Lazy brain. Don't reread books you've already read

How to force a lazy brain to solve creative problems in conditions of chaos and uncertainty

As you know, over the years people tend to acquire various kinds of ailments. Not least on the list of age-related costs is the growing laziness of the brain, which can cause many problems. Including for a business person.

Is it possible to make the mental mechanisms work at full speed and serve as a reliable source of productive thinking?

Of course!

So let's get started. And let's start with the worst thing - the mechanism of dullness. Initially, all people are “equipped” with the right hemisphere, that is, by definition they are talented and have productive thinking. Namely, a sharp mind and the ability to produce a maximum of solutions that meet all the conditions set in a minimum time. But over time, some people lose such productivity. And not necessarily in adulthood or old age.

Childhood

Let's look at two schemes - the ideal development of a child and the conditions that lead to dullness already in the first years of a person's life.

In a normal child, the right hemisphere is dominant from birth. and only then left-hemisphere logical circuits are gradually added to it. This is the result of absorbing human experience under the guidance of parents and the older generation in general. This creates a set of “smart stamps” that a person will use in standard situations. However, he does not lose his ability to create.

Parents help their baby in two ways. First of all, they talk to him “like a big man,” that is, they appeal to that adult who is born at the same time as each person (there is no concept of “infancy” for the brain). On the other hand, artificial techniques that are no less important for the education of a thinking person are used. Most often, this is a fairly standard set, which includes teaching a child to read, write and count simultaneously in all languages ​​available in the family, and at an early age.

TEACHING THE HUMANITIES IN RUSSIA IS BUILT ON A “COGNITIVE” BASE AND NOT ON A THINKING BASE: A CERTAIN SET OF KNOWLEDGE ARISES, BUT NOT THE SKILL OF ANALYZING THEM

The baton is picked up by good kindergartens (we are talking about an ideal case!) with a strong development program. Then - school, where high sciences are connected to human development, which pull him forward. And then studies at the university begin. Preferably with specializations such as physics, mathematics, chemistry, natural sciences in general (the so-called non-humanitarian type).

Why exactly - non-humanitarian? Unfortunately, our education in the humanities is built on a “cognitive” rather than a mental basis. Rather, a certain set of knowledge is transmitted, and not the skills to comprehend it (which ultimately does not allow teaching a person to think).

Let me give you a simple example. There is a radical difference between linguistics, philology and semantics, although all these disciplines, at first glance, “revolve” around words. However, the first two deal with language, and only the last with meaning. It would be wonderful if our younger generation were “given” deeply humanitarian disciplines, which in previous centuries gave birth to great thinkers. But, unfortunately, at present such cases are rare. We can only rely on technical and medical universities, where science as such makes a person think. Even if he doesn't want it.

This is, in fact, how a normal person grows, in whom the left hemisphere is formed while maintaining the significant power of the right (its productivity corresponds to the norm). All that remains is to train your creativity and awaken your talents.

What is a “dumb child”? This, I must say, is an unhappy person. He is terrorized by the older generation, who demand stupid execution of cliches instead of helping to absorb the world around him in all its diversity. Moreover, these “educators” extract cliches from their own practice - by not participating in games or rudely cutting them off, not allowing the child’s abilities to be realized. Thus, the elders do their best to encourage the impoverishment of development opportunities.

Last but not least, toys contribute to this. If parents of the first type buy their child educational games, simple cubes without inscriptions, as well as clearly identifiable elements (which gives the child the opportunity to fantasize and create their own worlds), then in the second case they purchase “formal-logical” toys, which involve just cliches and advance certain forms. At the same time, the system of requirements is dominated by obedience and behavior within a rigid format.

In such conditions, children often begin to rebel. This is a "war for yourself." Alas, the war is most often lost: everything ends with a tightening of the system of suppression in the family and sports sections, which complete the process of suppressing creativity. From the same series - “fashionable” kindergartens with a lightweight development program. Having overcome this part of life, the child is frankly no longer able to meet the level of the pro-gymnasium. After all, his parents already at an early stage deprived him of an important thing - training the mind, and training “with weights”, which is necessary for the brain in the same way as for all other muscle groups.

So, the child was in the position of “fattened cattle” for a long time. At a certain point, the parents begin to see the light and understand: he needs to be “specially prepared.” But this happens quite rarely: much more often the child is “missed”, that is, they are doomed to serious torment in the future.

TO A PERSON WITH A SUPPRESSED RIGHT HEMISPHERE, ALL TASKS SEEM STANDARD. RELATED QUALITIES - SUPERFICIALITY, LAZINESS, STRAIGHTNESS, LIMITED JUDGMENT

Another common “path of least resistance”: the child is sent to a simple school without additional functions and options, guided by rather ridiculous theses (which I personally cannot understand either as a mother or as a specialist). The wording is usually like this: “Children should have a childhood,” or “You shouldn’t teach your child everything ahead of time, otherwise he will be bored at school.” Singaporean children at the age of six are already developing programs for gadgets that are gaining worldwide recognition. And our people at the same age still don’t know how to read or write. What is considered “normal”. At the same time, we seem to be striving for some “new level of development”, for the “mastery” of some new disciplines. It's not funny anymore.

In “elite schools,” which are usually a continuation of the system of pseudo-development, “raising for fattening” continues. Thus, gradually abandoning the creative principle, which has no use, the child, firstly, turns into an absolute consumer, secondly, he loses the habit of working and creating, and thirdly, he develops a taste for it. He's starting to like it! He has abandoned his former self and “behaved”, turning into a sound recording device that is attractive to the adults around him. If such a child has a powerful desire to survive, he becomes either a bully or an excellent student. Another option is an excellent student who is a hooligan. Such children subsequently have a chance to develop normally. The rest of the “sound recording devices” are in the range of “C”, “good” and “A-minus” (the bottom layer of excellent students who “take” by perseverance, and not by reason). In the future, such a “device” can no longer independently enter a university: it cannot withstand the load. And, in order not to become a loser, he again follows the path of least resistance. Most often - to a commercial university.

Boyhood

The result of such a “development” program is a certain creature with a ratio of the left hemisphere to the right at the level of 2:1, or even more. But it should be at least 1:2!

What happens to a person with a depressed right hemisphere?

Firstly, all tasks seem standard to him. He simply does not see the differences between a standard task and a non-standard one, since, in principle, he is not able to grasp any nuances or differences in the world. The accompanying qualities of such a person are superficiality, laziness, inattention, straightforwardness and limited judgment. A characteristic symptom is a constant craving for saying truisms with a clever look (the same cliches).

Over time, under the influence of society, the lazy brain begins to sharply increase the number of cliches. A person becomes convinced that a “stamped” life is easier than a creative one. And in some places it’s even lined with carpet. Thus, our already noticeably grown child begins to greedily model and absorb stereotypes - instead of trying to answer questions himself. Swallowing all the ready-made answers in a row, he is finally loaded with them to capacity. The left (logical) hemisphere is rapidly gaining power...

Further steps only record these processes. At the third stage, the left hemisphere begins to mercilessly cut off all information that does not fit into the Procrustean bed of cliches. And, what’s even worse, they begin to distort data unnoticed by a person. All this manifests itself in sophistry, demagoguery, graphomania... Everything essential is discarded. Everything that is not understood is forgotten or missed.

The fourth stage of turning a normal person into a stupid person (not stupid, but inflexible!) leads to the inability to solve a single semantic problem. Despite the collection of collected stamps. Labels “impossible” and “not necessary” begin to be assigned to tasks. This reaction to what is happening constantly reveals a reluctance to strain and do something with the help of the head. The latter seems to lose its original functions and is no longer perceived as a thinking apparatus, but as a shovel with which a child was forced to pick up sand in childhood. Thus, man, a thinking being by definition, rejects his nature!

The label “impossible” appeals to reliability and cuts off all tasks that are in any way different from what is stored in the mind. Otherwise, stupor occurs. Up to hysteria, anger and other destructive reactions from the category “No - that’s all!”, “Don’t touch me!!!”.

And soon the lazy brain, tired of working with a large range of stamps that it itself collected, begins to fold them. The culmination of the process of dullness is approaching: a person systematizes clichés and sorts them “into folders.” Moreover, each of them is compressed into one stamp! Thus, even cliches begin to noticeably “optimize”, and by the age of thirty-five to thirty-seven, on average, five primitive, established schemes remain at the “Loot conquers evil” level.

At the last stage of the formation of a lazy brain, a person is practically unable to shake himself. Psychosomatic reactions begin to turn on: when the load increases, the head hurts, the pressure rises, sometimes blood flows from the nose (which I have witnessed more than once). A person is physically unable to solve complex intellectual problems.

Over time, the boundary between mental mechanisms shifts even more. The space for creative problem solving is closing. At this stage, a person is no longer able to reach himself. And in conditions of chaotic changes in the external environment, it becomes defenseless and completely ineffective.

It is a great grief if such a person is the head of a company. There is simply no chance for such a business system to survive.

Now a few comments to the above.

OVER THE YEARS, THE LEFT HEMISPHERE NOT ONLY BEGINS TO RUTULLY CUT OFF INFORMATION THAT DOESN’T FIT INTO THE PROCRUSTES BED OF STAMPS, BUT ALSO TO CORRUPT DATA

A person who knows many languages ​​is often called “smart.” I would like to remind you that this has nothing to do with thinking. This ability comes from the area of ​​“random access memory”, short-term memory. The ability to memorize is one thing, and it’s quite another when a person can create something in another language.

The same can be said about broad erudition, which does not necessarily have anything to do with thinking abilities. Perhaps we are talking only about the scale of the accumulated collection of stamps.

It often happens this way: a person is able to assess the situation, but cannot make a decision. That is, analysis works well for him, but synthesis is disabled. Like a dog. “He understands everything, but he can’t say anything.”

There are two caveats to this.

First of all, in no case should you engage in excessive soul-searching and look for signs of a dull mind! In addition, I would like to remind you that the term “left brain” is by no means a dirty word. It's all about getting the ratio right. In a certain sense - balance (in favor, of course, of the right hemisphere, 1:2!), which should be paid attention to.

How lazy is our brain? When does the brain develop and when does it not? How to properly organize life so that the brain develops and does not become dull? It is useful to know what leads him to laziness.

What makes the brain lazy?

Familiar actions are the first.

What are familiar actions? Once upon a time you learned to walk. Since then, having trained a lot, you walk “automatically.” What happened? Information about certain actions that are constantly performed goes into long-term memory: actions are automated and performed with a minimum of energy costs. Actions become familiar, habitual. This is normal for survival. Any living creature strives to save energy. The human brain, the most energy-consuming organ, is no exception.

How does our brain react to familiar, automated actions? The fact that we do certain actions constantly, do not change them in any way and do not “dilute” them with others, leads to the fact that the brain no longer even turns on. This is a plus if the goal is to automate an action, but a huge minus if the goal is to develop a lazy brain.

Another nuance. Long-term memory does not always play a role in overcoming brain laziness. A person develops very stable neural connections. Repeatedly performing familiar actions even changes the chemical structure of our brain. Therefore, if we want to prevent our brain from becoming lazy, it is useful to avoid repeated repetitions. Why is cramming, for example, harmful? It seems like we cram and cram, but as a result the brain no longer perceives information. For example, when you read the text for the first time, it is still interesting, but when you read it for the 3rd or 4th time, you understand that nothing comes to mind.

Conclusion. The brain develops only when some changes occur in life. Unfortunately, this is how our body works: what is not used atrophies. The same thing happens with our brain, and therefore it is useful to get away from familiar actions more often. This time.

Negative emotions are the second.

Behind laziness are phobias (fear of something). When we are afraid to do something, we put it off in every possible way. We find 1000 arguments why this should not be done. Phobias manifest themselves in emotional mood. It is useful to monitor your emotional mood and teach this to your children.

The brain is tuned more to negative emotions. It just so happens that we all come from nature, where humans most often had to survive. Everything new was perceived with caution, the brain was accustomed to tuning into negativity. Experts in positive thinking urge and urge you to think positively, but thoughts that everything is bad come out all the time.

How to get rid of negative emotions? Sports offered. It is useful to clarify: not sports, but physical exercise. What's the difference?

Sports and the lazy brain.

Sport is about achievement, and usually the athlete performs at the edge of his or her capabilities. Therefore, any sporting achievements are often negative, they are achievements through pain and negativity. “Won” is a negative emotion. If we put it on a stress scale, then the joy of victory is no less stressful for a person than defeat. We conducted research and found that the athletes who take second place experience negative emotions the most, and those who take third place are the most happy about their victory.

Exercise and a lazy brain.

Physical exercise is very, very beneficial for our lazy brain. Any tension or stress provokes the production of stress hormones, which have the ability to block our body, accumulating in the muscles. The body needs to get rid of them, which is difficult. For example, adrenaline is burned only physically. There are three options to get rid of negativity:

1. aerobic exercise (note - aerobic),
2. a brisk walk in the fresh air,
3. massage.

But massage is inferior to the first two, being a passive method. Active movements burn hormones faster. Is it any wonder that people who exercise feel happier?

There is a lot to be said about negative emotions. Recently, the topic of “emotional intelligence” has become popular. But it is more correct to start not with intellect, but with emotional memory. Because a person stores all the memories of experienced events in his memory and affects the development of the brain. These are the so-called engrams

Engrams and the lazy brain.

There is such a concept: engrams. Translated from Greek as “everything is written down.” That is, all actions on how to act in a certain situation are recorded in the brain. The most interesting thing is that sometimes we do not rely on our own experience. For example, when you find yourself in a stressful situation, you behave like your parents, unconsciously uttering phrases and actions like theirs. Why is this happening? The brain, like a sponge, absorbs information maximally until the age of 5. At this time, ideas are formed in relation to oneself, and to the family, to some life situations, for example, to money, etc. And the previous experience (one’s own or someone else’s – it doesn’t matter) is not always good and useful in the present.

What to do to avoid living on autopilot, with a lazy brain?

It's not just our failures that punish us for our laziness.chi, but also good luck to others.

Jacques Renard

An article by A. Kochetkova about the lazy brain was recently published. What is this? This is a situation when a child, in the process of being raised in an environment of strict boundaries and rules (“Don’t go there – it’s bad, because...”, “Don’t go that way – you can’t...”, “You have to do only this way, and no other way, because... "), there is a sharp development of the left, logical hemisphere. But the right, creative, does not reach the proper level of development.

“The result of such a “program” of development is the ratio of the left hemisphere to the right at the level of 2:1 (or even more), and should be 1:2, at a minimum,” writes Kochetkova. This article, frankly, shocked me, because I saw the flaws in upbringing and understood why people have so many problems.

My colleagues and I come to consultations with a desire to solve their problems. And in our work we are faced with resistance that is a consequence of such a “development program”.

The lazy person never has time.
Folk saying

What happens to a person with a depressed right hemisphere?

Stage 1. To a person, all tasks seem standard

He stops seeing the differences between a normal task and a non-standard one. It becomes difficult to capture nuances, “halftones,” and differences. Surely you have met a person who is so straightforward and limited in judgment that his assessment of actions is either “black” or “white”.

Definitely. "Friend" or "Enemy". There are no compromises, he cannot find them. The accompanying qualities of this person are inattention, laziness and constant declaration of sayings with a smart look.

Stage 2. The number of cliches or stereotypes increases

A person, like a sponge, absorbs and models clear boundaries of the behavior of others, and tries them on in his own experience. The left hemisphere is developing powerfully.

Stage 3. The left hemisphere begins to cut off all information

Which does not fit into the boundaries of existing “stamps”, while also distorting facts and data, juggling them with “stamps”. Everything unimportant is discarded. Everything unacceptable is forgotten or skipped.

Stage 4. Transforming a normal person into a lazy-brained person

An underdeveloped right hemisphere, namely a person with inflexible behavior. Any task, problem or difficulty that goes beyond the existing stereotypes is cut off with the words: “It’s impossible,” “It’s not like that,” “I don’t need it.” More hysterical response scenarios are also possible: “Leave me alone!!!”, “I said everything!!!”, “That’s it, close the topic!!!”.

The boy was so lazy that he woke up early so that he could do nothing else.

Stage 5. Inclusion of psychosomatic reactions

When the semantic or creative load increases, the head hurts, the blood pressure rises, and abdominal cramps begin.

As soon as you need to decide something outside the usual zone, distractions immediately appear, out of nowhere: a call to a friend, visitors, “it’s hot here,” “I’m cold,” “can I go to the toilet,” “I want some water.” And always with the manipulation of an “offended person” - after all, we have not created the conditions for the creative process. From the outside, an adult behaves like a small capricious child. This is how he protects his lazy brain.

What to do?

It’s tritely simple to solve creative problems. But the left hemisphere will not so easily give up the reins of our lives and will resist. Much depends on will, perseverance, and continuous pressure on yourself, especially at the starting stage, where you create a reflex of creative work.

...Also obesity

Scottish scientists from the University of Aberdeen report that the cause of weight gain in middle age may be a “lazy” brain. Experts say brain cells that regulate appetite become less active as the body ages.

As a result, it takes a person much longer to feel full after a meal. This means that people start eating more than they should, causing their weight to increase by about 500g each year.

“As people approach middle age, they typically experience progressive weight gain around the abdominal area,” says researcher Laura Heisler.

“One reason for this may be due to a small group of cells in the area of ​​the brain where appetite is controlled. These cells produce important hormones called proopiomelanocortin peptides (POMC) and are responsible for regulating our appetite and body weight. The problem gets worse when people lead a sedentary lifestyle because as they age, they need less food than before to stay at the same weight.

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THIS IS A DESCRIPTION OF THE CHARACTER OF AN “UNHAPPY” PERSON

• Its 2 main problems: 1) chronic dissatisfaction of needs, 2) the inability to direct his anger outward, restraining it, and with it restraining all warm feelings, make him more and more desperate every year: no matter what he does, he does not get better, on the contrary, only worse. The reason is that he does a lot, but not that much. If nothing is done, then, over time, either the person will “burn out at work,” loading himself more and more until he is completely exhausted; or his own self will be emptied and impoverished, unbearable self-hatred will appear, a refusal to take care of oneself, and, in the long term, even self-hygiene. A person becomes like a house from which the bailiffs have removed the furniture. Against the background of hopelessness, despair and exhaustion, there is no strength , energy even for thinking. Complete loss of the ability to love. He wants to live, but begins to die: sleep, metabolism are disturbed... It is difficult to understand what he lacks precisely because we are not talking about deprivation of possession of someone or something. On the contrary, he has the possession of deprivation, and he is not able to understand what he is deprived of. His own self turns out to be lost. He feels unbearably painful and empty: and he cannot even put it into words. This is neurotic depression. Everything can be prevented and not brought to such a result.

  If you recognize yourself in the description and want to change something, you urgently need to learn two things:

  1. Learn the following text by heart and repeat it all the time until you learn to use the results of these new beliefs:

  • I have a right to needs. I am, and I am I.
  • I have the right to need and satisfy needs.
  • I have the right to ask for satisfaction, the right to achieve what I need.
  • I have the right to crave love and love others.
  • I have the right to a decent organization of life.
  • I have the right to express dissatisfaction.
  • I have the right to regret and sympathy.
  • ...by right of birth.
  • I may get rejected. I may be alone.
  • I'll take care of myself anyway.

  I would like to draw the attention of my readers to the fact that the task of “learning a text” is not an end in itself. Autotraining by itself will not give any lasting results. It is important to live, feel, and find confirmation of it in life. It is important that a person wants to believe that the world can be arranged somehow differently, and not just the way he is used to imagining it. That how he lives this life depends on himself, on his ideas about the world and about himself in this world. And these phrases are just a reason for thought, reflection and search for your own, new “truths”.

  2. Learn to direct aggression towards the person to whom it is actually addressed.

  ...then it will be possible to experience and express warm feelings to people. Realize that anger is not destructive and can be expressed.

  DO YOU WANT TO FIND OUT WHAT A PERSON MISSS TO BECOME HAPPY?

  YOU CAN SIGN UP FOR A CONSULTATION USING THIS LINK:

  FOR K EACH “NEGATIVE EMOTION” LIES A NEED OR DESIRE, THE SATISFACTION OF WHICH IS THE KEY TO CHANGES IN LIFE...

  TO SEARCH FOR THESE TREASURES, I INVITE YOU TO MY CONSULTATION:

  YOU CAN SIGN UP FOR A CONSULTATION USING THIS LINK:

  Psychosomatic diseases (it will be more correct) are those disorders in our body that are based on psychological causes. psychological reasons are our reactions to traumatic (difficult) life events, our thoughts, feelings, emotions that do not find timely, correct expression for a particular person.

  Mental defenses are triggered, we forget about this event after a while, and sometimes instantly, but the body and the unconscious part of the psyche remember everything and send us signals in the form of disorders and diseases

  Sometimes the call may be to respond to some events from the past, to bring “buried” feelings out, or the symptom simply symbolizes what we forbid ourselves.

  YOU CAN SIGN UP FOR A CONSULTATION USING THIS LINK:

  The negative impact of stress on the human body, and especially distress, is colossal. Stress and the likelihood of developing diseases are closely related. Suffice it to say that stress can reduce immunity by approximately 70%. Obviously, such a decrease in immunity can result in anything. And it’s also good if it’s just colds, but what if it’s cancer or asthma, the treatment of which is already extremely difficult?

On April 11, the intellectual cluster “Mind Games” hosted another lecture dedicated to the work of the brain and its features that interfere with our lives. Neurobiologist Ilya Martynov spoke to the guests. He talked about the “bugs” of thinking, explained why evolution made our brains so lazy and conducted experiments on guests. We did a report on this.

The start of either a lecture or a seminar was scheduled for 19:30, but as usual at all such events, it was pushed back to a later time. The audience, however, arrived almost on time. It was interesting to look at her. Most of the people who came were around 30 years of age. It was nice to realize that scientific pop is loved not only by students, but also by adults who are not too lazy to go to such meetings even on a weekday evening.

Everything took 15 minutes. Some of the guests suddenly burst into applause, greeting the lecturer, but he was still in no hurry to start. Apparently there were some technical problems. Fortunately, we didn’t have to wait any longer, and Ilya Martynov began the theoretical part of the meeting. Yes, it was supposed to be divided into two halves: one was a brief excursion into the theory of the brain, the other was exercises for the audience.

The lecture began with a question to the audience: “Why do we need a brain?”. The answers were varied, but people mostly talked about the most important task of the brain - maintaining vital functions, as well as its processing of external and internal signals, thinking, emotions, etc. Ilya said that all the answers, in general, were correct, and began to talk about how the human brain developed. He went very far into history and told about the theory of phagocytella, the hypothetical common ancestor of all multicellular animals. The brain of organisms developed from simple to complex.

The evolved human brain is now designed in such a way that it constantly needs to process new information in order to function properly. I was internally happy, because this meant that at least my brain would like the lecture. Ilya also talked about sensory deprivation. This is a method in which a person is deprived of all sensory impressions. To do this, they are usually placed in a tank filled with salt water, the density of which is equal to the density of the human body, where neither sound nor light penetrates. The lecturer asked the audience what they thought was happening to the subject in such a chamber. The most common version of the answer was this: he will go crazy.

It turned out that Ilya himself tried to stay in a sound-absorbing chamber without light and the ability to leave. After some time there, he began to hear his internal organs, and then completely panicked. The conclusion from all this is simple - the brain needs to receive and process some signals in order to feel comfortable.

Processing begins with an indicative reaction, essentially the basis of all higher nervous activity. The Russian physiologist Ivan Petrovich Pavlov spoke about this. In general, an indicative reaction can be defined as the totality of all the body’s reactions to a newly appeared stimulus.

During this explanation, ironically, someone in the audience rang loudly. The entire room turned to look at the source of the noise. It turned out to be a good illustration of the lecturer’s words about a distracting stimulus.

After this, Ilya asked the guests what percentage of their brain was occupied, in their opinion. I became especially interested in what people would answer. Because the myth about 10% of the used part of the brain, despite numerous refutations, is still alive. However, the audience turned out to be aware of this issue.

Another presentation slide appeared on the screen. It depicted two mannequins with tags with obscene words on them. The lecturer explained that this is an illustration of dynamic stereotypy - the peculiarity of our thinking of attaching “labels” to people around us, based on their external features or belonging to a certain social group. Returning to the postulate that the brain is uncomfortable in a state of uncertainty, we must not forget that it is also lazy. This is why we are all susceptible to dynamic stereotypy, because it allows us to avoid the tedious process of learning about the characteristics of another person.

Speaking about laziness, one cannot avoid discussing the phenomenon of procrastination - putting off doing any work for an indefinite period. Although Ilya believes that there is no such phenomenon. After all, this is simply a lack of an indicative reaction, due to the fact that a person does not see the goal. The best goals are those that are encouraged by the brain itself through the work of the dopamine system. The anticipation of pleasure is a great motivator for us. And it is also regulated by the central nervous system. The so-called pleasure center was opened in 1954 by James Olds and Peter Milner, albeit by accident. During experiments with rats, they placed an electrode in the nucleus accumbens of the animals' brains. Stimulation was initiated by pressing a lever. As a result, the rats themselves began to press this lever without stopping, as they received a constant feeling of anticipation of pleasure. True, they never received the expected reward.

Naturally, without receiving any pleasure in the process, it is difficult for a person to perform any activity. However, if he has sufficient motivation, procrastination can be overcome. Experiments with motivation were conducted at Duke University. Neuroscientists asked subjects to motivate themselves using various stimuli (imagine their wife’s praise, their coach’s curses, etc.). At this time, they underwent fMRI and displayed its results on the screen in the form of a conditional thermometer. Seeing the increase in “temperature,” the experiment participants became even more motivated.

Ilya advised: “If you want to fight procrastination, then buy an MRI machine and a neurothermometer.”

This is where the theoretical part ends. All the information received would help during the next half of the meeting, which included exercises.

In my group I was able to listen to only one girl who enthusiastically talked about her hobby - beach tennis. In the end, everyone came to the conclusion that she was very sociable and unusual, and was looking for something bright in the gray life of St. Petersburg. According to her, all this turned out to be true.

For the next exercise, the lecturer made the room divide into four large groups. Each group was given a text and a photo. The text contained a description of the person in the photo. The team’s task was to answer several questions: what do they think, is this person smart, what can you tell from his appearance and biography, what do you notice immediately when you look at the photo, and would they like to do business with him? The text that our group came across was fantastic. According to him, the man in the photo was simultaneously a scientist, a member of a drug cartel and a murderer. He is now serving a life sentence. We all unanimously decided that the man in the photograph was a very unpleasant person.

Suddenly, Ilya and his assistants announced that they had mixed up the texts and we would have to do the task again. I immediately had a suspicion that the “mixed up” texts were part of the task. Or more precisely, an experiment. Indeed, the new story turned out to be the complete opposite of the first. Now the man was a respectable and successful scientist with no criminal stains in the past. The conclusion from this experiment is obvious: we tend to assign certain character traits to people and even interpret their appearance differently, based on some initial ideas. In this case, we gleaned these ideas from given stories.

Having revealed the essence of the experiment, Ilya said that even if one of us guessed about the trap, it still did not help him. People always step on the same rake, and therefore it is not so easy to fight dynamic stereotyping and labeling. You need to constantly keep your brain in a “suspended state”: look at the situation from different angles, try to get to the bottom of the truth, and resist the desire to attach another label. Only such tools will help us solve complex problems in the future.

This concluded the seminar. The guests remained lively and did not seem to regret that instead of spending lazy time at home on the couch with a smartphone in their hands, they went to “Mind Games”. I didn't regret it for sure.

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Danil Dekhkanov wrote a column for CPU about why the human brain degrades over time and how to prevent it.

Have you noticed that the older you get, the less willing you are to take on work that is unusual for you or that requires a lot of concentration and mastering unfamiliar skills?

I'll tell you a little secret. Reading your favorite newspapers (authors), working in a well-known specialty, using your native language and communicating with friends who understand you well, visiting your favorite restaurant, watching your favorite TV series... - all this, so beloved by all of us, leads to brain degradation.

Your brain is a lazy bastard (like you), and therefore seeks to reduce energy costs for this or that activity by creating unique “macros” - programs that you execute according to templates.

At the beginning of the last century, biologist Richard Simon called these programs “engrams” - a physical habit or memory trace left by repeated exposure to a stimulus. Engrams can be thought of as paths that neurons “trample” in your brain, performing the same action. The longer we do it, the less energy our brain spends on it.

Sometimes these paths turn into roads, and then even into highways, as for example, this Chinese man collects a deck of cards faster than a robot:

On the one hand, this is an excellent superpower - really, why waste extra energy to carry out the same type of actions? However, the downside of this ability is a decrease in the plasticity of our brain.

The fact is that the longer we use engrams, the less the basal ganglia in our brain work. Their main function is to produce the neurotransmitter acetylcholine, which helps neurons “cut” new paths among the information noise of our brain (this is approximately what is happening to you now, after reading this sentence).

Think about your way to work or college. If you drive along the same route for more than six months, then your actions become so automatic that at the same time you can perform other actions - read, listen to music, answer mail. In your favorite restaurant, you don’t have to squeeze out acetylcholine and think about what to get for lunch; you already know the entire menu by heart. You will immediately recognize anxiety behind your friend's fake smile, and you will not have to strain to decipher these communication signals.

It would seem, why change all this? And then, that our life is a continuous source of changes beyond our control. We have to adapt to most of them, and in this “race of chameleons” the one who survives is the one who changes his color to the color of the environment faster than others and can sneak closer to the insect (of which there are fewer and fewer during the crisis).

You may be laid off (as, for example, this was done to thousands of doctors quite recently); The tasks of your department may change and you will be required to learn new skills (and if you fail, you will, again, be laid off); you will fall in love with a Chinese woman and want to learn the Dungan language spoken by her relatives, and so on.

Therefore, brain plasticity must be constantly maintained and trained. Imagine that your brain is concrete, which will harden after some time.

The image of “hardened” brains will become clearer to you if you look at the majority of 70-year-olds who are unable to master the timer on a microwave, are hostile to everything new, and have been performing the same type of actions for years (or reproducing thinking patterns). These “paths” in their heads have turned into holes and tunnels in the rocks, and it is almost impossible to “dig” a passage into the neighboring cave.

Your task is to constantly stir this “mental mixture” and not let it harden. As soon as we relax and start using engrams, some part of our brain hardens and we don't even notice it.

What to do to stop brain degradation

I have identified the ten simplest, but quite effective, techniques:

Look after yourself. If you suddenly feel discomfort that something is wrong (for example, your favorite website has changed its design or your favorite yogurt has disappeared from the store), grab this feeling by the tail and begin to “unwind” it. Why not try all the yogurts or start making your own?

Don't reread books you've already read. Don't rewatch movies you've already watched. Yes, it’s a very pleasant psychological feeling to plunge into that cozy little world, in the lives of already familiar characters, no surprises, you already know the end and you can enjoy the little things that you didn’t notice the first time, having devoured the book in an hour (or watched the season over the weekend). But at the same time, you take away the chance from new books and films to reveal something fundamentally new to you, and deprive your brain of the formation of alternative neural connections.

Look for new routes. Try to look for new routes for your usual journey home and back, find alternative shops, cinemas and other infrastructure points on the map of your life. This may take extra time, but it can also bring pleasant bonuses - for example, lower prices in stores or fewer people in the cinema.

Look for new music. If you are a music lover, there are tens of thousands of songs on your iPod, and it seems to you that your taste is very rich and varied, then I hasten to disappoint you - most often we listen to 50-100 familiar tracks, pleasant to us all for the same reasons - we have adapted to them , and our brain does not need to spend additional resources to process and comprehend them.

There are several hundred thousand Internet radio stations in the world, and even if you switch to a new one every day, your life will still not be enough to listen to them all.

Look for new friends and acquaintances. Yes, it’s certainly great to have friends with whom it’s nice to get together every Friday and discuss football or Beyoncé’s new dress. Psychologically more comfortable.

But most of us live in megacities, why limit our circle to 4-5 people, more often than not chosen by us, but “imposed” by circumstances - school, institute, work?

The social tools embedded in us greatly influence our way of thinking, and sometimes it happens that, under the influence of certain friends, we change our point of view, set of interests, and sometimes even our type of activity.

Have children. Children are a constant source of chaos and uncertainty in your life. They are living “concrete mixers” in your head, destroying all templates and reshaping your established routes in a new way.

I have three sons of different ages who bring something new every day with their questions, behavior, inquisitive minds and continuous experiments with everything around them. You yourself will not notice how your thinking will liberate and you will begin to think differently.

If you are unable to have children yet, then you can start with a dog. Firstly, it requires a walk (and fresh air is good for the brain). Secondly, it involves you in involuntary communication with other dog lovers. And thirdly, it can also become a source of chaos (mine, for example, when chasing flies, does not pay much attention to the obstacles that arise in her path).

Stop criticizing.“What a terrible design!”, “How disgusting they made the interchange!”, “How uncomfortable it is to sit in these new chairs!” - these and millions of other messages on Facebook, from the lips of your colleagues and your own, are indicators of resistance to changes that have unexpectedly arrived in life. Changes that, most often, you cannot change. Or you can, but with a lot of effort that is not worth it. Agree, there are more interesting things to do than demand a book of complaints in a restaurant and write a slander against a rude waiter?

It will be much more beneficial for your own development to accept these changes and motivate your brain to continue living in the new reality.

Your conversations should look something like this: “New menu? Great, otherwise the old dishes are already boring!”, “New road repairs, do you need to look for a detour? Great, that means in a month there won’t be such potholes here, and while the renovation is going on, I’ll learn something new about this area!”, “A new operating system? Super! I now have a new entertaining quest - find the control panel!”

Stop labeling people. This is very convenient - instead of understanding a person, thinking about why he did this, succumbing to weakness and simply “branding” him, attaching him to one or another psychotype. Cheated on your husband? Whore! Drinking with friends? Alcoholic! Watching "Rain"? White ribbon!

Each of us is under the influence, perhaps, of even greater pressure from life circumstances than the same Rodion Raskolnikov, but many find his thoughts, described by Dostoevsky, interesting, and his divorced neighbors with two children - something vulgar and not worthy of attention.

Experiment with flavors. Even though evolution has overshadowed our sense of smell, smells still have a huge impact on us. And if you have a favorite eau de toilette that you haven’t changed for years, then it’s time to change it. And do this with some frequency.

Learn foreign languages. And for this you don’t have to fall in love with a Chinese woman; you can find another motivation related, for example, to professional interests or a hobby. Foreign words and their associated semantic fields are often different from your native language, and learning them is perhaps the most effective tool for training brain plasticity (especially if you move further away from the tourist vocabulary and delve deeper into cultural characteristics).

We should also not forget that our brain is much more complex than many people think. Engrams associated with listening to the same music affect how we communicate with friends. Unexpected sensations from the smell of dishes in a new restaurant may awaken in you the desire to re-evaluate the words and actions of your loved one (to understand and forgive). And a walk after work along an unfamiliar street will prompt you to think about how to find a suitable solution to a problem that has arisen at work. Therefore, it is best to combine the above life hacks.