Thinking Beyond Science

Even if we are a careful and habitual reader of science stories, especially those about psychology and neuroscience, we probably don’t notice that the conclusion reached by almost every study applies only on average, or to most of the research subjects. Maybe the study found that too many choices impede decision making, or that people base ethical judgments on emotional grounds rather than rational ones; maybe it concluded that when people wash their hands they feel less uncomfortable about committing an unethical act or thinking an immoral thought, or that people tend to prefer the taller political candidate to the shorter one.

What we seldom read is that the average response integrates a large range of responses, just as the “average weight” of the adults in our neighborhood does. Reporting and focusing on only that average runs the risk of ignoring some very interesting phenomena, namely, the extremes— in this simple example, people who are dangerously overweight and people who are anorexic, whose existence we would not even suspect if we saw only that the average weight is, say, 175 pounds.

So it is with psychological behavior and emotional responses. There are almost always outliers-the person who does not judge members of his own ethnic or national group more charitably than he judges people who are different from him, or the person who does not follow the order to administer an electric shock to someone behind a screen in order to help him “learn better.”

Crucially, each dimension of Emotional Style is grounded in a particular pattern of brain activity. Brain imaging shows that these dimensions were not plucked out of the air.

The brain has a property called neuroplasticity, the ability to change its structure and function in significant ways. That change can come about in response to the experiences we have as well as to the thoughts we think. The brains of virtuoso violinists, for example, show a measurable increase in the size and activity of areas that control the fingers, and the brains of London taxicab drivers, who learn to navigate the insanely complicated network of streets (twenty-five thousand of them!) in that city, show a significant growth in the hippocampus, an area associated with context and spatial memory. Playing the piano and learning a city map are examples of intense, repeated sensory and learning experiences in the outside world.

But the brain can also change in response to messages generated internally— in other words, to our thoughts and intentions. These changes include altering the function of brain regions, expanding or contracting the amount of neural territory devoted to particular tasks, strengthening or weakening connections between different brain regions, increasing or decreasing the level of activity in specific brain circuits, and modulating the neurochemi-cal messenger service that continuously courses through the brain.

Given that Emotional Style is the product of all these brain functions connections, circuits, structure/function relationships, and neurochemistry-the implication is undeniable: Since the brain contains the physical underpinnings of Emotional Style, and since the brain can change in these fundamental ways, Emotional Style can change. Yes, our Emotional Style is the result of brain circuitry that is laid down in our early years by the genes we inherited from our parents and by the experiences we have. But that circuitry is not forever fixed. Although Emotional Style is ordinarily quite stable over time, it can be altered by serendipitous experiences as well as by con-scious, intentional effort at any point in life, through the intentional cultivation of specific mental qualities or habits.

The amazing fact is that through mental activity alone we can intentionally change our own brains. Mental activity, ranging from meditation to cognitive-behavior therapy, can alter brain function in specific circuits, with the result that we can develop a broader awareness of social signals, a deeper sensitivity to our own feelings and bodily sensations, and a more consistently positive outlook. In short, through mental training we can alter our patterns of brain activity and the very structure of our brain in a way that will change our Emotional Style and improve our lives.

Even when our Emotional Style does not leave us vulnerable to actual mental illness, there is no denying the fact that, at least in twenty-first-century Western culture, some Emotional Styles simply make it harder to be a productive member of society, to forge meaningful relationships, and to achieve a sense of well-being. There may be instances in which being Puzzled rather than Socially Intuitive, Opaque on the Self-Awareness dimension, and Tuned Out when it comes to Sensitivity to Context is desirable; if nothing else, some of the world’s greatest works of art and most monumental achievements in mathematics and science sprang from the tortured minds of social misfits. But with the rare exceptions of the Tolstoys and Hemingways and Van Goghs among us, it is simply harder to lead a meaningful, productive life with some Emotional Styles than with others.

Source : The Emotional Life of Your Brain: How Its Unique Patterns Affect the Way You Think, Feel, and Live–and How You Can Change Them by Richard J. Davidson, Sharon Begley

Goodreads : https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11950578-the-emotional-life-of-your-brain

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