Think of it like your computer. Information comes in, if it's interesting enough it gets up on clipboard, and if it gets potentiated, it goes to long term memory, but it needs to circulate for awhile first inorder to get potentiated.
If something else comes in that says it's important or novel, if it gets the attention, the hippocampus might drop the other bit so the next bit can get put on clipboard. Sometimes the brain is overactive in one area, like paying attention to lots of things, but it misses actually getting it into long term memory so you can re-remember it. Oops. Gone. It drops it. Just like the computer will. Now what was that?Here's an example from my life, just yesterday. My husband has gone to the store to pick something up for dinner. I am walking through the house and BLING, I realize he needs to pick up something else. Quick better call him so he can grab it. It's important! Where's my phone? I start to look for the phone because it's not in my pocket, where it usually is. Where did I put the phone? I go into the other room to find it, call him, and as I walk back...
I can't remember what I wanted to call him about. Dang. I walk into the kitchen. I open the fridge. I look all around. I am looking for some sort of memory clue...but I got nuthin. I tell him, sorry honey, can't remember what it was.
Gone. What just happened was my hippocampus dropped it off my mental "clipboard" when-"where's the phone"-came in. My hippocampus was now entertained by new, more novel information that came in saying "MORE IMPORTANT". It got prioritized to the front of the line. My brain had not POTENTIATED the earlier important thing so I could hold onto it a bit longer, but efficiently dropped it. Make way for the new!
What the hippocampus needed was another go around because the longer the information had circulated, the more it would be retained. The old adage REPEAT REPEAT REPEAT, is true, but the new information booted it out too fast. When my brain was interested in the new, the older new was dropped.
When we learn to hold a theta rhythm, we learn more, and we learn deeper. We remember more. It's true-it balances the brain. And i-LEAP® balances the brain by tracking and relieving hidden stress within the brain circuitry.
I took a moment, slowed down. I closed my eyes, I accessed theta, and I oxygenated my brain. All things that naturally and easily help us to remember more. BINGO! The lightbulb went on.
Literally-we needed lightbulbs. I called him back and all was well. While a theta rhythm entrains the whole brain, it is speculated that the theta rhythm originates in the hippocampus, and the hippocampus is involved with our memory circuits. When we are relaxed, we learn more, we remember more. When we feel safe in the classroom, we learn more, we remember more. Find out if your child considers his classroom safe.
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