DECISIONS, DECISIONSFor a job that requires making important decisions under pressure, it’s hard to beat air traffic controller.
Controllers must think and act quickly to keep a safe distance between planes that fly up to eight miles a minute. They must base decisions on complicated mental and physical maps in three dimensions, all the while keeping track of instrument readings and verbal and written communications. In difficult or dangerous situations, they have to parse information to focus on the most important details, and then communicate those details to pilots responsible for hundreds of lives. And although the job has its moments of boredom, controllers can never let their guard down. Studies have shown that most air traffic control errors occur during times of low or moderate activity, suggesting the dangers of failure to maintain attention.
Decades ago, when safety experts began developing air traffic control systems, they conducted an experiment simulating plane traffic. At the time, controllers gathered information from many channels at once, including visual data from video display screens, computers, and notepads, and auditory data from earphones and, if necessary, their neighbors in the room. As long as air traffic remained at a normal level in the simulation, the controllers managed the multiple information streams without incident. If one of the channels broke down, there were others to fall back on. But when the simulation stepped up the traffic and placed more demands on the controllers’ attention, their ability to make decisions got worse. Eventually, the controllers lost their cool. They shouted and banged on tables, and pointed and gestured, as they tried to visually communicate with pilots who could not see them. The controllers understood the problems, but they lost the ability to make and communicate smart decisions in a timely manner. No wonder the job can be stressful. There are many variables, including weather, equipment, traffic patterns, and occasional emergencies. Controllers must decide where to pay attention; how the situation may change; and how best to plan options, make choices, and execute the best action.
DECISIONS, DECISIONSAlthough the technology of air traffic control has improved and now places fewer demands on controllers’ attention, it’s still a job, like many, where decision making remains crucial. Angelika Dimoka, director of the Center for Neural Decision Making at Temple University, has scanned the brains of test subjects urged to make difficult decisions based on multiple variables. She chose an airport-related scenario, the purchase of landing slots. Her test subjects bid on slots that could be bought singly or in bundles, in a wide array of combinations. Bidders had to juggle not only prices—they aimed to get the best deals at the lowest cost—but also such variables as weather, the schedule of connecting flights, and passenger load. As the test subjects had to simultaneously weigh more and more information while making decisions, fMRI scans showed heightened activity in their dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. This brain region behind the forehead not only plays a key role in making decisions, but also helps regulate emotions and orchestrates other higher-cognitive functions.
At some point, the addition of extra information acted like the straw that broke the camel’s back, causing activity in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex to drop dramatically. The test subjects couldn’t make smart decisions, and they struggled to control their frustration. “With too much information, people’s decisions make less and less sense,” Dimoka said.
UNPLUGGINGDimoka’s findings are bad news for the millions of people continually and intimately connected with information streams, such as the words, numbers, pictures, videos, and more available on the Internet and digital handheld devices. Information overload is a reality that is only likely to get worse.
One way to fight back is to relax the mind.
The brain increases its ability to solve difficult puzzles when it shifts its attention away from a problem and turns inward. This can create a catch-22: If you’ve ever obsessed about finding the answer to a thorny issue at work or in your academic studies, you probably find it difficult to force your mind to relax by ordering it to do so. But relaxation often comes quietly on its own when the brain is cut off from an overload of sensations. A pleasant shower or comfortable period of meditation may subtly push the brain into a state that stops the aggravating sensations brought on by too much attentional focus. Psychologist Joydeep Bhattacharya at the University of London says, “That’s why so many insights happen during warm showers.”
BRAIN INSIGHT
Sweet Dreams
Do dreams have a purpose? Scientists still aren’t sure
Why do we dream? Everyone has dreams, although not everyone remembers them. And it’s extremely difficult to keep people from dreaming. Those facts raise the question: What function do dreams serve?
Sigmund Freud, founder of psychoanalysis, believed the brain conjured dreams as a way to access repressed wishes and desires. It’s an interesting idea, but a hard one to test in a laboratory: How does one scientifically examine a repressed mental state?
Modern observers are split on the role of dreams. Some, such as cognitive scientist Owen Flanagan, author of Sleep, Dreams and the Evolution of the Conscious Mind, believe dreams have no function whatsoever. According to Flanagan, they are a side effect of sleep and its role of recharging the body—“nothing, nada, just noise,” Flanagan said.
Others see dreams as the brain’s way to process the day’s information, including the sorting of data into memory’s circuits. In this view, the act of dreaming contributes to the necessary function of forgetting. Still others believe dreams create a safe way for the brain to simulate life’s many threats as a therapeutic way to deal with them.
Bhattacharya discovered a link between the phenomenon of insight and a steady brain rhythm emanating in the right hemisphere, as registered on an electroencephalograph, or EEG. The EEG records brain activity in the form of electrical impulses. These impulses move through the brain in a variety of frequency ranges, like radio stations arrayed throughout the AM and FM radio bands. The lowest frequency, seen in delta waves, is most commonly found in brains in a state of deep sleep. In ascending order above the delta waves are theta waves, which occur during prayer, daydreaming, and some sleep stages; alpha waves, associated with feelings of calm and control; beta waves, common in active mental states such as analyzing problems and making decisions; and gamma waves, which occur all the time in nearly all brain states and may play a role in synthesizing various brain functions. What Bhattacharya found is that the onset of alpha waves in the right-hand lobes heralds the aha! moment when the brain solves a nagging problem. His tests have shown that people who cannot reach a threshold level of alpha waves cannot solve tricky word problems even when given heavy hints.
Small wonder, then, that in a German study involving word puzzles that required a flash of insight to solve, subjects who reported feeling happy—the positive, calm mood typical of alpha waves—outperformed those who reported negative moods. Cognitive neuroscientist Mark Beeman at Northwestern University even found that people performed better at solving insight puzzles after watching a video clip of comedian Robin Williams, which apparently lightened their mood and helped them relax. Beeman has linked insights to the relaxed period typically experienced in the first few moments after waking up. In its drowsy, discombobulated state, the morning brain is ideally suited for solving mental puzzles by not actively focusing on them.
This suggests a practical way to try to trick your brain into doing its best work. If your mornings typically are overloaded with tasks to get done before work or school, try setting your alarm clock to give yourself just a few minutes of quiet time before you have to begin your responsibilities. When the alarm bell rings, hit the snooze bar but don’t go back to sleep. Try thinking in a half-awake state.
THE EXECUTIVE IN YOUR HEADMaking good decisions and taking control of your mind are important skills. Fortunately, your brain’s cognitive control center, the prefrontal cortex, is not hardwired. You have a strong measure of control over what you think, and what you think about it. In short, you can be the boss of your own brain.
Your ability to make choices is good for your health. People who are cared for by others often show concrete improvement if they are given the opportunity to make decisions affecting their lives. Even relatively insignificant decisions, such as which shirt to wear or when to eat, boost the health of residents in nursing homes and other care facilities. And people thrust into traumatic situations, such as a bad accident or a natural disaster, usually have less significant suffering in the long run if they made decisions at the time of the trauma and acted on them, such as the choice to comfort victims.
You can exercise control not only over how to act, but also about how to think and feel. If you choose to have positive feelings and attitudes, you’ll be doing your health a favor.
Scientists at the Wageningen University in the Netherlands interviewed nearly 2,000 elderly men and women and classified them as optimists or pessimists by whether they agreed with statements such as “I still have many goals to strive for.” The researchers followed up with their interviewees nine years later. Those who had expressed optimism in the initial interviews had far lower death rates than their more pessimistic peers—63 percent lower among the men, and 35 percent lower among the women.
The Dutch study controlled for other factors that could have influenced the subjects’ longevity. These included whether the interviewees smoked or drank alcohol, as well as their weight, diet, and amount of physical activity. Researchers found a strong correlation between optimism and health-promoting behavior, such as eating and exercising well. It was as if the test subjects who felt good about their futures worked to ensure they would be there to enjoy them. Perhaps optimism increases the will to live. Another theory suggests that greater social interaction of optimists, as opposed to pessimists who wish to be left alone, promotes longevity by lowering levels of the stress hormone cortisol. The payoff at the end of life, according to University of California researchers: Optimists live about seven and a half years longer than pessimists.
But optimists don’t have to wait until old age to enjoy benefits. Being optimistic brings immediate returns. According to researchers at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, optimism strengthens the ability of the body’s immune system to fight off disease and also offers protection against the negative effects of stress. Other studies have shown that optimists suffer less chronic pain and have fewer disabilities than pessimists.
A general sense of well-being also improves cognitive function. Attitudes sometimes can become self-fulfilling prophecies. For example, if you believe you will do well on a test, you will perform better than if you believe you will do poorly. This was demonstrated by a North Carolina State University study of adults ages 60 to 82. The researchers gave the same mathematical and memory tests to the entire group, but before beginning, they dropped hints among members of one subset that their age might negatively affect their performance: They said the test measured how age affected memory, and asked them to write their age just before taking the test. Group members reminded of their age and the likelihood of it affecting test results performed worse than those who simply took the test. The difference was more pronounced for the youngest members of the group, as well as those who had the highest education levels. The researchers speculated that the oldest test subjects showed less impact from the experimental treatment because they felt secure in who they were and cared less how others defined them.
These findings prove true the words of the Stoic Greek philosopher Epictetus, who lived nearly 2,000 years ago: “Men are disturbed not by things but by the views which they take of them,” he said. But if you’re not an optimist and want to become one, what can you do? Changing a core component of one’s personality isn’t as easy as flipping a switch. Neural pathways fire more easily after they have been fired often because synaptic connections grow strong for routines. So, if you have lived for years reacting with anxiety, stress, doubt, and cynicism to whatever comes your way, your neural pathways have figuratively become four-lane interstate highways for negative mental states.
BRAIN INSIGHT
Take It up a Notch
Constant challenge will keep you on top of your game
If you want to improve a skill such as playing guitar, choose to get out of your comfort zone.
Most practiced physical actions, such as hitting a golf ball or shooting a free throw, occur as the brain is in or near a state resembling autopilot. The first time you shot a free throw, fingered the notes in a G chord, or swung a seven iron, you probably used your frontal lobes to concentrate on the required motions. As you made mistakes, you kept your level of concentration and made adjustments. But at some point, you likely became satisfied, and your improvement stopped. The neural processes associated with the skill then migrated from the front of the brain to the back, to the cerebellum.
To achieve your potential, move the skill back up front, to the frontal lobes. Try challenging yourself. If you’re a musician, practice the toughest part of a song until you’ve mastered it. If you play sports, try to swish those free throws or drop your tee shot into a small circle. Analyze the motions that make up the skill and adjust. And don’t just do it one day. True experts practice both deliberately and continually.
POSITIVE VERSUS NEGATIVEThe tools of cognitive therapy can help switch attitudes from negative to positive by injecting the concept of choice, or decision making, into mental states. Cognitive therapy rests on a foundation of three principles. First is to agree with Epictetus: The way you choose to view events in your life is crucial to your mental states. Second is the close relationship between moods and thoughts: Altering one alters the other. And third is that by manipulating thoughts, which can be managed to a degree, you can manipulate your moods.
The first principle suggests that you have a choice in how to view what happens to you. Although it may not seem true at times, it always is. Thus, when something bad happens to you, you can choose to try to recast it by looking at it in a new way that emphasizes potential good. If you’re underperforming at work, it might be because you devote so much time to family, children, church, or something you rank even more important. If you lose your job, it might be the opportunity to seek a new career that you have wondered about, but never had the courage (or time) to explore. If you cannot afford an expensive vacation far away, you might learn to better appreciate the attractions in your own county or state. And if your car needs to be in the repair shop for a couple of weeks, you might discover that you like to bike, walk, or carpool. This is not the same as being a Pollyanna. Sometimes there is no bright side. But there are always other perspectives, and it’s beneficial to seek them out.
The second principle probably calls to mind examples from your own life. If you’ve been in a bad mood, you likely recalled memories of bad things that happened in your life. Or, if you get a piece of bad news, such as a phone call telling you of a loved one who has been hospitalized, your mood probably went dark in a hurry. That bad mood may have triggered more negative thoughts, because moods and thoughts reinforce each other, like a feedback loop in an amplifier. For example, if you think you performed poorly on a college exam, you might feel depressed or angry. That might trigger thoughts that you don’t belong in a particular college class, or that you’re not as smart as your classmates. That could eventually lead to thoughts such as, “I’m no good at anything.” That blanket statement is a long way from getting a less-than-desired grade on a single test, but that’s a common neural pathway that some brains have established over time.
The third principle is the key to healthy mental states. Recasting how you think about something sets off a new chain of thought–mood–thought reinforcement. If you get a bad grade, for example, don’t think, “I’m stupid.” Instead, embrace the perspective, “Everyone makes mistakes. Everyone bombs a test once in a while.”
Negative thoughts to be avoided arise in common categories. These include:
Black-and-white thinking. Few things are wholly good or bad, but it can be easy to see them that way. And no relationship is without occasional problems.
Exaggerating and overgeneralizing, which are similar to black-and-white thinking. Don’t say, “I never have any fun,” or “You never listen to me.”
Predicting worst-case scenarios that aren’t likely to come true. Don’t misinterpret a sneeze as anything more than a sneeze, unless you really are sick. Don’t believe one mistake will forever change your relationships.
Rationalizing good things that happen as if they weren’t truly good. Don’t try to read other people’s minds when they interact with you, looking for selfish motives for good deeds. Accept good deeds with good cheer.
Personalizing problems that aren’t the fault of any one individual. Nobody is the center of the universe.
Cognitive therapist Gillian Butler and psychiatrist Tony Hope, authors of Managing Your Mind: The Mental Fitness Guide, offer four “rules of perspective” to help you skirt destructive thoughts that set off the feedback loop of negativity. First is the so-called “100-year rule.” When something bad happens, ask yourself whether it will matter in a century. The exercise forces the new perspective of seeing events from a great distance—which almost always makes them look small.
Second is the “measuring rod rule,” which invites you to ask yourself whether something bad in your life truly is the most important thing in your life. So what if you wrecked your car—you can get another one, and you have other things that are more important.
Third is the “middle of the night” rule. It suggests that dark moods and thoughts flourish in the nighttime, but the clarity of daylight often brings another view.
And the final rule is the “statute of limitations.” Don’t worry about things long after they could possibly continue to have substantial impact. Stop punishing yourself. One way to let go of old problems is to reimagine them as if they belonged to somebody else.
REVISITING THE PASTThis ability to choose affects not only the brain’s view of what’s happening now, but also how the brain handles memories. Even old memories can be recast in a more positive light.
When a memory forms, your brain stores some significant details and trashes the rest. Along with those details, emotional colors are stored as well. Thus, your memories of a childhood picnic may include not only where your family gathered and what they ate, but also how you felt at the time.
Memories are fluid, not fixed. When you recall something from long-term memory, your brain reconstructs the memory from scattered neural circuits associated with sensations and facts. That memory, held anew in the brain, then gets associated with whatever else resides in your mind at the same time. Old memories are mixed with new thoughts. When the memory returns to long-term storage, the brain sends with it any new thoughts that it held at the same time. These new associations adhere to the memory. The next time the brain recalls the original memory, the added details are retrieved as well; the brain treats them all as if they were part of the same memory file. Thus, many things you believe you know for certain likely turn out to be at least partly false upon examination. That’s why the power of suggestion can change memories or even create false ones, and why some eyewitnesses crumble under cross-examination in court or provide credible testimony that later proves to be mistaken.
If you create negative mental states such as sadness or anxiety whenever you call up a memory from long-term storage, those dark feelings slowly become glued into the memory. For example, if recalling a date in high school leaves you sad, the neural circuits encoding that sadness grow stronger. Do it often enough, and you will physically change the power of the synaptic connections in your neural circuits.
Fortunately, deciding to rewire your brain in a more positive way works just as well. It won’t happen overnight. Instead, you can gradually replace negative memory associations with positive ones by choosing to bring good things to mind when you call up bad memories. If a childhood memory makes you feel unloved, focus on the love around you today. If a memory brings on feelings of inadequacy, think about something you’re proud to have accomplished, and let it sink in. Then, over the next hour or so, try to repeat the connection between positive associations and the original memory. Research by behavioral neuroscientist Marie Monfils at the University of Texas suggests that in the moments after recalling a memory, the brain has greater power to change negative ones than positive ones.
In addition to thinking good thoughts, it helps to overtly state positive things to yourself out loud or in your mind. You don’t have to be the goofy, saccharine character Stuart Smalley from Saturday Night Live (“I’m good enough. I’m smart enough. And doggone it, people like me.”), but it wouldn’t hurt to emulate Fred Rogers, the soft-spoken educator and Presbyterian minister beloved by two generations of children for his years on the Public Broadcasting Service program Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood. He nurtured self-worth, telling children, “You always make it special for me by just your being you. I like you just the way you are. You know that, don’t you?” And then he told children he would see them the next day, a promise that no matter what, his relationship with them would continue.
BRAIN INSIGHT
Your brain is not physically mature until you are in your 20s
Turning 18 is more or less the magic moment when people are expected to take full responsibility for their actions. In America, this includes receiving the right to vote, use tobacco products, and, generally, be emancipated from parents and handle finances.
But 18 isn’t the age of perfect reason.
The brain’s maturation includes the gradual spread of a pale, waxlike substance called myelin around axon fibers. Myelin acts like electrical insulation, increasing the speed and efficiency of information-sharing among neurons. If your brain were a digital connection, myelin would boost your bandwidth.
Myelination begins shortly before birth and isn’t complete until early adulthood. It begins in the motor and sensory regions toward the back of the brain and works its way forward. Last to become fully myelinated, sometime in the third decade, is the prefrontal cortex, center of reason and control of behavior. Men complete myelination later than women.
Nowhere is the immaturity of a young adult’s brain seen more clearly than in automotive statistics. In England, men aged 17 to 20 account for one third of all convictions for dangerous driving, despite being only 3 percent of drivers. Small wonder insuring a driver under age 25 is so expensive.