The Brain that Serves Our Community
What are the workings of our brains?
People are social creatures that thrive when working in groups. Over the course of human history, we have improved our chances of survival by generally sharing things like assets, information, and responsibilities. On the other hand, isolating ourselves or being expelled from a group may have decreased our chances of survival. As a result, our brain is very aware of our continued economic wellbeing as well as potential threats or prizes related to this.
Many scientific endeavours have been driven by the desire to understand the biggest mystery of all, which is our own thoughts. This desire has led to the development of ideas and experiments that seek to explain the workings of being human.
Human thoughts, feelings, and behaviours have their origins in the brain, where a complex network of cells receives information from the internal and external environment and transforms this information into our experience of ourselves, the world around us, and our relationships with it. The brain is where human thoughts, feelings, and behaviours have their origins. It should go without saying that the mechanism behind this is something that is still being researched.
The modern working environment is one of the most stimulating social settings an individual will find themselves in. Our minds are always providing us with information on how to improve our social interaction with other people. We are curious as to whether things are improving our situation or whether there is a possibility that our social situations would deteriorate.
Their theory, which they have dubbed the Hierarchically Mechanistic Mind (HMM), brings together two well accepted propositions. The first hypothesis, which was developed by a coworker of Dr. Badcock named Professor Karl Friston, postulates that the human brain is a hierarchical "prediction machine" that constantly works to improve its model of the world.
It does this by generating adaptive cycles of perception and action that work in conjunction with one another to lessen the amount of uncertainty that we feel regarding our surroundings. The second claim, which is derived from Tinbergen's famous four questions in ethology, proposes that in order to understand human thoughts and behaviours, hypotheses need to be developed and tested across multiple levels of analysis in psychological science.
The mechanisms and chemical messengers in our brains that are ordinarily employed for feelings of happiness or distress are used by our cerebrum to discern the meaning of our social interactions.
This claim is based on the fact that Tinbergen's questions are famous in the field of ethology. In other words, researchers who are interested in explaining psychological traits should make an effort to comprehend why a particular trait might be adaptive, in addition to how the trait emerges as a result of the dynamic interplay between evolutionary, developmental, and real-time mechanistic processes.
For example, when our brain recognizes the potential benefits of social cooperation, it triggers the release of synthetic substances along neural pathways associated with joy, which in turn causes us to experience a significant improvement in our mood. The precise pathways that let us realize we are actually being tormented into existence are activated at the point in time when we experience feelings of being undermined, disregarded, or exploited.
Children acquire knowledge in a variety of ways. When it comes to differences in the way people learn, the maturation of the brain is certainly a significant factor; however, the situation is actually much more nuanced than that. The manner in which children learn changes according to their ages, levels of development, and the degree to which their brains have matured. Learning differences can also be attributed to a person's genes, temperament, and environment; however, the primary focus of this module will be on when and how the brain matures.
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Even though genes serve as the blueprint for the creation of brain circuits, the circuits themselves are only solidified once they have been used repeatedly. The interaction that occurs between children, their parents, and any other caregivers within the family or community is an essential component in the process of child development.
This interaction takes the form of a give-and-take relationship. If a person does not receive care that is responsive, or if the caregiver's reactions are inaccurate or unsuitable, the architecture of the brain does not build as it should, which can result in differences in learning and behaviour. In the end, the architecture of the brain is a product of the interaction between genes and experiences.
Toxic stress damages the architecture of the growing brain, which can lead to lifelong issues in learning, behaviour, and physical and mental health. Experiencing stress is a crucial aspect of healthy development. Activation of the stress response produces a wide range of physiological processes that prepare the body to deal with threat.
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However, when these reactions remain active at high levels for significant periods of time, without supportive relationships to help calm them, toxic stress ensues. This can hinder the formation of neural connections, especially in the parts of the brain dedicated to higher-order skills.
Myth: By exercising specific regions of the brain, one can improve the functioning of those regions.
It is a well-known fact that many business owners have found this to be an intriguing and even lucrative idea. However, it is not possible to zero in on a particular part of the brain and restrict instruction to just that area of the brain.
The connections in the brain are extensive. Neurons in the brain are responsible for learning, remembering, and forgetting, but they do not perform these functions independently. The ability must be disassembled into its component parts in order to be taught, and each of these parts can be learned individually.
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On the other hand, we do not have a complete understanding of how this learning takes place, nor do we know precisely "where" in the brain the information learned is stored. Evidence obtained from people who have suffered a stroke or a head injury demonstrates that damage to the brain of one person may not result in the same loss of function in the brain of another individual. Similar to fingerprints, every single person's brain has its own distinct pattern, despite the fact that there are some similarities between them.
Our brains do not always operate in isolation from one another; rather, we regularly determine a threat or reward reaction in response to the people in our immediate environment. We might not even be aware that we are engaging in this behaviour; thus, the next time you connect with a coworker, give some thought to the social message you might be delivering and the impact you might have on their brain.
How to Supercharge Your Brain Health (Minisode #26)
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