help older people thrive. The world is changing rapidly, and I worry that part of that change involves the loss of something that’s difficult to measure – the feeling of community, of being connected to and within your local environment.
People’s lives are less and less local than they used to be. We are increasingly moving away from extended family, commuting longer distances to work, and working longer hours; local community hubs, groups, and pubs are closing down; many aspects of our lives are moving increasingly online.
What I imagine is that we can somehow harness some of the incredible technological advances we’re making to create a new feeling of community with older people at the heart of it.
While there are benefits to some of these changes, we are also losing opportunities to just exist in the presence of other people, and I think these kinds of incidental day-to-day encounters are important for our wellbeing.
This was one thing that became apparent to me during the pandemic. Yes, we can still plan events and structured activities, and though these are important, they cannot replace more spontaneous and random interactions. I believe the negative consequences of these changes are potentially greater for older people, and intergenerational mixing is likely to be reduced.
What I imagine is that we can somehow harness some of the incredible technological advances we’re making to create a new feeling of community with older people at the heart of it. I’m talking about big, moonshot ambitions and not just endless Zoom calls. I don’t know what that might look like yet, but that’s where I think the answer lies.
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