Now that we’ve covered the basics, it’s probably a good time to move forward and get a bit more specific. Thus far, we have covered: 1) Building awareness and staying present. 2) working with sleep and taking breaks. 3) physical exercise, and 4) eating right. Going forward, we will talk about specific executive functions and what we can do to train them. What we have discussed thus far and what we are about to discuss have quite a bit of overlap.
When you finish all the sections, you will recognize that we need to practice only a few skills to experience overall improvement. And that it’s simpler than you once thought. Simpler, not easier :).
In the coming sections, we will talk about and come up with practices to help with planning, prioritizing, starting tasks, and persisting until task completion. These can help you do what we have discussed thus far as. We will then jump to drills to improve working memory and response inhibition.
Biology
There are parts of the brain that learn and tell it what is important.
Salience refers to the quality that makes certain stimuli, events, or pieces of information stand out and capture our attention more than others. This concept is crucial in guiding attention and prioritizing what the brain deems important in a given context.”
Salience detection involves the salience network (SN), which includes the anterior insula (AI) and ACC, and helps prioritize important stimuli. The dopaminergic system, with pathways from the ventral tegmental area (VTA) to the prefrontal cortex, signals the motivational importance of stimuli. The amygdala processes emotional salience, particularly for threats and rewards, and interacts with the hippocampus for emotional memories.
There are parts of the brain that help us plan, prioritize, and act toward what we deem important.
Planning and prioritizing are complex cognitive functions managed by interconnected brain circuits, primarily involving the prefrontal cortex (PFC). Key regions include the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) for decision-making and strategy, the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (VMPFC) for integrating emotional aspects, and the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) for evaluating outcomes. These regions interact with the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) for error detection and the posterior parietal cortex (PPC) for attention. The corticostriatal circuit, involving the basal ganglia, helps in selecting and initiating actions, while the cerebellum refines these plans. The frontoparietal network (FPN) ensures dynamic adjustments and cognitive control, integrating inputs from these areas to maintain goals and adapt strategies.
It’s essential to recognize that what your brain deems important and salient may differ from what you logically conclude. For instance, your brain might signal discomfort, prompting you to halt work, even though you’re aware that stopping now could impede progress.
How does your brain learn what’s important and what’s not?
Think of your brain as a super-busy inbox constantly flooded with emails. Imagine that each email represents a piece of information or an experience. Now, your brain can’t possibly give equal attention to every single email, right?
During our early developmental years, our brains are like sponges, soaking up everything around us. But as we grow, our brains start to figure out what’s important and what’s not based on what they observe you doing and feeling. If something captures our attention or has a strong emotional impact, like a joyful moment with a loved one or a scary encounter, our brain takes notice. It’s like those emails with bold subject lines or urgent flags—they’re more likely to get our attention, and we are more likely to respond to them.
Neurologically, there’s a process called synaptic pruning that happens mainly during adolescence. Picture it as cleaning out your inbox by unsubscribing from unnecessary emails. Connections between neurons that aren’t used often start to fade away, while connections that are frequently used get stronger. This helps streamline our brain’s processing power, focusing on the stuff it thinks matters most.
Unfortunately, this process can inadvertently lead to the deprioritization of valuable experiences. Curiosity, spontaneity, creativity, and exploration might be categorized as unimportant, while comfort, rigidity, conformity, and fear of failure might be overemphasized.
Rewiring the brain’s salience networks
Just as breaking a habit requires consistent effort, rewiring the salience network necessitates dedicated practice. For example, consider an individual who is struggling to quit smoking. For years, cigarettes have been prioritized above other aspects of life. Now, the desire to quit presents a challenge: the salience network craves nicotine. However, each urge to smoke presents an opportunity to rewire the prioritization system. By resisting the urge, the individual teaches the brain that cigarettes are not a priority. While seemingly straightforward, this strategy demands significant effort.
Your innate superpower!
Volition and agency: the Power of Choice
Volition refers to our ability to make conscious choices and initiate actions. It’s the superpower that allows us to resist impulses, persevere through challenges, and pursue our goals. The prefrontal cortex (PFC), particularly the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), plays a central role in volition. The DLPFC helps us weigh options, consider consequences, and ultimately decide on a course of action.
While salience networks play a crucial role in directing our attention, they don’t always align with our conscious goals. A strong urge triggered by the salience network, like the craving for a cigarette, can feel overwhelming and difficult to resist. This creates a conflict between the salience network pushing for a particular action and the volition network striving for a different course.
Fortunately, volitional networks are not helpless against salience networks.
Here’s how volition can maintain control:
- Prioritizing direction: By setting clear priorities and planning our actions in line with who we’d like to be, the volition network can guide our behavior and prevent salience networks from hijacking our choices.
- Learning to step away from the chatter: Our brain constantly buzzes with some random thought process. This mental chatter shows your brain is active, but learning to observe it without getting swept away is key. By practicing mindfulness and learning to create space between your thoughts and emotions, you can better align your actions with your true intentions, helping you maintain control over your decisions. (You can go back to the chapters on watching the chatter and anchoring for this.)
- Cognitive reappraisal: The prefrontal cortex can reframe the situation and downplay the emotional salience of a tempting stimulus. For example, a smoker might remind themselves of the long-term health benefits of quitting in order to take control of the act.
- Impulse control and duck diving: The prefrontal cortex can activate brain regions responsible for inhibiting unwanted responses. This allows us to resist the urge to act impulsively based on salience alone.
- Tiny little steps: Taking small, manageable actions towards a goal can make it feel more achievable and less overwhelming. This approach keeps the volition network engaged by providing a steady stream of small victories, which reinforces our ability to do what we want to.
Kirthika stared at her ever-growing to-do list, the knot of anxiety in her stomach a familiar companion. An essay loomed, its deadline a dark cloud overhead. Social media, with its constant stream of notifications, offered a siren song of instant distraction. Procrastination wasn’t laziness; it was a well-worn path, with the initial escape from the essay outweighing the future stress. This internal battle was a tug-of-war between Kirthika’s salience network, prioritizing the dopamine rush of social media, and her volition network, which she had to activate to get the work done. By learning to become aware of the urge to procrastinate, acknowledging the fleeting pleasure it offered, and then consciously choosing to write a few words of the essay, she could slowly train her volition/salience balance. Over time, the initial discomfort of focusing on the essay would lessen, replaced by the satisfaction of accomplishment and the freedom to be truly spontaneous on her own terms.