ALPHABETICAL BRAIN® VOCABULARY HUMANIST FAMILY BRAIN STUDY DETAILS ABOUT WORKING VISUAL MEMORY #1 March 17, 2022 WHAT IS YOUR WORKING VISUAL MEMORY? AND WHY IS IT SO IMPORTANT? The purpose of your working visual memory system is to determine what outside sensory information is the most important at the moment from your six senses and your many habits in order to protect you from danger or to reduce pain or produce the most comfort and pleasure possible. Your six senses include your sight, hearing, taste, touch, smell, and proprioception. Your proprioception sense involves neuron clusters at your joints, such as knees, shoulders, and elbows, with the help of the fluid in your inner ear. Together, they give you your sense of spatial awareness and balance since they are influenced by gravity. In addition, your working vbisual memory is a function of your prefrontal cortex (PFC). It consists of two clumps of neurons the size of two pennies located about one inch behind your forehead. Each clump or cluster is at the front part of both your Left Hemisphere and your Right Hemisphere. You can begin developing better control over your behavior by understanding how your brainpower works. By learning how to control the function of your working visual memory (executive cortex), you can consciously control your mind's "mental functions" (because it is the source of your natural willpower). These "mental forces" allow you to be creative any moment that you are aware of the need to be creative! Even the triggers of your subconscious habits, which are located in your long-term memory consolidation processes which can help you deal innovatively with choices and problem-solving decisions. Your creativity includes all kinds of improvisation that helps you solve personal and social problems. This awesome creative function of your prefrontal cortex can be enhanced by improving your thinking skills and reading strategies. Since it is the source of your creative mind's adaptable self-identity and unique willpower, it is known as the executive function of your brain located in the frontal lobes of your cerebrum. Fortunately, you can strengthen the executive function of your prefrontal cortex any time by doing more thinking and reading, since reading is a vital form of thinking. The more information and different perspectives you understand concerning personal, social, and political issues, the better your personal life-enhancing choices and decisions can be. The neuronal pathways, which physically connect your working memory system and your long-term memory system, are in your anterior cingulate cortex. The neuronal pathways carry biochemical currents (ionic signals/impulses) a few inches from your prefrontal cortex at the front of your cerebrum to your hippocampus deep down at the bottom of your limbic system. By opening your mind to new perceptions of reality organized around reliable brain facts and ideas, you can strengthen your mind's mental forces (brainpower). This new brain knowledge can help you conquer your doubts and confidently maintain your sanity as you increase your curiosity and develop more willpower. Soon your new habits of well-being can provide you with better health and more consistent happiness on a day to day basis. The brain information on this website emphasizes the profound connection between your working memory function and your long-term memory function. These two major brain ideas can easily be visualized as #1 and #15 on the following Circle of Consciousness Symbol©: CIRCLE OF CONSCIOUSNESS SYMBOL© You can see that #1 and #15 are next to each other on the circle, which reminds you that they are inseparably connected inside your brain. You would not have any conscious self-awareness and would not be able to talk sensibly, if your prefrontal cortex (PFC) and your hippocampus were not connected in a healthy way. This is the shockingly dreadful dilemma of the victims of Alzheimer's disease, which is the most common and fatal form of dementia. The conscious self-awareness of an Alzheimer's victim cannot connect with past memories. The normal connection between the prefrontal cortex function and the hippocampus function is broken. A variety of abnormalities and dysfunctions can cause the obstructions and/or disconnections. A victim becomes progressively less aware of his or her past memories, since the long-term memory triggers are located in his or her hippocampus. Then the victim's perceptions of reality and conscious awareness are lessened. If the connection is severely damaged, the self-identity of a victim becomes permanently altered, since essential self-defining memories cannot be recalled at will anymore. Tragically, when victims lose contact with their memories of the past, they forget the faces of their friends and family members and also forget where they are or how to speak appropriately during conversations. Then they are compelled to confabulate in order to fill the cognitive void with nonsensical explanations of preposterous unrelated things. Alzheimer's victims provide stark evidence of the meme: "You are your memory!" Since there is no guaranteed way of preventing Alzheimer's disease, it is imperative that you must maintain a healthy brain by sleeping adequately, eating well, doing regular physical exercise, and challenging yourself mentally to increase your cognitive reserve. Such proactive healthy activities can reduce your risk of getting Alzheimer's, or at least delay the pace of the deterioration of the brain structures and the mind's mental functions far into old age. The goal of living long and well requires that you keep fresh blood flowing through your veins and arteries and keep sparks of electro-chemical ionic signals flowing throughout your connectome, which is your whole brain and nervous system functioning together as one bio-psycho-social unit. Your connectome consists of your brain and all the biochemical signalling pathways: your motor neuronal pathways (from your brain to your body) and your sensory neuronal pathways (from your body to your brain). Those neuronal pathways are now being "mapped" (researched) at the smallest possible nano-microscopic atomic and molecular levels with the newest Block Fluorescent 3D Computerized Microscopes. To summarize, the goal of living long and well requires that you keep fresh blood flowing through your blood vessels and sparks of electro-chemical ionic signals flowing throughout your connectome: which is your brain and nervous system operating as a unified whole. WORKING MEMORY METAPHOR "The relationship between working memory and long-term memory is similar to that of a librarian and a library. Like a librarian, working memory allows you to search through the 'books' [your Categories of Subjects] of information stored in the 'library' [Your Memory] in order to accomplish a specific task." (Book Source = Working Memory Advantage, 2013, page 160) "With Alzheimer's disease, both elements are under attack: the 'librarian' [Executive Function] struggles to search through the stacks, and the bookworms that are eating through the 'books' [topics in your memory]. A shrinking working memory [Executive Function] has a detrimental effect on your ability to access the 'books' [your Categories of Subjects], to search through the 'library' [Your Memory] and find and apply what you need." (page 160) "And when the 'books' [Categories of Subjects] deteriorate, it is much harder to 'read' [consciously recall the topics] of what remains [in your memory]." (page 160) "However, working memory is such a dynamic and adaptive function that if it remains strong, even if Alzheimer's begins to eat away at the [nerves inside your neuronal pathways], it may in fact help to prevent the [dysfunctional] cognitive symptoms associated with the disease" for a long time. (page 160) You will learn that your working memory and long-term memory have overlapping reciprocal recursive feedback and feedforward functions, which can be described in hierarchical layers once you understand them in their modern cybernetic context. "However, working memory is such a dynamic and adaptive function that if it remains strong, even if Alzheimer's begins to eat away at your neurons, it may in fact help to prevent you from experiencing the cognitive symptoms associated with the disease" for a long time. (page 160) What are the skills necessary to make both your working memory and long-term memory more efficient? TAKE COMMAND OF YOUR LIFE WITH THREE NEW LEARNING TECHNIQUES The following three excellent learning techniques can improve the functioning of your working memory in its relationship to your long-term memory. They are: (1) Code Breakers; (2) Bootstrapping; and (3) Chunking: (1) The code breakers technique of planning can be used for improving your memorization of the 15 brain ideas emphasized on this website. You can develop a step by step plan that will help you transfer and consolidate new brain information into your long-term memory system. For example, you can use your active creative imagination to create associations between each of the 15 memory codes featured on this website and each of the 15 brain ideas, respectively. (page 182) (2) The bootrapping technique of learning involves the process of combining or binding verbal information (definitions) with visual information (brain diagrams) by using both your working memory and your long-term memory systems together. This technique can help you consolidate brain information such as the brain names and definitions and memory codes. After a few repetitions, the details about each brain idea can be retained and retrieved easily by you. (page 183) (3) The chunking technique of memorization involves a method of breaking down complex information, such as the description of each of your brain's many amazing structures and your mind's many functions, into smaller parts or "chunks." Then the alphabetical letters of the vital brain information, for example, can then be organized and committed by your working memory to your long-term memory." Then "the long chunks of information are stored in your long-term memory" for easy recall. This facilitates the process in which "your working memory 'conductor' can prioritize and manage data more efficiently." Book Source = Working Memory Advantage, 2013 (page 183); See also the Appendix: Working Memory Quick Hits Manual on pages 280-291. Note: See in context: neurons #2, dendrites #3, axons #4, nucleus of a neuron #5, glial cells #6, synapses #7, cerebrum #11, prefrontal cortex #12, limbic system #13, and long-term memory #15. Printable PDF Form DETAILS ABOUT YOUR WORKING MEMORY (for your own editing and memory consolidation) RECOMMENDATION: You can re-read this summary according to a reinforcement schedule, such as a few hours later and a few days later and then several times in the next week or two. This strategy can help you take advantage of the power of the spaced-repetition method of memorization. Such deep introspection can strengthen your willpower and increase your self-esteem by changing your adaptable self-identity. REMEMBER ALWAYS: You are your adaptable memory! instantly go to: FACT CHECKER ABOUT WORKING MEMORY #1 or instantly return to: WORKING MEMORY: BRAIN FLASH CARD #1 BACK or instantly return to: LIST OF 15 FREE BRAIN FLASH CARDS ALPHABETICAL BRAIN® VOCABULARY produced by Infinite Interactive Ideas®