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The Difference Between Thoughts & Memories

AHA Publisher — Wed, 05 Oct 2022 07:03:05 +0000

Dr. Caroline Leaf – In this podcast (episode #420) and blog, I talk about the difference between thoughts and memories. This podcast is part 4 of my series on the different parts of the mind. As mentioned in my previous podcasts on this topic, The Difference Between the Nonconscious, Subconscious & Conscious Mind (part 1), How to Tap Into the Nonconscious Mind to Unwire Trauma & Toxic Thinking Habits (part 2), and How to Listen to & Learn from Your Mental & Physical Warning Signals (part 3), when you consciously engage the nonconscious mind through deliberate, intentional, strategic, and proactive deep thinking, you draw your thoughts, with their embedded memories, through the subconscious mind and into the conscious mind. When these thoughts arrive in the conscious mind, they’re in a malleable state, which means you can change them and reconceptualize them—you can change the way they impact your life. But what exactly is a thought? And how is it different from a memory? The mind is made up of trillions and trillions of thoughts. A thought is a real physical thing that occupies mental real estate in the brain and mind. A thought is built into the brain as you use your mind—that is, as you think, feel and choose. Thoughts are located in three different places: your brain, your mind, and the cells of your body. Inside the thought are the embedded memories—so a thought is made of memories, and there can be any number of memories, thousands even, in a thought, just as there are hundreds or even thousands of branches on a tree. For example, the thought could be that I am concerned about my family member. Within this thought, there will be hundreds or more memories related to this concern. The thought is therefore the big picture, and the details of the thought are the memories. There are three types of memories in a thought: Informational memories are all the details: particulars, facts, data, associations, links, and so on associated with that thought. These are like the branches on a thought tree. Emotional memories are the feelings associated with the information memories. These are like the leaves on the branches of a thought three. Physical memories are the physical embodiments of the sensations experienced at the time the thought was built, which are coupled with the emotional memories and informational memories. These are built into every cell of our body and are re-experienced when we recall the informational and emotional memories, because these three parts of the thought are inseparable. Thoughts are potentially limitless. Each thought is a literal universe, because each thought is made up of limitless memories. Thoughts also keep getting updated, as well as entangled with other related thoughts, like the endless root system of a sweeping forest. And your mind is always in action, which means you’re always building thoughts, and you’re always pulling up the thoughts you have built to guide and influence your next decision. The best way to understand this is to think of a thought as a tree. The thought is the big concept: the whole tree with branches, leaves, and roots. The branches and leaves are how you express your memories as your conscious thinking, feeling, and choosing, which produce your behaviors and your communication (what you are saying and doing) and all of which manifest your lifestyle choices. The tree trunk represents the subconscious level and your perspective, which includes the physical and emotional signals you experience, such as that lurch of anticipation when you hear exciting news, that sense of happiness or joy that makes you bounce out of bed, or that nagging sense of depression or anxiety that something is wrong. The subconscious connects the nonconscious to the conscious, in the same way the trunk connects the roots to the leaves and branches. The roots represent the nonconscious roots of your memories. They are the origin of the informational, emotional, and physical memories and are the level that tells us what’s going on in our lives and why we do what we do—this is the level we have to tap into to make the changes needed in our lifestyles through mind management, as I discuss in my book Cleaning Up Your Mental Mess and app Neurocycle. In the same way that a planted seed forms roots, appears above ground, grows, and changes, so your thoughts grow and change over time. Once a thought is planted—the conversation you have, what you hear, what you read, and so on—its roots begin to grow. When “watered” with thinking, it grows into a little thought plant. If ignored, the thought tree dies. If, however, it gets lots of thinking energy, it will eventually get bigger and stronger. Whatever we think about the most will grow. So, at first it is a little plant, like a nagging worry or something at the back of your mind. Over time, if it’s watered with thinking, it becomes a “big tree” and can dominate and influence our behavior. The exciting thing is that you are the director and designer of this process! You shape what you have built into your mind, and you can change what is not working or what is having a negative effect in your life. Toxic thought trees like trauma and bad habits can be built and broken down and rebuilt—toxic trees aren’t your destiny. This is self-regulated mind-management: your thinking, feeling, and choosing are shaping, pruning, and building. And the more self-regulated you are, the more effective this process is and the more peace and meaning you’ll find in life! Indeed, it’s important to remember that although our thought-life is a stream of consciousness, with thousands of individual thoughts blending together, we can bring a level of order to our thinking by controlling what we allow into our mind and brain and what’s already in our mind and brain. We’re able to evaluate the individual frames of thought by self-regulating our stream of consciousness through mind management. We can harness the power of our thinking in tangible, sustainable ways! To do this, I recommend doing a Neurocycle, the scientific mind-management process I have developed and researched over the past three decades and discuss in my book Cleaning Up Your Mental Mess, my app Neurocycle, and in my latest clinical trials. These steps can help you learn how to reconceptualize your thinking, i.e. changing the way your thought tree and its memories look in the brain: First, calm down your brain and body by breathing deeply. I recommend breathing in for 5 counts and out for 11 counts, and repeating this technique 3 times (for around 45 seconds). Next, GATHER awareness of your warning signals, such as tension in your shoulders, indigestion or feelings of anxiety. Then, REFLECT on why you are having these feelings. Ask, answer and discuss with yourself. After this step, WRITE down what you reflected on. This will help you organize your thinking. Then, RECHECK. Look for triggers, thought patterns and “antidotes” (for example, how you would like to respond in the future and how you would like the situation to end). Lastly, practice your ACTIVE REACH. Practice using the “antidote” you came up with in the recheck step to deal with your trigger. For example, this could be as simple as practicing not raising your voice or being more aware of your body language. To read the original article click here.

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The Difference Between Thoughts & Memories + How to Rewire Thoughts & Heal Painful Memories

AHA Publisher — Tue, 17 Aug 2021 07:00:05 +0000

Dr. Caroline Leaf – In this podcast (#308) and blog, I am going to explain the difference between thoughts and memories, as this is a question I get a lot, and there seems to be quite a bit of confusion surrounding the topic! We experience events and circumstances all the time—this is what it means to be immersed in life. We respond and react to events all day long and sort them into experiences while we sleep. This is what I call our “mind-in-action”, which makes a product: a thought. A thought is a real physical thing made of proteins and chemicals that occupies mental real estate in the brain as a tree-like structure on our neurons, and as gravitational fields in the mind, as well as in DNA in the body. These thoughts look like trees, and, like a tree, are made of roots and branches. These are our memories—the “root” and “branch” memories. The thought itself is the concept, or the big idea. Inside the thought are the embedded memories. There can be any number of memories, thousands even, in one thought, just as there are hundreds or even thousands of branches and roots on a tree. What all this means is that a thought tree is literally built into the brain as you use your mind in response to your experiences, or in other words, as you think, feel and choose in response to life. This means we as humans literally have trillions of thoughts, and how we build them and use them to function is what we talk about as memory or thought formation. For example, the thought could be “I am concerned about a family member”. There will be hundreds or perhaps thousands of memories related to this thought. The thought is the big picture, and the details of the thought are the memories. There are three types of memories in a thought: Informational memories, which are all the details: the particulars, facts, data, associations, links, and so on associated with that thought. These are like the branches on a thought tree. Emotional memories, which are the feelings associated with the informational memories. These are like the leaves on the branches of a thought three. Physical memories, which are the physical embodiments of the sensations experienced at the time the thought was built. These are coupled with the emotional memories and informational memories. Using the analogy of a tree, the thought is the big concept: the whole tree with the branches, leaves and roots. The roots are the source, the origin; for example, the book you are reading, the conversation you are having, this podcast you are listening to, and so on. The branches and leaves are how you interpret the information from your unique perspective, and how you will use the information (how it will manifest in your communication and behavior). To read the original article click here.

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Using the Neurocycle to Break Cycles, Heal Generational Trauma & End Toxic Family Patterns

AHA Publisher — Wed, 10 Mar 2021 08:00:35 +0000

Dr. Caroline Leaf – In this podcast (episode #261) and blog, I talk about how to use the Neurocycle to break the toxic cycles we have in our lives, whether these come from our own past or are a pattern that is inherited as generational trauma. When it comes to the mind-brain connection, we don’t have to be beholden to the past. We can change how these cycles play out in our future. Our thinking, feeling and choosing changes our genetic expression. We switch genes on and off with every thought we have, and every thought we have is a response to how we perceive our life and the world around us. In fact, as I discuss in detail in my latest book, Cleaning Up Your Mental Mess, research has shown that around 5% of genetic mutations cause disease; an estimated 95% of genes are influenced by our environment and lifestyle factors. What does all this mean? The way that you think also contributes to this environment. Your genetic activity is significantly determined by your thoughts, attitudes, and perception, which collectively create the environment of your mind, brain and body. Even though this may sound overwhelming and a little scary, it is actually very hopeful! The science of epigenetics shows that our thoughts can control our biology, and we can control our thoughts, positively directing genetic expression in our body and passing these genetic markers through the generations. Essentially, this means that what you are thinking at any one moment is vitally important because your thoughts affect the signals your genes receive. By managing your mind, you are in effect managing these signals and how they impact your genetic expression and biology. So, how does this all work? Epigenetics shows us that our thoughts are a predominant factor controlling genetic expression; our mind controls what we think, eat, exercise, respond to and so on—it controls how we live our lives. Epigenetics shows us that how we think, feel and choose (our mind-in-action) will influence the behavior of our genes and our subsequent mental and physical wellbeing. These epigenetic changes represent a biological response to an environmental signal. The response can be inherited through the generations via epigenetic markers. However, if you remove the signal, the epigenetic mark can fade. If you choose to add a signal, on the other hand, the epigenetic mark can be activated. In sum, we are not merely our genes or biology. Our past doesn’t have to be our destiny. How we think and choose to live our lives impacts a big part of the picture! What you are thinking at any one moment is vitally important because this is the signal your genes receive. This means that when you learn how to manage your thoughts through managing your mind, you can change your thoughts. And, by changing your thoughts, you can change your genetic expression; you rewire your brain (through neuroplasticity), which then impacts your biology. Research studies, including mine (which I discuss in detail in my latest book Cleaning Up Your Mental Mess) show that managing your mind can even influence how you age and your vulnerability to disease, while there is strong scientific evidence that controlling one’s inner thought life and detoxing the mind is preventative against cognitive decline and Alzheimer’s! So, how do we start breaking these cycles? As I talk about in Cleaning Up Your Mental Mess, this process begins with deliberate and intentional mindfulness that activates our self-regulation, which then helps us go beyond mindfulness and into mind-management. To do this, I recommend using the mind management technique I have researched, developed and applied clinically over the past three decades, which is called the Neurocycle. The kind of self-regulation that is achieved using the Neurocycle is a great way to deal with the root of the toxic generational cycles in your life, reconceptualizing them and how they impact your genetic expression. It is done in 5 steps: Gather awareness of what you are feeling emotionally and physically as you work on a toxic cycle in your life. Reflect on why you feel the way you do—be as specific as possible. Write this down—this is way to help organize your thinking and gain clarity. Recheck what you have written. Look for patterns in your work life, your relationships, your responses, your attitudes and so on. Take action. I call this step an “active reach”. It is essentially an action you take to reinforce the new, reconceptualized pattern of thinking you want in your life (which is replacing the old, toxic cycle). To read the original article click here. For more articles from Dr. Leaf click here.

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Tools to Exercise Your Brain and Improve Cognitive Function

AHA Publisher — Fri, 19 Feb 2021 08:00:03 +0000

Will Cole via Dr. Caroline Leaf – Your brain is one of the most complex organs in your body and is responsible for your movements, mood, and thoughts. Without your brain you wouldn’t be able to function on any level and when it isn’t working optimally, it shows. We often like to separate mental health from physical health but in reality, mental health is physical health. Our brain is part of our body, and there are measurable physiological implications that can drive brain health problems. And with brain problems on the rise, I see more and more people seeking out my expertise in my telehealth functional medicine clinic than ever before. And while every person’s health case is different, there are a few tools that I regularly implement and recommend to my patients for their proven benefits when it comes to brain health. Keep reading for my top 5 brain-boosting tools. 1. Intermittent Fasting A study published in Trends in Cognitive Sciences theorize that the continuous consumption of food causes changes in epigenetic molecular DNA and protein that negatively impact cognition that can even be passed down to future generations. And while there are multiple benefits to fasting, improved brain health is at the top of the list. In my newest book Intuitive Fasting, I dive into all the ways fasting can enhance cognitive function coupled with a 4-Week plan designed to guide you through varying intermittent fasting windows. Each week of the plan is tailored to focus on a different aspect of your health so that by the end of the four weeks, you will have all the tools necessary to achieve metabolic flexibility and thriving brain function. 2. Clean Keto Diet A clean, plant-centric ketogenic diet (which I call Ketotarian) is a great way to support optimal brain health. Both the ketogenic diet and intermittent fasting can help you reach nutritional ketosis quicker and amplify the many other benefits of fasting including improved cognitive function. That’s what I call a win-win. Ketone bodies like beta-hydroxybutyrate (BHB) act as a signaling molecule in brain cells and can induce the expressions of proteins such as brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF). This protein is known for promoting cellular resilience and synaptic plasticity. This means that BDNF works to support the survival of existing brain cells and encourages the growth of new ones. Lowered synaptic plasticity has been shown to contribute to a range of brain health, psychiatric, and neurodegenerative disorders, including Alzheimer’s disease, autism, schizophrenia, and addition. 4. Time outdoors In addition to providing you with the most bioavailable source of vitamin D (which is linked to decreased memory and brain fog), the sun also provides healing infrared light, which is essential to calming inflammation levels that can further perpetuate poor memory and cognitive function. 5. Meditation Neuroplasticity is your brain’s ability to regenerate itself by making new neural connections. This slowly decreases over time but meditation can increase the thickness of the brain’s prefrontal cortex. This helps to slow down cognitive decline and preserve neuroplasticity. Regular meditation is alsoassociated with more activity in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and the angular cingulate cortex, the areas of the brain responsible for memory and focus. And if you are looking to find your zen, meditation can increase brain gray matter volume in the right angular and posterior parahippocampal gyri areas of the brain that is responsible for mood stabilization. Just 10-20 minutes of meditation a day is enough to reap these powerful benefits! 6. Learn something Learning something new has been shown to strengthen the connections in your brain and improve overall memory function. And the benefits don’t stop there. The feel-good endorphin dopamine is associated with being rewarded, and when we learn something new, dopamine is released in your brain. While I suggest working with a functional medicine practitioner directly who can uncover the root cause of your symptoms and develop a customized plan for optimizing your brain health, these tools can be a great starting point for finally achieving the mental clarity you’ve been searching for. To read the original article click here. For more articles from Dr. Leaf click here.

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How to Unwire Addiction & Toxic Habits from Our Brains, Why Focusing on “Willpower” is Ineffective and Counterproductive

AHA Publisher — Fri, 09 Oct 2020 07:00:17 +0000

Dr. Caroline Leaf – The human brain is designed to be habitual—this has helped us survive over the centuries. But what happens when we build toxic habits that hold us back? How do we overcome negative thinking patterns that keep us stuck? In this podcast (episode #206) and blog, I speak with social psychologist, bestselling author and podcast host Dr. Amy Johnson about how we can find true and lasting freedom from unwanted habits, how to not be afraid of change, how to build new habits based on insight, not willpower, and how to help someone change without becoming an enabler. As Amy notes in her book, The Little Book of Big Change: The No-Willpower Approach to Breaking Any Habit, a thought is essentially our ability to have an experience. This experience can be either good or bad; what is important it how we react to the experience and take it in. If you are dealing with a recurring issue or addiction and nothing has helped you so far, it is not because you are broken or there is something wrong with you. The solutions you tried could not fix you because you don’t need fixing in the way you think you do. Your brain is like a machine; it is demanding that you do something or act in a certain way because it has been conditioned by your behavior (which often happens unintentionally). It is not something that needs to be fixed; it needs to be shifted and changed by your insight and understanding. You control the process—it does not control you. You are not bound by your past. You are free to be who you want to be; you don’t have to walk around in fear and shame. Indeed, overcoming a bad habit or addiction is not about making something go away or stop. It is about learning how to be free of the urges to act or think in a certain a way, separating yourself from them and observing these desires as an experience, not a necessity. This deep insight will increase your self-compassion, helping you recover, readjust and overcome what you are facing. We need to see our urges as moving, changing experiences that we don’t have to act on or believe. If a thought or desire comes back, this doesn’t mean we are still sick or we have failed; it is just a passing memory. We don’t need to fear it, because we understand that it is a fleeting experience, not an illness or disease. Essentially, where we direct our energy, the brain follows. This becomes a bad thing when we take an experience and make it a part of our own narrative, rather than letting it move through us without latching onto it. The more energy we give this habit, the more room we give it in our mind and life. Overcoming bad habits and addictions means shifting your mental energy away from the thoughts behind these habits—they are slowly dying, even though they may still affect your behavior in some way. The key point is that the habit or addiction no longer owns you. Breaking a bad habit is not about elimination, it is about shifting your energy away from the habit. Where your mind goes, your brain and body follows! When it comes to breaking a bad habit, if you just focus on your willpower, you keep giving the bad habit mental energy by thinking about it constantly, and it stays alive. So, what’s the solution? When you are dealing with a toxic thought or habit, it is tough to do much in the moment, because this is often when we are at our weakest—it almost feels like we have been hijacked by our thinking. It is far more important to focus on the bigger picture and the insights you will gain before and after, which help you move forward. In the moment, the best thing you can do is let go and let the feelings move through you so you can “reset” instead of pushing away or numbing your feelings. When you are calmer, you can start accessing the wisdom of your experiences. If someone you love is battling with an addiction or toxic habit, help them explore this. Be with them as they try to discover who they are and how their experience works. Be present and help them see that they are not broken or ill. Help them gain insight into what their experiences are telling them. Have those deep, hard conversations—this will allow them to tap into their natural wisdom. Don’t see the person as broken or ill; don’t just assume that they are doing this to upset you or make your life difficult. See the truth behind their behavior and know that they are doing what they do to cope; they are in pain and are afraid of facing their experience. This article has been modified. To read the original article click here. For more articles from Dr. Leaf click here.

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Practical & Powerful Tips to Ending Mental Illness from Renowned Psychiatrist Dr. Daniel Amen

AHA Publisher — Mon, 01 Jun 2020 07:00:40 +0000

Dr. Caroline Leaf – Mental health is a hot topic these days, especially considering the current COVID-19 pandemic, and the enforced social separation and isolation many of us have experienced over the past several months. Even though things are starting to open in many places, we all are facing a world which is dramatically different to the one we knew before the pandemic—so many things are uncertain, which only exacerbates our collective mental distress. Thankfully, as I discuss in this week’s blog and podcast with world-renowned psychiatrist, brain specialist and best-selling author Dr. Daniel Amen, there are ways we can take our mental and brain health into our own hands! The human brain is remarkably resilient: over time we can heal our minds and find freedom, purpose and renewal in an imperfect world. Indeed, Dr. Amen has spent his professional life witnessing this resiliency. As he describes in his excellent new book, The End of Mental Illness: How Neuroscience Is Transforming Psychiatry and Helping Prevent or Reverse Mood and Anxiety Disorders, ADHD, Addictions, PTSD, Psychosis, Personality Disorders, and More, the technological advances in the field of neuroscience have huge strides in our understanding of the brain and what mental distress looks like on a biological level. Rather than just look at someone’s symptoms and giving them a “pill for every ill”, when we take someone’s whole story into account and look at their brain using the latest technology, we can give them practical and powerful tips to find healing on both a mental and physical level. These advances have reshaped our understanding of what mental health actually means. Nobody wants to be labelled as defective, and no one should be. Instead of talking about “mental illness”, we should talk about what Dr. Amen calls a “brain health issue”. When we focus on improving our brain health by looking at what is going on inside our heads and taking action, we improve our mind and life, and when we focus on improving our mind, that is what we think every day, we improve our brain health: we need to look at the whole picture, not just the alleviation of certain symptoms using medication. We can start doing this by recognizing that certain things affect the health of our brain, which include: Inflammation. This can occur from what we eat, how we live and how we think, which is why it is important that we pay attention to our lifestyle choices and strive to live a healthy life, including practicing good dental and physical hygiene, exercising regularly, eating well, taking care of the gut, practicing mind management, learning and so on, as I discuss in my blogs, books and podcast. Diet. Obesity and diet-related illnesses like diabetes can directly and indirectly impact our brain health, which is why we cannot afford not to eat well and move regularly. In fact, research has shown that the more our weight goes up, the more the size and function of our brain goes down! What we eat affects how we think and our physical health, just as what we think affects our digestion and ability to keep the brain and body healthy (I discuss this in detail in my book Think and Eat Yourself Smart). Immunity. A lot of infectious diseases affect our brain health, such as Lyme disease, which is why protecting and boosting the body’s immune system is so important. This includes getting enough vitamin D, which is essential for a healthy immune response! Neurohormones. As I discussed in a recent blog and podcast (episode #158), our hormones affect our brain health. This is especially the case as we age, which is why we should look at natural ways to improve our hormones, such as diet and bioidentical hormones (for more on this listen to my most recent podcast episode #162 and see the blog I published last week). Ironically, these are also the areas that affect our susceptibility to viruses like COVID-19. When we focus on improving our brain health, we also improve the health of our whole body, which can help us fight off infections and diseases! Thankfully, as Dr. Amen mentions in his book, there are things we can do to improve the health of our brain: 1. Focusing on our biological health. This is the physical functioning of the brain, which includes making healthy lifestyle choices like eating well and exercising regularly. If you are interested, Dr. Amen has clinics around the country where you can have your brain health examined. It is important to recognize that traumatic brain injuries (including mild injuries and concussions) can directly impact mental health, which we can only see on a brain scan. This is often overlooked in the current mental health system, which can lead to tragic outcomes for people who are suffering from brain trauma. This is particularly the case with children, whose brains are especially vulnerable as they are still developing. As parents and guardians, we should be protecting children’s brains, because if you don’t you can affect the quality of the rest of their lives. We need to rethink what we should allow our children to do! 2. Focusing on our psychological health. What we think and how we handle stress affects our brain health, which can have long term consequences for both our mental and physical health. As I always say, thoughts are real things that have real, physical consequences on the brain and body, so mind management is crucial. Mental hygiene is as important as washing your hands! We always need to pay attention to the physical and emotional warning signals our brain and body send us, and think about the impact our thinking is having on our wellbeing. My SWITCH app is a great tool for helping you learn how to do this, dealing with the roots of your stress and anxiety, and overcoming negative thought patterns and behaviors that impact your health (through the mental process of reconceptualization). It is now on sale less 50% for a 3-month subscription! It is also important to build the brain through deep thinking and learning, especially as we get older! This not only improves our brain health, but also helps prevent the onset of cognitive decline, as I spoke about in my blog and podcast (episode #87). As we age, the brain gets less and less active, but it doesn’t have to! For more on building the brain see my book Think, Learn, Succeed. 3. Focusing on our social health. Humans are social beings. We thrive when we are connected—we are happiest and healthiest when we have deep, meaningful relationships with others, as I recently spoke about on my podcast (episode #103) and in my blog. Getting your relationships right is one of the best antidepressants! 4. Focusing on our spiritual health. We all need purpose, a reason to care that we are alive and well. What gets you out of bed in the morning? What gives your life meaning? As I discussed on in my blog and podcast (episode #149) with Dan Buettner, author of the Blue Zones (areas of the world where people live the longest), knowing your sense of purpose helps you live longer! Never forget, your brain can get better, even if you have been bad to it! Get into the habit of asking yourself everyday if what you are doing is good for your brain, and you will start to love your brain and love your life! To read the original article click here. For more articles from Dr. Leaf click here.

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Faith, Truth and Forgiveness: How Your Brain Processes Abstract Thoughts

AHA Publisher — Thu, 07 Nov 2019 16:23:30 +0000

Carnegie Mellon University via Newswise – The ability of humans to think abstractly plays a central role in scientific and intellectual progress. Unlike concrete concepts, like hammer, abstract concepts, like ethics, have no obvious home in the parts of the brain that deal with perception or control of our bodies. “Humans have the unique ability to construct abstract concepts that have no anchor in the physical world, but we often take this ability for granted,” said Marcel Just, the D.O. Hebb University Professor of Psychology at CMU’s Dietrich College of Humanities and Social Sciences and senior author on the paper. “In this study, we have shown that newly identified components of meaning used by the human brain that acts like an indexing system, similar to a library’s card catalog, to compose the meaning of abstract concepts.” The ability of humans to think abstractly plays a central role in scientific and intellectual progress. Unlike concrete concepts, like hammer, abstract concepts, like ethics, have no obvious home in the parts of the brain that deal with perception or control of our bodies. “Most of our understanding of how the brain processes objects and concepts is based on how our five senses take in information,” said Robert Vargas, a CMU graduate student in Just’s lab and first author on the paper. “It becomes difficult to describe the neural environment of abstract thoughts because many of the brain’s mental tools to process them are themselves abstract.” In this study, Just and his team scanned the brains of nine participants using a functional MRI. The team sifted through the data using machine learning tools to identify patterns for each of the 28 abstract concepts. They applied the machine learning algorithm to correctly identified each concept (with a mean rank accuracy of 0.82, where chance level is 0.50). Just said these abstract concepts are constructed by three dimensions of meaning in the brain. The first dimension corresponds to regions associated with language. For example, the concept of ethics might be linked to other words like rules and morals. A person must first understand the words to construct the additional meaning of ethics. The second dimension defines abstract concepts in terms of reference, either to self or an external source. For example, spirituality refers to self, while causality is external to the self. The final dimension is rooted in social constructs. There is an inherent social component to the concepts of pride and gossip. “For me, the most exciting result of this study was that we were able to predict the neural activation patterns for individual abstract concepts across people,” Vargas said. “It is wild to think that my concept of probability and spirituality is neurally similar to the next person’s, even if their experience of spirituality is different.” During the scan, each concept was presented visually and the participant was allowed to think about this idea for three seconds. The participants saw the set of words six times. The 28 concepts covered in the study span seven categories: mathematics (subtraction, equality, probability and multiplication); scientific (gravity, force, heat and acceleration); social (gossip, intimidation, forgiveness and compliment); emotion (happiness, sadness, anger and pride); law (contract, ethics, crime and exoneration); metaphysical (causality, consciousness, truth and necessity) and religiosity (deity, spirituality, sacrilege and faith). The work is based on nine adult brain scans from a culturally homogenous community on the CMU campus. “It’s flashy to call this work mind reading,” Just said. “For me, it is proof that we have identified some of the elements of the brain’s indexing system — verbal representation, externality/internality and the social dimension — that our brains use to code concepts that have no physical manifestation in the world.” To read the original article click here.

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