Any concept is revealed through a number of principles (from the Latin principium - foundation), including the concept of the relationship between the brain and the psyche. In the works of A.R. Luria, E.D. Chomsky, O.S. Adrianova, L.S. Tsvetkova, N.P. Bekhtereva and others summarize the basic principles of the structure and functioning of the brain. Thanks to these researchers, it is possible to identify in the brain organization how general principles structure and functioning characteristic of all macrosystems, as well as the dynamically changing individual characteristics of these systems.
A.R. Luria identifies the following principles of the evolution and structure of the brain as an organ of the psyche:
- - the principle of evolutionary development, which consists in the fact that at different stages of evolution the relationship of the organism with the environment and its behavior were regulated by various devices nervous system and, therefore, the human brain is the product of long evolutionary development;
- - the principle of preservation of ancient structures, which assumes that the old brain apparatuses are preserved, giving way to new formations and acquiring a new role. They increasingly become apparatuses that provide the background for behavior;
- - the principle of the vertical structure of the functional systems of the brain, meaning that each form of behavior is ensured by the joint work of different levels of the nervous apparatus, interconnected by both ascending and descending connections, turning the brain into a self-regulating system;
- - principle of hierarchical interaction different systems brain, according to which excitation arising in the peripheral sensory organs first comes to the primary (projection) zones, then spreads to the secondary zones of the cortex, which play an integrating role, combining somatotopic projections of excitations arising in the periphery into complex functional systems. This principle essentially ensures the integrative activity of the brain;
- - the principle of somatotopic organization of the primary zones of the cerebral cortex, according to which each part of the body corresponds to strictly defined points of the cerebral cortex (point to point).
- - the principle of the functional organization of the cortex, reflecting the relationship between the role of a function and its projection in the cerebral cortex: what higher value has one or another functional system, those large area It is occupied by its projection in the primary parts of the cerebral cortex. An illustration of this principle are the famous Penfield schemes; brain psyche neuroanatomical
- - the principle of progressive corticolization, the essence of which is that the higher an animal is on the evolutionary ladder, the more its behavior is regulated by the cortex and the more the differentiated nature of these regulations increases.
In addition, A.R. Luria pointed out that the formation mental activity man is walking from simple to more complex, indirect forms.
O.S. Adrianov, complementing and developing the science of the brain, formulated two principles:
- - the principle of multi-level interaction of vertically organized excitation pathways, which provides opportunities for various types processing of afferent signals;
- - the principle of hierarchical subordination of various brain systems, due to which the number of degrees of freedom of each system is reduced and it becomes possible to control one level of the hierarchy by another.
E.D. Chomsky, based on modern ideas about the basic principles of the organization of the brain as a substrate of the psyche, substantiates two basic principles of the theory of localization of higher mental functions:
- - the principle of systemic localization of functions (each mental function relies on complex interconnected structural and functional systems of the brain);
- - the principle of dynamic localization of functions (each mental function has a dynamic, changeable brain organization, different in different people and at different ages of their lives).
The main principles of the structural and functional organization of the brain outlined above are formulated on the basis of an analysis of neuroanatomical data.
The reason for writing this article was the publication of material by American neurologists on the topic of measuring the memory capacity of the human brain, and presented on GeekTimes the day before.
In the prepared material I will try to explain the mechanisms, features, functionality, structural interactions and features in the functioning of memory. Also, why is it impossible to draw analogies with computers in the work of the brain and carry out calculations in machine language units. The article uses materials taken from the works of people who devoted their lives to hard work in the study of cytoarchitectonics and morphogenetics, confirmed in practice and having results in evidence-based medicine. In particular, the data of S.V. Savelyev is used. scientist, evolutionist, paleoneurologist, doctor of biological sciences, professor, head of the laboratory of development of the nervous system at the Institute of Human Morphology of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
Before proceeding to consider the issue and the problem as a whole, we will formulate basic ideas about the brain and make a number of explanations that allow us to fully appreciate the presented point of view.
The first thing you should know: the human brain is the most variable organ, it differs between men and women, race and ethnic groups, the variability is both quantitative (brain weight) and qualitative (organization of sulci and convolutions) in nature; in different variations this difference turns out to be more than twofold.
Second: the brain is the most energy-consuming organ in the human body. With a weight of 1/50 of body weight, it consumes 9% of the energy of the entire body in calm state, for example, when you are lying on the couch and 25% of the energy of the whole body, when you actively begin to think, is a huge expense.
Third: due to high energy consumption, the brain is cunning and selective, any energy-dependent process is disadvantageous for the body, this means that without extreme biological necessity such a process will not be supported and the brain tries to save the body’s resources by any means.
Here are, perhaps, three main points from a far from complete list of brain features that will be needed when analyzing the mechanisms and processes of human memory.
What is memory? Memory is a function of nerve cells. Memory does not have a separate, passive energy Not costly localization, which is a favorite topic of physiologists and psychologists, supporters of the idea of intangible forms of memory, which is refuted by sad experience clinical death, when the brain stops receiving the necessary blood supply and approximately 6 minutes after clinical death, irreversible processes begin and memories disappear irrevocably. If memory had energy Not dependent source, it could be restored, but this does not happen, which means the memory is dynamic and constant energy costs for its maintenance.
It is important to know that the neurons that determine human memory are located primarily in the neocortox. The neocortex contains about 11 billion. neurons and many times more glia. (Glia are a type of cell in the nervous system. Glia are the medium for neurons; glial cells serve as support and protective device for neurons. The metabolism of glial cells is closely related to the metabolism of the neurons they surround.
Neocortex:
Glia, neuron connections:
It is well known that information is stored in memory different time, there are such concepts as long-term and short-term memory. Events and phenomena are quickly forgotten if they are not updated and repeated, which is another confirmation of the dynamism of memory. Information is retained in a certain way, but in the absence of demand it disappears.
As mentioned earlier, memory is an energy-dependent process. No energy - no memory. A consequence of the energy dependence of memory is the instability of its content. Memories of past events are falsified in time to the point of complete inadequacy. Memory does not count time, but it is replaced by the speed of forgetting. The memory of any event decreases in inverse proportion to time. In an hour, ½ of everything that is in memory is forgotten, in a day – 2/3, in a month – 4/5.
Let us consider the principles of memory operation, based on the biological expediency of the results of its work. The physical components of memory consist of neural pathways connecting one or more cells. They include zones of gradual and active signal conduction, various systems synapses and cell bodies of neurons. Let's imagine an event or phenomenon. The man was faced with a new, but quite important situation. Through certain sensory connections and sense organs, a person received various information, the analysis of the event ended with a decision. At the same time, the person is satisfied with the result. There is residual excitation in the nervous system - the movement of signals through the networks that were used to solve the problem. These are the so-called “old chains” that existed before the situation with the need to remember information. Maintaining the circulation of different information signals within one structural chain is extremely energy-consuming. Therefore, storing new information in memory is usually difficult. During repetitions or similar situations, new synaptic connections between cells can be formed and then the information received will be remembered for a long time. Thus, memorization is the preservation of residual activity of neurons in a brain region.
Brain memory is a forced compensatory reaction of the nervous system. Any information goes into temporary storage. Maintaining the stability of short-term memory and the perception of signals from the outside is extremely energetically expensive; new exciting signals arrive to the same cells and transmission errors accumulate and energy resources are over-expended. However, the situation is not as bad as it looks. The nervous system has long-term memory. Often it transforms reality in such a way that it makes the original objects unrecognizable. The degree of modification of an object stored in memory depends on the storage time. Memory preserves memories, but changes them as the owner wants. Long-term memory is based on simple and random processes. The fact is that neurons form and destroy their connections throughout their lives. Synapses are constantly being formed and destroyed. Quite rough data suggest that this process of spontaneous formation of one neuronal synapse can occur in mammals approximately 3-4 times every 2-5 days. Branching of collaterals containing hundreds of different synapses occurs somewhat less frequently. A new polysynaptic collateral is formed in 40-45 days. Since these processes occur in every neuron, it is quite possible to estimate the daily long-term memory capacity for any of the animals. It can be expected that in the human cerebral cortex about 800 million new connections between cells will be formed every day and approximately the same number will be destroyed. Long-term memory is the inclusion in the newly formed network of areas with completely unused, newly formed contacts between cells. The more new synaptic contacts are involved in the primary (short-term) memory network, the more chances this network has to survive for a long time.
Remembering and forgetting information. Short-term memory is formed on the basis of existing connections. Its appearance is indicated by orange arrows in fragment b. Signals containing both old (purple arrows) and new (orange arrows) information circulate along the same paths. This leads to extremely costly and short-term storage of new information based on old connections. If it is not important, then the energy costs for its maintenance are reduced and forgetting occurs. When storing “short-term” but now necessary information, new physical connections are formed between cells along fragments a-b-c. This leads to long-term memory based on the use of newly formed connections (yellow arrows). If information remains unclaimed for a long time, it is replaced by other information. In this case, connections may be interrupted and forgetting occurs in fragments c-b-a or c-a (blue arrows)."
From the above, it is clear that the brain is a dynamic structure, is constantly being rebuilt and has certain physiological limits, and the brain is also an excessively energy-consuming organ. The brain is not physiological, but morphogenetic, therefore its activities are incorrect and incorrect to measure in systems used and applied in information technology. Due to individual variability of the brain, it is not possible to draw any conclusions generalizing the various functional indicators of the human brain. Mathematical methods are also not applicable in calculating the structural interaction in the work of the human brain, due to the constant change, interaction and restructuring of nerve cells and connections between them, which in turn brings to the point of absurdity the work of American scientists in studying the memory capacity of the human brain.
It is very important to understand how complex mechanism- human brain. The human brain weighs only about 1,300 grams, but contains about 100 billion cells. It is difficult to imagine a number of such magnitude (or such microscopic connections). Let's try to understand and imagine how complex the brain is by comparing it with something created by man himself - for example, with the telephone system of the entire planet. Even if we imagine all the world's telephones and all the wires (and the world's population is already 7 billion), the number of connections and trillions of messages per day would NOT be equivalent to the complexity or activity of one human brain. Now let's look at the "little problem" - if all the telephones in the state of Michigan were broken and all the wires were down, how long would it take the entire state (where about 15 million people live) to restore telephone service? A week, a month, several years? If you chose “years,” then you are close to the truth and roughly imagine the complexity of brain recovery after injury. In the example of the state of Michigan, its residents would be without telephone service, while throughout the rest of the world telephone service would work normally. The same thing happens to a person with a head injury. Some parts of the brain will continue to function normally, while others will need to be repaired or reset.
Electrical and chemical mechanism
Let's look at the building blocks of the brain. As already mentioned, the brain consists of 100 billion cells. Most of these cells are called neurons. Neurons are something like switches, well, much like the well-known household electrical switches. They are either at rest (off) or transmitting an electrical impulse through wires (on). A neuron has a cell body, a long little wire called an axon, and the very tip can emit a chemical signal. This chemical impulse is transmitted through a narrow gap (synapse), where it triggers the transmission of a signal by another neuron. In this way, many neurons transmit signals along wires (axons). By the way, each of these billions of axons generates a small electrical impulse, the total power of these impulses, according to rough calculations, is equal to the power of a 60-watt light bulb. Doctors have found that measurements of this electrical activity can be indicators of brain function. A device for measuring the electrical activity of the brain is called an EEG (electroencephalograph).
Each of the billion neurons spits out a chemical that triggers neighboring neurons. Different neurons have different chemical substances. These substances are considered “transmitters” and are called adrenaline, norepinephrine, dopamine. It's very simple, right? Well, not quite. Even in this simplified model, everything is much more complicated.
Is our brain one big computer?
Is our brain a large telephone switchboard (due to the many connections and contacts) or is it a large computer with on/off modes (corresponding to computer zeros and ones)? Neither one nor the other.
Let's try to look at the brain using a different model. Let's compare it to an orchestra. The orchestra consists of different musical instruments. Percussion instruments, strings, wind instruments, etc. Everyone has their own job and at the same time, they must sound harmoniously with others. And the conductor controls them all. With a wave of the conductor's baton, all members of the orchestra enter simultaneously and on the same note. If the drummer hasn't rehearsed enough, he'll ruin the others' performance. There are times when it seems that the overall sound of the music is “off” or it is performed poorly. Perhaps this model will better help imagine how the brain works. We are used to the stereotypical comparison of the brain to a single computer, but in reality it is like millions of small computers working smoothly together.
How the brain receives and transmits information
How does the brain receive information? Most of information travels through the spinal cord to the base of the brain. Imagine that the spinal cord is a thick telephone cable connecting thousands of lines. If this cable is cut, the person will lose sensation in the body and the ability to move. Information coming from the brain gives commands to parts of the body (arms and legs). There is a lot of INCOMING information and it can be different (hot, cold, pain, mixed sensations, etc.). Vision and hearing do not pass through the spinal cord, but enter directly into the brain. This explains the ability of a paralyzed person (deprived of the ability to move his arms and legs) to hear and see.
Information from the spinal cord enters the center of the brain. It branches out like a tree and goes to the surface of the brain. The surface of the brain is gray due to the color of the cells (hence why it is often called gray matter). Neuronal processes, or axions, have a white surface (called white matter).
Two brains - left and right hemispheres
We have two eyes, two arms and legs, why not have two brains? Our brain is divided into two halves - the right and left hemispheres. The work that the right hemisphere does is different from the work of the left. The right hemisphere is busy with visual activities and plays important role in connecting things. For example, it takes visual information, connects and processes it and says: " I recognize it - it's a chair" or " this is a car", or " this is home". It organizes and groups information. The left hemisphere is more of an analytical part; it analyzes the information collected by the right hemisphere. It takes information from the right hemisphere and turns it into linguistic form. While the right hemisphere "sees" the house, the left hemisphere says: " Oh, I know whose house this is, it's Uncle Bob's house".
What happens if one part of the brain is damaged? People who have damage to the right side of the brain "don't connect things together" and cannot process information. They often develop a “denial syndrome” and claim that “everything is fine” with them. Let's give an example: a person has damage to the right hemisphere - its posterior part, which is responsible for visual information - and he partially loses his vision. Because the activity of the right hemisphere is impaired, the brain is not able to “gather” information and does not understand that something is missing. In essence, a person is blind in one eye, but does not realize it. And the worst thing is, he was still driving the car and drove it into the doctor's office. After reviewing the results of the tests the doctor performed on him, the doctor asked, "Do you have a lot of dents on the left side of your car?" The patient was amazed that in some mysterious way the doctor knew about this without seeing his car. Alas, we had to convince him not to travel until he recovered. But you can now clearly see how the right hemisphere processes and connects information.
The left hemisphere of the brain is responsible for language and analysis of information entering the brain. If the left hemisphere of the brain is impaired, the person is aware that something is wrong (the right hemisphere is doing its job), but is unable to solve complex problems or cope with complex activities. People with damage to the left hemisphere are more likely to experience depression, organizational problems, and language problems.
Vision - how we see
From the eyes, information enters the occipital region of the brain. We are all familiar with the phenomenon when, when you hit your head, “stars fall out of your eyes.” This definitely happens (take my word for it, there is no need to experiment at home). At strong impact at the back of the head, this part of the brain hits the skull, which stimulates the brain and the person sees stars or flashes of light. Remember about two hemispheres? Each hemisphere processes half of the visual information. What we see on the left is processed by the right hemisphere. Information on the right is processed by the left hemisphere. The wires through which information enters the brain “cross” - visual information from the left goes to the right hemisphere.
Movement
The area of the brain that controls movement is located in a narrow band that runs from the top of the head directly to where the ear is located. It's called a motor strip. If it is damaged, a person cannot control half of his body. If the left hemisphere is damaged, the right side of the body will stop working. When the right hemisphere is damaged in this area, the left side of the body stops working (remember, we have two halves of the brain). This is why one part of the face may be immobile if a person has suffered a stroke.
Language and speech
95% of people on earth are right-handed, which means they are left-brain dominant. Left-handers have a dominant right hemisphere. In right-handed people, the ability to understand both language and express thoughts is located in the left temporal lobe. If you take a metal electrode, charge it a little and place it at the beginning of the left temporal lobe, the person will say: " hey i hear a sound"If you move the electrode to a more complex part of the lobe, the person will understand the spoken word. If you continue to move it to an even more complex part, you can distinguish a familiar voice: " Oh yeah, that's Uncle Bob's voice". We have simple zones in the frontal lobe, which are responsible for sounds and other areas that perceive more complex information by ear.
Right temporal lobe also responsible for hearing. However, its task is to process musical information and help identify noises. If this area is damaged, the person cannot hear music and cannot sing. Because we think and express thoughts through language, the functioning of the left temporal lobe is more important to us day in and day out.
There is a border zone where the hearing area and the visual area interact. This is the area with which we read. We take visual images and transform them into sounds. If this part of the brain is damaged or was not developed properly during childhood, the person develops dyslexia. People with dyslexia may see letters upside down or not understand the meaning of written words.
Skin sensitivity
If a fly lands on your left hand, this information will be instantly transferred to the right part of the brain, to the part that is located next to the part of the brain responsible for movement. The tactile area of the brain deals with physical sensations. Movements and sensations are closely related, so it is not for nothing that the parts of the brain responsible for them are located nearby. Since movement and sensation are close together in our brains, it is understandable why people lose the ability to move and feel sensation in any part of the body when that area of the brain is damaged. Remember - tactile sensations on the left side of the body are transmitted to right side brain, as with movement and vision.
Frontal lobe - planning, organizing, controlling
The largest and most developed part of the brain is the frontal lobe. (It is called frontal, because it is located in the front part of the brain.) One of the tasks of the frontal lobe is planning. You may have heard of a "frontal lobotomy." At the beginning of the century, such an operation was performed on extremely aggressive and cruel people or overly excitable mental patients. This part of the brain was surgically damaged. After such an operation, the person became passive and not so cruel. At first this was perceived as a great scientific achievement. Neurosurgery has been shown to be able to solve behavioral problems such as violence. But the trouble was that after the operation the patients stopped doing many other things. They could no longer do their usual daily activities and take care of themselves. They just sat there indifferently. When head injuries result in damage to the frontal lobe of the brain, a person loses the ability to perform multi-step tasks (for example, repairing a car, preparing food). He cannot plan actions.
Organization is also a task of the frontal lobe. When we do something, we first do step A, then step B, then step C. We do the actions sequentially, in order. The frontal lobe of the brain is responsible for this organization. When the frontal lobe is injured, this ability for sequence and organization is impaired. A typical example is when people skip some step in the sequence of actions while preparing food. They forget to add an important ingredient or turn off the stove. They have a lot of burned pots and pans.
In addition to all that has been said, the frontal lobe plays an important role in the control of emotions. The emotional control sectors lie deep in the center of the brain. These are primary emotions - hunger, aggression, sexual arousal. These departments send "do something" signals. If you're mad, hit someone in the neck. If you're hungry, eat something. The frontal lobe “controls” emotions. In simple words, it has NO or STOP functions. If your emotions are pushing you to punch your boss, then it is the frontal lobe that carefully keeps you from "STOP or you will lose your job. If someone says: " I start up half a turn and go wild", this means that the frontal lobe is not firing to turn off the emotional system.
On the other hand, we discussed above how the frontal lobe plans activities. But sometimes certain types of emotions turn out to be stronger and ahead of thought. For example, sexual attraction involves a certain level of imagination, planning and preparation. Without this, interest declines. Anger, on the contrary, precedes thinking about actions. Sometimes they say: " The injury had a positive effect on him, he is now calmer". But if you think about it, it means " he's not that active anymore"Remember, the frontal lobe plans our actions and controls our emotions.
Dr. Glen Johnson, Clinical Neuropsychologist
Today we will look at questions such as: what is the brain, what does it consist of, what functions it performs and how we think, remember and make decisions.
What is the brain and what does it consist of?
This is our central processor, System Administrator Our body is an organ of the CNS (Central Nervous System). We differ from animals in our ability to think and predict, to make unprofitable decisions, but for the benefit of other people.
Almost 80% of the brain consists of water (mostly in the cytoplasm of cells), with another 10-12% lipids (fat) and 8% protein. Although it accounts for only 2% of body weight, the brain uses fully 20-25% of the body's oxygen supply. nutrients and glucose (as fuel), all of which are supplied constant flow blood. The brain is protected by the thick bones of the skull and the blood-brain barrier, but the character (as complex system) of the human brain, however, makes it susceptible to many types of diseases.
About 100 billion neurons transmit signals to each other using 1000 trillion synaptic connections. There is a constant influx and analysis of various information from outside.
The brain is responsible for controlling all bodily actions and functions. It is also the center of thinking, learning and memory. The brain gives us the abilities to think, plan, speak, imagine, sleep, use reason and emotions.
How do we think?
At the moment you are reading this text, you see every letter, you understand it. Let's figure out why you understand what you are reading and are firmly convinced of the correctness of your thoughts.
This is not an easy task, but any problem can be solved by applying the method of analysis, that is, breaking down a complex issue into understandable elements; the site will soon release a corresponding article.
- Sense organs. They are called that because they interact with the world around you. There are 6 sense organs: eyes, ears, nose, skin, tongue and vestibular apparatus. In the process of evolution, animals also developed echo location, sensation magnetic field Earth and other feelings.
We won’t delve deeply into the sense organs, so it’s clear what skin or ears are. But let's go back to our example, we read, we use our eyes. What happens next?
- Receptors. Each of the sense organs has its own receptors; these are nerve cells that are “in connection” with any sense organ. Receptors in the eyes transform the picture from the eyes and organize it. Information is systematized about the shades of colors that you see, where which color is located, about various physical objects and their location in space, about many other things. All systematized information is sent to interneurons.
In our reading example, at this stage, you still don’t understand anything.
- Interneurons. These are messenger neurons, they receive information from receptors and change it into electrical signals. Something like Morse code, only instead of letters and dots we have a picture in front of our eyes and these same electrical signals. This entire flow “flies” to the cerebral cortex, to the neurons located in it. Imagine that a neuron is a walk-through room. And dendrites are the first to “open the door to the room.”
Your brain still doesn't understand the words.
- Dendrites are the “entrance door” to a neuron, already in the brain (in fact, information can “break through the wall and fly into a neuron” without a door). Dendrite UNDERSTANDS that some information has arrived. But he himself doesn’t understand what this means. For him, you read something like “N?n h?o, w? de x?nx?”, unclear words, error 404. The dendrite sends this information to the “exit door” - the axon.
- An axon in a nerve cell has many branches; it looks for matches of incoming information in other neurons. And finds them! Your brain, SUDDENLY, realizes that it knows Russian, since there is plenty of information in other neurons. And the “paths” from one neuron to another are constantly used, they are reliable and strong. In parallel with this, neurotransmitters are produced in the axons, which are responsible for our mood, energy and health. And so the neurons congratulate each other with neurotransmitters for “mutual agreement and understanding.”
Here how the brain works in cognitive activity!
To summarize: eyes / ears / tongue .. collect information, it accumulates in the corresponding receptors, they structure it and send it to the intercalary nerve, where it is transformed into electrical signals, these signals are received by nerve cells and their dendrites in the cerebral cortex. Dendrites send this information to the axon “to search for a match.” The axon “looks for matches” through neural connections with other neurons. All this happens in a split second.
If the axon does not find a “match,” then a thin connection is created with a new neuron (yes, they are still created). The more you learn new information, the more connections are created and the stronger they are.
The opposite rule: if you don’t learn something and forget, then the connections become thinner. But they can be quickly restored!
Let's look at 3 more interesting examples: you are learning to drive a car (A), a brick flies on your head (B) and you are looking around the house for a ballpoint pen (C).
A. Imagine that you are driving for the first time. There are so many buttons around, 3 pedals (well, or 2), all sorts of boxes, mirrors, so you also need to imagine the dimensions of the car, understand “will I pass here?” And you seem to know that “squeeze the brake, release the handbrake...”. You try to do this, but your hands don’t listen, your legs accidentally don’t press the pedals all the way, you forgot to turn on the headlights, etc. What's happening?
There are connections between neurons where the memory of driving a car is stored, but there are no connections passing to the muscles. The goal of training is to create and strengthen these neuromuscular connections and create new ones between neurons in the brain. The more you learn, the more connections there are between neurons and the stronger they are.
Have you noticed how quickly you turn off your alarm clock in the morning?)
B. A brick is flying at you! Typical situation, no one has ever experienced this) As soon as you realize this, you don’t look for connections between neurons with the memory of physics, you don’t think that “judging by its trajectory, it will fly by” or “it’s small and will hit the shoulder, but I have a thick jacket and I won’t feel anything.” As soon as the information “about a brick flying at you” reaches the dendrites, all logic simply turns off, instincts take over, and you jump away, even if your leg/back/stomach hurts and you’re generally lazy. Where there is a threat to life, instincts rule. Where not, a search takes place in the neurons of the brain and neuromuscular connections.
Q. Looking for a pen. You received an important call, you need to quickly write down something. You start looking for a pen, look with your eyes, ask someone, it’s nowhere to be found. The brain works very actively, tens of thousands of connections between neurons are checked. Stress neurotransmitters are produced, which drive the brain, like a stern officer in the army drives soldiers. Even more stress, suddenly they start checking alternative options how to write it down, and you write it down on your own phone, on a computer, take someone else’s cell phone and write there, try to remember. You don’t care about anything anymore, you need to write it down stupidly.
Everything went through, you talked, the information was “saved.” Neurons are again actively producing neurotransmitters, but now positive ones, “congratulations, colleague!”
Now you understand why you can lose your mobile phone at home, but never completely forget how to drive a car.
And further! You've probably heard that store salespeople often let you hold the product in your hands - it's not just like that! Thus, almost all your senses are involved, you see the product, you feel it, and the seller also praises it (sound) - neurons and connections are created very quickly. Faster than it would take you to simply read a review of this product. This is such subtle psychology.)
How do we dream?
We can dream absolutely anywhere and anytime, this is a very important function of the brain! Dreams relax a person, give him optimism, which ultimately has a positive effect on his attitude towards the world around him. After all, the way we see the world is the way it is.
Dreams add meaning and logic to our lives, no matter how strange it may sound. They show us what we should strive for, and as long as we strive for our dreams, we are happy.
Traditionally, it is believed that the right hemisphere of the brain is responsible for dreams. Formally, this is not entirely true, a person actively dreams when logic and rationality are “turned off” + neurotransmitters are produced: endorphin, GABA, serotonin, melatonin. An optional condition is the suppression of “excitatory” neurotransmitters.
Remember your state before you start dreaming, this is a monotonous and routine action when you do not solve any problems and there is no stress and you “switch off”.
What happens in your head when you “disconnect” from reality? Let's look at an example.
Just one small but pleasant thought is enough. You are walking along a familiar street, nothing is in the way, don’t rush, there are no bears or other dangers. You noticed a beautiful tree, it reminded you of something pleasant. The axon helped find this information in some neuron and produced positive neurotransmitters.
Neurotransmitters entered the cell with this memory, which, in turn, was “rejoiced” by this positive moment and sent a request to its axon to search for matches. He finds them very quickly and there are thousands of them, positive neurotransmitters are produced everywhere. At this moment, you no longer see just a “tree”, your brain reminded you of how you once went with friends to the lake, barbecue, music, summer. The axons are actively looking for even more coincidences, and now the whole brain is conditionally happy) It seeks to prolong this memory and “adds on” even more colors + you are already fantasizing about the future, now “coincidences are not looked for”, but “created” based on past events.
— How to get to Lenin Street? - someone asked you.
So, a shake-up, norepinephrine for us, glutamate, “cut off” all melatonin... The brain is rebuilt very quickly, what do they want from us? How to get to Lenin, I order the axons to look for the answer in the neurons...
(After 2-3 seconds you answer) - Oh, this is all the way for you.
You suddenly realize that you don’t remember how you walked the last 100-200 meters. After all, there had just been “barbecue, a lake.” Happened?