ALPHABETICAL BRAIN™ VOCABULARY CONSCIOUSNESS DETAILS: Brain Flash Card #1 WHAT IS YOUR "CONSCIOUSNESS" AND WHY IS IT SO IMPORTANT? Your CONSCIOUSNESS of being alive is caused by the global circuitry of all of your neuronal pathways, which connect your memory systems to your "PFC" (PreFrontal Cortex). The huge number of neuronal pathways in your brain and nervous system makes your self-awareness and free will possible. When you become aware of how your real sensory self can be influenced by your thoughts (your cerebral cortex), you will be able to manage your feelings (your limbic system) better and plan for the future. The new brain vocabulary explains how your perceptions, memories, and self-awareness are formed. When you perceive the awareness of being you, all of the connections in your brain and nervous system must be working well in what brain scientists know in its totality as your brain's CONNECTOME. However, the part of your brain that is the essential component of your conscious self-awareness consists of two small clusters of neurons, each the size of a penny, located about one inch behind both sides of your forehead in the forward part of your Frontal Lobes which are known as your two PFCs (PreFrontal Cortices). They are connected directly to your Anterior Cingulate Gyrus, which is in your Limbic System. And they are connected to the other main parts of your brain which contribute to your conscious self-awareness or sense of self. The other major parts of your brain are several kinds of memory circuits, such as procedural, semantic, episodic, and autobiographic, as well as your Sensory Cortex and Motor Cortex, which are both major functional areas of your Cerebral Cortex. Your Sensory Cortex receives biochemical signals from your nervous system and your Motor Cortex stimulates biochemical signals to activate your muscles and other bodily organs. To review, your Connectome connects the tens of millions of neurons in your Cerebral Cortex to the tens of millions of neurons in your Nervous System and other specialized regions of your brain as well as all of your senses and internal organs and all of the nerve fibers in the neuronal pathways inside all of your nerve tracts. Also your Connectome contains trillions of connections that are contained in an elaborate three dimensional (3-D) structure or web of biochemical circuits throughout your brain and nervous system. It is the way the neuronal circuits in human brains and nervous systems were organized or "wired together" over hundreds of thousands of years by natural evolutionary processes. Thus your Connectome is an incredible parallel processing biochemical system that makes possible your free will, which is caused by the ions (isotopes of electrons) that move ("jump") among the layers of neuronal pathways ("wiring") of your Connectome's three-dimensional (3-D) structure. It is important to realize that your ability to change your mind or your free will (also known as "agency,") depends upon having trillions of healthy neuronal connections known as synapses in all of the neuronal pathways inside the nerve tracts of your nervous system as well as all of the regions of your brain. In addition, this phenominal microscopic communication system makes possible the strengthening of new connections in the many trillions of synapses and the billions of neurons sending biochemical signals up and down neuronal pathways. For example, the system carries hundreds of billions of neuronal signals from the neurons in your Motor Cortex to stimulate the muscles that cause the movements of your body. The system also sends biochemical signals to other functional regions of your brain to stimulate other reactions such as your mirror neurons when you imagine what other people are thinking. The microscopic functions of the polarized ions in the molecules of your tens of billions of neurons and trillions of synapses are now understood well enough -- after thousands of years of human civilization -- to help you every minute of the day! The PFC part of your Connectome, specifically your two PreFrontal Cortices, are directly connected to your Long-Term Memory resources in your Hippocampus, which is located in your Limbic System, and also connected to your Language Module, which is located in your Left Temporal Lobe, and your Reticular Activating Formation, which is located in your Brainstem, and the two vital unconscious brain functions that regulate your breathing and heartbeat, which are both located in your Cerebellum. Unfortunately, this phenomenal process of biochemical communication inside the neuronal cells of your body can be damaged and eventually destroyed when the neuronal pathways in the brain's PFC get obstructed or entangled due to the buildup of amyloid plaque and other cellular debre in those particular unique neuronal pathways that reach to the Hippocampus. The destruction of the biochemical connections can cause the loss of self-awareness and the loss of one's sense of time as well as the loss of facial recognition skills when the executive control mechanism of one's Prefrontal Cortex gets cutoff from the brain's memory resources, including both Working Memory and Long-Term Memory system depending upon the degree of damage. The disorientation of time is caused by dementias, especially Alzheimer's, which is the most severe and which is impossible to cure. Dementias involve the loss of awareness of past experiences and facial recognition skills. This is because memory and language functions related to the brain's self-identity function are typically processed in the Left Hemisphere and signaled (communicated) through the neuronal pathways of the Anterior Cingulate Gyrus to the Limbic System. Even when the victims of Alzheimer's gradually lose touch with their past by not being able to recal important memories and lose their abiltity to remember faces, some past musical memories may be recalled and can even lead to limited access to some non-musical memories. The temporary remembering of the names of spouses, for example, can be stimulated when a patient is listening to familiar music, since music memories are typically processed in the brain's Right Hemisphere. This is possible since there is some connectivity with the Left Hemisphere, which is typically the location of memory resources related to language functions, such as the names of people and things. The brain's Corpus Callosum contains three main cross-over cables of neurons that physically connect the Right and Left Hemispheres. Fortunately, feelings of love and the appreciation of familiar music usually remain to the end for Alzheimer's patients. INSTANTLY GO TO: [1] FACT CHECKER for CONSCIOUSNESS OR RETURN TO: [2] CONSCIOUSNESS BRAIN FLASH CARD #1 OR RETURN TO: [3] ALPHABETICAL BRAIN™ VOCABULARY WEBSITE INDEX