Your Brain Has Brakes!

Is it the civilized mind that allows us to choose as opposed to react? Lisa Gates wonders... Hmmm... I've seen a golfer hit the ground hard with his club when he flubbed a shot, whereas other players calmly pick up former pace to drive the next shots down the fairway. And once a golfer flubs, seems his next balls land in the pond, in the trees and deep grass. What is it that helps us make choices rather than reacting? Great question you asked, Lisa, for the Question Train on Mind and Brain series. Recent research on the brain sheds new light on answers...

Braking System The human brain has a neural braking network that kicks in just long enough for people to make a quick decisions according to researchers at University of California, San Diego... As study participants planned an action, listened for a stop signal and made a quick choice to continue or to stop, researchers tracked MRI's to observe brain activity. They discovered

One of the connected regions was the subthalamic nucleus, within the deep-seated midbrain, which is an interface with the motor system and can be considered a 'stop button' or the brake itself. A second region was in the right inferior frontal cortex, a region near the temple, where the control signal to put on the brakes probably comes from.

How does that translate to everyday life?

Just enough time to choose! "We've known for some time about key brain areas involved in controlling behavior," Adam Aaron, lead researcher, explains, "and now we're learning how they're connected and how it is that the information can get from one place to the other really fast." So the brain's neural braking network gives humans just a few milliseconds to make a decision. That's just enough time to react by throwing a golf club to the ground or stop and make a choice to forget it and move calmly to the next shot!

Genes may play a part Aaron theorizes that "Variability in the density and thickness of the 'cable' connections is probably influenced by genes." Further research will show us more.

Researcher Read Montague of Baylor University, claims in Why Choose this Book? that our brains evolved computational programs to evaluate choices in terms of their value and efficiency: "Those that accurately estimate the costs and the long term benefits of choices will be more efficient that those who don't."

By using MRI's, Montague found brands such as Coke, "change dopamine delivery to various brain regains through their effect on reward prediction circuitry." Interestingly, Coke's "flavor" is distinguished in the brain's prefrontal cortex, a region essential for making choices. That sheds light on why we develop favorite brands!

Choosing, not reacting Remember how people advised us to count to ten before "reacting?" If you're like me and sometimes feel like throwing a golf club into the pond after bad shots, there's good news... Because of the brain's plasticity, you can rewire it to stop before you react. Sometimes that means counting to ten or instantly recalling a happy tune or whatever it takes to move you out of an initial emotion. The more times you consciously stop to put on the brakes, the more dendrites you'll build for time to choose! That gives you space to use good tone both during golf and in the workplace that Ellen Weber describes.

Lisa, in the second part of your question you note, "Perhaps what I'm asking is the difference between neo-cortex, limbic, reptilian, all of that, and how it relates to us civilized humans trying to choose in our everyday life." Since the human brain is more complex than that of animals, we can make choices whereas an animal reacts more from instinct.

What an intriguing question to answer, Lisa!

Any more thoughts on this?

Do You Hear Harry Potter's Voice?

People without an internalized symbolic system can all too easily become captives of the media... Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience

When you read Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, do you hear Harry's voice? Hmmm... Bob Hruzek's brilliant question piqued my curiosity, too! The brain opens or closes that possibility and here's how...

Serotonin... Serotonin's a hormone of well-being. When serotonin floods your brain during an enjoyable experience, you open the door to optimal creativity. Reading's a pleasure to you and as you relax and read a book you enjoy serotonin secretes through your brain. You taste Rowling's sense of adventure and intrigue so you're very motivated and can't wait to get into the story. When you look at Deathly Hallow's thickness you almost feel delighted that there's so much more this time around. Serotonin sets the stage for you to experience flow, as you tunnel down into Harry Potter. Flow... involves all your senses... the capacity to imagine the setting, and hear the characters. Do you experience that, at times, as you read? And, especially before you've seen a movie or heard a book on a DVD?

Cortisol... Unpleasant or stressful experiences cause cortisol to flow into the human brain. This literally shuts down your ability to think clearly and process information well. In this case, you lose the advantage of top brain performance -your senses and creativity. If reading's somewhat challenging and books simply do not hold your interest and you're required to read one, you can see it brings immediate stress. You'd lack motivation. Distractions would divert your attention you'd find it hard to concentrate. Unfortunately, folks who're stressed or unmotivated would not hear characters' voices or picture them in their minds... But, even that can change...

Good news is that motivation can create magic to take readers to new worlds, to lift folks over past stress and failure, worlds that include hearing a character's voice. And the more people're motivated the more they can accomplish... So if Harry Potter hooks young folks especially, it may be the starting point for change!

As people gather ideas, speculate and invent they tap into highest cognitive processes of the mind... providing power to hear a character's voice...

Author's art and craft... Art in writing depends on stepping out of author's voice, Brandilyn Collins believes as do many other writers, and letting a character assume her own voice. A great author does not tell the reader, but from description and dialogue a reader develops his own interpretation of a character. So the Harry Potter voice I hear in my head sounds very different than the voice in yours, Bob [assuming neither of us has seen the movie]. If an author tells more than she shows, the art is not there and you likely won't hear the voice. Interestingly, the voice the author hears will be very different than the one you hear because each of us imagines it!

Interestingly, Terese Fowler, a published author in the UK shows how sentence length affects character's voice.

We can't literally "hear" the written word, but there is a perception of sound input when we read; thus there must be a characteristic voice. It isn't like the audible voice, however--we don't "hear" the pitch of the author's voice when we read; there's no nasal quality or raspiness, nothing like what we use to identify a caller on the phone, for example. Rather, it's an element of how the author crafts the sentences, the paragraphs, the chapters, the entire work.

An easy example is Hemingway, who is known for his brevity. Short sentences. Simple rhetoric. Ordinary vocabulary.

Versus James Joyce, whose stream-of-consciousness work in Ulysses, for example, epitomizes the extreme opposite of Hemingway. Joyce's writing voice leans poetically complex; Hemingway's is stalwart.

Character Development...Lead characters like Harry are fully sketched out for readers. You know their tastes, warts, dreams and desires. They take on a reality for you that bit players don't. You're likely to develop voice for Harry because you "know" him. Since, you don't know much about a bit player, you're less likely to develop a voice for one.

I have a theory that if you put your self in a character's shoes, you might go so far as to use your voice as that of the character...if the sex matches. What do you think?

Bob, when you're hooked by Deathly Hollows, you use your imaginative juices. I sense you, Lisa and others will hear Harry's voice -- the one you invent!

What a fun question to answer, Bob, as Part Three of the Question Train Series.

Thoughts...

Readers' are welcome to post questions for the Question Train...

What Causes People to Procrastinate, then Rush?

"What causes us to procrastinate, then rush," Frank Roche of KnowHR, asks. He'd like to sort out the ambiguity. No doubt he's seen every form of delaying tactics in the field of human resources. "Is this a brain-related issue," he wonders. "With all the GTD-related advice out there, it tells me that a lot of people are procrastinators...or they don't multitask well. Is procrastination hard wired?" Great questions, Frank, since procrastination increased 39% in the last 25 years...

Thanks for posing these for the Question Train Series.

Causes... Interestingly, Piers Steel of the University of Calgary just finished a 10 year study which concludes that temptation is one of the most pervasive causes of procrastination. When you stop to think there are so many fun activities available such as computer gaming, Internet messaging, which are just a click away at work. Add to that, TVs in every room, online video, Web-surfing, cellphones, video games, iPods and Blackberries.

Genes Play a Part Rewards and instant gratification highly affect procrastinators. In a study prepared by researchers, Liu, Richmond and Ginns of the National Intstitue of Health, found that dopamine, a brain chemical that functions as a neurotransmitter, suppresses a gene helps a circuit in the brain absorb the chemical messenger dopamine, which is involved in the brain's memory and reward system. Amazingly, they can turn monkeys into the kind of nonstop worker you are not likely to find in the next cubicle.

Dopamine has many functions in the brain, including important roles in behavior and cognition, motor activity, motivation and reward, sleep, mood, attention, and learning.

Without the dopamine receptor, the researchers found monkeys "consistently stayed on-task and made few errors, because they could no longer learn to use visual cues to predict how their work was going to get them a reward." The monkeys were like other primates, they're "in no hurry to do work any sooner than it needs to be done."

Procrastinators are made not born On the other hand, leading procrastination experts Joseph Ferrari, and Timorthy Pychyl note procrastination's due to upbringing...

Procrastination is learned in the family milieu, but not directly. It is one response to an authoritarian parenting style. Having a harsh, controlling father keeps children from developing the ability to regulate themselves, from internalizing their own intentions and then learning to act on them. Procrastination can even be a form of rebellion, one of the few forms available under such circumstances. What's more, under those household conditions, procrastinators turn more to friends than to parents for support, and their friends may reinforce procrastination because they tend to be tolerant of their excuses.

Why the rush? Most people are self-regulated and want to avoid the consequences. But there's more... some folks actually get a rush from putting things off and working fast at the last minute...

"On the one hand, procrastinators enjoy the pleasure that accompanies jittery nerves before a deadline," according to Ferrari, "but they also have less self-confidence than their peers." He notes that procrastinators may exert less effort because they want people to think that they're not trying rather than believe that they are incapable.

In experiments reported in the European Journal of Personality, procrastinators completed less of a task than nonprocrastinators when given a strict time limit, but fared almost as well with more time. Ferrari believes that this reflects scaled back efforts under pressure.

I can remember classmates in college telling me they actually get a rush from doing work at the last minute. We also see it on the job. Sadly, procrastinators do not perform at optimum... But there's hope.

Hard-wired? Since the human brain has amazing plasticity, it can be wired differently. But, it takes rewiring a lifetime of habits. Even procrastinators can rewire to work ahead, but it takes doing, doing, doing it over a period of time. The more we do something the more our brain rewires for that activity.

Ellen Weber claims human nature's lazy and requires rewiring...

What you do shapes the routines that define you as unique. Victims who see themselves as stuck in their problems, will stay stuck … because they will build victim routines into their basal ganglia daily. We each get hit with 22 stressors daily … and victims sink with these while high performance minds fight back.

Here’s how it works. Each time you set clear targets, and motivate yourself to follow through and do one concrete strategy to reach them, you set your “human nature” for example, to become more successful, alive and timely.

Thanks for such great questions! With procrastination on the increase, your work's cut out.. I'm wondering what strategies work best for you and others to avoid procrastinating?

Question Train on Mind and Brain

The larger the island of knowledge, the longer the shoreline of wonder Ralph W. Sockman

What sparks your curiosity about the mind and brain? Your curiosity and wonderment can generate thoughts not currently wiring in my brain... Why not jot down what's on the tip of your wonderment...

The question train begins here. I'll take your questions and give you the generosity of a post as I answer them. I'm looking for questions that I can flesh out in full for you.

You'll benefit since I'll write on topics [sans jargon] that pique your interest. Plus, you'll double your interest since I'll mention your site in my blog. And, readers and I will benefit since I'll write posts on the brain, mind or multiple intelligences relevant to your needs.

Here's the track. . .

1. Questions that are legitimate to topic of mind, brain or multiple intelligences [gifts and talents]
2. When I write a post to answer, I'll provide a link back to your site
3. If some questions double up for a response, I'll use only one blog and link to more than one site in the response

I'd like to thank Rob Watts at Yack Yack, at SEO Central for his suggestion for fueling up a question train.

We're taking off... Now you take it away!