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Emotions helped our ancestors to make decisions in conditions of lack of information
Emotions are an ancient acquisition. It was they who helped our ancient ancestors, who have not yet acquired complex analysis systems, to make decisions in conditions when information is sorely lacking. If you are a small monkey, then your main task in life is to have time to grow up and leave offspring before the first tiger that comes across considers you a great snack. Therefore, all decisions must be made quickly: the opportunity to call a meeting and arrange a brainstorming session on the topic "Is it worth eating all the berries from this bush or is it better to leave some for tomorrow?" you do not have. But the help of colleagues is not required: as soon as you spot the delicious sweet berries, there are no questions about what to do: pick and immediately swallow. Emotions unmistakably tell animals what to do.
The Emotional Rapid Response System has helped us survive for millions of years precisely because it is tuned to make the right decisions - from a biological expediency point of view. Food is good, it must be consumed immediately, and the sweeter and fatter it is, the better. Sex is very good, so you need to do it more often and with as many partners as possible (especially if you are a male). A tiger is bad, you have to get away from him, and quickly, and not think, he could become a business partner in other circumstances. Rest when no one is chasing you is great, so if there is an opportunity to laze around, you should do just that. Everything is logical and unambiguous.
In matters of willpower, the interaction between the older zones that are responsible for emotions is critical - mainly the limbic system and the relatively recent new cortex responsible for conscious thinking.
Supermarkets, fast food, drugs, selling love and computer games are recent inventions, and the system of emotions has not yet learned how to respond to them correctly. Perhaps in a couple of million years, our descendants will develop the ability to experience instant disgust at the sight of shelves with sneakers or run away when they see an open social media page, but so far the brain by default considers what we usually call temptations as a blessing. And these settings inherent in the "hardware" greatly prevent us from exercising willpower. But, fortunately, advanced mammals, including humans, have acquired the so-called neocortex - the "intellectual" component of the great brain. Thanks to her, we think, talk, perceive ourselves as a person, create, analyze, count, plan and invent. And somewhere in the depths of the brain.
Emotions are generated within a structure called the limbic system
In Christopher Nolan's excellent film Inception, the characters move along the limb of their victim - in the film, this concept denotes the deepest level of sleep, "pure subconsciousness." Thanks to Nolan's painting, an unusual term came into use, and now even people who are very far from neurosciences know it. In the real brain, the limb is really extremely important - although it has nothing to do with Nolan's "pure subconsciousness". Translated from Latin, limbus is the border, the edge of something, and in the case of the brain, this is just the border between the new cortex and more ancient structures (more precisely, between the new cortex and the brain stem). In shape, this area resembles a ring with processes, and in anatomy textbooks it is called the limbic system.
It is here that all our emotions "sit" - from anger and rage to joy and bliss. Mother rats, who were deliberately damaged the limbic system, completely lost interest in their cubs, stopped feeding the pups, despite their desperate squeak, and generally behaved as if they were inanimate objects. An even more impressive effect than the destruction of the limbic system is its hyperstimulation. In 1954, American physiologists James Olds and Peter Milner decided to find out what would happen if certain areas of the rat's brain were excited with an electric current. They stuffed the rat's head with electrodes and turned them on if the animal ran into a certain corner of the cage. In those years, the subtle anatomy of the brain was not well understood, and researchers, without knowing it, hit the electrodes in the very "heart" of the limbic system - the famous center of pleasure *. To the surprise of the experimenters, after a couple of electric shocks, the rats, instead of avoiding the ill-fated corner, began to stubbornly strive for just there. Guessing that stimulating this zone would bring pleasure to the animals, the researchers connected wires from the electrodes to a lever so the rats could turn on the current on their own. Realizing the possibilities of the mechanism thrown by the experimenters, the animals stopped eating and drinking and spent 24 hours, pressing and pressing the lever. The record holders managed to do this 700 times per hour! Realizing the possibilities of the mechanism thrown by the experimenters, the animals stopped eating and drinking and spent 24 hours, pressing and pressing the lever. The record holders managed to do this 700 times per hour! Realizing the possibilities of the mechanism thrown by the experimenters, the animals stopped eating and drinking and spent 24 hours, pressing and pressing the lever. The record holders managed to do this 700 times per hour!
Emotions instantly change our physical condition
The experiments of Olds and Milner demonstrate perfectly well that emotions can change behavior beyond recognition. Moreover, the limbic system directly regulates our physical state: its signals (mediated by the hypothalamus) trigger a whole complex of reactions that relax the body or, conversely, bring it into a state of alertness (in English there is a good term for this state - fight or flight, literally "fight or flight").
In a relaxed state, the body is ready for all kinds of joys: it increases salivation, enhances intestinal motility and the secretion of digestive juices in order to eat deliciously, reduces pressure and reduces ventilation of the lungs in order to properly rest, stimulates an erection in order to have sex with a feeling. In a state of anxiety, functions that are not associated with a fight or flight are ruthlessly suppressed, and all the body's resources go to the muscles, lungs and circulatory system. A separate role in the activation of the "fight or flight" state belongs to the amygdala, or simply the amygdala - a small area inside the temporal lobe (the right and left hemispheres have their own amygdala). The amygdala can receive and analyze information from the sense organs even before the cerebral cortex is".
To start all these complex reactions and relax or, conversely, invigorate the body, the hypothalamus sends orders to the parts of the nervous system that directly control the work of internal organs. The section responsible for relaxation and recuperation is called the parasympathetic nervous system, and the section that controls the fight-or-flight state is called the sympathetic. Even from this extremely simplified description, it is clear how much the limbic system can change the work of the body and how much its influence was underestimated by the supporters of the theory of the superiority of "pure reason" over base emotions. How to control your desire not to order pizza for dinner, if saliva is already secreted in your mouth, your stomach growls invitingly, and pleasant warmth spreads through your body? [...] The mind, of course, warns that the scales will soon show something unpleasant, but, firstly, his advice is late, and secondly, it does not even come close to evoking such a strong response. The limbic system is powerful and demanding: we literally feel its orders physically, because their goal is nothing less to save our lives and push our genes further down the chain of generations. We are programmed to automatically respond to survival-critical stimuli, and this program cannot be overridden.
The limbic system is inextricably linked to our ability for self-control, and while it seems that for evolutionary reasons it is precisely it that prevents us from being strong-willed and firm in our intentions, in reality it is a super-powerful colossus that can be excellently used to strengthen willpower. But to understand how to do this, let's first figure out how the advanced new cortex is trying to restrain our irrepressible impulses.
We are our new crust
From an evolutionary point of view, the new cortex, or neocortex, is a completely fresh acquisition. An additional “blanket” of several layers of neurons that covers the “old” brain was acquired by mammals, and this happened some 280 million years ago, and most likely even later. In the first mammals, the new cortex was a tiny outgrowth of older areas of the brain: its area was 1–5 cm² and it did not give global advantages. In humans, the neocortex has grown to an impressive 800 cm² and occupies 80% of all gray matter. So very much Homo sapiens - its neocortex: it is this part of the brain that is responsible for consciousness, thinking, and so on, which distinguishes us from other animals. Scientists divide the neocortex into many parts, focusing on their structure and "fixed" tasks: although, as mentioned above, the specialization of each part can "walk" to a certain extent, the limit of such variations is usually not very wide.
The anterior cingulate cortex helps us cut through the contradictions between current actions and global goals.
The main area, without which it is impossible to control your impulses, is the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC). It refers to the so-called reward system (ie reinforcement of actions that are correct from the point of view of survival) and provides an emotional coloring of behavior. It is thanks to this zone that we, in principle, understand that something needs to be contained there. [...] On the screens of MRI scanners, the PPK lights up with a bright light when a person is faced with a conflict situation: for example, he tries to name the correct color of letters in the Stroop test (remember, in this mocking task, words denoting names of one color are written with letters of another: for example, the word "red" is typed in blue letters, and it is necessary to suppress a strong desire to read the color that is written,
The most important zones of the new crust interact closely with each other, and sometimes it is impossible to clearly delineate where one ends and the other begins. In addition, they are all very difficult to name.
The ACC also turns on in other situations when the brain needs to overcome some kind of contradiction - for example, between true thoughts and social norms. A typical case is the encounter with racial stereotypes. […] The anterior cingulate cortex is a bodyguard who vigilantly monitors emerging conflicts.
Studies have shown that the ACC is automatically "turned on" when there is some conflict (for example, the desire to smoke a cigarette in a quitting smoking), but the degree of its activation varies from person to person. In other words, due to the "constructional" features of the brain, some lucky ones are better at cutting off conflicts between immediate and global goals than those who are less fortunate with the ACC, and consciousness is not involved in this process. And since there is no conflict, it means that there is no reason to suppress any of your impulses - this is how the brain thinks and allows the limbic system to take another candy or call a visitor from Central Asia a bad word. This vicious scheme works even when, at the level of consciousness, and is sure that racial prejudices have no place in the modern world.
PPK can be trained to better perform their duties
The news is so-so: it turns out that those who are not lucky with the "correct" device of the PPK will regularly become victims of their passions, even if they do not want to. But it's not all bad: several experiments have shown that strong intrinsic motivation not to succumb to the intrigues of the limbic system allows you to better control bad impulses. In other words, if you regularly convince yourself that being overweight is terribly dangerous to your health, or remind yourself that a civilized person is ashamed to consider Caucasians / Asians / women / men / gays / feminists / anyone to be inferior, sooner or later the efforts will bear fruit, and you will learn track and suppress automatic reactions. It is important that such training will teach you exactly how to see the conflict, but it will not help to stop the wrong action if it has already begun. Other systems are responsible for this.
But you can only train your ACC using intrinsic motivation. Listening to external appeals, you may be able to restrain yourself in a specific situation, but, left without a "overseer", you will immediately return to your old habits. It is for this reason that so many people in fitness clubs obediently train with a trainer, but they are not able to perform the same exercises on their own, even if they have mastered the technique perfectly. […]
The ability to self-control depends on how well the brain is able to stop actions already begun.
But even the "correct" device of the PPK can not always save you from actions that are harmful to the future. Sometimes the brain cuts off perfectly that the fourth glass is superfluous, and the boss should not be called a nerd even on Facebook, but cannot stop the action already begun. In order not to accomplish what was previously conceived, you need to spend a decent amount of brain effort. The option of the brain to veto decisions that have already been made is one of the pillars of self-control, but for a long time scientists did not know which structures are turned on to force us to abandon the chosen action, for example, after all, there is no fifth donut (after all, there will be no difference). Deciding to find out where the save button Cancel is, researchers from the Institute for the Study of Consciousness and Brain Sciences in Leipzig and the Institute of Cognitive Neurosciences in London suggested that volunteers at any time stop the movement of the hand on the dial with a button. At the same time, the participants were sometimes asked to give up their desire at the last moment. The condition turned out to be so difficult that four volunteers immediately announced that they would not participate in the experiment. The rest courageously suppressed the intentions that they themselves had just spawned. After the experiment, almost all volunteers complained that the refusal to press the button was hard for them, causing annoyance and irritation. But, from the point of view of the researchers, the suffering of the subjects paid off. Volunteers were tortured in an MRI scanner, so scientists were able to find out the ability to say no to wrong actions, even if you have already internally agreed to commit them.
Up to a certain point, the brains of all participants worked in exactly the same way: the primary sensorimotor cortex, cerebellum and other areas associated with the implementation of movements were activated in it. At the same time, the volunteers lying in the scanner were actively working the pre-accessory motor cortex * and the accessory motor cortex, which are necessary to perform deliberate actions. These planner zones initiate any of our actions and create a step-by-step scheme according to which our plans will be completed. In other words, thanks to them, our intention to do something, for example, turn a page in this book, is realized in specific movements (raise our hand, separate one page and turn it from right to left). If you stimulate the zones responsible for movement with electrical impulses.
But when some of the volunteers mentally refused to press the button, an area on the monitor of the MRI scanner "lit up", which did not manifest itself in any way in those who calmly stopped the arrow. This turned out to be the dorsal part of the frontomedial cortex (dFMC), the median region of the prefrontal cortex, the most important region of the brain that is responsible for higher cognitive functions. Anatomically, the dFMC is in front of the zone that is responsible for deliberate actions. And the closer this or that part of the prefrontal cortex is to the forehead, the more “important” it is. The front sections are the bosses who confer and plan what exactly the body wants to do, and the back ones are the subordinates who are responsible for the action itself. And just like in the office,
The dorsal part of the frontomedial cortex plays the role of a policeman who forbids him to do his plans
Another experiment, which proves that it is the dorsal part of the frontomedial cortex that orders the cancellation of an already made decision, was carried out by a group of neurophysiologists from Belgium, Germany and the UK. The volunteers had to use the mouse to control a white ball drawn on the computer screen, which lay on a flat surface next to the slide. At some point, it began to roll and eventually fell and shattered if the subject did not stop movement by pressing the button. When the ball scattered, the participants heard a loud sound of breaking glass - according to the experimenters' idea, unpleasant associations should have increased the desire to slow down the ball. In addition, the volunteers previously performed a series of similar experiments with the green ball, in which it always had to be stopped. If the subjects did not have time to save the green ball, they were deprived of part of the reward promised by the experimenters, and at the same time "enjoyed" the nasty chatter. The researchers came up with all this torment so that the volunteers wanted to slow down more and the white ball too. However, the participants were told to stop the ball about half the time. These conditions brought the experience closer to real life, in which one usually has to suppress highly desired or habitual actions. And just as in the experiments with the arrow, when the subjects, already ready to stop the ball, slowed down themselves, the dorsal part of the PMK was activated in them. These conditions brought the experience closer to real life, in which one usually has to suppress highly desired or habitual actions. And just as in the experiments with the arrow, when the subjects, already ready to stop the ball, slowed down themselves, the dorsal part of the PMK was activated in them. These conditions brought the experience closer to real life, in which one usually has to suppress highly desired or habitual actions. And just as in the experiments with the arrow, when the subjects, already ready to stop the ball, slowed down themselves, the dorsal part of the PMK was activated in them.
Scientists have called this area of the brain the veto zone. But how exactly it forces us to abandon the already planned action is not yet clear. From the data obtained using various brain imaging techniques, it can be concluded that dFMC directly affects the motor cortex and the pre-accessory motor cortex with which it is connected by many physical connections. This zone acts like a policeman who strictly prohibits violators from misbehaving, for example, forcing their hand to reach for a game console. On the other hand, dFMC is associated with the overlying "commanding" areas of the brain, which analyze the far-reaching consequences of any action and form global goals. The "policeman" consults the directives from the "bosses" and decides whether or not to slow down the momentary impulse. Moreover, this zone is responsible precisely for the internal urge to stop the initiated action: from the point of view of the mechanics of the brain, it is fundamentally different from obeying external orders. Finally, recent research has shown that the veto zone controls not only motor responses, but also inhibits impulsive desires in general. Insufficient activity of dFMC was associated with excessive love for cigarettes, emotional incontinence and gambling addiction. Experiments show that for different people, the internal "police" work with varying degrees of conscientiousness. As in the case of the work of the anterior cingulate cortex and racial stereotypes, the more the dorsal part of the frontomedial cortex is activated when the initial order is urgently canceled, the more likely it is that a person will be able to interrupt what he intended to do. Recent studies have shown that the veto zone controls not only motor responses, but also inhibits impulsive desires in general. Insufficient activity of dFMC was associated with excessive love for cigarettes, emotional incontinence and gambling addiction. Experiments show that for different people, the internal "police" work with varying degrees of conscientiousness. As in the case of the work of the anterior cingulate cortex and racial stereotypes, the more the dorsal part of the frontomedial cortex is activated when the initial order is canceled, the more likely that a person will be able to interrupt what he intended to do ... Recent studies have shown that the veto zone controls not only motor responses, but also inhibits impulsive desires in general. Insufficient activity of dFMC was associated with excessive love for cigarettes, emotional incontinence and gambling addiction. Experiments show that for different people, the internal "police" work with varying degrees of conscientiousness. As in the case of the work of the anterior cingulate cortex and racial stereotypes, the more the dorsal part of the frontomedial cortex is activated when the initial order is urgently canceled, the more likely it is that a person will be able to interrupt what he intended to do. emotional incontinence and gambling addiction. Experiments show that for different people, the internal "police" work with varying degrees of conscientiousness. As in the case of the work of the anterior cingulate cortex and racial stereotypes, the more the dorsal part of the frontomedial cortex is activated when the initial order is urgently canceled, the more likely it is that a person will be able to interrupt what he intended to do. emotional incontinence and gambling addiction. Experiments show that for different people, the internal "police" work with varying degrees of conscientiousness. As in the case of the work of the anterior cingulate cortex and racial stereotypes, the more the dorsal part of the frontomedial cortex is activated when the initial order is canceled, the more likely that a person will be able to interrupt what he intended to do ... the internal "police" work with varying degrees of conscientiousness. As in the case of the work of the anterior cingulate cortex and racial stereotypes, the more the dorsal part of the frontomedial cortex is activated when the initial order is canceled, the more likely that a person will be able to interrupt what he intended to do ... the internal "police" work with varying degrees of conscientiousness. As in the case of the work of the anterior cingulate cortex and racial stereotypes, the more the dorsal part of the frontomedial cortex is activated when the initial order is canceled, the more likely that a person will be able to interrupt what he intended to do ...
Disorders in the work of dFMC (poor contact with subordinate and commanding areas of the brain) is an important, but not the only cause of impulsivity and, in general, problems with self-control. Impulsivity can be divided into several components, and there is reason to believe that specific neuronal mechanisms may be responsible for the severity of some of them. In other words, different aspects of impulsive behavior are associated with different disorders in the brain. In the head of one person, several such violations can be combined at once - in this case, he will "sink" according to several or even all of the criteria of impulsivity. [...] For now, let's move on to the next important area of the brain, the work of which affects our ability to reject temptation, which gives pleasant sensations right now,
Failure to perform an intended enjoyable action causes physically perceptible discomfort
In real life, decisions of people in power are often influenced by someone else, such as an astrologer, wife, or secretary. There is also an area in the brain that determines how confidently the "policeman" and other "commanding" areas of the brain will veto, and the person will refuse an outstretched candy or an immodest offer. When the volunteers lying in the MRI scanner decided to stop the needle, in addition to the dFMC, another area shone brightly on the monitor: the anterior islet *. It is to this zone that we owe that keen sense of annoyance that we experience, rejecting the already made decision to drink another glass or go through the next level in a computer game. And the more active this area, the more difficult it is for a person to turn from the previously chosen path - simply because.
So the typical excuse for fat people who can't lose weight for years is, "You don't know what kind of suffering I should give up chocolate!" - from the point of view of physiology, absolutely true. Many of them really find it more difficult to resist - it is worth remembering this when you decide to cheer up the unsuccessfully losing weight with a remark like: "You are making this up, look at me, I can calmly not eat this Snickers. "Those indifferent to sweets do not understand what fat people feel - simply because they do not have the necessary" cogs "in their heads. I have not seen such studies, but it can be assumed that at least some of the ever-breaking alcoholics and smokers who unsuccessfully "quit" their habit 10 times a year, gamers who spend at the computer day and night, and other "
In the past, an active anterior islet protected our ancestors from unpleasant and potentially fatal experiences.
It's hard not to be offended by nature - why, well, why did she provide so many of us with this stupid hypersensitive front island ?! Biology-savvy readers may also ask, "How did evolution leave such a harmful trait in humans in principle?" The inability of the brain to veto bad (albeit pleasant) decisions apparently reduced the chances of the owner of such a brain for survival. It is easy to imagine how addicted to eating sweet berries Homo sapiens does not notice that it is already dark, and provides the tiger with an excellent tartare under the lingonberries. Or he gets a truncheon from a cavemate because he could not restrain himself and hugged the wrong woman. But do not rush to run to the neurosurgeon so that he cuts off an overly active piece of the brain. The anterior insula performs many functions, including the recognition of the most important odors - ie disgusting. Homo sapiensunable to tell the difference between foul-smelling food and fresh food, it is unlikely that he would live to the age when you can stick to a neighbor's friend. And technically - at the level of the brain - the sensations that we experience when we refuse to perform the intended action are about the same as when we try to sniff the contents of a garbage can. So from a physiological point of view, self-indulgence can be viewed as a natural desire to protect oneself from extremely unpleasant sensations.
Moreover, in 2003, in the laboratory of Giacomo Risollatti, the discoverer of the famous mirror neurons, thanks to which we understand how other people feel, it was shown that it is the activity of the anterior insula that allows us to literally feel disgust when we observe a person who sniffs something unpleasant. It seems that the ability to understand from the expression on his face[/URL] that U-Uy ate the nasty stuff and you shouldn't try it yourself, saved more than one life. So it may very well be that the super-active island was not a disadvantage, but just an advantage. And it is precisely for this reason that today so many people cannot abandon their plans, although they understand that the consequences of their actions will be so-so.
The insular cortex knows more about the state of the body than consciousness, and, as best it can, tries to correct it
In recent years, more and more data began to appear that the anterior islet and, in general, the entire islet crust of which it is a part, influence our decisions not only through disgust, but also in a much more complex way. This zone lies far from the main dopamine pathways, so researchers who deal with self-control and addiction have long ignored it. However, in 2007, a work was published in the prestigious journal Science, the authors of which showed that after trauma to the insular cortex (for example, as a result of a stroke), smokers gave up a long-term habit in one day ... Later, these results were confirmed in other laboratories.
The connection between the insular cortex and impaired self-control is explained through emotions. Researchers who have studied what happens in the brain when a person experiences certain feelings have shown that the pattern of activation of different areas in grieving and happy people is noticeably different. The insular cortex and some other zones (for example, the secondary somatosensory and anterior cingulate cortex) were turned on and off in a very different, but very specific way. All these zones receive signals from internal organs directly or indirectly, so the researchers concluded that these regions, and primarily the insular cortex, are responsible for presenting the internal state of the body to the consciousness. In many respects, on the basis of this information, the body decides whether to somehow correct this very condition - for example, with a cigarette or a glass of something intoxicating. At the same time, consciousness receives only part of this information, so a person does not associate this or that emotion with an internal state, but believes that it arose spontaneously. In other words, if this hypothesis is correct, then it is the features of the structure and work of the insular cortex and conjugated zones that are largely responsible for what emotions we experience. This means that they are also responsible for our impulses to do something unhelpful (by the way, useful too). but believes that it arose spontaneously. In other words, if this hypothesis is correct, then it is the features of the structure and work of the insular cortex and conjugated zones that are largely responsible for what emotions we experience. This means that they are also responsible for our impulses to do something unhelpful (by the way, useful too). but believes that it arose spontaneously. In other words, if this hypothesis is correct, then it is the features of the structure and work of the insular cortex and conjugated zones that are largely responsible for what emotions we experience. This means that they are also responsible for our impulses to do something unhelpful (by the way, useful too). then it is the features of the structure and work of the insular cortex and conjugated zones that are largely responsible for what emotions we experience. This means that they are also responsible for our impulses to do something unhelpful (by the way, useful too). then it is the features of the structure and work of the insular cortex and conjugated zones that are largely responsible for what emotions we experience. This means that they are also responsible for our impulses to do something unhelpful (by the way, useful too).
When faced with temptation, the different zones responsible for emotions begin to struggle intensely with each other.
So, what's going on in your head when you decide whether to watch the latest episode of the new season of your favorite TV series or still go to bed. The amygdala, along with the ventral striatum, an important part of the reward system of our brain, when they see that the series has already been downloaded, demandingly declare: "We want it!" "Planners" - the preadditional motor cortex and motor cortex - are dutifully activated so that in a second the fingers move the mouse cursor to the desired tab. The anterior cingulate cortex ("bodyguard") recognizes the conflict between an instant impulse (watch the series) and global life goals (you need to work at work, not fight sleep), sound the alarm and send a report to the bosses, including dFMK - the "policeman". Having received information from the ACC, he checks against the global life goals that have formed the higher areas of the prefrontal cortex. After making sure that the series threatens their implementation, the "policeman" issues an order to stop the disgrace and not to press the Play button. At the same time, the amygdala and ventral striatum, such capricious children, bend their own and shout so loudly that they drown out the warnings of the "bodyguard" and the orders of the "policeman". On top of that, dFMC and its "bosses" are fighting with the front islet, a squeamish neat, who categorically does not want to cancel what has already been conceived, and maybe the series itself also requires the series to calm the brain after a quarrel with the superiors - because the islet cortex, the main the keeper of information about the internal state, knows exactly what the body is uncomfortable with. bend their own way and shout so loudly that they drown out the warnings of the "bodyguard" and the orders of the "policeman". On top of that, dFMC and its "bosses" are fighting with the front islet, a squeamish neat, who categorically does not want to cancel what has already been conceived, and maybe the series itself also requires the series to calm the brain after a quarrel with the superiors - because the islet cortex, the main the keeper of information about the internal state, knows exactly what the body is uncomfortable with. bend their own way and shout so loudly that they drown out the warnings of the "bodyguard" and the orders of the "policeman". On top of that, dFMC and its "bosses" are fighting the front islet.
The structure of these and some other areas of the brain largely determines how well a person will cope with the task of postponing momentary joys for the great pleasure of a global goal. In other words, people who have PPK, dFMK and the anterior islet tailored more successfully for the modern world with its many temptations, it is easier to restrain themselves and urgently interrupt their plans, if they still cannot cope with the impulse. The parameters of these zones are preset in our brain "hardware" from the very beginning, and changing their work, if in principle possible, then to a very small extent - just as it is impossible to radically improve, say, the work of an outdated video card. It turns out that if a person was unlucky and he was born with a "weak" anterior cingulate cortex or dorsal frontomedial cortex, then it remains for him to come to terms with his weakness and surrender to the will of destructive impulses? Not at all: although these components cannot be tweaked, there is a much more important regulator of behavior in the brain, and it can fully compensate for design flaws in other areas. This regulator is the prefrontal cortex *, and it is this regulator that allows, despite all the temptations, to choose actions that right now may not be very attractive, but allow you to implement long-term plans.
Source: T&P
Emotions are an ancient acquisition. It was they who helped our ancient ancestors, who have not yet acquired complex analysis systems, to make decisions in conditions when information is sorely lacking. If you are a small monkey, then your main task in life is to have time to grow up and leave offspring before the first tiger that comes across considers you a great snack. Therefore, all decisions must be made quickly: the opportunity to call a meeting and arrange a brainstorming session on the topic "Is it worth eating all the berries from this bush or is it better to leave some for tomorrow?" you do not have. But the help of colleagues is not required: as soon as you spot the delicious sweet berries, there are no questions about what to do: pick and immediately swallow. Emotions unmistakably tell animals what to do.
The Emotional Rapid Response System has helped us survive for millions of years precisely because it is tuned to make the right decisions - from a biological expediency point of view. Food is good, it must be consumed immediately, and the sweeter and fatter it is, the better. Sex is very good, so you need to do it more often and with as many partners as possible (especially if you are a male). A tiger is bad, you have to get away from him, and quickly, and not think, he could become a business partner in other circumstances. Rest when no one is chasing you is great, so if there is an opportunity to laze around, you should do just that. Everything is logical and unambiguous.
In matters of willpower, the interaction between the older zones that are responsible for emotions is critical - mainly the limbic system and the relatively recent new cortex responsible for conscious thinking.
Supermarkets, fast food, drugs, selling love and computer games are recent inventions, and the system of emotions has not yet learned how to respond to them correctly. Perhaps in a couple of million years, our descendants will develop the ability to experience instant disgust at the sight of shelves with sneakers or run away when they see an open social media page, but so far the brain by default considers what we usually call temptations as a blessing. And these settings inherent in the "hardware" greatly prevent us from exercising willpower. But, fortunately, advanced mammals, including humans, have acquired the so-called neocortex - the "intellectual" component of the great brain. Thanks to her, we think, talk, perceive ourselves as a person, create, analyze, count, plan and invent. And somewhere in the depths of the brain.
Emotions are generated within a structure called the limbic system
In Christopher Nolan's excellent film Inception, the characters move along the limb of their victim - in the film, this concept denotes the deepest level of sleep, "pure subconsciousness." Thanks to Nolan's painting, an unusual term came into use, and now even people who are very far from neurosciences know it. In the real brain, the limb is really extremely important - although it has nothing to do with Nolan's "pure subconsciousness". Translated from Latin, limbus is the border, the edge of something, and in the case of the brain, this is just the border between the new cortex and more ancient structures (more precisely, between the new cortex and the brain stem). In shape, this area resembles a ring with processes, and in anatomy textbooks it is called the limbic system.
It is here that all our emotions "sit" - from anger and rage to joy and bliss. Mother rats, who were deliberately damaged the limbic system, completely lost interest in their cubs, stopped feeding the pups, despite their desperate squeak, and generally behaved as if they were inanimate objects. An even more impressive effect than the destruction of the limbic system is its hyperstimulation. In 1954, American physiologists James Olds and Peter Milner decided to find out what would happen if certain areas of the rat's brain were excited with an electric current. They stuffed the rat's head with electrodes and turned them on if the animal ran into a certain corner of the cage. In those years, the subtle anatomy of the brain was not well understood, and researchers, without knowing it, hit the electrodes in the very "heart" of the limbic system - the famous center of pleasure *. To the surprise of the experimenters, after a couple of electric shocks, the rats, instead of avoiding the ill-fated corner, began to stubbornly strive for just there. Guessing that stimulating this zone would bring pleasure to the animals, the researchers connected wires from the electrodes to a lever so the rats could turn on the current on their own. Realizing the possibilities of the mechanism thrown by the experimenters, the animals stopped eating and drinking and spent 24 hours, pressing and pressing the lever. The record holders managed to do this 700 times per hour! Realizing the possibilities of the mechanism thrown by the experimenters, the animals stopped eating and drinking and spent 24 hours, pressing and pressing the lever. The record holders managed to do this 700 times per hour! Realizing the possibilities of the mechanism thrown by the experimenters, the animals stopped eating and drinking and spent 24 hours, pressing and pressing the lever. The record holders managed to do this 700 times per hour!
Emotions instantly change our physical condition
The experiments of Olds and Milner demonstrate perfectly well that emotions can change behavior beyond recognition. Moreover, the limbic system directly regulates our physical state: its signals (mediated by the hypothalamus) trigger a whole complex of reactions that relax the body or, conversely, bring it into a state of alertness (in English there is a good term for this state - fight or flight, literally "fight or flight").
In a relaxed state, the body is ready for all kinds of joys: it increases salivation, enhances intestinal motility and the secretion of digestive juices in order to eat deliciously, reduces pressure and reduces ventilation of the lungs in order to properly rest, stimulates an erection in order to have sex with a feeling. In a state of anxiety, functions that are not associated with a fight or flight are ruthlessly suppressed, and all the body's resources go to the muscles, lungs and circulatory system. A separate role in the activation of the "fight or flight" state belongs to the amygdala, or simply the amygdala - a small area inside the temporal lobe (the right and left hemispheres have their own amygdala). The amygdala can receive and analyze information from the sense organs even before the cerebral cortex is".
To start all these complex reactions and relax or, conversely, invigorate the body, the hypothalamus sends orders to the parts of the nervous system that directly control the work of internal organs. The section responsible for relaxation and recuperation is called the parasympathetic nervous system, and the section that controls the fight-or-flight state is called the sympathetic. Even from this extremely simplified description, it is clear how much the limbic system can change the work of the body and how much its influence was underestimated by the supporters of the theory of the superiority of "pure reason" over base emotions. How to control your desire not to order pizza for dinner, if saliva is already secreted in your mouth, your stomach growls invitingly, and pleasant warmth spreads through your body? [...] The mind, of course, warns that the scales will soon show something unpleasant, but, firstly, his advice is late, and secondly, it does not even come close to evoking such a strong response. The limbic system is powerful and demanding: we literally feel its orders physically, because their goal is nothing less to save our lives and push our genes further down the chain of generations. We are programmed to automatically respond to survival-critical stimuli, and this program cannot be overridden.
The limbic system is inextricably linked to our ability for self-control, and while it seems that for evolutionary reasons it is precisely it that prevents us from being strong-willed and firm in our intentions, in reality it is a super-powerful colossus that can be excellently used to strengthen willpower. But to understand how to do this, let's first figure out how the advanced new cortex is trying to restrain our irrepressible impulses.
We are our new crust
From an evolutionary point of view, the new cortex, or neocortex, is a completely fresh acquisition. An additional “blanket” of several layers of neurons that covers the “old” brain was acquired by mammals, and this happened some 280 million years ago, and most likely even later. In the first mammals, the new cortex was a tiny outgrowth of older areas of the brain: its area was 1–5 cm² and it did not give global advantages. In humans, the neocortex has grown to an impressive 800 cm² and occupies 80% of all gray matter. So very much Homo sapiens - its neocortex: it is this part of the brain that is responsible for consciousness, thinking, and so on, which distinguishes us from other animals. Scientists divide the neocortex into many parts, focusing on their structure and "fixed" tasks: although, as mentioned above, the specialization of each part can "walk" to a certain extent, the limit of such variations is usually not very wide.
The anterior cingulate cortex helps us cut through the contradictions between current actions and global goals.
The main area, without which it is impossible to control your impulses, is the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC). It refers to the so-called reward system (ie reinforcement of actions that are correct from the point of view of survival) and provides an emotional coloring of behavior. It is thanks to this zone that we, in principle, understand that something needs to be contained there. [...] On the screens of MRI scanners, the PPK lights up with a bright light when a person is faced with a conflict situation: for example, he tries to name the correct color of letters in the Stroop test (remember, in this mocking task, words denoting names of one color are written with letters of another: for example, the word "red" is typed in blue letters, and it is necessary to suppress a strong desire to read the color that is written,
The most important zones of the new crust interact closely with each other, and sometimes it is impossible to clearly delineate where one ends and the other begins. In addition, they are all very difficult to name.
The ACC also turns on in other situations when the brain needs to overcome some kind of contradiction - for example, between true thoughts and social norms. A typical case is the encounter with racial stereotypes. […] The anterior cingulate cortex is a bodyguard who vigilantly monitors emerging conflicts.
Studies have shown that the ACC is automatically "turned on" when there is some conflict (for example, the desire to smoke a cigarette in a quitting smoking), but the degree of its activation varies from person to person. In other words, due to the "constructional" features of the brain, some lucky ones are better at cutting off conflicts between immediate and global goals than those who are less fortunate with the ACC, and consciousness is not involved in this process. And since there is no conflict, it means that there is no reason to suppress any of your impulses - this is how the brain thinks and allows the limbic system to take another candy or call a visitor from Central Asia a bad word. This vicious scheme works even when, at the level of consciousness, and is sure that racial prejudices have no place in the modern world.
PPK can be trained to better perform their duties
The news is so-so: it turns out that those who are not lucky with the "correct" device of the PPK will regularly become victims of their passions, even if they do not want to. But it's not all bad: several experiments have shown that strong intrinsic motivation not to succumb to the intrigues of the limbic system allows you to better control bad impulses. In other words, if you regularly convince yourself that being overweight is terribly dangerous to your health, or remind yourself that a civilized person is ashamed to consider Caucasians / Asians / women / men / gays / feminists / anyone to be inferior, sooner or later the efforts will bear fruit, and you will learn track and suppress automatic reactions. It is important that such training will teach you exactly how to see the conflict, but it will not help to stop the wrong action if it has already begun. Other systems are responsible for this.
But you can only train your ACC using intrinsic motivation. Listening to external appeals, you may be able to restrain yourself in a specific situation, but, left without a "overseer", you will immediately return to your old habits. It is for this reason that so many people in fitness clubs obediently train with a trainer, but they are not able to perform the same exercises on their own, even if they have mastered the technique perfectly. […]
The ability to self-control depends on how well the brain is able to stop actions already begun.
But even the "correct" device of the PPK can not always save you from actions that are harmful to the future. Sometimes the brain cuts off perfectly that the fourth glass is superfluous, and the boss should not be called a nerd even on Facebook, but cannot stop the action already begun. In order not to accomplish what was previously conceived, you need to spend a decent amount of brain effort. The option of the brain to veto decisions that have already been made is one of the pillars of self-control, but for a long time scientists did not know which structures are turned on to force us to abandon the chosen action, for example, after all, there is no fifth donut (after all, there will be no difference). Deciding to find out where the save button Cancel is, researchers from the Institute for the Study of Consciousness and Brain Sciences in Leipzig and the Institute of Cognitive Neurosciences in London suggested that volunteers at any time stop the movement of the hand on the dial with a button. At the same time, the participants were sometimes asked to give up their desire at the last moment. The condition turned out to be so difficult that four volunteers immediately announced that they would not participate in the experiment. The rest courageously suppressed the intentions that they themselves had just spawned. After the experiment, almost all volunteers complained that the refusal to press the button was hard for them, causing annoyance and irritation. But, from the point of view of the researchers, the suffering of the subjects paid off. Volunteers were tortured in an MRI scanner, so scientists were able to find out the ability to say no to wrong actions, even if you have already internally agreed to commit them.
Up to a certain point, the brains of all participants worked in exactly the same way: the primary sensorimotor cortex, cerebellum and other areas associated with the implementation of movements were activated in it. At the same time, the volunteers lying in the scanner were actively working the pre-accessory motor cortex * and the accessory motor cortex, which are necessary to perform deliberate actions. These planner zones initiate any of our actions and create a step-by-step scheme according to which our plans will be completed. In other words, thanks to them, our intention to do something, for example, turn a page in this book, is realized in specific movements (raise our hand, separate one page and turn it from right to left). If you stimulate the zones responsible for movement with electrical impulses.
But when some of the volunteers mentally refused to press the button, an area on the monitor of the MRI scanner "lit up", which did not manifest itself in any way in those who calmly stopped the arrow. This turned out to be the dorsal part of the frontomedial cortex (dFMC), the median region of the prefrontal cortex, the most important region of the brain that is responsible for higher cognitive functions. Anatomically, the dFMC is in front of the zone that is responsible for deliberate actions. And the closer this or that part of the prefrontal cortex is to the forehead, the more “important” it is. The front sections are the bosses who confer and plan what exactly the body wants to do, and the back ones are the subordinates who are responsible for the action itself. And just like in the office,
The dorsal part of the frontomedial cortex plays the role of a policeman who forbids him to do his plans
Another experiment, which proves that it is the dorsal part of the frontomedial cortex that orders the cancellation of an already made decision, was carried out by a group of neurophysiologists from Belgium, Germany and the UK. The volunteers had to use the mouse to control a white ball drawn on the computer screen, which lay on a flat surface next to the slide. At some point, it began to roll and eventually fell and shattered if the subject did not stop movement by pressing the button. When the ball scattered, the participants heard a loud sound of breaking glass - according to the experimenters' idea, unpleasant associations should have increased the desire to slow down the ball. In addition, the volunteers previously performed a series of similar experiments with the green ball, in which it always had to be stopped. If the subjects did not have time to save the green ball, they were deprived of part of the reward promised by the experimenters, and at the same time "enjoyed" the nasty chatter. The researchers came up with all this torment so that the volunteers wanted to slow down more and the white ball too. However, the participants were told to stop the ball about half the time. These conditions brought the experience closer to real life, in which one usually has to suppress highly desired or habitual actions. And just as in the experiments with the arrow, when the subjects, already ready to stop the ball, slowed down themselves, the dorsal part of the PMK was activated in them. These conditions brought the experience closer to real life, in which one usually has to suppress highly desired or habitual actions. And just as in the experiments with the arrow, when the subjects, already ready to stop the ball, slowed down themselves, the dorsal part of the PMK was activated in them. These conditions brought the experience closer to real life, in which one usually has to suppress highly desired or habitual actions. And just as in the experiments with the arrow, when the subjects, already ready to stop the ball, slowed down themselves, the dorsal part of the PMK was activated in them.
Scientists have called this area of the brain the veto zone. But how exactly it forces us to abandon the already planned action is not yet clear. From the data obtained using various brain imaging techniques, it can be concluded that dFMC directly affects the motor cortex and the pre-accessory motor cortex with which it is connected by many physical connections. This zone acts like a policeman who strictly prohibits violators from misbehaving, for example, forcing their hand to reach for a game console. On the other hand, dFMC is associated with the overlying "commanding" areas of the brain, which analyze the far-reaching consequences of any action and form global goals. The "policeman" consults the directives from the "bosses" and decides whether or not to slow down the momentary impulse. Moreover, this zone is responsible precisely for the internal urge to stop the initiated action: from the point of view of the mechanics of the brain, it is fundamentally different from obeying external orders. Finally, recent research has shown that the veto zone controls not only motor responses, but also inhibits impulsive desires in general. Insufficient activity of dFMC was associated with excessive love for cigarettes, emotional incontinence and gambling addiction. Experiments show that for different people, the internal "police" work with varying degrees of conscientiousness. As in the case of the work of the anterior cingulate cortex and racial stereotypes, the more the dorsal part of the frontomedial cortex is activated when the initial order is urgently canceled, the more likely it is that a person will be able to interrupt what he intended to do. Recent studies have shown that the veto zone controls not only motor responses, but also inhibits impulsive desires in general. Insufficient activity of dFMC was associated with excessive love for cigarettes, emotional incontinence and gambling addiction. Experiments show that for different people, the internal "police" work with varying degrees of conscientiousness. As in the case of the work of the anterior cingulate cortex and racial stereotypes, the more the dorsal part of the frontomedial cortex is activated when the initial order is canceled, the more likely that a person will be able to interrupt what he intended to do ... Recent studies have shown that the veto zone controls not only motor responses, but also inhibits impulsive desires in general. Insufficient activity of dFMC was associated with excessive love for cigarettes, emotional incontinence and gambling addiction. Experiments show that for different people, the internal "police" work with varying degrees of conscientiousness. As in the case of the work of the anterior cingulate cortex and racial stereotypes, the more the dorsal part of the frontomedial cortex is activated when the initial order is urgently canceled, the more likely it is that a person will be able to interrupt what he intended to do. emotional incontinence and gambling addiction. Experiments show that for different people, the internal "police" work with varying degrees of conscientiousness. As in the case of the work of the anterior cingulate cortex and racial stereotypes, the more the dorsal part of the frontomedial cortex is activated when the initial order is urgently canceled, the more likely it is that a person will be able to interrupt what he intended to do. emotional incontinence and gambling addiction. Experiments show that for different people, the internal "police" work with varying degrees of conscientiousness. As in the case of the work of the anterior cingulate cortex and racial stereotypes, the more the dorsal part of the frontomedial cortex is activated when the initial order is canceled, the more likely that a person will be able to interrupt what he intended to do ... the internal "police" work with varying degrees of conscientiousness. As in the case of the work of the anterior cingulate cortex and racial stereotypes, the more the dorsal part of the frontomedial cortex is activated when the initial order is canceled, the more likely that a person will be able to interrupt what he intended to do ... the internal "police" work with varying degrees of conscientiousness. As in the case of the work of the anterior cingulate cortex and racial stereotypes, the more the dorsal part of the frontomedial cortex is activated when the initial order is canceled, the more likely that a person will be able to interrupt what he intended to do ...
Disorders in the work of dFMC (poor contact with subordinate and commanding areas of the brain) is an important, but not the only cause of impulsivity and, in general, problems with self-control. Impulsivity can be divided into several components, and there is reason to believe that specific neuronal mechanisms may be responsible for the severity of some of them. In other words, different aspects of impulsive behavior are associated with different disorders in the brain. In the head of one person, several such violations can be combined at once - in this case, he will "sink" according to several or even all of the criteria of impulsivity. [...] For now, let's move on to the next important area of the brain, the work of which affects our ability to reject temptation, which gives pleasant sensations right now,
Failure to perform an intended enjoyable action causes physically perceptible discomfort
In real life, decisions of people in power are often influenced by someone else, such as an astrologer, wife, or secretary. There is also an area in the brain that determines how confidently the "policeman" and other "commanding" areas of the brain will veto, and the person will refuse an outstretched candy or an immodest offer. When the volunteers lying in the MRI scanner decided to stop the needle, in addition to the dFMC, another area shone brightly on the monitor: the anterior islet *. It is to this zone that we owe that keen sense of annoyance that we experience, rejecting the already made decision to drink another glass or go through the next level in a computer game. And the more active this area, the more difficult it is for a person to turn from the previously chosen path - simply because.
So the typical excuse for fat people who can't lose weight for years is, "You don't know what kind of suffering I should give up chocolate!" - from the point of view of physiology, absolutely true. Many of them really find it more difficult to resist - it is worth remembering this when you decide to cheer up the unsuccessfully losing weight with a remark like: "You are making this up, look at me, I can calmly not eat this Snickers. "Those indifferent to sweets do not understand what fat people feel - simply because they do not have the necessary" cogs "in their heads. I have not seen such studies, but it can be assumed that at least some of the ever-breaking alcoholics and smokers who unsuccessfully "quit" their habit 10 times a year, gamers who spend at the computer day and night, and other "
In the past, an active anterior islet protected our ancestors from unpleasant and potentially fatal experiences.
It's hard not to be offended by nature - why, well, why did she provide so many of us with this stupid hypersensitive front island ?! Biology-savvy readers may also ask, "How did evolution leave such a harmful trait in humans in principle?" The inability of the brain to veto bad (albeit pleasant) decisions apparently reduced the chances of the owner of such a brain for survival. It is easy to imagine how addicted to eating sweet berries Homo sapiens does not notice that it is already dark, and provides the tiger with an excellent tartare under the lingonberries. Or he gets a truncheon from a cavemate because he could not restrain himself and hugged the wrong woman. But do not rush to run to the neurosurgeon so that he cuts off an overly active piece of the brain. The anterior insula performs many functions, including the recognition of the most important odors - ie disgusting. Homo sapiensunable to tell the difference between foul-smelling food and fresh food, it is unlikely that he would live to the age when you can stick to a neighbor's friend. And technically - at the level of the brain - the sensations that we experience when we refuse to perform the intended action are about the same as when we try to sniff the contents of a garbage can. So from a physiological point of view, self-indulgence can be viewed as a natural desire to protect oneself from extremely unpleasant sensations.
Moreover, in 2003, in the laboratory of Giacomo Risollatti, the discoverer of the famous mirror neurons, thanks to which we understand how other people feel, it was shown that it is the activity of the anterior insula that allows us to literally feel disgust when we observe a person who sniffs something unpleasant. It seems that the ability to understand from the expression on his face[/URL] that U-Uy ate the nasty stuff and you shouldn't try it yourself, saved more than one life. So it may very well be that the super-active island was not a disadvantage, but just an advantage. And it is precisely for this reason that today so many people cannot abandon their plans, although they understand that the consequences of their actions will be so-so.
The insular cortex knows more about the state of the body than consciousness, and, as best it can, tries to correct it
In recent years, more and more data began to appear that the anterior islet and, in general, the entire islet crust of which it is a part, influence our decisions not only through disgust, but also in a much more complex way. This zone lies far from the main dopamine pathways, so researchers who deal with self-control and addiction have long ignored it. However, in 2007, a work was published in the prestigious journal Science, the authors of which showed that after trauma to the insular cortex (for example, as a result of a stroke), smokers gave up a long-term habit in one day ... Later, these results were confirmed in other laboratories.
The connection between the insular cortex and impaired self-control is explained through emotions. Researchers who have studied what happens in the brain when a person experiences certain feelings have shown that the pattern of activation of different areas in grieving and happy people is noticeably different. The insular cortex and some other zones (for example, the secondary somatosensory and anterior cingulate cortex) were turned on and off in a very different, but very specific way. All these zones receive signals from internal organs directly or indirectly, so the researchers concluded that these regions, and primarily the insular cortex, are responsible for presenting the internal state of the body to the consciousness. In many respects, on the basis of this information, the body decides whether to somehow correct this very condition - for example, with a cigarette or a glass of something intoxicating. At the same time, consciousness receives only part of this information, so a person does not associate this or that emotion with an internal state, but believes that it arose spontaneously. In other words, if this hypothesis is correct, then it is the features of the structure and work of the insular cortex and conjugated zones that are largely responsible for what emotions we experience. This means that they are also responsible for our impulses to do something unhelpful (by the way, useful too). but believes that it arose spontaneously. In other words, if this hypothesis is correct, then it is the features of the structure and work of the insular cortex and conjugated zones that are largely responsible for what emotions we experience. This means that they are also responsible for our impulses to do something unhelpful (by the way, useful too). but believes that it arose spontaneously. In other words, if this hypothesis is correct, then it is the features of the structure and work of the insular cortex and conjugated zones that are largely responsible for what emotions we experience. This means that they are also responsible for our impulses to do something unhelpful (by the way, useful too). then it is the features of the structure and work of the insular cortex and conjugated zones that are largely responsible for what emotions we experience. This means that they are also responsible for our impulses to do something unhelpful (by the way, useful too). then it is the features of the structure and work of the insular cortex and conjugated zones that are largely responsible for what emotions we experience. This means that they are also responsible for our impulses to do something unhelpful (by the way, useful too).
When faced with temptation, the different zones responsible for emotions begin to struggle intensely with each other.
So, what's going on in your head when you decide whether to watch the latest episode of the new season of your favorite TV series or still go to bed. The amygdala, along with the ventral striatum, an important part of the reward system of our brain, when they see that the series has already been downloaded, demandingly declare: "We want it!" "Planners" - the preadditional motor cortex and motor cortex - are dutifully activated so that in a second the fingers move the mouse cursor to the desired tab. The anterior cingulate cortex ("bodyguard") recognizes the conflict between an instant impulse (watch the series) and global life goals (you need to work at work, not fight sleep), sound the alarm and send a report to the bosses, including dFMK - the "policeman". Having received information from the ACC, he checks against the global life goals that have formed the higher areas of the prefrontal cortex. After making sure that the series threatens their implementation, the "policeman" issues an order to stop the disgrace and not to press the Play button. At the same time, the amygdala and ventral striatum, such capricious children, bend their own and shout so loudly that they drown out the warnings of the "bodyguard" and the orders of the "policeman". On top of that, dFMC and its "bosses" are fighting with the front islet, a squeamish neat, who categorically does not want to cancel what has already been conceived, and maybe the series itself also requires the series to calm the brain after a quarrel with the superiors - because the islet cortex, the main the keeper of information about the internal state, knows exactly what the body is uncomfortable with. bend their own way and shout so loudly that they drown out the warnings of the "bodyguard" and the orders of the "policeman". On top of that, dFMC and its "bosses" are fighting with the front islet, a squeamish neat, who categorically does not want to cancel what has already been conceived, and maybe the series itself also requires the series to calm the brain after a quarrel with the superiors - because the islet cortex, the main the keeper of information about the internal state, knows exactly what the body is uncomfortable with. bend their own way and shout so loudly that they drown out the warnings of the "bodyguard" and the orders of the "policeman". On top of that, dFMC and its "bosses" are fighting the front islet.
The structure of these and some other areas of the brain largely determines how well a person will cope with the task of postponing momentary joys for the great pleasure of a global goal. In other words, people who have PPK, dFMK and the anterior islet tailored more successfully for the modern world with its many temptations, it is easier to restrain themselves and urgently interrupt their plans, if they still cannot cope with the impulse. The parameters of these zones are preset in our brain "hardware" from the very beginning, and changing their work, if in principle possible, then to a very small extent - just as it is impossible to radically improve, say, the work of an outdated video card. It turns out that if a person was unlucky and he was born with a "weak" anterior cingulate cortex or dorsal frontomedial cortex, then it remains for him to come to terms with his weakness and surrender to the will of destructive impulses? Not at all: although these components cannot be tweaked, there is a much more important regulator of behavior in the brain, and it can fully compensate for design flaws in other areas. This regulator is the prefrontal cortex *, and it is this regulator that allows, despite all the temptations, to choose actions that right now may not be very attractive, but allow you to implement long-term plans.
Source: T&P