• Attention
• Hormones
• Lobes
• Long-Term Memory
• Memory
• Nervous System
• Neuroplasticity
• Neurotransmitters
• Procedural Memory
• Senses
• Synaptic Pruning
• Working Memory

You’re probably aware that you can be less than alert and still awake. Sometimes, your eyes can be open and you can appear alert, but you don’t take in a conversation, a lecture, or words that you read. In order to take something in or learn something new, you have to be awake and alert. You have to pay attention. The degree of attention that you pay to something is important. Attention is the ability to concentrate on a particular stimulus, event, or thought while ignoring other things that are happening around you. For instance, if you eat an ice cream outdoors on a hot summer day, you feel the need to concentrate closely on what you’re eating! Or if you’re studying for a test you need to turn off the television and focus. Sometimes your attention can be split, such as when you put on make-up and talk on the phone at the same time.