ALPHABETICAL BRAIN™ VOCABULARY DETAILS about POTENTIATION Brain Flash Card #7 WHAT IS POTENTIATION AND WHY IS IT SO IMPORTANT? What is the purpose and function of POTENTIATION? The purpose of potentiation is to make cellular communication possible among all of the neuron brain cells throughout your brain (cranium) and nervous system (body). Potentiation is short for long-term potentiation, which is the cellular process of activating the neurons in your neural pathways. Potentiation strengthens the action potential spike in a particular neural pathway by adding connections to more neurons through repeated signaling of ionic currents along a specific neural pathway. It is the biochemical process that causes a habit to form through repeating a certain physical behavior or mental idea until it is unconsciously remembered. It happens inside neural pathways when the ionic currents (biochemical signals or impulses) are associated with strong emotions or repeated due to either training or incidental routine behavior. This fundamental biological process can produce new memories of all the sensations that your brain is aware of from both inside and outside your body. For example, procedural memories (muscle memories) deal with physical skills and habits of movement. NOTE: See neurons #2, dendrites #3, axons #4, nucleus #5, synapses #8, connectome #9, plasticity #10, cerebral cortex #11, and prefrontal cortex #12. INSTANTLY GO TO: FACT CHECKER for POTENTIATION OR RETURN TO: POTENTIATION: BRAIN FLASH CARD #7 OR RETURN TO: LIST OF 15 FREE BRAIN FLASH CARDS