Closing and squeezing your right hand hard during an event or while trying to learn something new helps it stick more strongly in your memory . On the contrary, squeezing the left hand has proven to be very useful when it comes to remembering what we have already stored in memory, according to a study by Montclair State University (USA) published in the journal PLOS ONE .
In the experiments, Ruth Propper and her colleagues tested how brain activity in a series of subjects was affected by alternately squeezing one and the other hand for 90 seconds while trying to memorize 72 words. "The findings suggest that some very simple body movements can change the way the brain works , for example by improving memory," concludes Propper, who announces that in the future they will investigate whether this gesture also affects verbal and spatial abilities.
