ALPHABETICAL BRAIN™ VOCABULARY FLASH CARDS DETAILS: TEN FACTUAL ASSUMPTIONS ABOUT HOW YOUR BRAIN WORKS #1. THE ALPHABETICAL BRAIN™ VOCABULARY FLASH CARDS CAN KEEP YOUR BRAIN MENTALLY FIT AND EMOTIONALLY HEALTHY The quickest way to learn about the dynamic parts of your amazing brain and your creative mind is to use the Alphabetical Brain™ Vocabulary Flash Cards to increase your brainpower. The best process for memorizing the Alphabetical Brain™ Vocabulary words is by repeatedly exposing yourself to them in an orderly way. This process of "focused-learning" is known as the "spaced-repetition method" of memorization which involves the careful timing of your study time for memorizing facts. The brain flash cards can provide the best results for learning the names of the major parts of your brain, how they function, and how they interact. In the process of learning the brain facts, you will become aware of how you can consciously control your brain's "feedback functions" to a large degree. The basic strategy of using the brain flash cards starts with asking the question: WHAT are the simplest fundamental factual brain ideas, such as the names of the main parts of my brain? It then progresses to learning the names of your brain's interactive feedback functions. The final step of using the brain flash cards is to ask the question: HOW do the parts of my brain and their complex functions interact to create "me"? The most complex functions of your amazing brain are known as "feedback functions." They are explained with objective scientific words without the historic need to use subjective religious metaphors or imaginary abstract literary allusions. The quality of your happiness and success in the future will depend upon how well you understand the way your brain works in the linguistic context of the new practical brain discoveries. When you learn how complicated and fascinating your brain is at the microscopic scale, you will be able to increase your self-esteem as you learn self-control based on objective scientific facts and ideas. You have more than 1,000 billion brain cells. About 100 billion of your brain cells are neurons ("gray matter") and about 900 billion are glial cells ("white matter"). That amounts to nine times more glial cells as neurons. Why are these brain facts so important? Because knowing that your neuron cells carry electrical signals and that your glial cells protect your neurons (by nourishing them and disposing of their waste products), you can become more motivated to learn how to help all of your brain cells thrive by making better lifestyle choices. Since your neurons are the smallest self-contained building blocks of your consciousness (which includes your own unique self-awareness) as well as your unconscious cognitive processes, they must be protected from the harm of excessive stress and negativity, if you want to live a fully happy full of awesome opportunities and pleasures. REMEMBER ALWAYS: You have the choice to either learn the practical "brain knowledge" that you need in order to thrive in the future or to remain ignorant of your true mental and emotional capacities. #2. YOUR FREE WILL IS CAUSED BY YOUR BRAIN'S SYNAPTIC PLASTICITY AND A SOCIAL CULTURE THAT SUPPORTS IT The dynamic fundamental biological process of "synaptic plasticity" involves the spectacular molecular process of ionic bonding. An "ionic bond" is a type of chemical bond that involves a metal and a nonmetal ion (or polyatomic ions such as ammonium) combining through electrostatic attraction. In short, it is a bond formed by the attraction between two oppositely charged ions. All of your neurons are connected by your synapses through ionic action when sodium and potassium ions are exchanged at the synaptic vesicles and synaptic channels of their cell membranes. This is what enables you to choose or change anything or to remember everything that you need to recall later for important survival and pleasurable purposes. Your mental ability to perceive your envirenment accurately is required for your survival! In addition, this fabulous microscopic "electrochemical process" makes possible your awareness of your own "freedom of choice" and "willpower" to decide or to change something. It also gives you the brainpower to organize your unconscious "implicit memories" when you choose to access them through your natural conscious thinking processes. Experiences, which are stored in your "long-term memory" resources, such as semantic memory, episodic memory, procedural memory, and your "working memory" (which is also known as "short-term memory") can give you a powerful advantage in your quest to create new meanings and exquisite pleasurable experiences in your life. Now it is possible for your "philosophy of life" or action plan to include knowledge about how your brain and especially your memory resources work. When you know how your brain works, you will be able to respect yourself more and expand your freedom of choice in order to thrive. Also you will be able to increase your empathy for all forms of life on Earth and all theories about the nature of reality and the fabric of the Universe! REMEMBER ALWAYS: Your free will and your willpower are irreducible brain scienc facts, which need no further justification since the new brain science has discovered the fundamental truth about how the interaction between your unique brain and your particular social culture creates meaning in your life. #3. YOUR MEMORIES ARE STORED IN THE NEURONAL PATHWAYS AND THE SYNAPTIC CIRCUITS OF YOUR BRAIN AND NERVOUS SYSTEM You can stimulate your brain's 100 billion neurons by thinking about them as you are doing now. Also you can learn how your 500 trillion synapses ("electrochemical switches") connect all of your neurons together in the most complicated web of relationships ever discovered. New fMRI (functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging machine) pictures of the three dimensional "signaling grid" of the recently discovered "connectome," which is the complex web of your neuron networks, show how order has evolved in your brain and body through the structure of your nervous system! Electrical signals are relayed up and down your body via your neural pathways. The repeated activation of the neural signaling creates stronger neural pathways by an intricate chemical process involving neurotransmitter vesicles and neurotransmitter receptors. By repeating a thought (or feeling or behavior), you are able to strengthen the neural pathways which were activated when you originally had the thought (or feeling or behavior). The repeated signaling along a neuronal pathway strengthens that connection until the neuronal pathway becomes a more fixed neuron network by the process of "self-organization" of the neurons in your neuron pathways. This magnificent process was unrecognized and thus unappreciated through most of the last 40,000 years of human history! But during the past few years new scientific discoveries have been made about the intricate parallel processing power of your nervous system, especially in the way different sections of your brain communicate and interact in a dynamic continuous "push-pull" or feedforward-feedback way that gives your adaptive brain tremendous flexibility. When you learn that it is possible to "edit" or consciously change your memories (even traumatic ones), you will be empowered to consciously control your most important thoughts and feelings. You will even be able to change bad habits to improve your life on command due to the power of the executive control function of your PFC! This incredible process of being able to learn anything is made possible by the "neuroplasticity" of your brain, which is often often simply called "plasticity." What makes your brains plasticity possible is known as "long-term potentiation" or "LTP" for short. LTP is the long-lasting enhancement of the electrochemical neuronal signal transmission process. It results when neurons are connected by synapses and stimulated synchronously to reach the clumps of nuclei ("nuclei modules") attached to your senses or functional brain areas or spinal cord regions. The modules are specialized "neuron clumps" usually located in the same places in all human brains. They are connected by your neural pathways and neuron networks to all parts of your body. All the nerve fibers outside your brain and spinal cord neural pathways or circuits are connected to ganglions, which are large neuron clusters that operate like junctions or intersections and which connect to nerve cables in order to reach the specialized nerve tracts in your brain. If you keep the glial brain cells in both your brain (astrocytes) and spinal cord (oligodendrocytes) healthy, they can accelerate the electrical signals or impulses in your neural pathways so they will be 100 times faster! This advantage can improve the quality of your own thinking abilities if you can keep your brain cells from being damaged by drug abuse or other dangerous habits. Some common "brain-hazardous" behaviors such as alcoholism, drug addiction, overeating, undersleeping, or depression are causing hundreds of thousands of premature deaths each year in America alone and unnecessary suffering by billions of people around the world who endanger their brains everyday by living in primitive social and economic conditions. REMEMBER ALWAYS: If you are conscienscious about taking care of your neurons and synapses, you can optimize your ability to think for yourself, remember all relevant things, experience pleasure on a predictable basis, and feel fulfilled in your achievements. #4. YOUR "INTELLECTUAL BRAIN" (PREFRONTAL CORTEX = EXECUTIVE CONTROL CENTER) CAN CONTROL YOUR "EMOTIONAL BRAIN" (LIMBIC SYSTEM = LOVE, FEAR AND ANXIETY CENTER), IF YOU LEARN HOW TO PROPERLY USE THE NEW KNOWLEDGE FROM BRAIN SCIENCE Your brain's prefrontal cortex or "PFC," with its direct connection to your memory resources and with its executive control function to manage your whole body, is the source of your self-awareness and all of the meaningful ideas and habits that you have learned or ever will have learned during your lifetime. By understanding HOW your PFC works in the context of your cerebrum's PFC, you can learn to appreciate why mindfulness skills and emotional intelligence skills are essential for your health, happiness, and success. Those essential skills can help you manage your limbic system ("emotional brain") and give you the freedom of choice to either feel more pleasure or more pain. It is very easy to feel more pain due to higher blood pressure since it can be caused by extra anxiety as you try to cope successfully in our hypersexualized media environment and complex global economic culture. Nevertheless, as you learn the new "Alphabetical Brain™ Vocabulary," which consists of the totality of known scientific facts and ideas about your brain, you will be able to integrate the new factual brain ideas into your own core thinking processes. By memorizing the names and definitions of your brain's parts and the descriptions of their functions you will be able to choose ways of living that increase pleasure and reduce pain. That is the big payoff for spending a few hours studying your brain. The new factual brain ideas will be stored initially in your "short-term memory" ("fluid memory") before they are consolidated for permanent recall in your "long-term memory" resources, whose triggers reside in your hippocampus. In addition, when you discover how your brain's reward center or "medial forebrain pleasure circuit" is organized, you will become more aware of how you can use your creative imagination to structure your self-awareness more efficiently in order to achieve your goals. You will be able to project your own "best self" out to others rather than having any self-perceived limitations dominate your behavior and interactions with others. You can do this by consciously choosing the new brain-related scientific words when you are "thinking seriously" about your own potential brainpower or when you use the words to communicate with others. By deliberately thinking with the new Alphabetical Brain™ Vocabulary, you will be able to control your destiny as you plan for a happy future. You will be able to take full responsibility for the quality of your life by using your new "self-control" to liberate your "self" from ignorance and addictions. When the new brain words become etched into your complex explicit memory and implicit memory systems, they will become part of your physical brain tissue. Any changes to your brain tissue will become the foundation of your new "self-image," which is really a combination of many potential "personalities." There is now growing evidence that your "personality" is influenced strongly by your social circles, which means that you can actually change your "personality" to serve the needs of the social context that you are in! This is similar to the way you choose different clothing outfits to be appropriate to the event or activity you plan to experience. These newly stored memories, which provide a new linguistic context for your future decisions, create new opportunities for you to "reprogram" some of your neural pathways so you will actually have increased personal power. Most perceived personal limitations are simply self-imposed limitations that can be changed, if you give your brain the correct training. REMEMBER ALWAYS: Your PreFrontal Cortex or PFC ("intellectual brain") can manage your Limbic System ("emotional brain") in order for you to have higher self-esteem and more self-control concerning all of your personal goals and plans and relationships. #5. YOUR SEX APPEAL AND LOVE-LIFE DEPEND UPON DEVELOPING RELATIONSHIP SKILLS BASED UPON SCIENCE AND NOT SOCIAL TRADITIONS OR COSMETICS Brain research has already proven beyond a reasonable doubt that your thoughts can control your emotions for your own basic safety and security and pleasure. This new experimental finding can empower you to have more gratitude for your own existence and more empathy for others. With more self-control, you can choose to follow the Golden Rule of treating others the way you would like to be treated by them, which is a delightful kind of mutual reciprocity or collaboration in creating more goodness in the world! This empathic personal ethic can be the basis of your moral values related to all your social relationships, including your online social networks. It symbolizes the best way to share responsible moral values with others and create your own unique personal ethics. Since your "mirror neurons" make it possible for you to imagine how other people are thinking and feeling --- without having them tell you what is on their minds --- you have the ability to know ahead of time what to anticipate in your relationships with others. After you have learned to sharpen your "emotional intelligence" skills by understanding the new factual brain ideas, you will be able to distinguish genuine empathy from the mistaken illusions and delusions that are caused by "mindreading mistakes" based on traditional historical mindsets. If you demonstrate a model of good brain behavior for children, who are so vulnerable to misinformation as they grow up in the most complex society in human history, you will be able to increase the general well-being of everyone. In addition, once you learn the new Alphabetical Brain™ Vocabulary, you will know that you have a creative mind that is powerful enough to control all of your conscious brain functions (and many of your subconscious brain functions). And you will be able to liberate yourself from ignorance, mindless fear, chronic anxiety, persistent pain, learned helplessness, existential angst, mild depression, sexual apathy, and also racial, religious, and gender prejudices. In the context of the enlightened structure of knowledge of the Brain Flash Cards, you can provide your imagination with a comprehensive scientific perspective of the human evolutionary past with regard to your brain functions. The factual brain ideas can give you many solid reasons for not limiting your expectations and for basing them on realistic probabilities. You will be able to contemplate the possibility of becoming a "self-creator" with an optimistic outlook for a bright future in a comfortable context of lifelong learning. REMEMBER ALWAYS: You can train your brain to control negative feelings and to change self-destructive behaviors so you can become happier and more loveable. #6. YOUR BRAIN NEEDS PROTECTION RIGHT NOW FROM TRAUMATIC STRESS AND CHRONIC DISTRESS BECAUSE OF ITS VULNERABILITY TO ENVIRONMENTAL AND CULTURAL FORCES The new brain flash cards can help you control the quality of your life by educating you about the importance of decreasing chronic distress immediately. The new brain ideas are based on proven scientific facts which can increase your happiness and self-esteem and decrease any anxiety-based anger or fear-based depressive behaviors you might have. Also you can learn new skills in order to stop doing addictive behaviors, which are self-defeating habits. You can achieve and maintain homeostasis ("balance") by harmonizing both of your brain's hemispheres. You can learn to control the feedback functions of both the "left side" or analytic part of your brain and the "right side" or holistic part. Since living brains require about 40 Hz of electrical energy flowing through them at all times for optimum health, you have an objective way to measure whether your hemispheres are harmonized (relaxed and attentive) or not. If, however, your brain encounters "negative stress" for a prolonged period of time, it becomes "chronic distress," which is very destructive. Along with ignorance, chronic distress is an ultimate enemy since it can cripple you from within. The danger is that your inner enemy can cause dangerously high levels of the steroid hormone cortisol which is a glucocorticoid. At normal levels in your blood, cortisol (hydrocortisone) fights inflamation in your body tissues, including your brain tissue. However, chronic distress over a long time can cause severe damage to your brain and heart (as well as other organs) due to increased inflammation in your body. Luckily, you can confront chronic distress now by learning simple "relaxation skills" and complex "change your brain skills." REMEMBER ALWAYS: You have the brainpower or imagination to apply relaxation skills at the right moment of acute stress before dangerous chronic distress or trauma can cause cellular inflamation, which in turn can cause premature death from heart disease, brain damage or other inflamatory diseases caused by continuous high blood pressure such as diabetes. #7. YOUR MOST IMPORTANT PERSONAL RESOURCES ARE YOUR BRAIN AND YOUR CONTROL OF TIME, WHICH YOU CAN LEARN TO MANAGE --- WITH OR WITHOUT THE HELP OF YOUR FRIENDS There has never been a better time to learn about the true nature of your brain. The unique Alphabetical Brain™ Vocabulary Flash Cards (along with the free printable skill-set inventories on this website) can help you save time as you learn to maximize your brainpower. Today, new discoveries are being made about the vastly different "neural correlates" of the various human memory systems and the many cybernetic "feedback systems" that are involved in your conscious awareness of yourself and your unique perception of "reality." The new brain knowledge can help you control the effectiveness of all of the main parts of your brain. New insights are being reported daily in scientific publications and on television and the internet about the way specific parts of your brain interact with various parts of your body. Also, new facts are emerging about what happens when you ingest things into your body such as food, prescription medicines, and mind-altering illegal drugs, which can irrepairably damage your neural pathways, including your essential brain parts and functions, and severely limit your useful life. The main brain research now is replicating what has been learned during the past 20 years, since the United States government declared the 1990s to be the "Decade of the Brain." Our government has been funding many brain research programs, through the National Institute of Health (and other institutions), including the use of the expensive fMRI (functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging) machines for brain research. These unique imaging machines, which are glorified computerized microscopes, are used at major universities and research centers around the country. They can "see" inside living brains without damaging them! Because the new brain information is so important to keep people, such as soldiers suffering from Traumatic Brain Injury ("TBI") or people who have brain diseases, such as Alzheimer's, living happily as long as possible, the U.S. government continues to finance this extremely important brain research. The time you put into learning about your brain will be very tiny compared to the large amount of time that has been spent on systematic rational thinking and experimenting that has gone into producing the new factual brain ideas. It is definitely worth your time to learn what thousands of brain scientists know already about how to take care for their brains for good health and longevity! Finally, as you begin to trust the new "Alphabetical Brain™ Vocabulary," it can give you the language tools (the words and gramatical structure) or "linguistic context" essential in order to empower you to control your thoughts and feelings, which means giving you stronger self-control. That is because the strategy of this learning program is based on the pure "brain wisdom" derived from the perspective of the powerful scientific method. It can provide you with a solid foundation or platform for enhancing your understanding of everything else in the world. In its effect, it will provide you with a rational philosophy of life! In simple words, the new brain wisdom can help you modernize your "mindset" by demonstrating how you can remember true ideas about your personal significance in the vast Universe as you live a fulfilling life on Earth. To succeed, you may need to "forget" some fatally flawed "ancient assumptions," which can distort your current perception of reality. You can become more self-confident as you seek reasonable solutions to your personal and social problems. Even employment problems, in this age of a chaotic global economy and a major recession, can be survived in style. All you need to do is learn how to control your stress levels with mindful relaxation programs and serious contemplation and introspection. All your relationships can benefit because you will know how to "think critically" and concentrate on the most healthy relationships you have and "disconnect" or "unfriend" toxic people with unhealthy habits --- now and in the future! Your new brain ideas can generate new and improved ideals and goals! REMEMBER ALWAYS: When you understand how your brain works, you can "open your mind" and ask relevant questions about the true nature of reality, since a scientific mindset can give you the personal power to fully embrace life's great adventures. #8. YOUR MOST IMPORTANT CULTURAL RESOURCES ARE YOUR USE OF LANGUAGE AND YOUR KNOWLEDGE OF THE HISTORY OF SCIENCE For the first time in human history, there is a modern reasonable comprehensive "natural" scientific explanation (which can replace traditional "supernatural" explanations) for the way your thoughts and emotions cause your personal ethics and social values. This new objective knowledge can give you a solid "sense of self" and a liberating "sense of purpose" as you think about life's great questions. This common sense analysis of the way your brain works includes insights from medical research, biology, physics, psychology, sociology, anthropology, linguistics, and engineering. This modern approach to studying the structure and function of human brains is called neuroscience or simply "brain science." It includes a synergistic combination of knowledge from many academic disciplines. All of the 80 currently available "factual brain ideas" have been evaluated in the context of the emerging secular humanistic wisdom of world philosophy. The rational prism of science and reason has been used to cut through the ideological dogmas of the past and to discover the truly universal common human values that really matter for the future. In addition, this systematic scientific demonstration of how your brain creates meaning out of your awesome consciousness of being alive uses the scientific truth of "evolution" as the foundation idea. In this analysis of the roles of language and history in the development of human consciousness and self-consciousness as well as conscientiousness, there are convenient references to the history of brain exploration during the last 500 years and the relationship of brain science to the overall history of science during the past 4,000 years. A good "brain fact" to kick-start your motivation to learn about your brain's amazing functions is that your brain is the most complex three pounds of biological life found anywhere on Earth or in the vast Universe. It gives you the greatest advantage for success and happiness as you compete to survive in our changing global social environment. REMEMBER ALWAYS: Knowing the scientific truth about how your brain and body are inseparably bound together can set your mind free from irrational fears and anxiety. #9. YOUR DNA (GENETICS) DETERMINES A SMALL FUNDAMENTAL PART OF WHO YOU ARE AND WHO YOU WILL BECOME BUT YOUR CONSCIOUSNESS DETERMINES THE BIGGER PART BECAUSE YOUR BRAIN PLAYS ITS OWN MAJOR ROLE IN EVOLUTION (EPIGENETICS) REMEMBER ALWAYS: Your genes influence your personality but your personality can influence the quality of your life, if you make the correct decisions! #10. YOUR UNDERSTANDING OF HOW EVOLUTION WORKS IS CRUCIAL FOR KNOWING HOW ADVANCES IN SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY CAN INFORM YOUR POLITICS AND YOUR ABILITY TO IMPROVE THE QUALITY OF LIFE ON EARTH DURING YOUR LIFETIME REMEMBER ALWAYS: Your knowledge of modern evolution as it is understood now in the linguistic context of brain science can give you sufficient practical brain wisdom to experience more happiness and to effect change in the world by becoming politically engaged with the big issues such as women's rights, overpopulation, climate change, and diminishing water supplies! Please send feedback email to: flyingeagle@earthlink.net Return INSTANTLY TO: INDEX FOR COMPUTER USERS