MIND - MENU

• Select MIND TOPICS from MENU on LEFT

• WHAT IS THE MIND?

“MIND” is a synchrony of consolidating energy yielding an information-state that rises above and beyond all other brain functions yielding:

-CONSCIOUSNESS WITH SELF AWARENESS,-MEMORY OF SENSORY INPUTS AND MOTOR CONSEQUENCE,-MEMORY RETRIEVAL,-EMOTIONAL ASSOCIATIONS WITH MEMORIES,-COGNITION- AS FRAME-WORKS OF UNDERSTANDING, -DECISION-MAKING FOR SPEECH & BEHAVIOR, -INTELLECT.

BRAIN

MIND

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BRAIN & MIND

Emergence of CONSCIOUSNESS out of the functioning brain is the primary characteristic of the MIND. The energy source of MIND arises from temporal occurrence of cerebral neuronal activity associated with sensory inputs and cognitive processing.

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CONSCIOUSNESS

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MIND & CONSCIOUSNESS• The mark of MIND is consciousness. The common basis for

recognizing the existence of MIND is sensory stimuli followed by voluntary-motor activity as judged by others. A conscious MIND occurs when sensory receptors send inputs through the sensory thalamus to respective cerebral cortices. In parallel, MIND initiates motor control for eye movements and extensor muscles (e.g. standing).

• There are two main sensory sources: the external environment and from self. Vision, audition, taste and olfaction report, largely, on the external world while sensory-self inputs arise from body surface and internal receptors. Hyper-stimulation of any one sensory system focuses awareness to that system. In addition, the MIND selects which sensory inputs are of primary focus even though the signal maybe weak. Most often, our senses operate at subliminal levels of AWARENESS with minimal MIND determined attention.

• Besides incoming sensory inputs, the conscious MIND recalls memories of previous sensory experiences and compares them to current inputs in order to reinforce consciousness.

SENSORY-MOTOR NSINPUTS

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MIND, BRAIN, BODY

• The brain controls the bulk of motor actions of the body through reflexes and programmed behaviors. The MIND is an emergent consciousness rising above and beyond brain function to make decisions for behavior and speech. The MIND assembles sensory inputs, memories and emotions into frameworks of understanding, cognition, that form the intellect.

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COGNITION

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EMOTIONS & VALUES

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FUNCTIONAL COMPONENTSThe conscious MIND is based in sensory inputs, memory storage and recall. The MIND associates emotions to memories and stores them in the emotion based cerebral cortex (cingulate gyrus).

Memories are recalled by the MIND and are then used in making decisions for initiating motor actions of behaviors and speech and for cognition in creating frameworks of understanding, yielding intellect.

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MIND, SENSORY INPUT & MEMORY• MEMORY is a central pillar of the conscious MIND. The MIND has the ability to

assemble, store and recall MEMORY. Only the conscious and dreaming MIND contribute to memory storage. Sensory inputs, emotion, consequence of behavior and cognition are recorded in MEMORY.

• Sensory inputs are processed in primary cortices for differences to previous inputs that have been stored in memory. Visual memories are stored as collage scenes of multiple small images of shapes that are literally drawn-out by eyes movements following margins of objects such as faces or objects. The small area of fovea, as compared to reflex-inducing peripheral retina, restricts formation of scene images although some report photographic memory. Scenes are compiled from small detailed images. Auditory memories are valued according to emotional associations, sound frequency patterns, loudness and direction.

• Associational cortices that surround the primary sensory cortex process inputs for detail of each respective sensory modality. These associational cortices store complex inputs providing access to detailed memory recall.

• Numerous other sensory modalities generate arrays, although highly localized, are distributed over broad areas of the cerebral cortex.

• Memories associated with high-emotional levels are most lasting and are easiest to recall. Most memories are lost or distanced if they are not reinforced by associ-ational recall or lack an emotional counterpart. MIND without inputs from sensory systems or memory recall has difficulty to sustain consciousness and lacks ability to make decisions. Memory is the grist for planning and imagination by the MIND.

SOME MIND & MEMORY RELATED REGIONS

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MEMORY & FORGETTING• Memory of events is continually undergoing a natural

progression of forgetting. Parking your car each day in a large garage of scattered stalls produces numerous memories of locations. We recall the most recent memory of parking by the strength of the memory for locations among previous days. The forgetting process is the clearing of “attention memory” by a temporal process of declining strength for memory recall of previous image memories. On the contrary, memories associated with strong emotional events remain most retrievable in recall. Also, the more often that an event is recalled, the stronger is the memory. This is a common technique for learning and reinforcement of long-term memory.

MIND & EMOTIONThe principal measures of conscious EMOTIONS are generated according to pleasure and displeasure principles. Sensory inputs, memories and consequence of motor events are assigned VALUE as based on emotion. EMOTIONS are classified in the hippocampus and amygdala by comparison between incoming and hippocampal image memories as well as for other sensory modalities. Primary visual and auditory cortices have major connections to the hippocampus. Thus, images (faces and locations) are processed in the hippocampus for familiarity (friend or foe) and then in the amygdala for determining fight or flight via autonomic expression by the hypothalamus.

These emotional responses are carried to the hypothalamus via the fornix and then to anterior group nuclei in the thalamus for projection onto the emotion cortex (cingulate gyrus).

Conscious EMOTIONS are processed and stored in the cingulate cortex. The emotional response of sensory inputs produce strength of associations to past events so they can be readily compared with current sensory inputs. Memories associated with high-emotions are most lasting and are easiest to recall.

MEMORY STORAGE• The mechanism of memory storage is the strength

of neuronal connections of circuits. MEMORY has two fundamental domains: 1) very short, as physiological electrotonic properties at synapses, and 2) reorganization of physical connections at synapses that modifications of synaptic contact area via molecular reorganization for presynaptic neurochemical liberation and postsynaptic receptor insertions or deletions changing the strength of pathway connections. Receptors at synapses are constant in numeer but the relative number shift between synapses on each neuron.

MEMORY RETRIEVAL

• Memories are continually being accessed during consciousness and dreaming states. Retrieval is strongest in associations that: 1) are linked to current sensory input, 2) high emotions associated with these inputs, 3) ongoing motor activity and 4) placement in composition of cognitive frame-works of understanding.

MIND AND COGNITION The INTELLECT of mankind is in cognitive capacity. The MIND has resources to assemble, yet, unqualified sensory and motor memories into a “framework of understanding”, COGNITION. The MIND recalls memories according to emotions, spatial-temporal domains and consequences of actions and then uses them to conceptualize temporal processes and structural order. Memories are processed for COGNITION in passage to the medial dorsal thalamus and to working memory in the frontal lobe. Furthermore, the frontal lobe extrapolates sensory memories, motor experiences and emotional responses into PREDICTION yielding higher levels of INTELLECT. Foretelling consequence as PREDICTION is the mark of the intellectual MIND. Fundamental to this process is the ability to IMAGINE by projecting understanding into a VISION that extends beyond the known.

MIND AND MOTOR DECISIONSA central role of MIND is initiation of self-serving motor control for survival and reproduction. Behavior and speech are initiated by the conscious MIND through DECISION-MAKING. Behaviors arise from reflexes and brain defined patterns of movement. Yet, it is the MIND that makes decisions to initiate voluntary behavior, speech and to lesser degree modulates reflexes. When the MIND is not operating such as during sleep or unconsciousness, all voluntary reflexes are quiescent. When the MIND becomes conscious, sensory awareness returns and the MIND initiates antigravity sensory-motor reflexes as well as behaviors and speech. Programmed behaviors carry values that are determined by the Mind and used for decisions in initiation of movements. The MIND is involved in training high level patterned movements by observing conscious trials and judging consequence of actions.

MIND AND CONSEQUENCE The gold standard of decision making for initiating behavior

by the MIND, is CONSEQUENCE. Each outcome of MIND-determined actions is assigned values that have been gained from memories of past experiences. Pleasure and displeasure principles add emotional value that characterize consequence. These emotions of memories bolster MIND’s ability to predict the outcome of initiated behaviors.

Predictions of consequence are generated from combinations of sensory/motor memories and their associated emotions placed in the cognitive domain. Consequence determines the level of motivation that the MIND uses in decision-making to initiate subsequent motor actions. The MIND is the decision maker of motor learning with gains being made by trials and observation of results.

MIND & VALUESThe MIND uses VALUES to make decisions for initiation of movements that express our behavior and speech. MIND related values become our character and represent the basis of our personality. The MIND-VALUE generation system is the foundation of the concsience. The MIND associates motor outcomes to memories for establishing ACTION-VALUES. Sensory-motor reflex organization of the BRAIN lacks a value system. Nevertheless, the MIND evaluates outcomes of reflex actions and programmed movements according to consequence via sensory receptor input strengths, correlations to stored memories, pleasure or displeasure, and emotions.

These VALUES are further influenced by culture as well as by maternal/paternal inputs that instill additional value “for the greater good of the species”. These VALUES are recalled in association with each memory. Together, values and consequence of actions, constitute a MIND-VALUE system.

INTELLECT & MINDFour components of MIND lead to INTELLECT: SENSORY INPUT and SENSORY MEMORY inducing consciousness; EMOTION generation that places value on sensory memories and cognition; COGNITION compiling frame-works of understanding; DECISION-MAKING determining speech & behavior.

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MIND AND BEHAVIOR• All behaviors are restricted by nerve to muscle synapses or nerve to

gland synapses for secretions. Behaviors are a combination of: 1) involuntary reflexes of voluntary muscle groups, 2) autonomic control of involuntary muscle and glands, 3) patterned movements of voluntarily muscle that are programmed in the brain and 4) MIND decisions initiating movements and speech. The MIND’S power to reason, formulate cognition, and make decisions for initiating patterned movements is the base of expressing behavior and speech. While most behaviors are controlled involuntarily as either hard wired reflexes or as programmed movements from basal ganglia, the MIND selects behaviors and initiates high level patterned movements as decisions of the MIND. The MIND uses consequence and pleasure principles to determine behavior selections for initiating behaviors that dictate our personality. In addition, MIND decisions are modulated by Mind-states such as depression or hyperactivity that are defined by levels of brain chemistry. Once initiated, behaviors from basal ganglia play-out according to the program, so much so, they can be difficult to interrupt. Examples are laughing, crying, certain patterns of movement and other emotional expressions.

BRAIN - BODY - MIND

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MIND & MOTIVATION• MIND-determined motivations arise from three principle sources: need for

food, sexual fulfillment, and self-esteem. Homeostatic reflexes control much of our basic survival behaviors that include respiratory, cardiac, GI and urinary function as well as fight or flight actions. Willful behaviors are based on each individual’s need to fulfill food, sexual and self-esteem desires.

• The principal drive is self-esteem and this underlies all willful behaviors. From birth, the MIND is seeking to fulfill the need for food. As the conscious MIND matures, the reinforcement of self-recognition becomes the central means for gaining self-esteem. The individual’s needs for reinforcing self-esteem repeat every few minutes to hours.

• The fulfillment of the self-esteem need comes from within self, but is mostly reinforced externally from others. These reinforcements can be positive, but too often, negative reinforcement become the only means for the individual to receive the required self-esteem. Whether these individuals become bullies and position themselves outside of nominal society or else subordinate themselves, depends on the strength of negative assaults and the strength of the individual’s personality. The direction of personality development by positive reinforcement is most successful but must be done with an understanding of stimulus consequence.

MIND, SOUL AND SPIRIT• During unconsciousness or sleep, MIND lacks signs of existence, yet,

the conscious MIND appears in direct relationship to increased rate of EEG brain activity. While there is no material representation of MIND, neuronal activity in cortical circuits generates an emerging state of energy that carries self-serving consciousness, sensory and motor memories, emotions, and understanding. The conscious MIND also carries a system of values that is used in making decisions for sensory attention and motor actions of behavior and speech. The expression of these values, throughout life and at death, passes to the SOUL to emerge as the individuals SPIRIT. The spirit of the individual exists in the minds of others and in antiquities after the energy of MIND subsides at brain death.

• Religion is represented in the MIND by FAITH and BELIEFS in historical events and in predictions of future consequences.

SOUL - SPIRITEmanating out of and above the SOUL is the individuals SPIRIT. The individual’s values, action levels and behaviors, that were produced by the MIND in life, are represented as the SPIRIT. The SPIRIT of individuals is the inspiration, whether good or bad, representing the trail of behaviors that was expressed through the individual’s personality in life. The spirit resides in the MIND and memories of others after brain function is lost.

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SENSORY MOTOR REFLEXES

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Traditionally, the concept of SOUL and SPIRIT is defined by religion. The understand-ing that MIND emerges as an informational energy-state out of functional circuitry and initiates actions by decisions gives us a window into the scientific basis for SOUL and SPIRIT. Beyond brain & MIND, the SOUL emanates as an impression of the individual’s character and values that build over the individual’s lifetime. The SOUL is the imprint of MIND-expression through induction of motor patterns forming behavior. The SOUL lives in antiquities after brain function and the MIND are lost.