Getting to know how your brain works

The patterns learnt by the brain affect your behaviour, thoughts, actions, senses, comprehension, nervous system and release of chemicals. It is one of the most important organs in your body. It is made up of a hundred billion or more cells that all work in unison contained in about 1.4 kilo or so of tissue inside your skull.

The patterns in your brain are made up of a series of chemical and electrical signals which travel between the nerve cells or neurons. Fibres in the neurones called axons and dendrites connect synapses with other nerve cells. An electrical current releases chemicals called neurotransmitters that bridge the gaps between the nerve cells and join onto receptors. It works like runners in a relay race and the same connections or synapses repeat continually to form a pattern.

These continuous patterns change the synapse physically making it stronger and storing information in long term memory in the folds of the brain meaning that brains are actually different in size inside the head from one person to another.

Planning and reasoning happens in the frontal lobes and this develops around 22 years of age which is why teenagers often have problems deciding whether to choose between how they think and how they feel. Adults often call this irrational reasoning.

Learning is a process of organising which shapes and strengthens the brain. Cells are connected in certain ways to make a complex learning computer and the more we use the brain the better it functions. Learning and memory are closely linked, but not the same, as not all the things we learn become memories.

Learning is gaining new information about the world, and memory is the way you store that information. However one can learn things and not always remember them. You may learn the number of the taxi company momentarily while you need a cab but the moment the cab arrives and you don’t need the number you choose to forget it again.

Learning changes the brain as it adapts to the new information which is why everyone’s brain looks different. This is called plasticity and enables us to adapt how we learn and think. Science tells us that learning involves changes in nerve cells and synapses and increases oxygen flow. Memory enhancement also involves triggering the forming of a new protein.

Memory on the other hand involves our brains retrieving information about the past and cognitive thinking is even more than this. Cognitive thinking involves remembering, reasoning, imagination, insight and even abstract thinking.

Memory can be either short or long-term. Short term memory is about recent events and long term can extend over our whole lives. Some memories you can recall and describe easily of daily events and others take into account our learning skills such as playing football or dancing.

Remembering and forgetting are normal parts of life but changes in our cognitive abilities happen as we age. How much it changes varies and we can prevent memory loss if we keep our brains healthy by deliberately activating the connections. This is more easily done by triggering our emotions as memories of emotional experiences are usually more easily recalled. We can take advantage of this by making ourselves believe that something is important and showing greater interest in it and this increases our brains capacity by almost 90%.

When we are awake we can only keep a few thoughts in our mind at a time but our unconscious, automatic mind can handle many thoughts at the same time and since much of our mental activity such as perceptions, decisions, and actions take place unconsciously many processes are handled in the brain at once. However these processes may not have always been unconscious. At one time you may have had to learn to do some of the things such as driving, playing netball or swimming. Now they may come more automatically.

In the same way we can create automatic responses with most anything we do. When we focus our attention we feed our brain instructions regarding what we are doing. This programs the mind and cells making new circuits. In this way it is possible to learn new skills and improve your memory.

The way the brain functions has a lot to do with how well it is oxygenated and good blood circulation. Antioxidants are therefore important as is Ginkgo Biloba (a herb to improve memory function). Meditation is a good exercise to increase concentration and focus abilities as well as calming frayed nervous systems whilst grounding exercises are essential to keep you alert and positive.