ALPHABETICAL BRAIN™ HUMANIST FAMILY BRAIN SURVEY HUMANIST FAMILY BRAIN SURVEY YOU CAN ACTIVATE YOUR BRAIN AND OPTIMIZE YOUR BRAINPOWER WITH THREE BRAIN REVIEW QUIZZES AND A 30 DAY TIMETABLE BRAIN STUDY CHART The 15 brain ideas on the 15 free brain flash cards featured on this website contain the most important brain facts and ideas ever discovered. They have all been verified repeatedly by brain research during the past 20 years since fMRI (functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging) machines and other computerized scanners have been available to help brain scientists "see" inside living human brains to understand how they work -- as they are functioning! The free sample of 15 brain ideas provides a solid intellectual foundation for understanding how human brains have evolved over the past 5,000 years, since human alphabets were first invented. Subsequently, since the English language has become the most important universal language during the past century, it contains the most useful symbols (letters and words) describing the biology and psychology of human consciousness and self-awareness. The primary assumption of this website is that the quality of your ability to reason and think clearly about your brain's functions and your brainpower potential depends upon the comprehensiveness of your general vocabulary and especially upon the accuracy of your brain vocabulary. That is what the Alphabetical Brain™ Vocabulary logo means, since it symbolizes the significance of understanding as many brain-related words and images as possible. In addition, it symbolizes the significance of being aware of the essential function of language, which is to understand the infinite possibilities of human consciousness as we know it today in all of its complexity. Since your language skills activate your brainpower, and the brain vocabulary provides essential symbolic tools for operating your brain well, the new brain facts and ideas can add new meaning to your life. The new brain vocabulary can give you more conscious control over your thoughts and feelings and behavior! The strategic thinking exercises on this website can nudge you through the educational process of thinking scientifically about the structure of reality based on historic scientific and philosophic milestones of human discovery and on contemporary universal humanistic technologic developments such as social media. Your efforts to learn scientific words about your brain's functions can help you reduce faith-based magical thinking when you deal with problems and make important personal and political decisions. Since your brain is the source of your consciousness and your consciousness is the source of your perception of your self, it is essential that you understand the relevance of your own reason-based willpower so you can freely choose your own destiny. This is the essence of modern humanism! When you learn how your magnificent mind can control your brilliant brain, each brain idea on each flash card can help your thoughts manage your curiosity and creativity. This statement of fact is not hyperbolic word play as you will soon discover. By practicing the recommended memory skills dilligently, you will be earning a huge bonus since you will be increasing your general intelligence at the same time. When you start, you can ask yourself the following two very important questions regarding each brain idea: What is its purpose? How does it function? These same two strategic thinking questions can be asked about the significance of each of the 15 brain ideas as you change your focus from one brain idea to another during your brain study. Each brain flash card can help your mind understand better how your brain works. Since your MIND IS what your BRAIN DOES, it is essential for you to understand how the three pounds of brain tissue is structured inside your head and how your brain's systems function to make you curious, empathetic, and optimistic about the future. When you know how your educated mind can give your adaptable self the ability to plan reasonable goals and to achieve them in satisfying and predictable ways, you will be in charge of your own ethical choices and moral social behavior. Understanding your own personal responsibility for controlling your behavior can reduce the influence of magical thinking in your life. This website offers a new way of explaining the great implications of brain science for the continuing evolution of humanity for everybody who desires to be part of the newly emerging humanistic world culture or at least the more educated social elite in democratic countries around the world. The great American Middle Class dream of human equality of opportunity and dignity for all is now possible if our fundamental democratic values are implemented throughout the country by a brain savvy educated electorate of people who know how human brains work and care about each other. In fact, the new brain ideas can be transferred quickly from your working memory resources to your long-term memory system if you use the logical structure of this website. The step-by-step advice about chunking (categorizing) the brain ideas into declarative statements and using the spaced-repetition method of memorizing brain facts and ideas can accelerate your progress. You can use the following three Review Quiz Forms to assist you in this self-directed learning quest. They list the 15 brain names, the 15 memory codes, and the 15 questions from the front sides of the 15 brain flash cards. The three Survey Quiz Forms are linked below followed by a 30 Day Timetable Brain Study Chart at the bottom. The 30 Day Timetable Brain Study Chart can be used as a concrete visual reminder of the time it takes you to learn all 15 of the brain ideas. If you print it and use it to measure the time you spend learning the new brain ideas, you will be able to learn them faster and save time as you begin to apply the brain ideas in real-life situations. You can master the complexity of your brain's many feedback and feedforward functions when you understand how they have evolved to interact as they compete with each other for your attention day and night. You will discover that your brain is active even at night when you are asleep! [1] The first step is to review what you already know about the 15 free brain ideas, which deal with your brain's major organic structures (parts) and intricate interactive functions (systems). [2] The second step is to prepare yourself for what to expect when the 15 new brain ideas on the online brain flash cards begin interacting in your consciousness. [3] The final third step is to seek meaning out of the arrangement of the words in the 15 QUESTIONS and 15 ANSWERS on the 15 free brain flash cards. Look for the secret pattern in the arrangement of the questions in Survey Quiz 3. Find the mysterious pattern after you ask yourself to name the brain idea referred to by each question. You will be able to prove to yourself what brain scientists already understand, namely, that your brain is a clever "pattern seeking" organ. The 15 answers (declarative statements) to the 15 questions are the brief definitions that describe each of the 15 brain ideas. Your learning challenge is to capture each of the specific answers (declarative statements) in your long-term memory system by knowing the name for each of them. The more complete meanings of the 15 brain ideas are further described in the "Details" quick-links at the bottom of the BACKS of all of the brain flash cards. The 15 fundamental brain facts can be integrated into your own personal knowledge as the words in the questions and answers begin to coalesce in your mind as you become more familiar with them. This new factual linguistic context, which is based on the latest experimental brain research, can provide you with the most effective intellectual foundation for all of your future major transformative decisions. Paying attention to the brain-related words that describe your true brain functions can help you learn faster and think more efficiently about your own thinking habits. Thinking about thinking is known as metacognition. Remember, you can memorize the brain ideas (or any ideas) quicker when they are arranged in short declarative summary statements so they can be captured by your semantic memory, which is located in your hippocampus. BRAIN STUDY ADVICE: After you look at the three self-administered Review Quizzes and decide to explore the 15 brain flash cards, you can go directly to the flash card quick-links for instant access to their meanings. Each flash card can be tapped repeatedly to "flip" from FRONT to BACK and from BACK to FRONT, or you can use the unique navigation symbols at the bottoms of all of the flash cards, until you become engaged with each brain idea long enough to make sense of it. In addition, you can choose the "Details" quick-links at the bottoms of the backs of each of the 15 brain flash cards until you understand the details about the brain idea on each flash card. Then you can examine the authoritative references listed at the convenient "Fact Finder" quick-links at the bottom of the "Details" files. SURVEY QUIZ #1: To prepare yourself for efficient memorization, you can use the following list of the 15 names of the brain ideas below to write your initial memories concerning each of the brain-related words. Brain Study Advice: Think about the most important facts that you already know about each of the 15 brain ideas. Then write a brief definition about what you know on the printable form (or write on a blank piece of paper) for your own record so you can prime your brain for new knowledge over time as you study your brain's main structures and functions. 1. Consciousness = 2. Neurons = 3. Dendrites = 4. Axons = 5. Nucleus = 6. Glial Cells = 7. Potentiation = 8. Synapses = 9. Connectome = 10. Plasticity = 11. Cerebral Cortex = 12. Prefrontal Cortex = 13. Limbic System = 14. Pleasure Circuit = 15. Working Memory = Printable Form SURVEY QUIZ #1: LIST OF THE NAMES OF THE 15 SAMPLE BRAIN IDEAS SURVEY QUIZ #2: You can use the following list of 15 brain memory codes or acronyms (clues) to begin thinking about the relationships among the brain ideas presented in the sample of the 15 free brain flash cards. Try to name all of the 15 brain ideas just by seeing the letter or letters on the following list of memory codes. You can use the printable form at the following link to write the names of each of the brain ideas next to the memory code (or write the names on a blank piece of paper next to the memory codes) for each brain idea. To remember more easily, speak out loud to yourself with an exaggerated voice to express the relationships of the memory code letters and the names of the brain ideas. Even subvocalizing quietly, but with exaggerated emphasis, can reinforce the ideas you want to remember in your brain's memory circuits. For example, say the letter and name "N = Neurons" out loud (or quietly) to yourself several times so you can add your brain's hearing memory circuit to your visual memory circuit and your muscle memory circuit. Hint: You can use the above list of the names of the 15 brain ideas to remind yourself which brain idea names are the matches for the memory codes. 1. CONS = 2. N = 3 DEN = 4. AX = 5. NUC = 6. GLI CEL = 7. POT = 8. SYN = 9. CONN = 10. PLAS = 11. CER CORT = 12. PFC = 13. LIM SYS= 14. PLEA CIR= 15. WRK MEM = Printable Form SURVEY QUIZ #2: MEMORY CODES FOR THE 15 BRAIN IDEAS SURVEY QUIZ #3: After you have studied the 15 brain flash cards, you can read the following list of 15 QUESTIONS and think about the name of the brain idea that is directly related to each question. Brain Study Advice: After viewing and studying the 15 brain flash cards, you can read each of the 15 brain questions and think about what brain idea each question refers to. For best results, write the name of the brain idea at the end of each question. You can use the printable form at the link below to write the name of each brain idea next to the question it refers to (or write the questions and names on a blank piece of paper) to make the proper connections: 1-- What memory circuit gives you the power to remember old memories and save new ideas and perceptions in your long-term memory system? 2 -- What biological circuit in your limbic system causes your feelings of happiness when neurotransmitters, including dopamine, are stimulated? 3 -- What part of your brain has eight organs and releases neurotransmitters to control hormones that influence all of your feelings? 4 -- What is the source of your sense of self with its conscious executive control function that evolved to manage hormones and neurotransmitters activated by your limbic system? 5 -- What is the thin, wrinkled, and folded outer layer covering your cerebrum that contains billions of neuron cell bodies known as gray matter? 6 -- What is the adaptive process of your brain's connectome that is a cause of your ability to think, feel, create new habits, and learn new ideas? 7 -- What is the 3-dimensional cellular communication network that connects your brain and spinal cord and is a cause of your free will? 8 -- What are the trillions of tiny biochemical junctions that connect with and switch on or off your billions of neurons? 9 -- What is the way neurons connect so you can think of ideas, feel emotions, control your muscles, and memorize anything you choose? 10 -- What are the brain cells known as white matter that surround the axon filaments in your billions of neurons to protect and nourish them? 11 -- What is the source of the action potential spikes that flow through neurons to activate your muscles, organs, glands, and senses? 12 -- What are the thin filaments inside your 100 billion neurons that conduct biochemical currents of ions to activate your body? 13 -- What are the thousands of extensions that branch out from the cell body in most of your neurons to attach to other neurons? 14 -- What are the cells in your brain and nervous system that send biochemical currents from their cell bodies to their end terminals? 15 -- What is the biological source of your ability to activate your brain so you can be aware of your self, choose goals, and solve problems? Printable Form SURVEY QUIZ #3: LIST OF QUESTIONS ABOUT THE 15 BRAIN IDEAS Now is a good time to start developing a deeper knowledge about your evolutionary brain and the true nature of reality, if you want to realize your full humanistic brainpower potential. Since time is your most valuable personal resource, and is the easiest variable for you to control, the 30 Day Timetable Brain Study Chart can help you focus your attention during your brain study quest. This objective way of measuring the time you spend learning about your brain functions can stimulate you to continue your brain study. Printable Form 30 DAY TIMETABLE BRAIN STUDY CHART This kind of self-monitoring is vital when you are learning the new brain vocabulary (or any other subject), if you want to take more conscious control over your attitudes and habits. Your "AHA!" and "WOW!" moments of awe during the time you study your brain can be more frequent as you focus on the most significant consequences of learning the new brain ideas. Since humans have been communicating through stories for thousands of years, your brain can learn faster if you begin to write your own story about your emerging new understanding of the brain vocabulary and your brain functions as you discover the new facts. You can plot the 15 free brain ideas in your story line as empowering ideas to liberate you from boredom or traumatic anxiety and fear provoking mindsets and memories that may be part of your consciousness now. Thus the new brain ideas can become the basis for a new confidence building understanding of your own awesome brainpower potential. Finally, you can improve your brain study results if you take advantage of the printouts (and also make your own hand written lists) of the 15 brain names; the 15 brain memory codes; and the 15 brain-related questions and names of the brain ideas they represent. The sooner you review the brain ideas after your first exposures to the 15 brain flash cards, the more efficient your brain study sessions can be. This kind of multi-sensory learning method, with frequent repetition of the same brain ideas in the context of your own personal goals and plans to achieve them, is an extremely effective form of self-directed immersion learning. Thinking about your brain and brainpower can help you improve your thinking skills and overall curiosity about life, nature, and the universe. Think big and be in charge of your own mental and emotional capacities! HUMANIST FEEDBACK TO IMPROVE WEBSITE [1] You are invited to suggest other published reference sources to add to those in the Fact Checker files that are already linked to the 15 free brain ideas. [2] You are also encouraged to suggest other brain ideas to include in either the list of 15 free fundamental brain ideas or the list of 85 additional brain ideas that will be in the top 100 of the Alphabetical Brain™ Vocabulary App. [3] Choosing the 100 most important brain ideas can be a lifelong educational challenge for all humanist family members. The serious thinking involved can create the essential cognitive reserve that can provide stronger brainpower for a lifetime of fulfillment and healthy living. You can send your constructive feedback about this website to the following e-mail address: info@alphabeticalbrain.com Your contribution will be noted when the results of the Humanist Family Brain Survey are ready for wider distribution this spring. The complete sequence of 100 brain flash cards will be universally accessible at the Alphabetical Brain™ Vocabulary App very soon. INSTANTLY GO TO: SAMPLE OF 15 FREE BRAIN FLASH CARDS OR GO TO: HUMANIST BRAIN STUDY GUIDE OR GO TO: ALPHABETICAL BRAIN™ VOCABULARY WEBSITE INDEX