young brains are malleable because the circuits aren't hardwired. experiences and environment mold the circuits and tamp them down. every experience is a potential learning, and every learning forms a connection.
a learning is a memory. i memorize my multiplication tables. i memorize that you love me. i memorize that day in august when we rode through the fullmoon night with the windows down and the headlights off.
excitation heightens the chance that an experience will become a learning. if there is energy in the brain, around the learning, the circuits will be tamped down more solidly, and the memory will be stronger. the energy can be natural or artificial and it can be because the content is exciting or because the environment is exciting.
when i learn multiplication, if i have affinity for it, my brain will glom onto it and be excited by finding a match for the rudimentary neural pathways that were laid down in the womb.
when i hug you, chemicals from other parts of my body will pour into my brain, firing up the furnace, readying my brain to be present in the experience and lay down some tracks for future trains of thought.
we not only learn outright, we learn how to learn. one part of my brain is telling another part of my brain to GET EXCITED because THIS IS IMPORTANT and there are ways in which that process works well or not so well.
mnemonics can excite the brain. for example, if anagrams excite the correct pathways, ROYGBIV will work for you. there are more types of mnemonic devices than either of us probably know about... unless you've studied them. or, you know, concocted a method to remember them all.
point is, energizing the pathways will increase the chance for learning, for memory, and if what you are learning is how to learn, sending energy to the correct locations will increase the chances that you will remember that anagrams work for you.
there is, of course, a whole nother level going on - the level by which your brain learns things about you -- learns what works for preserving and advancing the youness that is you. your brain will surprise you with its ability to know what you need.
your brain can lay down this underpinning structure because it knows things about you that you'd never admit to and has complete unfettered access to stuff you don't even consciously know. your brain gets energized by some minuscule shit and carries on this substrata building incessantly. if you think the amount of data google has on you is impressive, and maybe a little scary, well. those piles of data pale in comparison to the piles your brain has compiled on the subject of you.
after all... your brain is watching you all the time, even when you sleep.
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