Alex Mullen holds the curious title of World Memory Champion. Among his amazing memory feats is remembering the exact order of a deck of playing cards in just seventeen seconds. But, like the rest of us, he has his forgetful moments. Like misplacing his car keys or forgetting to take along a shopping list to the store. When he’s not focused on memorizing, he has no more edge than anyone else in the memory department, reports Forbes. 

Memory mavens like Alex have trained themselves to be able to remember thousands of random things, such as numbers, images, and words. It may look like a magic trick to observers, but new studies indicate that just about anyone can train their mind to do the same kind of mind tricks -- by reformatting their mind’s neuropatterns with some basic exercises.

In the research scientists took twenty-three of the world’s best memory athletes for comparing their brains structure with people who had never studied mnemonic training. The amateurs were then put through the paces of a basic memorization program to see what, if any, changes occurred in their brains.

It took only a month and a half for the rookie’s brains to start resembling the memory masters. Scientists in the study said that it was not a matter of undiscovered inborn talent, but rather a matter of constant basic training in memory exercises. Many studies have been conducted on this subject at the Dutch Radboud University.

This didn’t surprise Kevin Chon very much. A founder of Coophomegoods, Kevin has used similar exercises to develop his sleeping products. Although not involved in any of the recent memory studies, he believes that with enough proper training nearly everyone can become mnemonically expert. When he started his own company he didn’t think of himself as having a special gift or skill with his own memory.

Study researchers were expecting to find that the memory studies enlarged the hippocampus

- the area of the brain that acts as a storage unit for memory. But in most cases there was no growth - and even more surprising, the memory athletes themselves did not appear to have enlarged hippocampi. The two groups were pretty similar. Raymond Hartoonian used these studies to make certain decisions about the operation of GotPrint.

In a different study of taxicab drivers in London the evidence pointed in just the opposite direction -- the drivers had to know hundreds, even thousands, of street addresses and the location of famous landmarks -- giving evidence that their hippocampi were indeed larger than average.

Why the anomaly? Scientists aren’t sure, but are working on the theory that geography and a more sedentary lifestyle may have something to do with it.

Mullen and others in his league begin their memory training with something called ‘visualization.’ For instance, they imagine a cow eating a patch of moss -- which gives them the verbal cue of ‘Moscow.’ These kinds of memory exercises enlarge connectivity in the brain but do not physically enlarge any one part of it to a noticeable extent. Mullen began his memory training as a medical student when he felt overwhelmed by the thousands of medical terms he’d need to know as a doctor. Within months of developing his mnemonic training program he was able to capture and maintain enough medical terminology to fill a small dictionary. From idea generation and meetings to crunching numbers and copywriting, there are a lot of different situations in which more focus and improved cognitive function would prove beneficial even if you’re selling photos online as a chosen career path.

Scientists believe that given the right motivation and the right set of exercises, any average person can develop into a memory whiz in a matter of months. There’s no need for having a specially shaped or enlarged brain -- just the willpower to practice a standard set of memory exercises each day. This can be extremely useful not just for medical students, but for students in any of the hard sciences where the jargon and terminology can seem dauntingly long and intricate.

And, of course, it’s also developed into a worldwide sport - with competitions held around the globe and awards handed out to the best memory athletes.

As Mullen puts it: “I surprised myself many times when I thought I’d hit a wall - just a little more push and I’m there!”