ALPHABETICAL BRAIN VOCABULARY Flash Card #1 - 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," which connect all of your memory systems to your PreFrontal Cortex ("PFC"). It makes possible your self-awareness. The specific part of your brain that is the source of your self-awareness or "sense of self" is a small cluster of neurons that is the size of a penny located in your ANTERIOR CINGULATE GYRUS of the PFC of your Left Hemisphere. 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." Your connectome contains the trillions of connections or "web" of biochemical circuits inside your brain and nervous system. These connections are understood in their microscopic details better now than ever before in human history. Your connectome has an elaborate "three dimensional structure," which makes your consciousness and self-awareness possible. Its incredible "parallel processing" system connects the neurons in your Cerebral Cortex to all of your brain's specialized regions as well as all of your senses and internal organs and the nerve fibers your neural pathways inside your nerve tracts. Thus your conscious self-awareness or sense of self depends upon having healthy neural connections in the neural pathways inside the nerve tracts of your nervous system as well as the other main regions of your brain. The part of your brain that relates specifically to your consciousness is your PFC, which is located in your Frontal Lobes. Your PFC connects directly to your Language Module (which is located in your Left Temporal Lobe) and your Reticular Activating Formation (which is located in your Brainstem) and your Cerebellum (which regulates vital unconscious functions such as your breathing and heartbeat). However, if some of the neurons, which connect your ANTERIOR CINGULATE CORTEX to your PFC and your memory modules, are damaged due to "plaque," then various dementias such as Alzheimer's Disease can destroy the feedback functions of your PFC and memory circuits. Plaque are tangled amyloid substances that destroy nerve tissues. When those specific neuron clusters and neural pathways in the Left Frontal Lobe get tangled up with amyloid plaque, which destroys the biochemical connections (or when the neural pathways are damaged by a concussion), both self-awareness and the "sense of time" are diminished. This disorientation of time primarily involves the loss of awareness of past experiences because memory and language functions related to "self-identity" are typically processed in the brain's Left Hemisphere and Limbic System. Nevertheless, even though Alzheimer's victims gradually lose touch with their past and eventually can only live in the present moment, some past musical memories can be recalled, since music is typically processed in the brain's Right Hemisphere. Go to: FACT CHECKER Return to #1: CONSCIOUSNESS or LIST OF BRAIN FLASH CARDS