PRAYER BEFORE STUDY

by St. Thomas Aquinas

Lord, true source of light and wisdom, give me a keen sense

of understanding, a retentive memory, and the capacity to
grasp things correctly. Grant me the grace to be accurate in
my expositions and the skill to express myself with
thoroughness and clarity. Be with me at the start of my work,
guide its progress and bring it to completion. Grant this
through Christ our Lord. Amen.
 Personal
Development
Lesson 6: The Powers of the
Mind
 Brain Trivia
The brain is part of your body’s central nervous system. It’s the most
complicated part of your body. It has the ability to send and receive an enormous
amount of information. 
1. An adult brain weighs about 3 pounds.
2. About 75 percent of the brain is made up of water. This means that dehydration,
even in small amounts, can have a negative effect on the brain functions.
3. The human brain will grow three times its size in the first year of life. It continues
to grow until you’re about 18 years old.
4. The brain of a human contains approximately one hundred billion neurons
5. It is a myth that humans only use 10 percent of our brain. We actually use all of
it. We’re even using more than 10 percent when we sleep.
6. Cholesterol is key to learning and memory. However, high cholesterol has different
effects depending on your age and other factors.
7. Dreams are believed to be a combination of imagination, psychological factors, and
neurological factors. This proves that your brain is working even when you are sleeping.
8. The brain can’t feel pain. It interprets pain signals sent to it, but it does not feel pain.
9. A brain freeze is called sphenopalatine ganglioneuralgia. It happens when you eat or
drink something that’s cold. It chills the blood vessels and arteries in the very back of the
throat, including the ones that take blood to your brain. These constrict when they’re cold
and open back up with they’re warm again, causing the pain in your forehead.
10. The human brain begins to lose some memory abilities as well as some cognitive skills
by your late 20s.
11. The human brain gets smaller as we get older. This usually happens sometime after
middle age.
EXTERIOR PARTS OF THE BRAIN

Four Lobes of the Brain

1. Frontal Lobe
2. Temporal Lobe
3. Occipital Lobe
4. Parietal Lobe

Motor Cortex and Somatosensory Cortex

 Four Lobes of the Brain
1. Frontal Lobe- The Frontal Lobe is involved in
planning and thinking. It is the rational and executive
control center of the brain, which plays an important
role in monitoring higher-order thinking, directing
problem solving, and regulating the excesses of the
emotional system. It also contains the self-will area or
what others call as personality. Your frontal lobe
slowly matures until adulthood, which reveals that
your capacity to control the excesses of the emotional
system during teenage years is not yet fully functional
during adolescence (Dosenbach et al., 2010).
2. Temporal Lobe- Our temporal lobes, on the other hand, are found
above the ears. They deal with sound, music, face, and object
recognition, and some parts of long-term memory. The speech centers
are located at the left temporal lobe.
3. Occipital Lobe- Located at the back of your head are the paired
occipital lobes, which function for visual processing.
4. Parietal Lobe- At the top of your occipital
lobes are the parietal lobes, which are
involved mainly with spatial orientation,
calculation, and certain types of recognition
Motor Cortex and Somatosensory Cortex
The motor cortex is the part of your
brain that controls your body movement;
it also works with the cerebellum to
coordinate the learning of motor skills.
• The somatosensory cortex processes
the signals of touch, which are received
from other parts of the body.
 INTERIOR PARTS OF THE BRAIN
Brain Stem
Limbic System
• Thalamus
• Hypothalamus
• Hippocampus
• Amygdala

Cerebrum
Cerebellum
 Brain Stem
• Your brain stem resembles the entire brain of a reptile;
hence, it is sometimes referred to as the reptilian brain. It
consists of the midbrain, pons, and medulla oblongata.
Thus, your vital body functions, such as heartbeat,
respiration, body temperature, and digestion, are
monitored and controlled by your brain stem.
• *Reticular activating system (RAS) is located in the
brain stem, and it is responsible for your brain's alertness.
Limbic System
Located above your brain stem
and below the cerebrum is the
limbic system, composed of the
structures that have different
functions such as generation of
emotion and processing of
emotional memories. Its location
allows the interplay of emotion
and reason.
The four parts of the limbic system which are important to
learning and memory are:
1. Thalamus is involved in many cognitive activities, including memory.
2. Hypothalamus is in charge of monitoring the internal systems to maintain homeostasis or the
normal state of the body. It moderates different body functions, which include sleep, body
temperature, and food intake, by controlling the release of some hormones.
3. Hippocampus does an important role in consolidating learning and converts information to the
long-term storage regions. The hippocampus is capable of neurogenesis, the production of new
neurons, which has a significant effect on learning and memory.
4. Amygdala, which is known to take part in emotions, especially fear. It plays an important role in
regulating your interactions with your environment that can help you survive, such as whether you
attack, escape, mate, or eat. The emotional element of a memory is stored in the amygdala; hence,
the emotions related with a specific memory are recalled whenever the experience is remembered.
 Cerebrum
The cerebrum is the largest brain structure, representing
nearly 80 percent of the brain by weight (Sousa, 2011). It
has folded bulges called gyri, and it is marked by deep
furrows called fissures and shallow ones called sulci.
 
The cerebrum is divided into two halves, called the
cerebral hemispheres:
 Your right cerebral hemisphere is in charge of the left
side of your body.
 Your left cerebral hemisphere is in charge of the right
side of your body.
The two hemispheres are connected by the corpus
callosum, which is made up of more than 200
million nerve fibers that function as the bridge by
which the hemispheres communicate with each
other and coordinate activities.
o The hemispheres are covered by thin but tough
laminated cortices, the brain's gray matter.
This is where most of the actions of the brain
take place such as thought, memory, speech,
and muscular movement.
o The neurons in the cortices form columns that
branch and extend through the cortical layer
into a dense web below known as the white
matter, where neurons connect with each other
to form neural networks that carry out specific
functions.
 Cerebellum
Located just below the rear part of the
cerebrum and right behind the brain
stem is the cerebellum. It accounts for
11 percent of the weight of your brain.
It is the cerebellum that coordinates
movement. It monitors impulses from
nerve endings in the muscles; hence, it
plays a key role in the performance
and timing of complex motor tasks.
•Your brain is composed of a trillion of brain
cells, which may be nerve cells or glial cells.
The nerve cells, which are called neurons, are
the functioning core for the brain and the
entire nervous system. There are about 100
billion neurons, which allow the brain to
process the electrical impulses coming from
all over the body, to store your experiences
and those details involved, to learn languages,
and to combine information.

•*Neurons are formed through a process

called neurogenesis.
Each neuron consists of a nucleus, as well as the
neuron's cell body, dendrites, and axons.
• The dendrites receive electrical impulses from
other neurons and transmit the message to
another neuron through the long fiber, called
the axon, by an electrochemical process.
• The axon is surrounded by a layer called the
myelin sheath, which insulates it from other
cells and increases the speed of impulse
transmission.
*Neurons are not directly in contact with one
another. Between the dendrites of one neuron and
the axon of another neuron, there is a small gap of
about a millionth of an inch, which is called a
synapse.
Brain Lateralization
 Brain Lateralization
One of the wonders of the human brain is its characteristic ability to
integrate dissimilar and seemingly unconnected activities that are happening in
specialized areas of your brain into a meaningful experience. The corpus
callosum, which acts like a bridge between the two cerebral hemispheres,
allows the unification of awareness and shares memory and learning. There are
pieces of evidence showing that certain activities are mainly limited to only
one hemisphere of your cerebrum. Such operation is called specialization. On
the other hand, each hemisphere stores and processes information in different
ways or functions separately from each other. This is called laterality (Sousa,
2011).
 Functions of the Left and Right Hemisphere
Left Hemisphere
Connect to the right side of the body
Recognize words, letters, and numbers written
Analyze situation, evaluates facts in logical manner,
perceives visual information, and detects time and order.
Performs arithmetic calculations
Better at arousing attention to deal with outside stimuli
Process positive emotions such as joy
C Right Hemisphere
O Connect to the left side of the body
R Gathers information more from images than from
P words. Tends to look for visual patterns.
U Interprets language through gestures, facial
S movements, emotions, and body language.
In charge of spatial perception; recognizing places,
  faces and objects.
C Focusing on relational and mathematical operations
A such as geometry and algebra.
L Handle negative emotions such as sadness and
L depression.
O
S
U
M
 Improving Learning Using Left and Right Brain Mind
Mapping Activities

Each of us is said to have a dominant hemisphere, which will influence the

ways in which we perceive the world around us and, more specifically, how we
learn.

Most theories suggest that right brain-dominant persons follow their

emotions and intuitions, and those who are left-brained respond in logical
ways and are guided by sequence and order. Hence, by understanding your
dominant brain working for you, you may adjust your study methods and suit
them to your personality type.
 Right Brain Dominant Person
 If you were a right-brained person, you are fluid and spontaneous. You focus on the basic concept before you
can relate it to your goals. You would start from the big picture to understand the small one.
 You could be flexible with rules and facts; hence, you go with the flow, try new methods, or skip from one
task to another. Thus, you tend to care less with organization or neatness. You may take down notes but lose
them.
 You learn your lessons more easily by using charts, timelines, or graphs and by labeling the parts of
information or topics being studied.
 You tend to always start projects early, so that you finish well before the deadline.
 You should organize your study area or workplace. Being neat and organized allows you to save time in
finding what you need and in finishing your tasks quickly. Using a schedule book or a planner permits you to
manage your time wisely, so that you do not neglect a subject.
 Left Brain Dominant Person
 If you were, a left brain-dominant person, you are a linear thinker. You prefer a structured approach when you are
processing information. You focus on details and start from the small picture to understand the big one.
 You follow a schedule and maintain routines; as such, you like predictability and consistency.
 You also prefer to study in a clean and quiet place so that you can concentrate more effectively.
 You also prefer verbal directions and value facts over your feelings; thus, you could be self- motivated to do your tasks.
 You want to know how things are graded all the time and may not work without having a valid reason or purpose. You
may spend too much time making things perfect. Hence, you learn more easily and retain information more efficiently by
coming up with detailed outlines of your lessons and formula tables. Your ease to organize your notes will aid you in
preparing for your exams.
 You need to read more books and know how to put your ideas in a storyboard to enhance your comprehension and
memory.
 You should also be open to brainstorming and drawing a mind map for concepts to allow you to see the whole picture and
the purpose of your actions more.
 You need to break your routines and try something new so that you have the opportunity to learn the different ways of
doing things.
Mind Mapping
Technique
 Mind Mapping Technique
• The mind-mapping technique was developed by
Tony Buzan (2002), who described it as an
approach that makes use of the production of
pictures or diagrams of one's thoughts or
conversations, which may be used in task
management, problem solving, decision-making,
note-taking, brainstorming, and presenting. It is
simply making a diagram of the structure of
memory patterns in the brain because it operates
on key words, and copying this approach is
extremely helpful (Pritchard, 2005).
End