What is Going on & Why 2 Flashcards
How the NS evolved
As animals evolved so did their nervous system. As it evolved it built on top of itself, on top of pre-existing structures. The hindbrain,midbrain and forebrain. As we go from inside the core of the brain out we go past newer and newer cortex from an evolutionary perspective.
3 survival Strategies that Evolution has left us:
1.Separation: we think of the world and ourselves as separate, -this arises in the parietal cortex and parietal lobe. -It indicates where our bodies end and the external world begins.-useful so we can climb out of holes, separation between us and environment, etc.2. Stability: we have evolved to find stability in thoughts, feelings, behaviors, relationships, etc. -Homeostasis is a perfect metaphor. We hate the potential for instability. Your body and mind have to balance the need to stay the same and also be open to change.3. Approach & Avoidance Behavior-something pleasant motivates approach behavior, and something unpleasant motivates avoidance behavior. -Two systems in the brain associate with these behaviors: dopamine (active when we encounter rewards) and that dopaminergic pleasure comes from the chance of pleasure in the future. -Also oxytocin (APPROACH) and other endogenous opioids, norepinephrine (AVOID) involved in approach and avoidance respectively.-oxytocin, that initial feeling when you get a surprise text from someone you have a crush on
Sticks & carrots: vigilance & anxiety
Potential for missed food or mating is not as great as the potential for missed predator-Always potential for more food, or more mating, so ok to miss positive stimuli-But if don’t see that predator, then you could die! So we are vigilant for this-Brain is constantly scanning environment looking for constant threates-Moment to moment appraisal-A constant sense of vigilance and anxiety associated with it-It’s a mild form of anxiety
Sticks & carrots: sensitivity to negative information
We are more sensitive to negative information than positiveWe process bad much quicker than badWe can detect a fearful face much faster than a neutral or positive faceIf you subliminally flash a negative face, the amygdala will still light up!Hippocampus more likely to store bad rather than positive memories!!
Sticks & carrots: priorities in memory storage, learning and unlearning
Easier to learn bad experiences than positive onesLearned helplessnessTakes a lot of work to undo these negative experiencesWinning lottery,happiness elevated for 9 months then back to baselineBut an injury, takes longer than 9 months!For every negative experience in relationship, five positive things need to happen to balance out
Simulacrum
-We live in a simulation, our brains have amazing abilities to represent the outside world in the form of concepts, scripts or schemas. -Your brain can alter your perceptions from top-down processing, 80% of visual activation comes from other brain regions and NOT the retina.-The map of your body in the cortex is an unequal representation of different parts of the body that are important.-We have this amazing ability to simulate things in our minds, projecting stories, etc.
Pain & Suffering, 1st order & 2nd order reactions
Pain is first order, suffering is second orderPain is unavoidable, cut your finger it hurts, a divorce hurts, child or parent hurts, that’s pain, first order, can’t avoid thatBut we react to pain, that’s second order, suffering. This is avoidablePaul Ekman study, the startle response, the initial startle, and then the emotional response afterwardsWe can have second order reactions without first order reactions, by misunderstanding what people say, ambiguity, say things wrong way2nd order reactions to positive events, might interpret that in a negative way
Pain & Suffering: Suffering is embodied
Suffering is not just in your mind, but also the body (Nervous system)- effects HPA Axis, etc.- when that happens your thalamus sends a wakeup signal, social isolation can be just as painful as physical pain. -someone says something rude to you, can be every bit as painful as a physical pain- HYP can then release stress hormones due to social isolation- As a result this messages to PFC (refractory period means you cant process information that’s counter to what youre feeling)-Emotional refractory period, once you have an emotion, you can’t experience information not relevant to that emotion. It won’t even register
Pain & Suffering: Survival strategies & suffering
-Our brain creates separateness, but in reality, we are very much connected!-Nothing is stable. We want to see stability, we try to find stability, but nothing is ever really stable! -Impermanence! Memory is always changing, 3 million nerve impulses every second in our brain. always changing!-Approaching & avoiding = suffering-ACT Therapy can combat this
Pain & suffering: Simulacrum & suffering
-We know from studies if we are focused on what we are doing in any given moment, that we are happy-Reality is a let down-All these simulations we run in our mind, can let us down when it comes to reality-Falsity if implicit beliefs-Stereotypes for example, all this bullshit in our heads can lead to incorrect beliefs-Replaying painful events (not that again?!)-Re activates negative feelings, stress, anxiety, depression from past-And you’re strengthening the pathways too,making it even easier to experience it again!
Meditation & Suffering: Importance of memory
-Simply notice things! Savour positive experiences! –Bought a chocolate bar before class, take a moment and really taste that chocolate! -Take advantage of coding specificity–Remember the context in which a memory happens–When something bad happens, recall a positive experience–You are then associating in your memory that negative thing with the positive thing, it will lessen the negativity-Take advantage of reconsolidation–The act of recall makes that memory vulnerable to decay-U-se it to our advantage. When you remember something painful or unpleasant, attack it with positive memories! -Make a conscious effort!–I’m gonna meditate.–Production effect: when you say something it produces a stronger memory–Rather than just reading it over and over again, simply saying something out loud when studying makes you remember it better!
Working with emotions
-Let’s make the ANS our bitch-Make it work for us, consciously through deep breathing exercises–That can affect something called heart rate variability–This variability can be an index of your health–We actually want lots of variability, less variability associated with lower health–E.g. Lower variability people recover worse from strokesCultivate equanimity, called even mind–By pausing, giving yourself time–Emotional refractory period, so you pause, and you wait, so there are alternatives available to youThings YOU can do for yourself to work with emotions–If you’re stressed, caress your lips–Activates sensory part of your brain–Run warm water over your hands, feels good–Find safety, find a refuge place for you, with another person or at home, same comfortable for you–Connect with those who care about you–Use imagery
Increasing empathy
Mirror neurons, we see a happy face, we can feel that with perceptual motor systems–They do not distinguish between wether you or someone else is doing the emotion or action or whatever, according to mirror neuron–We have a hard wired ability to cultivate empathy,so let’s use itBecome aware of your own emotionsTheory of mind–Our ability to infer that other people have mental states–Comes from newer parts of our brain, frontal and temporal lobesOxytocin: eye contact, trust, approach behaviors more often, more tend and befriend rather than fight or flight–Seek out people when something bad happens, seek supportWhat can you do?–Notice!–Notice others gaits, postures, emotions, and notice how that feels in poi–If you get really good at that, people will be surprised you will notice before them!Sense, notice your muscles, stomach, are they tense? let your body resonateTrack, keep track of what the other person is feeling or thinking–If I was in their shoes…–Example: If I was in their shoes and I just failed an exam I’d be really angry too, etc.–See their perspectiveReceive empathy for yourself–have a group of friends or family that you can go to and ask for a hug from.
Levenson, Ekman, Ricard, STARTLE RESPONSE
Mathieu Ricard (MAKE SURE YOU READ THE END PART TALKING ABOUT OTHER STUDIES THEY DID WITH HIM)-studying startle response(distraction and unanticipated and then 2 control conditions of ppl roughly ricard’s age)Ricard has 1 foot in science and 1 in meditation, so he can design the task well and offer insightful feedback.HR measures, skin conductance, etc.Meditation vs Distraction- they found a difference in startle responses between the two types of meditation but also the control group.The open presence had less of a startle response than focus meditation and the focus meditation had less of a response than the distraction task and control group..ricards startle response was so low that they made a scale longer for facial behavior coding to compensate!.although ricard startle response had no diff in unanticipated startle, he did not have any secondary emotions following the startle, which most controls did.other stuff: ricard looked at emotionally arousing films. his narration of his emotions during the film was elaborate and rich in detail as opposed to non meditators.when asked to relive an angry memory, he had to go back 26 years!!.his moment to moment rating of his emotional states tracked his heart rate very very closely!.argued with a very disagreeable person. that person ended up smiling an said he was hard to argue with!
Lutz et al. Attention regulation and monitoring in meditation-definition FA and OM
FA meditation -Directing and sustaining attention on a selected object (e.g. breath sensation)-Detecting mind wandering and distractors (e.g. thoughts)-Disengagement of attention from distractors and shifting of attention back to the selected object-Cognitive reappraisal of distractor (e.g. ‘just a thought’, ‘it is okay to be distracted’)OM meditation -No explicit focus on objects-Nonreactive meta-cognitive monitoring (e.g. for novices, labeling of experience)-Nonreactive awareness of automatic cognitive and emotional interpretations of sensory, perceptual and endogenous stimuli
