Tuesday, June 03, 2008

oh yeah...

so last week the therapist loaned me The Introvert Advantage to read and it's been interesting so far. filled with little bits that make me go, "OMG, that's so me". So far the author explaining how she thinks introverts are pretty much "wired" differently than extroverts. ie. their brain chemistry is a bit different, relying on different neurotransmitters and areas of the brain to process stimuli.

so Kris had a post tonight about loving American cheese. and I commented that I did that too, ages ago. which tied back to this bit I'd read just this afternoon:

Human memory is complex and uses many different areas of the brain. The brain stores memories in numerous locations and creates links between them called associations. Often we introverts think nothing relevant is in our head because we haven't triggered the association to our long-term memory. Here's the neat thing - most pieces of information in long-term memory were stored with several handles or keys (associations) for unlocking them. If we find just one key, we can retrieve the whole memory.

So let's say you like to paint or fish or walk around a park with flowers in bloom, but that information is locked in long-term memory. You have some free time, but you can't remember what you like to do. This may sound nuts to an extrovert, but it is a common problem of introverts. Remember, it takes only one key like a thought, emotion, or sensory association to open the whole memory.

I notice I do this a lot with crafts. (oh yeah, I have a drawing table or the closet full o' yarn and string and cloth) strange, but true.

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