| Decade
of the Brain is a project that encourages the advancement of neuroscience
research on one hand and the dissemination of research results on
the other. The following is an abstract summary of the progress and
promise of this program.
Recognizing the promise of modern neuroscience, President George
Bush acted on a joint resolution of Congress to proclaim 1990-99
the Decade of the Brain.
Neuroscientists, energized by this evidence of national support,
have committed themselves to advancing their research for our benefit.
The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) of the National Institutes
of Health (NIH) and the Library of Congress have combined forces
to establish a decade-long lecture series to introduce members of
Congress, their staffs, and the public to exciting breakthroughs
in our understanding of the brain and aging.
You are what you know, what you have learned, and what you can
remember. Memory and learning, the process of forming memories,
goes beyond the individual to transmit culture from generation to
generation. Memory problems, on the other hand, lead to loss of
contact with one's self, one's history, one's interactions; they
haunt the developing infant as well as the elderly adult. Educating
our young, training the nation's work force, reforming those who
have strayed from societal norms, and maintaining the intellectual
effectiveness of an aging population are central to the missions
of our society, and memory and learning play a critical role in
each of these tasks.
Given that effective memory and learning are so important, neuroscientists
are making a concerted effort to understand how the brain performs
these tasks. They already can share five new insights:
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Learning consists of at least
two distinct mental processes: learning about people, places,
and things (explicit learning) and learning motor skills and
perceptual strategies (implicit learning). |
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The brain possesses an independent
neural system to process each type of learning. |
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Short-term learning occurs when
the connection between two nerve cells grows stronger. This
connection may be the place where memories are stored. |
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Long-term memory goes hand-in-hand
with the formation of new connections between nerve cells. |
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Learning is reflected in anatomical
alterations in widely distributed regions of the brain. |
These insights suggest a new view of the relationship between social
and biological processes in the brain's ability to generate behavior.
We have tended to think that biological and social determinants
of behavior act on separate levels of the mind. Our new insights
show that this distinction is unwarranted, because everyday events-sensory
stimulation, experience, learning-can change the microarchitecture
of the brain by altering the connections between nerve cells. The
view that certain diseases affect thought and behavior by changing
the biology of the brain while others do not is incorrect.
All mental processes are biological, and all illnesses that affect
thought and behavior ultimately reflect some aspect of brain biology
gone awry.
The insights gained during this Decade of the Brain have changed
more than our concepts about mental and behavioral disorders. During
the 18th century, the development of modern physics led to the Enlightenment,
a period of intellectual revolution that spawned the idea of contemporary
democracy. Today's intellectual revolution is driven by changes
in our ability to communicate with one another. If we are entering
a second Enlightenment, its underlying science could well be neuroscience,
a prospect that bodes well as we increase our understanding of how
the brain works to create ideas, to learn about one another, and
to govern our interactions in society.
Major advances in bio-imaging technology combined with a new understanding
of brain function gained from the human genome project are beginning
to show scientists the way to begin solving the mysteries of central
nervous system disorders. PMI believes that we are on our way to
seeing the end of such devastating brain conditions as Alzheimer's
disease and other conditions of premature neuronal death. The answers
to why some people are able to age successfully into their tenth
decade of life with full cognitive capabilities are on the horizon.
In the meantime, The Practical Memory Institute does its part by
teaching both traditional and multimodal methods of memory improvement
through its Memory Works® memory fitness programs based on science
from NIH funded research and also goes beyond these methods to review
a wide variety of methods not covered before. PMI brings to the
public, though a Memory Monitor® found in all Memory Works CDs,
the first comprehensive account of how a person's overall psychology
can affect memory. In future programs, techniques for social interaction
will be presented that give your memory a better chance at success.
Also, PMI will present information on various devices that enhance
memory or even perform memory tasks for you. Finally, instead of
offering people a few general procedures to help memory, PMI will
present a wide variety of information about ways to cope with literally
hundreds of individual everyday memory tasks.
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