What prevents the brain from effectively completing tasks and making correct decisions

Contents:

• Cognitive PFC
• The Legacy of Previous Seconds and Minutes

Cognitive PFC

Let's consider how "correct actions" manifest themselves in the cognitive sphere. When you need to change your approach to a task, the prefrontal cortex (PFC) helps prevent relapse into old habits. For example, sit someone in front of a computer and explain the rules: press the left button when the blue light comes on, and the right button when the red light comes on. Let them practice this task a few times until they get used to the rules. Then change the instructions: now the blue light means pressing the right button, and the red light means pressing the left button. Give them time to adapt to the new conditions, and then return to the original rules. Each time the rules change, the PFC's job is to remind them, "Remember that blue now means..." This approach emphasizes the importance of flexibility of thinking and adaptation in the process of learning and completing tasks.

List the months in reverse order. The prefrontal cortex (PFC) is activated, suppressing the habitual response: "Remember, you should say 'September, August,' not 'September, October.'" The more active the PFC is, the more effectively the person completes the task. This underscores the importance of cognitive processes in problem solving and improves our understanding of brain function.

An effective method for assessing frontal cortex function is to study its manifestations in people with damage to the prefrontal cortex, which is observed after certain types of stroke or in dementia. Such patients have significant difficulties performing inverse tasks. They have difficulty coping with situations where the correct answer differs from the habitual one. This allows us to better understand the role of the frontal cortex in cognitive processes and its influence on decision-making.

A professional football club (PFC) is responsible for enforcing new rules and their updated versions. This means that the PFC's area of ​​responsibility may change with the introduction of new regulations. Once a new rule becomes habitual, its implementation is transferred to more automated systems and structures. It's important to note that, in most cases, we don't require PFC intervention to solve simple tasks like toilet training. However, in childhood, say at age three, the situation was different, and in this context, adult support is essential for developing healthy habits and behaviors.

To effectively perform actions, the prefrontal cortex (PFC) requires two key skills. First, it must send clear "do this" commands through neural pathways connecting the PFC to the frontal cortex, and then to the supplementary motor area and motor cortex. However, even more important is the ability to suppress "don't do that, even if it's habitual" signals. The PFC's primary function, even more important than transmitting excitatory signals to the motor cortex, is to inhibit the brain structures responsible for automatic actions. Recalling the information from Chapter 2, it can be noted that the PFC serves as a key argument in demonstrating the absence of free will and conscious veto power in humans.

The Legacy of Previous Seconds and Minutes

You sit, immersed in a task. As soon as the blue light comes on, you instantly press the left button, and when the red light comes on, you press the right. The rules are constantly changing: blue now requires pressing the right button, and red - the left. These changes continue, creating a dynamic and tense atmosphere that requires quick reactions and concentration.

While performing a task, a complex sequence of activities occurs in the brain. With each flash of light, the visual cortex, which is responsible for the perception of visual information, is activated. Soon after, neural pathways transmitting information from the visual cortex to the prefrontal cortex (PFC) are activated. Then, neural pathways connecting the PFC to the motor cortex are activated, transmitting signals to the muscles, which causes them to contract.

The role of the PFC in this process is especially important. It's responsible for focusing and retaining information necessary to complete a task, whether it's the rule "blue = left, red = right" or "blue = right, red = left." The prefrontal cortex (PFC) functions under intense pressure, constantly repeating relevant rules. When faced with a difficult task, this area of ​​the brain becomes key, ensuring correct decisions and actions. Understanding the PFC helps us understand the importance of concentration and active brain engagement during learning and task performance.

Value is a precise definition. Each neuron in the prefrontal cortex (PFC) functions continuously, generating action potentials that cause ions to move across cell membranes. These ions must not only be released but also returned to their original state. While you focus on the current rule, action potentials can fire hundreds of times per second, highlighting the complexity and dynamism of neural networks.

Neurons in the prefrontal cortex (PFC) require significant energy resources to function. This can be demonstrated using neuroimaging techniques, which show that an active PFC consumes large amounts of glucose and oxygen from the blood. It is also possible to measure the level of available biochemical energy for each neuron at a given time. This highlights a key idea: a lack of energy in the PFC leads to a decrease in its functionality.

Cognitive load and cognitive reserve are concepts we discussed in Chapter 3, and they have important implications at the cellular level. When the prefrontal cortex (PFC) is actively working on a specific task, these reserves are depleted. This can impact concentration and decision-making abilities, highlighting the importance of managing cognitive load to improve productivity and task efficiency.

Place a bowl of M&M's in front of someone on a diet and invite them to take as many as they want. Most likely, he'll try to resist the temptation. However, if he's just completed a task that requires active involvement of the frontal cortex, even something as simple as distinguishing red and blue light, he'll likely eat more candy than usual. A study on this topic was published with the intriguing title "Deplete Us Not into Temptation." Interestingly, this also works in reverse: if you deplete the resources of the frontal cortex, for example, by spending about fifteen minutes resisting the temptation to eat a candy, then performance on the red/blue task will be significantly impaired. This highlights how cognitive exhaustion affects our ability to control impulses and make conscious decisions.

Psychophysiological function (PFC) is significantly impaired when a person experiences fear or pain. In such states, the body's energy is spent fighting stress, which negatively impacts self-regulation. This phenomenon can be illustrated by the Macbeth effect, where memories of ethically questionable actions interfere with clear thinking. For example, only by relieving feelings of guilt (as in the case of handwashing) can normal cognitive processes be restored. It is also worth noting that the performance of the frontal cortex decreases when it is fatigued, making it difficult to switch to pleasant activities. Research shows that patients have a higher risk of postoperative complications if the surgeon performs surgery on their birthday, highlighting the importance of the psychoemotional state in decision-making and task performance.

Fatigue significantly impacts the resources of the frontal cortex, which becomes especially noticeable in the evening. During this time, many doctors tend to take the easy way out: they order fewer tests and prescribe more opioids, as opposed to safer treatments like anti-inflammatories or physical therapy. Research shows that in the evening hours, doctors often make unethical decisions and are less mindful of the moral aspects of their work, especially after solving complex problems. One disturbing study of emergency room physicians found that as mental workload increased during the workday, implicit racial bias increased at the end of the shift. This underscores the importance of managing fatigue and maintaining ethical standards in medicine.

The study in question highlights the impact of hunger on decision-making. Researchers analyzed a group of judges who had made over a thousand parole decisions. An interesting finding: the most accurate predictor of whether a judge will grant a prisoner's parole request was the time elapsed since the judge's last meal. If a convicted person appeared before a judge immediately after lunch, the likelihood of receiving a favorable decision was approximately 65%. However, if several hours passed between the last meal and the hearing, the chances of parole dropped to almost zero. This study illustrates how physiological needs can influence important decisions, highlighting the need to consider such factors in judicial practice and decision-making.

The problem with the justice system isn't that judges lose concentration at the end of the day, muddle their words, or make poor decisions, such as jailing a stenographer. Nobel Prize-winning psychologist Daniel Kahneman, in his analysis of this phenomenon, suggested that as time passes after lunch, judges' professional focus on the details of each case weakens. As a result, judges are more likely to make simple, reflexive decisions, such as sending people back to prison. This hypothesis is supported by studies in which subjects were asked to make decisions of varying complexity. As the participants' fatigue increased, they were observed to increasingly choose habitual decisions, indicating the influence of fatigue on the quality of judicial decision-making.

Denying parole is often a habitual response, since the process of making such a decision is less costly for correctional institutions. Judges are faced with a person who has made mistakes in the past but has demonstrated positive behavior in prison. To decide on parole, a judge must exert significant emotional and intellectual resources to understand and empathize with the complex circumstances of an inmate's life. This requires the ability to see the world through their eyes and see beyond the surface to the potential for change. Research shows that judges, on average, take longer to consider and grant a parole request than to deny it and return the individual to prison. This aspect highlights the complexity and contradictions of the criminal justice decision-making process.

Events in the surrounding world significantly influence the prefrontal cortex's (PFC) ability to control impulses, such as the desire to eat more M&M's or make the easy choice in court. Brain chemistry plays a key role in this process, determining how tempting a temptation appears. This is due to the neurotransmitter dopamine, which is released in the PFC from neurons originating in the nucleus accumbens, part of the limbic system. Understanding these mechanisms can help develop strategies to improve self-control and make better decisions.

Dopamine in the prefrontal cortex (PFC) plays a key role in assessing the salience of temptations. It signals how strongly neurons are activated when thinking about a desired item, such as the taste of M&M's. Dopamine levels in the PFC are proportional to the strength of the temptation: the more dopamine released, the more difficult it is to control impulses. Increased dopamine levels can lead to a heightened desire to satisfy your needs. It's important to note that dopamine levels are influenced by numerous factors, many of which are beyond your control. To deeply understand the dopamine system, it is necessary to consider both short-term and long-term aspects of its functioning.

In seconds and In the hours leading up to an event, sensory information subtly influences the functioning of the prefrontal cortex (PFC). Allowing a subject to smell a vial of sweat from a startled person activates her amygdala, significantly hindering PFC control. Want to quickly alter the activity of the frontal cortex in the average heterosexual man? Expose him to a certain stimulus, and his PFC is more likely to make a poor decision, such as jaywalking. What stimulus might trigger such a response? It might be the proximity of an attractive woman. This phenomenon illustrates how strong external stimuli can undermine rational behavior and influence decision making.

A variety of factors, often uncontrollable, such as stress, physical pain, hunger, fatigue, unpleasant odors, and even people in your field of vision, can significantly influence the effectiveness of your psychophysical activity. These influences often occur without your awareness. Judges, when asked about their decisions, rarely mention the influence of blood glucose levels. Instead, they may cite philosophical concepts or historical examples, which distracts from the real reasons behind their decisions.