Tag: brain science

Intrinsic motivation is important for sustained creative activity

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A recent study shows that An insight-related neural reward signal exists and is more active in some people than in others.

This study also confirms the idea that “intrinsic motivation is important for sustained creative activity.”

Some other findings that may be of interest:

…our findings suggest that individuals who are high in reward sensitivity experience the sudden emergence of a solution into awareness as strongly rewarding whereas individuals who are low in reward sensitivity may still experience insight as sudden and attentionally salient but lacking in hedonic content.

As lifelong autodidact, I wonder if others with this marvelous “addiction” can relate to feeling almost not alive unless there is something to wonder about or figure out. I recently read a biography of Ludwig Wittgenstein. One standout was his strong tendency to seek out simple or humble environments that stimulated his mind.

…Individuals high in reward sensitivity are more likely to take drugs, develop substance-abuse disorders or eating disorders, and engage in risky behaviors such as gambling. The fact that some people find insight experiences to be highly pleasurable reinforces the notion that insight can be an intrinsic reward for problem solving and comprehension that makes use of the same reward circuitry in the brain that processes rewards from addictive drugs, sugary foods, or love.

Getting lost in the woods or on a motorcycle ride, for me, is a highly enjoyable feeling. There have to be slight tremors of fear and agitation followed by finding my way again. I suppose others may experience similar feelings in social settings or as live performers.

…These findings shed light on people’s motivations for engaging in challenging, often time-consuming, activities that potentially yield insights, such as solving puzzles or mysteries, creating inventions, or doing research. It also reinforces the notion that intrinsic motivation is important for sustained creative activity. The expectation of intrinsic rewards from comprehending and creating, rather than from an extrinsic source such as payment, is thought to be the most effective type of workplace motivation…

A society with universal basic income in which no one has to work unless they want to might bring about the greatest flourishing of human talent ever. Then again, maybe not. Inspiration does need a stick on the back sometimes and “joy has no children,” meaning happiness produces few inventions.

Here’s an article about the study: Aha! + Aaaah: Creative Insight Triggers a Neural Reward Signal.

first posted April 10, 2020

Origin of cultural learning: babies imitate because they are imitated

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For the study, the researchers looked at the interaction between mother and child over several months. The babies came into the lab for the first time at the age of 6 months, while their final visit was when they were 18 months old. As they engaged in various play situations, the interactions and imitations of mother and child were analyzed.

The longitudinal study shows that the more sensitive a mother was in her interactions with her six-month-old child and the more often she imitated the infant, the greater the child’s ability was at the age of 18 months to imitate others.

In the interaction between parents and child, mutual imitation is a sign of communication. Parents respond to the signals given by the child and reflect and amplify them. A mutual imitation of actions and gestures develops. “These experiences create connections between what the child feels and does on the one hand and what it sees on the other. Associations are formed. The child’s visual experience is connected to its own motor activity,” says Markus Paulus, explaining the neuro-cognitive process.

Children learn a variety of skills through imitation, such as how to use objects, cultural gestures like waving, and the acquisition of language. “Children are incredible imitators. Mimicry paves the way to their further development. Imitation is the start of the cultural process toward becoming human,” says Markus Paulus. In psychology, the theory that the ability to imitate is inborn held sway for a long time. The LMU study is further evidence that the ability is actually acquired.

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Mutual imitation and/or rapport are fundamental to interpersonal communication and a constant of it. FIML practice is a metacognitive method for making these processes ‘objective’ and thus mutually understandable, analyzable, and correctable or transformable as needed or desired. FIML works with objective material, which is defined as material both partners agree on. Real-world, real-time mutually agreed upon moments of micro communication discovered during FIML practice are some of the best objective psychological material you will ever acquire. Analyzing it with your partner is a total blast! There is no other way to do it except through FIML practice. ABN

UPDATE: This study reveals the profound importance of imitation for the infant brain. Imitation is one of the first things humans learn and it establishes a basis for social interactions from then on. Imitation is a major foundation of all cultures. People within any culture always imitate each other a lot. This includes adults who form new cultures or conform to deep transitions within their already accepted cultures. Often, cultural transitions are so large, the original culture is lost to time. This instinct to keep up with the group through imitation is a major factor in behavioral mind-control. This video provides an excellent example of how blunt, crude, nasty and deeply fear-based mind-controlled cultural transitions often are. Not only are viewers lured into being terrified of the invisible virus, they are also bullied into conforming to the one and only way to save themselves—taking a dangerous and untested vax. When children and then babies were also sucked into this whirlpool of anti-science, all morality was gone and all that was left was fear and insane conformity. If the mind-controllers learned anything from this, they will probably leave pregnant women and babies alone next time. More likely is they will cause even greater fear. ABN

Long-Term Cannabis Use and Cognitive Function: Findings from a Longitudinal Study

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A recently published study examined the effects of cannabis use on age-related cognitive function in adults. Noting the limited number of studies in this area compared to studies on cannabis use and short-term cognition, the researchers sought to examine the relationship between cannabis use from early adulthood to late midlife and cognitive decline. The study, “Cannabis Use and Age-Related Changes in Cognitive Function From Early Adulthood to Late Midlife in 5162 Danish Men,” was published in November 2024 in Brain and Behavior.

This study examined data from 5162 Danish men born between 1949-1961 who had participated in assessments on cognitive aging and in follow-up questionnaires. Data from the Danish Aging and Cognition (DanACo) cohort was used, which was administered when the mean age of the participants was 20. The follow up questionnaires covered socioeconomic, lifestyle, and health-related factors and was administered when the mean age of the participants was 64.

…Ultimately, the study concluded that, “Men with a history of cannabis use had less cognitive decline from early adulthood to late midlife compared to men without a history of cannabis use. Among cannabis users, neither age of initiation of cannabis use nor frequent use was significantly associated with a greater age-related cognitive decline.”

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We see what we are used to seeing; and interpret it as we are used to

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A new study shows that what we see is often a distortion of what is really happening. A short article about that study provides a good overview: Altered images: New research shows that what we see is distorted by what we expect to see:

New research shows that humans “see” the actions of others not quite as they really are, but slightly distorted by their expectations.

The study is here: Perceptual teleology: expectations of action efficiency bias social perception.

I think it is fair to speculate that the conclusions of that study apply not just to visual information, but to all information. For example, much of what we consider to be psychological continuity is habit based on introspective deformities.

See Psychology as “signs of something else” for more on this topic.

See also: Seeing the best way forward: Intentionality cues bias action perception toward the most efficient trajectory.

first posted AUGUST 8, 2018

UPDATE: FIML practice accurately identifies and corrects all kinds of mental, psychological, emotional, and perceptual distortions as they happen in real-world settings. Pretty much everyone knows distortions are happening but we do almost nothing about them. Instead of dealing with distortions and preventing them from snowballing, virtually all people everywhere rely on default stock strategies to retreat from them, a technique which itself engenders fear and helplessness in the face of real human interaction. I believe the absence of anything resembling FIML practice in world history is testament to widespread hierarchical sociopsychological dependence on what are essentially clichés. ABN

Brain plasticity and ‘critical periods’ for learning

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Neurodevelopment: Unlocking the brain

This is an interesting article on brain plasticity and “critical periods” for learning some skills (e.g. stereo-vision, language acquisition, etc.). It seems there may be ways to reset or reopen critical periods through chemical or behavioral interventions.

Vision therapy, which aims to correct adult amblyopia and other eye conditions, already has shown that basic visual skills can be relearned and some visual problems corrected by proper training.

Incidentally, FIML practice retrains us to listen, speak, and think differently. In doing this, FIML may be reopening a critical period for language/semiotic processing or even for the fundamental organization of consciousness itself. Once acquired, FIML skills have far-reaching effects on virtually all aspects of human social and psychological awareness.

If Buddhist practice is thought of in a light like this (that new cognitive skills are learned as some old ones are unlearned), it may remove some of the mystical aspects of how people understand the Dharma while also making Buddhist teachings more appealing to people with science training or an affinity for objective science.

first posted July 6, 2012

Perceptual distortions inevitably accrue and distort our psychologies

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Keep your eyes focused on the cross between the flashing images. The faces will appear grossly distorted in your peripheral field of vision. Now, consider that just as our eyes can distort faces as in the gif above, so our minds can and frequently do distort all of our perceptions, especially ones with psychological relevance. This is how our minds do not work well psychologically and emotionally. To compensate for psychological distortions most people in all cultures in the world are forced to cleave to whatever the default assumptions of their cultures are. This leaves us with plastic faces and conformist mannerisms, while inside our minds are filled with emotional distortions. As we carry these distortions through the years, our psychological misperceptions of ourselves and others can become deeply misshapen, leading to neurotic confusion on many levels. No general theory or general method can fix this problem, which at its core is an accumulation of idiosyncratic perceptual distortions held in memory (and the responses that arise from them). FIML practice is a specific activity designed to find and remove perceptual and psychological distortions. FIML will always be unique to the partners using it. It will always deal with their idiosyncratic distortions as they arise in real time. In this sense, FIML has no content except what you put into it. FIML is a tool that helps us see ourselves as we are really functioning in real-time. ABN

Depressed individuals mind-wander over twice as often, study finds

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A new study has found that individuals with major depressive disorder report mind wandering over twice as often as healthy adults. These individuals saw their mind wandering as more negative. Mind wandering was more frequent in depressed individuals who reported experiencing more negative and less positive moods. The research was published in the Journal of Affective Disorders.

Mind wandering is the spontaneous shift of attention away from a current task or external environment to internal thoughts or daydreams. It typically occurs when people are engaged in routine or low-demand activities. During mind wandering, people think about their past, future, or unrelated topics. Mind wandering can foster creativity and problem-solving, but frequent or excessive mind wandering has been linked to negative outcomes, including rumination and poor emotional regulation.

In individuals with depression, mind wandering tends to focus on negative thoughts, regrets, or worries, contributing to a persistently low mood and feelings of hopelessness. Studies suggest that people with depression experience more frequent and uncontrollable mind wandering, which can exacerbate symptoms. This tendency to ruminate increases cognitive load and interferes with concentration and productivity.

Study author Matthew S. Welhaf and his colleagues aimed to better understand the frequency of mind wandering in individuals with major depressive disorder in everyday life compared to healthy individuals. They also aimed to explore the content of mind wandering. Unlike most previous studies that relied on formal scales and assessments, this study applied an experience sampling design, having participants report their experiences several times per day.

The authors hypothesized that individuals with major depressive disorder would mind-wander more frequently, focusing more on the past. Additionally, they expected the frequency of mind wandering to be associated with negative moods.

Study participants included 106 adults, all native English speakers and up to 40 years old. Fifty-three were healthy controls with no history of mental health disorders, and the other 53 had been diagnosed with major depressive disorder. Participants with major depressive disorder were slightly older, with an average age of 28, compared to 25 years among the healthy participants. Approximately 70% of participants in both groups were women.

The study authors provided participants with a handheld electronic device with the Experience Sampling Program 4.0 installed. Over 7–8 days, participants were randomly prompted eight times a day (between 10:00 a.m. and 10:00 p.m.) to report on their current experiences, amounting to a maximum of 56 prompts throughout the period. On average, participants completed around 43–44 prompts, with similar numbers in both groups.

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Metacognition and real-time communication

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Metacognition means “awareness and understanding of one’s own thought processes,” or “cognition about cognition,” or “being able to think about how you think.”

To me, metacognition is a premier human ability. How can it not be a good thing to be aware of how you are aware and how you think and respond to what is around you?

In more detail:

The term “metacognition” is most often associated with John Flavell, (1979). According to Flavell (1979, 1987), metacognition consists of both metacognitive knowledge and metacognitive experiences or regulation. Metacognitive knowledge refers to acquired knowledge about cognitive processes, knowledge that can be used to control cognitive processes. Flavell further divides metacognitive knowledge into three categories: knowledge of person variables, task variables and strategy variables.

(the original source for this quote has disappeared but this article on Wikipedia makes the same points and more)

Most people do metacognition and are aware of doing it. We do it when we plan, make decisions, decide how to get from one place to another, how to relate to one person differently from another, and so on.

Where we don’t do metacognition is in real-time communication in real life, where it matters most. This is not because we are not able to do it. It is because very few of us have the right technique, Flavell’s “acquired knowledge” that allows us to do it.

If we have the right technique, we will be able to gain a great deal of knowledge about real-time cognitive process while also learning how to control them.

FIML practice is a metacognitive practice based on, to quote the above source, “acquired knowledge about cognitive processes… that can be used to control cognitive processes.”

In the case of FIML, the “acquired knowledge” is the FIML technique which allows us to gain conscious “control over cognitive processes” of real-time interpersonal communication.

FIML is different from other analytical communication techniques in that FIML provides a method to gain control over very short or small units of communication in real-time. This is important as it is these very short real-time units that are most often ignored or not dealt with in most analyses of human communication.

If you know how to catch small mistakes, they become sources of insight and humor. If you don’t know how to catch them, they often snowball into destructive misunderstandings.

FIML is fairly easy to do if you understand the importance of correcting the minor misinterpretations that inevitably arise between people when they speak and communicate. By using the FIML metacognitive method, partners gain control over the most elusive kinds of interpersonal error which all too often lead to serious interpersonal discord.

FIML can and does do more than catch small mistakes, but first things first. If you cannot correct small errors in real-time communication, you are not doing anything even resembling thorough metacognitive communication.

Psychedelic Mushrooms Are Getting Much, Much Stronger

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New cultivation methods are making psychedelic mushrooms stronger, and fiendishly potent varieties are kicking in faster and lasting longer—even if you eat only a fraction of what you would with another variety. Subsequent testing showed that one batch of Mattucci’s mushrooms contained almost 5 percent psychedelic alkaloids, which was once unheard of within the Psilocybe genus. Typically, mushrooms contain 1 percent of these psychoactive compounds, although species like Psilocybe azurescens are generally stronger, and some varieties within the Panaeolus genus are even more potent.

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How Scents Can improve Memory, Autism and Depression | Dr. Michael Leon

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UPDATE: This video shows the value of novel experiences. What is most interesting to me is these novel experiences are fairly mundane, ordinary, simple and small — just new odors or fragrances. I believe novelty can also be found in many other simple and small things or experiences. And, it seems to me, many human moral and existential mistakes can be understood as excessive novelty-seeking. Taking strong drugs, overmuch or weird sex, committing crimes, riding motorcycles too fast (my own worst failing in this arena), etc. We can find deeply rewarding novelty through pursuing philosophy on our own; in meditation; in exploring psycholinguistics through FIML practice; taking a walk in the woods and allowing ourselves to get lost; just looking in a different direction or an unexpected direction right now. It is generally wiser to seek and find novelty in ways that are not excessive, meaning harmful to ourselves or others, or immoral. A lot can be learned about ourselves by analyzing how and why we seek novel experiences. A good deal of what you do may be novelty-seeking known to you by another name. Powerfully novel experiences than harm no one are the best. ABN

The Debate Around Fluoride Is Changing: What It Means For Your Drinking Water

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More regulations on fluoride in drinking water may be coming due to the new court order last week, experts say.

Fluoride, commonly added to drinking water to prevent cavities, has come under scrutiny.

Several cities have now stopped adding fluoride to their drinking water. But whether the whole landscape will change depends on what the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will do next.

How Much Fluoride in Water Might Be Safe?

On Sept. 24, U.S. Federal Judge Edward Chen ordered the EPA to strengthen its rules around fluoride in drinking water.

The decision was made in light of The National Toxicology Program’s (NTP) report in August, which found that 1.5 milligrams of fluoride in drinking water is sufficient to pose neurodevelopmental risks in children.

The EPA calculates a margin of exposure to determine a safety buffer between the exposure and hazard levels. For fluoride, the exposure rate should be one-tenth of the hazard level, lawyer Michael Connett said.

Since the NTP’s report found 1.5 milligrams per liter to be potentially risky, exposure risks could start from 0.15 milligrams per liter, Connett added.

Americans’ current exposure level of 0.7 milligram per liter—”the level presently considered “optimal” in the United States – poses an unreasonable risk of reduced IQ in children,” Chen wrote in his ruling.

Currently, the EPA sets the maximum level for fluoride at 4 milligrams per liter, significantly higher than the risk level cited in the recent study.

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I have a friend who manages the water facilities in a fairly large city. She is a credentialed chemist and objects to fluoride most of all because in its raw form it is a very harmful substance and the workers who add it to drinking water are rarely, if ever, properly trained or dressed to do that job safely. ABN

Breakthrough synapse-regenerating ALS pill moves to phase 2 human trials

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A pioneering once-a-day pill that regenerates nerve cell connections damaged by ALS has been FDA-approved for ongoing clinical trials. The drug is now being given to those with ALS and could be a watershed moment in the treatment of the fatal disease.

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), or Lou Gehrig’s disease, affects nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord, called motor neurons, that control voluntary muscle movements like walking, talking, and breathing. As the neurons die and can’t send messages to the muscles, loss of muscle control worsens over time and is eventually fatal.

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved several drugs that help manage symptoms or slow the disease’s progress, but there’s no current treatment that reverses the progression of ALS. In short, there’s no cure. That’s where Spinogenix, Inc. comes in.

Spinogenix, a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company, has developed SPG302, a unique once-a-day pill that regenerates the gaps, called synapses, between neurons to restore communication. Following promising results from clinical trials to evaluate the drug’s safety, the FDA has approved the company’s Investigational New Drug (IND) application, paving the way for further trials.

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Your Consciousness Can Connect With the Whole Universe, Groundbreaking New Research Suggests

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A RECENT GROUNDBREAKING EXPERIMENT in which anesthesia was administered to rats has convinced scientists that tiny structures in the rodents’ brains are responsible for the experience of consciousness. To pull it off, these microscopic hollow tube structures, called “microtubules,” don’t rely on our everyday flavor of classical physics. Instead, experts believe, microtubules perform incredible operations in the quantum realm. Citing the work of earlier researchers, the study infers that the same kind of quantum operations are likely happening in human brains.

During their rat brain experiments, scientists at Wellesley College in Massachusetts gave the rodents isoflurane, a type of inhaled general anesthetic used to induce and maintain unconsciousness for medical procedures. One group of drugged rats also received microtubule-stabilizing drugs, while the other did not. The researchers discovered that the microtubule-stabilizing molecules kept the rats conscious for longer than the non-stabilized rats, which more quickly lost their “righting reflex,” or the ability to restore normal posture, according to their findings, published in the peer-reviewed journal eNeuro in August 2024.

The Wellesley study is significant because the physical source of consciousness has been a mystery for decades. It’s a major step toward verifying a theory that our brains perform quantum operations, and that this ability generates our consciousness—an idea that’s been gaining traction over the past three decades.

The notion that quantum physics must be the underlying mechanism for consciousness first emerged in the 1990s, when Nobel Prize-winning physicist Roger Penrose, Ph.D., and anesthesiologist Stuart Hameroff, M.D., popularized the idea that neural microtubules enable quantum processes in our brain, giving rise to consciousness. Specifically, they postulated in a 1996 paper that consciousness may operate as a quantum wave passing through the brain’s microtubules. This is known as Orch OR theory, referring to the ability of microtubules to perform quantum computations through a mathematical process Penrose calls “objective reduction.”

In quantum physics, a particle does not exist in the way classical physics observes it, with a definite physical location. Instead, it exists as a cloud of probabilities. If it comes into contact with its environment, as when a measuring apparatus observes it, then the particle loses its “superposition” of multiple states. It collapses into a definite, measurable state, the state in which it was observed. Penrose hypothesized that “each time a quantum wave function collapses in this way in the brain, it gives rise to a moment of conscious experience.”

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Psychedelics show promise in enhancing brain plasticity

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Recent studies have started uncovering the potential benefits of psychedelics on the brain, especially concerning cognitive and emotional health. A recent meta-analysis published in the Journal of Psychopharmacology has found that individuals who consume psychedelics exhibit significantly higher levels of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) compared to healthy non-users. This increase in BDNF suggests that psychedelics might enhance the brain’s ability to adapt and reorganize itself, potentially offering new avenues for treating mental health disorders.

BDNF is a protein that plays a critical role in the health and functioning of the brain. It supports the survival of existing neurons and encourages the growth and differentiation of new neurons and synapses. BDNF is vital for long-term memory, learning, and the overall plasticity of the brain—its ability to change and adapt in response to new experiences.

Alterations in BDNF levels have been linked to various neuropsychiatric disorders, including depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress disorder. Higher levels of BDNF are generally associated with better cognitive function and mental health, making it a key area of interest for researchers studying the brain and its many functions.

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Study: The effect of psychedelics on the level of brain-derived neurotrophic factor: A systematic review and meta-analysis