But if the situation recurs, as most do, the signal pathway from input to output shortens, taking fewer detours en route, and reducing lateral association. With every repetition, the input-output path becomes more well-trodden and conductive; there are fewer side-forays into 'alternative possibilities', there is a diminution of cortical involvement (consciousness) and the time between input and output diminishes. Thus an acquired, or evolved habit, established through repetition, can be performed with increasing rapidity enabling swift and efficient response to by-now-familiar circumstances.

Thus it can be seen that there is a direct correspondence between 'habit' and 'memory'; between the repertoire of conditioned reflexes, and the store of knowledge ... we 'know' our five-times table because we have 'learnt' (repeated) it until the habit of associating five fives with twentyfive has been established: at first we must repeat the whole first part of the multiplication table before we can arrive at the correct output, but the path shortens with repetition and soon we 'know' (associate) directly what five fives are.

Memory is the well-trodden, established-by-repetition, conductive pathway of associations which leads from established input to established output: re-member (re-associate) the incredible size of the brain's connectivity and the richness of possible pathways through the nervous system ... memories are stored in the form of patterns of conductive pathways established by repetition and use -- unused memories grow hazy and fade as unused pathways lose their lateral connectivity (their tributary streams of input) and become harder to access, then lose their conductivity and cease to be pathways.

At certain stages of its unfolding development, the brain is also capable of instant 'imprinting', akin to circuit etching, in which patterns of conductive pathways to response and re-call can be laid down virtually instantaneously: (if a novel input hits a crucial nexus, then once experienced, never forgotten!). In addition we have evolved, as a species, a rich heritage of hard-wired response -- a baby doesn't have to learn to suck or to cry.

The function of habit is to save the precious, predictive cortex from having to cope with routine, repetitious computing tasks, liberating it to consider and initiate non-routine novel behaviour. Which will itself be degraded from consciousness to habit with repetition ... habit and awareness are like the shoreline and the sea -- more of one means less of the other: habit is the opposite of sensitivity.

Habit is both the doors of perception alluded to by Aldous Huxley in his book of that name, and the 'subconscious' referred to by Sigmund Freud -- processing of data and establishment of 'memory' pathways is not limited to the core of the brain, but is distributed more peripherally in the nervous system ... the legs know how to walk even when the head is distracted. Though they do suffer from a certain motivation deficit if the head is removed entirely, of course, especially in higher species.

Once a habit has been established and has become unconscious, it can be hard to access or even to be aware of -- that is its nature, after all, and therefore it is an area where we are peculiarly vulnerable to infestation by parasites: unhygienic grooming and living habits provide a niche for vermin, ungrammatical habits of thought provide a niche for superstition ... disturbed and insensitive sexual habits provide entry for the virus, and the numbing effects of urban western so-called culture with its polluted ugliness and constant assault on all the senses closes our minds and renders us habitually unaware to the point where we can be victimised by parasitic herbs such as the tobacco plant and the tea bush which arouse appetite with their aromas (originally evolved to attract insects) and then numb the digestive tract with their narcotics (nicotine, caffeine -- originally evolved to deter grazers) and thus mimic the feeding cycle, getting themselves taken on board as though they were food, so to speak getting their feet under the human table and utilising humans as their reproductive agents, in the way that flowers use bees, but, of course, without providing nourishment (or entertainment) of any sort in return!