Is a "Mind Palace" an actual thing?

The "mind palace" concept comes up quite often in pop culture. Unsurprisingly, it appears in Sherlock too!

My impression was that the mind palace is a real thing. Found a cool (top 1% cited) paper that tested it.

And indeed the mind palace does work – it improves memory outcomes, and interestingly also "rewires" the brain.

The hound of baskervilles mind palace

The paper uses the term method-of-loci, and not "mind palace", which is basically the same thing. From the credo summary, method-of-loci means:

placing imagined information along a familiar route to aid remembering

The researchers trained lay persons with method-of-loci techniques used by "memory athletes".

The results:

• Before the training, participants could remember about 26 to 30 words (from a list of 72 words).

• After 6 weeks of practicing the method-of-loci technique (for 30 minutes a day), participants were able to recall over 60 words (from a similar list).

• After four months (without daily practice), participants still performed better than the baseline.

And it wasn't just a "useful memory tool" (like how you use a calculator for math) – the training actually altered brain networks.

It sounds like actually training the brain, like how you'd train a muscle.

So the good news: we can actually train to improve our memory. (Though we probably won't be able to reach Sherlock's level!)