(a lot of neurons), working as a team, to reproduce specific memories. This article appeared in Scientific American, May 18, ’07.

It is a vindication of the original work of Dr. Jerome Lettvin who in the 1960s was laughed off the neurobiology lecture circuit for opposing the view of specialized neurons for different parts of our memories. He called his theory the Grandma cell, a single neuron (not a neural network) for each member of our family. He was right, only one for each relative, friend, and even Tom Hanks.

Is there a point to this

Each neuron is hardwired to an abstract (opposite of concrete) concept of Grandma, your boss or that Hilton celebrity. Our memory is focusing on a generalization, not a specific v

You are engaged in a detailed conversation with your doctor. He talks and you listen to his every word because it was about your health. He recommends a MRI because it would eliminate the need for exploratory surgery. His face is very serious, and then he mentions the C word.

Right about now in this one sided conversation, you go all fuzzy in your mind and can no longer focus on his specific words. You say yes, schedule the appointment and leave the office. You brain is stuck in gear and continues to see and hear the doctor seal your fate.

Thirty minutes later all you can think about and mentally visualize is the doctor and his words. You continue to experience mental movies of your own funeral. It is on a feedback loop repeating itself ad infinitum. You feel worse minute by minute.

Want to discontinue this frightening experience?

In order to overcome this negativity, you must switch from right-brain imagery to left brain verbalization. How? For it to work you must just do it and not analyze how insane it sounds.

Internally sing the B.I.N.G.O. song and your mind will turn positive and your mental movies will produce silly cartoon characters, and eliminate the thoughts of hospitals, doctors, and funerals.

You remember B.I.N.G.O. from kindergarten. Silently (or aloud if you are alone) focus on the words and sing them. Remember, you slap your thigh for each letter in the name, B.I.N.G.O.

There was a farmer who had a dog and Bingo was his name, B-I-N-G-O, B-I-N-G-O, and B-I-N-G-O was his name-o.

The second stanza goes,
There was a farmer who had a dog and Bingo was his name-o, -I-N-G-O, -I-N-G-O, -I-N-G-O, and Bingo was his name-o.

Third stanza:
There was a farmer who had a dog and Bingo was his name-o - -N-G-O, ---N-G-O, --N-G-O, and Bingo was his name-o.

You continue removing one-letter at a time, and replace it with smack on your thigh, until the end. In about one-minute you have switched brain dominance from your horrible, scary right-brain mental movies, to smiling by using your left-brain and its verbalizing skills to chose to get a second opinion.

This schema (mental strategy) works after a fight with your significant other, boss, or guidance counselor, anything that causes right-hemispheric hijacking of your mind with mental imagery of death and destruction.

Once you are emotionally engaged in looping the previous scene repetitiously, singing B.I.N.G.O. will tear and disconnect the mental imagery. After B-I-N-G-O your mind is in left-hemispheric dominance, and you can think rationally.

Tell me something; is Bingo the name of the dog or the farmer?

Grandmother Cell

A scientist at the University of Leicester (England), Dr. Quiroga offered evidence that all it takes is one neuron (nerve cell) to produce the memory of a given image.

So what

For the past century it was a given that it required a neural network (a lot of neurons), working as a team, to reproduce specific memories. This article appeared in Scientific American, May 18, ’07.

It is a vindication of the original work of Dr. Jerome Lettvin who in the 1960s was laughed off the neurobiology lecture circuit for opposing the view of specialized neurons for different parts of our memories. He called his theory the Grandma cell, a single neuron (not a neural network) for each member of our family. He was right, only one for each relative, friend, and even Tom Hanks.

Is there a point to this

Each neuron is hardwired to an abstract (opposite of concrete) concept of Grandma, your boss or that Hilton celebrity. Our memory is focusing on a generalization, not a specific vi

epeating itself ad infinitum. You feel worse minute by minute.

Want to discontinue this frightening experience?

In order to overcome this negativity, you must switch from right-brain imagery to left brain verbalization. How? For it to work you must just do it and not analyze how insane it sounds.

Internally sing the B.I.N.G.O. song and your mind will turn positive and your mental movies will produce silly cartoon characters, and eliminate the thoughts of hospitals, doctors, and funerals.

You remember B.I.N.G.O. from kindergarten. Silently (or aloud if you are alone) focus on the words and sing them. Remember, you slap your thigh for each letter in the name, B.I.N.G.O.

There was a farmer who had a dog and Bingo was his name, B-I-N-G-O, B-I-N-G-O, and B-I-N-G-O was his name-o.

The second stanza goes,
There was a farmer who had a dog and Bingo was his name-o, -I-N-G-O, -I-N-G-O, -I-N-G-O, and Bingo was his name-o.

Third stanza:
There was a farmer who had a dog and Bingo was his name-o - -N-G-O, ---N-G-O, --N-G-O, and Bingo was his name-o.

You continue removing one-letter at a time, and replace it with smack on your thigh, until the end. In about one-minute you have switched brain dominance from your horrible, scary right-brain mental movies, to smiling by using your left-brain and its verbalizing skills to chose to get a second opinion.

This schema (mental strategy) works after a fight with your significant other, boss, or guidance counselor, anything that causes right-hemispheric hijacking of your mind with mental imagery of death and destruction.

Once you are emotionally engaged in looping the previous scene repetitiously, singing B.I.N.G.O. will tear and disconnect the mental imagery. After B-I-N-G-O your mind is in left-hemispheric dominance, and you can think rationally.

Tell me something; is Bingo the name of the dog or the farmer?

Grandmother Cell

A scientist at the University of Leicester (England), Dr. Quiroga offered evidence that all it takes is one neuron (nerve cell) to produce the memory of a given image.

So what

For the past century it was a given that it required a neural network (a lot of neurons), working as a team, to reproduce specific memories. This article appeared in Scientific American, May 18, ’07.

It is a vindication of the original work of Dr. Jerome Lettvin who in the 1960s was laughed off the neurobiology lecture circuit for opposing the view of specialized neurons for different parts of our memories. He called his theory the Grandma cell, a single neuron (not a neural network) for each member of our family. He was right, only one for each relative, friend, and even Tom Hanks.

Is there a point to this

Each neuron is hardwired to an abstract (opposite of concrete) concept of Grandma, your boss or that Hilton celebrity. Our memory is focusing on a generalization, not a specific v

Bingo was his name, B-I-N-G-O, B-I-N-G-O, and B-I-N-G-O was his name-o.

The second stanza goes,
There was a farmer who had a dog and Bingo was his name-o, -I-N-G-O, -I-N-G-O, -I-N-G-O, and Bingo was his name-o.

Third stanza:
There was a farmer who had a dog and Bingo was his name-o - -N-G-O, ---N-G-O, --N-G-O, and Bingo was his name-o.

You continue removing one-letter at a time, and replace it with smack on your thigh, until the end. In about one-minute you have switched brain dominance from your horrible, scary right-brain mental movies, to smiling by using your left-brain and its verbalizing skills to chose to get a second opinion.

This schema (mental strategy) works after a fight with your significant other, boss, or guidance counselor, anything that causes right-hemispheric hijacking of your mind with mental imagery of death and destruction.

Once you are emotionally engaged in looping the previous scene repetitiously, singing B.I.N.G.O. will tear and disconnect the mental imagery. After B-I-N-G-O your mind is in left-hemispheric dominance, and you can think rationally.

Tell me something; is Bingo the name of the dog or the farmer?

Grandmother Cell

A scientist at the University of Leicester (England), Dr. Quiroga offered evidence that all it takes is one neuron (nerve cell) to produce the memory of a given image.

So what

For the past century it was a given that it required a neural network (a lot of neurons), working as a team, to reproduce specific memories. This article appeared in Scientific American, May 18, ’07.

It is a vindication of the original work of Dr. Jerome Lettvin who in the 1960s was laughed off the neurobiology lecture circuit for opposing the view of specialized neurons for different parts of our memories. He called his theory the Grandma cell, a single neuron (not a neural network) for each member of our family. He was right, only one for each relative, friend, and even Tom Hanks.

Is there a point to this

Each neuron is hardwired to an abstract (opposite of concrete) concept of Grandma, your boss or that Hilton celebrity. Our memory is focusing on a generalization, not a specific v

ificant other, boss, or guidance counselor, anything that causes right-hemispheric hijacking of your mind with mental imagery of death and destruction.

Once you are emotionally engaged in looping the previous scene repetitiously, singing B.I.N.G.O. will tear and disconnect the mental imagery. After B-I-N-G-O your mind is in left-hemispheric dominance, and you can think rationally.

Tell me something; is Bingo the name of the dog or the farmer?

Grandmother Cell

A scientist at the University of Leicester (England), Dr. Quiroga offered evidence that all it takes is one neuron (nerve cell) to produce the memory of a given image.

So what

For the past century it was a given that it required a neural network (a lot of neurons), working as a team, to reproduce specific memories. This article appeared in Scientific American, May 18, ’07.

It is a vindication of the original work of Dr. Jerome Lettvin who in the 1960s was laughed off the neurobiology lecture circuit for opposing the view of specialized neurons for different parts of our memories. He called his theory the Grandma cell, a single neuron (not a neural network) for each member of our family. He was right, only one for each relative, friend, and even Tom Hanks.

Is there a point to this

Each neuron is hardwired to an abstract (opposite of concrete) concept of Grandma, your boss or that Hilton celebrity. Our memory is focusing on a generalization, not a specific v

(a lot of neurons), working as a team, to reproduce specific memories. This article appeared in Scientific American, May 18, ’07.

It is a vindication of the original work of Dr. Jerome Lettvin who in the 1960s was laughed off the neurobiology lecture circuit for opposing the view of specialized neurons for different parts of our memories. He called his theory the Grandma cell, a single neuron (not a neural network) for each member of our family. He was right, only one for each relative, friend, and even Tom Hanks.

Is there a point to this

Each neuron is hardwired to an abstract (opposite of concrete) concept of Grandma, your boss or that Hilton celebrity. Our memory is focusing on a generalization, not a specific visual feature. Any single element reminding us of the sound, look or feeling of the original memory will link that memory to our present state of mind.

A smell of apples can produce a short mental movie of Mom’s apple pie.

This single neuron is not exclusively for Grandma, the Empire State Building, or the Hollywood sign; it can link to many other memories. Our brain appears to have an endless capacity for learning and memory. That is the point, you have unlimited learning potential.

Almost there. When you try to remember a conversation, contents of a book, or a travel experience, what you get back is an abstract. You get a summary, an approximation, and what-it-is-about. People with eidetic imagery (photographic memory) are slim to none. How about one in 3-4 million?

7 Genius Questions

If you want to become a superstar in memory and learning, learn to be interactive with what you read and hear (lectures).

Seven Keys to Genius

1. Can you remember Who? Picture an Owl making their sound.
2. What? Mentally see a Hat from w-hat.
3. When? Can you picture the Hen fro w-Hen?
4. Where? Now see a Hare (the rabbit), from the w-Here.
5. Why? Can you picture a Eye for why?
6. Which? Switch to a Witch on a broom
7. How? See a Cow for How.

Link these seven pictures to each other to remember the questions. The Owl in the barn, defecating on the Hat. The hat thrown like a Frisbee knocking off the head of the Hen, bleeding on the Hare. The hare having six Eyes, flying away with a Witch, and turning into a Cow.

Now, answer these 7 questions in writing (2-3 sentences each) and you have the gist of what you read or listened to at the lecture.

Brilliant students do not reread entire books, articles or listen again to lectures before an exam or giving a presentation. They remember the 7 questions and review their 2-3 sentence answers to reconstruct the original experience.

Endwords

After 10,000 students we stopped counting those who aced school and landed more than their fair share of corporate promotions. We live in the knowledge economy and information is your currency.

Learn and use the schema of 7 gist questions and you will have a unique competitive advantage. It will land you in the fast-track in school and career. Join us to triple your reading speed and double your memory.

See ya,

copyright 2007
H. Bernard Wechsler
www.speedlearning.org
hbw@speedlearning.org
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