“There is no spoon.” From the point of view of modern science, the famous phrase from The Matrix does not look so fantastic. What do we see around us? A specific world with a set of specific features? Or a set of concepts with which the brain draws a picture that reflects more of ourselves? The neurophysiologist tells about the secret mechanisms in our head, the understanding of which can help increase our efficiency and level of happiness.
Maria, in your first profession you were connected with economics and marketing, and only then did you enter science. Usually the opposite happens. How and why did you become interested in neurophysiology?
In fact, I started doing scientific work at the age of 16, when I studied at the 1st Medical School at the Faculty of Pharmacy and at the same time worked as a laboratory assistant at the Department of General Chemistry, where I participated in drug standardization studies.
And yes, indeed, in the 1990s, I went into business and I had many years of projects related to retail and other areas. Later, I became interested in the scientific basis of manual therapy and how to deal with chronic pain. Already in the process of immersion in these topics, I realized that I needed deeper scientific knowledge.
Neurophysiology has given a lot of answers. For example, I was able to become more conscious of how different stimuli and problems affect my functioning at the level of emotions, mind, physiology, biochemistry.
In the course of my practical work, I realized how closely and inextricably the brain is connected with the body and that it is impossible to consider what we used to call “cognitive processes” in isolation from the work of the whole organism. Probably, it was then that I realized that science can have an applied value. Must have.
My first work was devoted to explaining the neurophysiological aspects of manual therapy
And together with my partner, Mexican doctor Jose Palomar, we are successfully developing experimental neuroinstruments that allow us to work effectively with functional problems.
The questions “How does it work?”, “What underlies our behavior and choices?” never stopped worrying me. And the constant study of the work of the brain and body led to the realization that knowledge of neuromechanisms in itself can help a person more consciously build his own model of reality and independently work with the contents of his consciousness.
All this led to the creation , with which people could gain initial knowledge of neurophysiology, understand how their thinking works, what the body is in cognitive processes, and achieve consistency between mind, body and emotions.
And, as a result, become more efficient, more adaptable to uncertainty, more energetic, and most importantly, realize your own true needs and intentions and successfully resolve internal contradictions.
Is it designed for everyone, or does it have its own specific audience?
For everyone who wants their “personal computer” to work more productively, but first of all for people associated with psychology, coaching, communications, marketing, education, banking, as well as for everyone who wants to adapt in an unstable world in an era of uncertainty.
There is indeed a lot of talk about the phenomenon of uncertainty today in various fields – from psychology to marketing. Pretty uncomfortable for a person. But you are in your “Introduction to the neurophysiology of conceptual thinking. The Uncertainty Code” does not call for fighting it, rather for cooperating, right?
It is impossible to fight what is unknown. When we recognize this or that phenomenon, understand the mechanism and see the connections, the level of anxiety automatically decreases, since it is the unknown that is the root of our fears.
Uncertainty (and at the heart of this term is again a certain neuromechanism), being a threat, is also a potential reward. When we reveal hidden states, the brain receives new information and instantly maps it, changing neural connections to more optimal ones.
Working with information and searching for it is a genetically determined need and a normal biological mode of the body.
In the social world, perception is determined by our individual conceptual systems, that is, how accurately the brain was able to identify patterns in the most complex surrounding world and build its regulatory and motor patterns for effective interaction.
“Definiteness”, “stability” – these are just words, concepts, under which are hidden multi-level biological processes that determine our behavior. On the course, I try to show all this at the level of theory, but, most importantly, I give tools that allow you to identify and realize these mechanisms in everyday life.
As a result, our range of adaptation expands, and we learn to feel good even in the conditions of total chaos around.
What kind of research on the brain do you see as the most promising?
For me, the most interesting are the theories that change the established habitual ideas about the work of the “brain-body-world” system. For example, in the classical Russian school of neurophysiology, Academician Petr Anokhin described the mechanism of anticipatory excitation.
It tells us that the brain reacts in advance to predictable events that in fact have not yet occurred. This feature of the brain – to predict reality based on its own representative experimental models – explains why we are so worried about our bright future and take certain steps even before certain events have occurred.
By the way, during the course we are actively working with this automatic mechanism and learning how to optimally configure it.
The unified theory of the brain is very interesting – the principle of free energy, which was substantiated by the modern neuroscientist Karl Friston. This principle states that any living system resists entropy (destruction) and maintains its integrity by striving to constantly minimize free energy. That is, due to uncertainty.
At the psychological level, this phenomenon is expressed, for example, in a sense of anxiety: the greater the uncertainty, the higher the level of our anxiety. Understanding this principle of the brain, we can work with it effectively.
The course and the book are united by the concepts of conceptual thinking and conceptual intelligence. What it is?
Conceptualization is the ability of the brain to encode sensory data into symbols, that is, to archive, generalize, and compress data. The main task of the brain is to identify informational meanings from the signal matrix of the surrounding and inner world, combine these signals and search for the most optimal adaptation. Any brain strives for informational order.
Conceptual thinking is, in a sense, a departure from the flat perception of the world in the spirit of “this way and nothing else” towards the alternative. Conceptual thinking comes from the fact that we do not see reality as such, but our own concepts of it.
The brain constantly creates so-called experience maps, on which behavior is built.
Many cards have a verbal code – these are words familiar to all of us. For example, the word “emotions”: we all seem to know what it is, but in fact, several different mechanisms are hidden under this generalization. And the code “envy” for the brain and body is completely different from our philistine understanding of this concept.
The same goes for the rest of the abstract words, which are over 50 percent in our active vocabulary, and often have very sub-optimal effects on our motivations, goals, desires, and actions.
Accordingly, based on the most up-to-date neuroscience data, we offer theoretical models and practical tools with which a person can develop the skills of Conceptual Intelligence – to work effectively with their own conceptual content of consciousness and optimize their model of reality.
That is, it is more about changing the way of life and thinking. Is it possible to teach this in 30 lessons?
The brain is constantly learning, we live in dynamics, so the “final” state of “I know everything” does not exist. Rather, it is necessary to build on the opposite: “I know very little.” And this immediately stimulates exploratory behavior.
30 lessons will give the basic principles and help lay the foundation on which a person can independently continue the conscious learning process. We work with “understanding” and “awareness”, these are the stages of learning after “memorization” and “copying”.
In our course, we use the methods of neurodidactics – this is a new interdisciplinary science that develops tools for effective learning based on the latest achievements in the field of brain activity research.
In the principles of neurodidactics, knowledge is not transferred automatically, it is created anew in the brain of the student. There are no ready-made rules that require memorization. Instead, there are a large number of examples, a careful analysis of which allows you to independently derive one or another rule.
And most importantly, the knowledge gained is properly consolidated: in real situations or as close to reality as possible.
What exactly can be expected at the end of the course?
One of the main tasks is to activate the mode of exploratory behavior in our students, to literally return the interest blocked in childhood to self-knowledge and their own capabilities.
Another important task is to achieve coherence of feelings, emotions, thoughts and actions, which give a person tremendous strength and help to successfully adapt under the influence of stress and uncertainty.
Successful completion of the first two tasks will significantly improve the quality of communication with the outside world. We are sure that understanding between people should be based on a clear understanding of each of his own content of consciousness and of the models of reality of others.
Of course, it is assumed that a person will continue to study and train after the end of the course.
On the course, a clear realization comes that there is no other way and it will not work out – this is how the brain works. In practice, we are talking about exercises aimed at developing seven aspects of perception – physical, affective, emotional, mental, eventful, value and social.
During the course, we develop the skill of “living thinking”, we look at how to optimize the usual motor protocols, and learn about “conscious creativity”. Among other things, the course has a number of “side effects”: the questions “where is my place in life?”, “I don’t understand what I’m doing”, “I don’t want anything” and other garbage in the form of mental semi-finished products disappear.
By nature, we have only one tool for survival – our mind, and if a person clearly understands how his brain works, then he sets himself realistic goals for optimal adaptation.
We are now actively learning to pronounce our emotions, in principle, to notice them. Does the course help with this?
When I talk about coherence, I mean the mechanism by which a person can analyze the way emotions appear and correctly identify them. This is very difficult for a modern person. What is an emotion? If in general terms, then any emotion is a registered movement in the body, caused by the work of our autonomic nervous system.
“Reports” of all these movements enter the operational consciousness as “errors” in the form of sensations, and if we are not taught to recognize and granulate them (update the model of reality), this will cause a feeling of anxiety. It is these “movements” that we used to call different words.
The main problem in the Western world is that we have “forbidden” ourselves to feel
All we have been trained to consciously recognize are signals from the bladder and intestines. But in fact, there is a whole world of signals, due to which we subconsciously build all our behavior and which we constantly try to describe in words.
And initially, they say, Descartes confused everyone by authoritatively declaring that “the brain and the body are completely different and unrelated parts of the body.” This, most likely, led to the fact that the rational and emotional began to be separated and studied separately.
Sensations provide a connection with the real world, so it is important to learn to feel again.
How can changing the way you think help combat stress and fatigue?
Stress is again a term that we are all used to, and again it is a huge complex of physiological processes. If a person cannot answer the question “What strategy can I choose to ensure my physical, mental and social well-being?”, he is in psychological stress mode.
Stress can arise for various reasons, in many respects it is associated with physiological disorders. One of the main causes of psychological stress is the inability to work with one’s own attention mechanism. We incorrectly, irrationally and unconsciously distribute our attention.
It’s like with limited computer RAM: the resource of active attention is also limited, and if it is overloaded with cognitive viruses and conflicting programs, fatigue and distracted thinking cannot be avoided.
We are constantly working with attention on the course. Conceptual thinking helps you to direct your attention (psychic energy) exactly where it is needed and helps you not to waste it. This skill needs to be trained.
Speaking of attention that is not properly distributed, do you mean social media as well?
If we consider attention as the main cognitive value, then in this sense, wasting our attention without any benefit, we simply lose strength and throw mental energy into the trash. This applies not only to the Internet.
“Network drinking” is the voluntary giving of one’s attention (resources) to strangers in exchange for dubious short-term benefits. At the time of viewing the pictures, you feel temporary relief, but then you have to return to your own reality, and it may seem slow, boring, empty.
Another situation when we consciously “take out” something useful from the Net for our own survival
Flipping through a friend feed is, after all, learning about how other people “survive, multiply and dominate”. For example, I watch a feed of professionals who talk about their activities, and this inspires me.
In general, if a person is doing well in real life and he effectively copes with his tasks, you can consciously spend time “hanging out”. And to understand whether your stay on the Internet is useful or harmful is very simple.
Look after the “hang”: if you have new ideas or a desire to act in the real world and for your own good, then this was good. If you feel a breakdown and emptiness, then most likely you just gave away your resource to nowhere.
How has following the principles of conceptual thinking helped you in your life?
Everything that I talk about in the course and write in the book is not only confirmed by scientific articles, but also verified by my own experience. I have three children, and they all grew up on this system: thanks to their conceptual thinking skills, they are kind of “inoculated” against informational garbage, they know how to work with concentration and enjoy the results of their effectiveness.
This does not mean that they are “perfect”, just that they are able to work with errors and they like to learn and actively test the world.
This knowledge helps me to adapt to the tasks of life, to live interestingly and enjoy my own efficiency. I have many projects – from teaching to consulting, from scientific work to investing (I support biotech startups), but I do not experience burnout.
For me, rest is a change of activity and a reorientation of attention.
Does success in “pumping” the brain and increasing efficiency depend on age?
The literature tells us that, on average, cognitive ability declines in older people. So-called “crystal” skills work well (for example, the use of vocabulary and some factual learned knowledge), while “flexible” ones (the ability to learn and “update” one’s model of reality) are declining.
But I myself come from such a family where all my grandfathers and grandmothers were either scientists or doctors, and all of them were engaged in their favorite tasks, worked literally until the last day in their right mind and sober memory.
My personal opinion is that if a person has clear tasks, goals, favorite activities and a sense of joy in life, then until death he has a chance to be effective.
About expert
Maria Light — neuroscientist, author of the book , и on the neurophysiology of conceptual thinking and platform.