Postulations of Prefrontal Foreplay

Two hours in zone three=better have something to zone out to.

I recommend:

This is the guy running my prefrontal cortex

I’m pathologically indecisive

and a gregarious introvert.


-> Frequently prone to paralysis by analysis.

For me, classic cases of paralysis by analysis occur frequently, momentarily, hour to hour, unless my attention is corralled to a specific task, or my mind is tickled with entertainment...before said entertainment is subjected to my analytical ticks.

Today, I negotiated between cereal brands, anticipated the tenor of film themes before I watched them (thinking that if I watched this one vs. that one I may need to rinse off my brain after viewing it), and negotiated with my endless list of to-do's and desires that all require a certain degree of to-and-fro-ing.

It's not so much a conflict with the mundane, but a sometimes exhausting way to interact with it. It's seems that my particulars are conspiring against clarity, and whatever the endeavor, my inertia takes a hit, if not stopped dead in its uncertain tracks.

According to Jonah Lehrer, author of Proust Was A Neuroscientist, our prefrontal cortex is responsible for decisions of rationality and deliberate style. When we try to navigate through our options, our hierarchy of desire, this feeble part of the brain can only hold, so I hear, about 7 pieces of info at a time before steering itself headlong into bonktown. So even the mechanics of the most banal decisions can exhaust us, and I know we’ve all experienced it. (Think of a time when you are with a group of people, professionally or personally, and you are all trying to agree on one simple thing). We quickly overwhelm our prefrontal cortex. It’s at these red line moments when you get up from your desk and walk out of the office and get some coffee, or a beer if it's Friday.

The Limbic system, the emotional brain, is separate yet not distinct from the prefrontal jury. It’s a collection of brain area, scattered throughout the cortex. Not nearly as focal a point as my prefrontal strip mall. It’s an area that tends to traffic in dopamine and it generates all sorts of subtle feelings that drive our behavior even when we’re not aware of them. At any given moment there is a tremendous argument happening inside the cortex. It’s not simply one brain area that reacts to one thing. I’m engaged in pleasure in one area and at least symbolic pain in another. Like pounding a sleeve of Thin Mints vs the "you're supposed to be training" impulse.

Are you aware of them, these arguments? Is this what Yoga intends to do while stretching muscular systems? What about long rides out past the fire station, does that work? When I was younger I would throw baseballs against the brick wall of my elementary school for an hour/s at a time, certain that I was engaged in some other activity that needed a baseball and an arm to facilitate it. Probably explains the introversion.

So the parts of the frontal cortex are charged with integrating emotions into the decision. One of the crucial things in decision making is not to force a settlement onto the argument. Too often, we shut off different brain areas and impose certainty from the top down. It can be disquieting to have these emotional arguments happening inside our head, to not know how to proceed. To not know the future of post-decision life. Too often we turn off brain areas that are trying to tell us something. Too often we shut them off…they don’t stand a chance against the swami. Yeah, the swami, the guy in the picture running my prefontal. Well, he does not really run it. He walks around it like he's shopping in a strip-mall for something like...conviction, only conviction comes in 24 ounce cans of diet Rockstar.

Oh yeah, then there's dopamine.

It’s one of the crucial ingredients when it comes to decision making. It is the fountain of youth if suffering from Parkinson’s or it is the youth are spending if you’re indulging your senses with sex or heroin. Dopamine is the modulator of feelings, from the pleasure of this year’s run of Girl Scout cookies to having sex on the hood of a car, feelings of fear, or feelings of disgust. It is the key neurotransmitter of emotions in general. But they're smart, or they have a shelf life, depending on your perspective. They adapt to hedonic pleasure and quickly stop firing, but they also look for the causations of pleasure and try to make sense of those rewards.
The dopamine systems are great at finding patterns. It can find the pattern that can predict a certain pleasure, but it’s lousy at dealing with random systems, like the fates.

So, looking back over the last weeks (since the last post really), I'm willing to bet, my prefrontal cortex is currently overwhelmed to the point that I’ve got nothing left for self-control, and swami is up there like a fly swimming in a brandy snifter. The events associated with my condition? You'll never find them posted in a blog. You'll have to hear them second hand or participate in them directly.