Our brain is involved with every form of thought we experience. Our brain also contains ten to one hundred billion neurons that represent our thoughts. This abundance of neurons must have direct correlation to our different thoughts. Neurons communicate with one another through synapses and different thoughts are represented by unique arrangements of neurons.
A person who is presented with the word ball and whose thoughts are tracked for ten minutes after this initial exposure to the word is an example of arrangements of neurons representing different thoughts. If a person who watches and plays many sports is presented the word ball then he experiences a chain reaction of thoughts. For example, after his brain decodes the sound and comprehends the word and realizes that it represents a ball then his brain could go through a chain of thoughts just like this one: ball-football-San Francisco 49ers- funny incident at 49er game- same funny incident at dinner- favorite meal at dinner(potatoes)- the versatility of potatoes- french fries- Irish potato famine- the movie departed- Jack Nicholson. As you can see this list can go on forever but there is one aspect of this list that caters to the idea of a unique set of neurons and it the bridges between the ideas ball, potatoes, and Jack Nicholson. The bridges are respectively funny incident and Irish.
The fact that our brain contains a range of ten to one hundred billion neurons gives to the fact that there are arrangements of neurons which represent our diverse sets of thoughts. A regular person must experience tens of thousands of thoughts per day pertaining to his or her's surroundings. Many thoughts that differ in subject matter are linked by one common denominator which is emotion. In the chain reaction of the thought process of a ball to Jack Nicholson the bridges which are a funny incident and Ireland are bridges because of strong emotional feelings. A funny incident and Ireland represent happiness from an incident that caused laughter and food that caused satisfaction. Thoughts that bring out emotion bridge our knowledge which connect two very distinct ideas.
Neuroplasticity is a major player in the way we think. Neuroplasticity is defined as "the changing of neurons, the organization of their networks, and their function via new experiences". New experiences which bring about new emotion cause a rearrangement of neurons or a new arrangement of a set of neurons representing this experience. It is Neuroplasticity that gives our minds its ability to be so malleable in and also so sensitive to an experience that follows large emotion. For example, if I see a baseball bat slam into a person in a crowd after a batter accidentally lets go of a bat then then an emotion of fear bridges the set of neurons representing a person at bat and being a baseball game. Seeing and containing new feelings towards this experience rearrange my neurons to judge the game of baseball in a whole different manner my previous view of baseball being great and fun.
Do you think this is why a lot of people go with their intial gut reaction when making decisions, because their brain process is taking them down a sub conscious path?
ReplyDeleteYes, I definitely think that is the case with the decision making process.
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