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image image Central to the brain's web of neural circuitry the synapse is the pivotal site from which all thought and behavior is spawned.
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image As you read these words, your brain is changing. Through a maze of pathways far more complex than any computer network, your brain is distributing copies of what you are seeing to more than a dozen separate processing centers, where words are being recognized, analyzed, and understood. Simultaneously, the neurons in your brain are undergoing subtle changes where they connect with each other, so that if you read these words again—whether a minute or a year from now—you're likely to remember at least something of what they said. continued...
     

Illustration: Graham Johnson

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Reprinted from the HHMI Bulletin,
Fall 2004, pages 14-23.
©2004 Howard Hughes
Medical Institute

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