Lawsagna

Brains Driven to Distraction: The Urge to Search

If your typical day feels like a rush of harried interactions and distractions, you are not alone.  The prevalence of virtual communication makes it easy to leave a conversation mid-sentence as soon as our attention is highjacked by another urgent message.  Although we consider it poor etiquette to engage in multitasking while talking to someone face to face or even over the phone, many of us feel no qualms multitasking when we respond to emails or type text messages.  Mental noise and distractions become routine: unrelated thoughts buzzing in our heads as we are trying to concentrate on a project, ringing phones, interrupting colleagues, urgent phone messages and emails.  Everything and everybody fight for our attention.

Although we often complain about distractions, an honest introspection will force many to admit that we sometimes enjoy this hectic pace of hopping from task to task, from conversation to conversation.  I, for once, feel that my brain is impacted by heavy computer use.  Reading a long article online without succumbing to the urge to tweet about it mid-page takes effort.  I may also be guilty of stealing a glance at the computer screen while talking to my husband.  He usually calls me out for that. 

What drives our brains to distraction?  Blame our wired urge to search.

In 2009, The New York Times published an article titled "As Jurors Turn to Web, Mistrials Are Popping Up," reporting on the increased number of mistrials as jurors around the country used their BlackBerrys and iPhones to seek information about cases beyond the admissible evidence.  Jurors are prohibited from gathering or sharing facts about the cases outside the courtroom, so judges had no choice but to declare mistrials.  Months of work were wasted as the jurors' urge to search prevailed over common sense and direct instructions.

Our brains prefer stimulation over boredom.  The brain is motivated by curiosity and the search for patterns.  That's how we learn.  The brain makes sense of the world around us by predicting certain outcomes, comparing these predictions to what actually happens and detecting prediction errors.  Based on this information, our dopamine neurons adjust their expectations, enabling us to learn from our past experiences.

When the brain is busy predicting, it increases levels of the neurotransmitter dopamine, which is responsible for focused attention and more pleasurable experience.  Interestingly, our prediction neurons become even more excited when there is no pattern to be found.

In Slate's article "Seeking," Emily Yoffe writes:

Actually all our electronic communication devices—e-mail, Facebook feeds, texts, Twitter—are feeding the same drive as our searches. Since we're restless, easily bored creatures, our gadgets give us in abundance qualities the seeking/wanting system finds particularly exciting. Novelty is one. Panksepp says the dopamine system is activated by finding something unexpected or by the anticipation of something new. If the rewards come unpredictably—as e-mail, texts, updates do—we get even more carried away. No wonder we call it a "CrackBerry."

Distractions provide novelty and stimulation to our brains while maintaining the sense that we can never figure it all out, so the search for meaning continues.

…It feels like it's time to check for updates on a fan page I frequent.  My brain doesn't want to miss a thing.  

How to deal with negativity and your cynical brain

Have you ever been in a situation when you need to do something but feel resistance?  Negativity gremlins are whispering in your ear:  "Who do you think you are?" or "You are not good enough."  If your gremlins happen to be nagging worries, slimy self-sabotage, endless procrastination, debilitating doubt, or paralyzing fear, you may be having a case of the cynical brain.

According to the Webster's Dictionary, the word "cynical" implies a "contemptuous disbelief in human goodness and sincerity."  You doubt either yourself or others, or maybe, the whole world.  Your negativity gremlins can keep you stuck and dissatisfied.
 
While it may appear that the cynical brain attacks your character and undermines your good intentions, in fact, the cynical brain often simply wants to protect you.  It does so by diverting your attention to the negativity gremlins that can keep you paralyzed with fear and self-doubt and prevent you from acting decisively.  The cynical brain likes status-quo. 

Attention is the most important asset these days, and there are many things that compete for our brain's attention.  Negativity gremlins frequently win because we are wired to pay more attention to our negative emotions, just in case there is a tiger, an angry boss, or some other danger around the corner.  It's a built-in self-preservation mechanism.  It is usually associated with the fight-or-flight response and a narrow focus, or tunnel vision.  When the cynical brain is in control, our mind is shut down to alternative interpretations or better options.  The negativity gremlins fixate your attention on what's wrong. 

In order for the brain to broaden its focus and be more receptive to new information, you need to shift into a more positive state of mind.  You want to begin by acknowledging the cynical brain.  It's important to recognize your own self-sabotage when it happens and identify the thinking patterns that grab your attention and hold you back.

In his book "Thinkertoys," creativity expert Michael Michalko offers an exercise aimed at replacing negative attitudes with more positive thoughts.  The exercise is called "Tick-Tock" and can be adapted to help the cynical brain shift out of the negative stories.   

First, divide a piece of paper into two columns and write the word "Tick" in the left-hand column and "Tock" in the right-hand column.  In the "Tick" column, list all the negative thoughts you have about your current situation.  The mere act of labeling and writing down negative thoughts and feelings often takes the negative energy out of them.  It's like venting in private that tames your gremlins. 

Next, examine your negativity gremlins and come up with more positive approaches and ideas to substitute for those negative thoughts in the "Tick" column.  Replace each subjective negative thought with a positive alternative and intention and write it down in the "Tock" column.

This is a powerful exercise on changing thinking habits.  Not only it can help the cynical brain to open up to new possibilities, with practice, this process of replacing negative thoughts with positive ones can become a mental habit. 

You don't need to meditate for hours to improve concentration

Studies have shown that meditation techniques can promote significant changes in brain areas associated with concentration.  However, initial experiments involved well-trained meditators.  For instance, in his collaboration with the Dalai Lama, Richard Davidson, a neuroscientist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, found much greater activation of powerful gamma waves in the trained meditating monks than in the students during meditation [PDF]. The intense gamma waves signaled higher mental activity, better concentration, learning and memory.

Now, it appears that we can get cognitive benefits associated with mindfulness without spending hours in meditation, although the practice still needs to be consistent.  According to a recent study, meditation-trained participants showed a significant improvement in their critical cognitive skills after only four days of training for only 20 minutes each day:

The experiment involved 63 student volunteers, 49 of whom completed the experiment. Participants were randomly assigned in approximately equivalent numbers to one of two groups, one of which received the meditation training while the other group listened for equivalent periods of time to a book (J.R.R. Tolkein's The Hobbit) being read aloud.

Prior to and following the meditation and reading sessions, the participants were subjected to a broad battery of behavioral tests assessing mood, memory, visual attention, attention processing, and vigilance.

Both groups performed equally on all measures at the beginning of the experiment. Both groups also improved following the meditation and reading experiences in measures of mood, but only the group that received the meditation training improved significantly in the cognitive measures. The meditation group scored consistently higher averages than the reading/listening group on all the cognitive tests and as much as ten times better on one challenging test that involved sustaining the ability to focus, while holding other information in mind.

The researchers instructed the participants in this meditation training "to relax, with their eyes closed, and to simply focus on the flow of their breath occurring at the tip of their nose. If a random thought arose, they were told to passively notice and acknowledge the thought and to simply let 'it' go, by bringing the attention back to the sensations of the breath."

While these gains in concentration and other cognitive skills sound amazing after such a brief period of time, it helps to remember that the brain is like a muscle.  It needs a regular workout to stay in shape.