ALPHABETICAL BRAIN™ VOCABULARY Flash Card #1d - DETAILS WHAT IS YOUR "CONSCIOUSNESS" AND WHY IS IT SO IMPORTANT? Your CONSCIOUSNESS of being alive is caused by the "global circuitry" of all your neural pathways in your head and nervous system, called your "connectome." The neural circuitry or "wiring," which connects all of your memory systems to your "PFC" (PreFrontal Cortex), makes possible your self-awareness! The specific parts of your brain that are the source of your "sense of self" (or "self-awareness") are the two small clusters of neurons (sometimes called "clumps") that are the size of two pennies located in back of your forehead on both sides of your face! Neural pathways connect those clusters of neurons to your ANTERIOR CINGULATE GYRUS, which is part of your PreFrontal Cortex on both sides of your brain. The neural pathways go from your PFC down deep into the bottom of your limbic system to your two hippocampi on both sides of your brain. When you perceive the awareness of being "YOU," all of the connections in your nervous system must be working well in what is known in its totality as your "connectome." It contains the trillions of connections or "web" of biochemical circuits inside your brain and nervous system. They are understood better now in their microscopic details than ever before in human history. Your connectome has an elaborate web-like "3-Dimensional" structure that makes your consciousness and self-awareness possible. Its incredible "parallel processing" system connects the neurons in your Cerebral Cortex to all your brain's specialized regions as well as to all of your senses and all of your internal organs as well as all of the neural fibers in the neural pathways inside all your neural tracts. The specific part of your brain that controls your consciousness is your PFC, which is located in the frontal region of the forward-most part of your Frontal Lobes. Your PFC is involved in your highest level cognitive functions of planning and self-monitoring, including (1) reasoning related to making decisions, (2) judgment, (3) empathy, (4) abstract ideas, and (5) consciousness. To achieve these cognitive functions, your PFC connects directly to your Language Module, which is located in your Left Temporal Lobe. Also it connects to your Reticular Activating Formation, which is located in your Brainstem. In addition it connects to your Cerebellum, which is located in back of your brainstem and under the back of your cerebrum. However, if some of the neurons in those particular neural tracts, which connect your ANTERIOR CINGULATE CORTEX to your PFC and your memory modules, especially your hippocampus, are damaged because of the buildup of "plaque," then various dementias (including Alzheimer's Disease) can destroy the feedback functions of your PFC and the neural circuits of your various memory resources. Plaque are the tangled "amyloid substances" that can destroy the nerve tissues in those neural tracts. When a sufficient number of neuron clusters in the neural tracks in the Frontal Lobes are destroyed by biochemical processes (or damaged by concussions), a person's "sense of time" is diminished. The disorientation of time primarily involves the loss of the awareness of past experiences because memory and language functions related to "self-identity" are typically processed in the Left Hemisphere of human brains. However, recent brain research (follow-up of the nun's study) has indicated that some nun's were able to continue to function at high cognitive levels in spite of considerable plaque buildup due to having more "cognitive reserve" than those nun's who died earlier due to damaged neural pathways from Alzheimer's disease. Thus challenging your brain to keep making new neural connections is a good way to increase your longevity! Also, even though Alzheimer's victims lose touch with their past and eventually can live only in the present moment, some past musical memories can be recalled, because music is typically processed in the Right Hemisphere of brains. Go to: FACT CHECKER Return to #1d: CONSCIOUSNESS DEMO or LIST OF BRAIN FLASH CARDS