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Miracle-Gro for the Brain By Dr. Milton Teske, M.D. Throughout all eternity we will be ever learning more and more and yet the human brain will still be capable of more. While our brains today are probably quite degenerated compared with those of the antediluvians yet we must recognize that the fundamental design of the human brain is to be ever learning. Yet today it seems that starting after childhood learning seems to be more difficult. Academic achievement in school comes at the cost of significant effort for some. And as we advance through life learning seems to become more and more difficult. “You can’t teach an old dog new tricks.” And then the decline and forgetfulness of old age seems to come too soon and some even progress into serious degrees of dementia. Today scientists are beginning to unlock some of the secrets of how the brain learns and what it takes to create new memories and to make them permanently accessible to the conscious mind. There are over 100 billion neurons in your brain and each of these has thousands of little roots and branches reaching out and connecting with each other. Everywhere they touch they form a synapse where they release one of several hundred different neurotransmitters that activate or regulate whether the neuron they touch will fire or not. The electrical activity of this vast network constitutes our conscious thoughts and in the various connections will be found our memories. It is extremely complex and even a simple memory is not stored in a single location. An apple is not just an “apple”. The shape of the apple will be stored in one place, the color in another, the sound of biting into a crisp apple in another, and the sweet distinctive taste in yet another place. And the word “apple’ will be in yet another language association area and manzana in yet another and so on with every aspect of an apple and all the different varieties of apples you have known and every other sight, sound, taste, smell or feel 4 Secrets Unsealed News • 4th Quarter 2010
you have ever associated with an apple. This infinitely complex network of associations is then cross referenced with any other thoughts you may have had that referenced an apple in any way. When you figure that each of your 100 billion neurons can form up to 50,000 synapses with other neurons and you start to do the math of the possible synaptic paths that could be taken the exponential number that results starts to exceed the number of atoms of mater in the known universe! But this complex array of different aspects of an apple stored in the synapses across the different parts of your brain needs to be coordinated so that they all come together in a meaningful conscious experience that you can recall as needed. The hippocampus is the switchboard in the center of the brain that is responsible for coordinating these. And we now know that the hippocampus is the key part of the brain that is responsible for learning – that is making the various sights and sounds and other sensory input permanent connections that can be recalled in the future. This learning process requires several things. First it requires your conscious focused attention. This is an action of the frontal lobe. “Therefore, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.” 1 Cor. 10:31 NKJV Your power of decision chooses to hold a particular thought in your conscious mind and dwell on it. Maybe you are trying to learn a new Spanish vocabulary word. You hear it pronounced, you see it on the page, you think about what it means and you associate it with other thoughts and pictures in your mind, you say it, you write it, you try to use it in a sentence or maybe several different sentences, etc. etc. And as you repeat this process over and over at different times new synaptic connections are being formed. As these connections grow larger and stronger and there are more of them connecting to other aspects of the word you are learning it will become easier to recall and use it when you want to. This process of growing new and stronger synapses we now understand involves several protein factors whose job is to build and maintain all these new synapses. The most prominent one of these is called brain-derived neurotrophic factor or BDNF. This is the fertilizer that allows neurons to grow new synapses. High levels of BDNF and those new associations you are trying to form as you memorize that new Spanish word easily and quickly grow into new strong synapses. In experimental animals Secrets Unsealed News • 4th Quarter 2010 5
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Page 19 and 20: In The Valley I Grow Sometimes life
Page 21 and 22: 5 Cherith & Beatrice, faithful view
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Page 27 and 28: Monthly Specials! October Mary, the
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