Until recently we thought that a yawn's function was to send more oxygen to the Brain, that our brain cells die off as we grow older and our minds store memories as a timeline of sequential events over a lifetime of experience. Not so long ago we were evidently sold on the idea that we only use 10% of our brain's ability, believed that the function of Glial cells was to provide structural support to the dendrites of nerve cells, and functioned by isolating the electrical impulses and accelerating electrochemical signal throughput.
Glial cells makes up for about 90% of the brain's tissue, is responsible for the grey matter that covers the neurocortex, and has recently been found to be the chemical equivalent of nerve cells that respond to emotional rather than sensory stimuli. They facilitate the formation of neural pathways, are instrumental in the formation of long term memories and the progressive myelin sheathing of neural pathways that normally covers most of the nervous system, up to and including the frontal lobes of our neurocortex. Incomplete myelin coverage and early cessation follow emotional trauma and injury is related to a growing list of early and late neurocognitive, psychosocial and behavioral disorders. Myelin coverage has been linked to the expression of personality traits such as being (introvert vs extrovert), and injury due to extreme emotional duress, social violence and trauma found to impact negatively on various developmental milestones. It bears mention that normal myelinisation of the brain occurs up to the mid-twenties, with cessation marking the end of mental development, prior to which our minds are vulnerable to trauma and injury and prone to undue emotional interference on our attention, arousal, cognition and our ability to make ¹level headed', clear and well informed choices.
We now know that our mind makes sense of what we perceive by construing mutual relevance from the sensory input it receives, how modern day urban living conditions, 'noisy' home and work environment and the incessant demand for our attention and awareness that aggravates the sensory data overload that far exceeds our cognitive processing capacity, strains our ability to distinguish between important and irrelevant facts, and obfuscate the mutual relevance our minds employ to limit sensory perception and execute task orientated actions and coordinate physical activity.
Contrary to what we previously believed our minds display a high degree of 'plasticity', the ability to adapt to virtually any but the most toxic atmospheric conditions, rewiring neural pathways to demand or enable newly acquired functions, skills or knowledge or re-appropriate, reallocate, and restore limited, lost or damaged mental capacity, and generally conform to the principle of 'use it or lose it'.
Thanks to recent technological advances that vastly improved our ability to monitor and measure brain activity 'in situ' we've recently observed evidence that yawning activates a unique subset of neurocortical cells called Mirror Neurons that trigger the activity in nearby individuals. We know now that every memory we recall is newly formed from various storage locations throughout the brain, and that the vividness of recollection is related to the coherence and mutual relevance present at the time of sensory perception, and that the accuracy of accounts vary greatly depending on the presence, flow and intent we experienced during the event.
We know that awareness is a mental construct our mind construe to fit in with the narrative we expect and believe, and that much of what we know today we could never even imagine as real less than a decade ago..
Knowing how much has changed between now and then imagine what will be when we realize the error of our way when taking a leap of faith is all 8we need to see the revelation of a world beyond our wildest imagination. Looking at realty from a point of view we share intent in present sense and mutual relevance is easy to do and fun to try if you aspire to living life well or feel you have nothing to lose. Join us!
Comments