Friederike Fabritius: Prefrontal Cortex, Limbic System, and High Performance

Keit

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I stumbled upon a short video from a lecture by Friederike Fabritius (A trained neuropsychologist. Here's her biography) that she gave to a group of top executives in Barcelona several years ago. The video was so interesting, I decided to watch couple more, and now think that entire lecture is worth mentioning here, even if it is supposed to be a lecture to the group of successful corporate directors.

Fabritius not only share basic facts about the brain and its areas, she also gives a lot of examples, and talks about results of recent neurological research (well, relevant to the year 2014, when she gave the lecture). She also talks about mirror neurons and why it is important to choose with whom you associate with.

This lecture may help those who are more visually or auditory oriented. First, here are several small videos as an example, and in the end the full lecture.


https://youtu.be/qtNQQ9--_YA


https://youtu.be/GCe6lL3sEkI


https://youtu.be/Sqx-3TXYv_Q


https://youtu.be/YEzm7OCZeWg


https://youtu.be/zuTyq31cl8g
 
Just having a quick glance at her book “The Leading Brain”

Although more than one hundred neurotransmitters have been identified, from the standpoint of peak performance, only three are truly important: dopamine, noradrenaline, and acetylcholine. We call them the “DNA of Peak Performance”

DOPAMINE
Dopamine, as one journalist suggests, has become ‘the Kim Kardashian of neurotransmitters’ for the way in which it has spiced up the science pages with tales of pleasure, addiction, and reward. It seems to have captured the public’s interest and imagination, probably because of its association with excitement, novelty, an risk.

Dopamine is involved in your ability to update information in memory and also affects your ability to focus on the task at hand. It provides a druglike reward that makes you want more. And, as with many drugs, the high wears off and you often need more the next time to get the same effect. That’s why dopamine is known as a novelty neurotransmitter. Its effects are strongest when the stimulus that generates it is new. This explains in part the enthusiasm you may feel when you start a new project and why the thrill isn’t usually as strong after you’ve been working on it for a while.

Dopamine plays a number of roles in the body, including aiding motor control. But in the context of the brain and peak performance, it’s the fun chemical. To truly be performing at peak level, you should be having fun. The experience should feel rewarding. IF you aren’t feeling this way, you may still be performing better than usual, but you probably haven’t reached your peak.

WHAT’S ALL THE RUSH? NORADRENALINE!

Almost everyone is familiar with noradrenaline (also known as norepinephrine), or at least thinks they are. It’s the rush we get both when we bungee jump ad when we react in surprise to the sudden lunge of a neighbor’s “friendly’ dog. Noradrenaline’s primary purpose is to ensure your survival.. It was evolutionarily designed to help you respond quickly to any threat, real or perceived. It does so by regulating your attention and alertness. Studies indicate that higher levels of noradrenaline lead to greater accuracy when detecting errors in a visual error-detecting task when we are awake, alert, and up to the task.

Noradrenaline is at an optimal level when you feel slightly overchallenged; it leads to a ‘this is tricky but I can handle it’ feeling. It is also released when you push yourself to perform a difficult task better, faster, or with fewer resources.

FROM SPOTLIGHT TO LASER: ACETYLCHOLINE

The third of the three neurochemicals that make up the DNA of Peak Performance is acetylcholine, which is found in abundance in a surprising segment of the population. In fact, there’s a very special group of human beings that can probably teach you a great deal about peak performance. Look around and you’ll find that they seem to practically everywhere. Are they dedicated research chemists? World – class professional athletes? Risk – taking entrepreneurs? Chess grandmasters? Award – winning sales reps? Politicians? Not even close. And yet, you might even have one of them living under your very roof. And no, it isn’t your mother – in – law. Or that sullen twentysomething who still lives at home and has mistaken your house for a combination all-you –can-eat restaurant and Laundromat. It’s an infant. That’s right: babies!

If you’ve ever spent any amount of time with babies, then you probably recongnize that they’re some of the most alert and observant little people on the planet. Although they may be excreting a lot of unpleasant stuff, they’re simultaneously soaking up sights, sounds, tastes, and smells like high-powered, turbocharged, diaper-wearing cognitive vacuum cleaners. The same mechanism you use to achieve peak performance every now and then, a baby is operating practically nonstop for the first few years of her life. And the chemical behind this extraordinary performance is acetylcholine.

Acetylcholine comes a part of the brain called the nucleus basalis. Babies release acetylcholine without even trying. Neuroscientists refer to this as the ‘critical period of neuroplasticity,’ a time when brand-new brains are extremely receptive to new information and are constantly establishing neuronal pathways. As neuroscientist Michael Merzenich explains it, during critical plasticity ‘the learning machinery is continuously on.” As adults we’re not so lucky. The automatic mechanism for extraordinary focus shuts down when we’re still quite young and must be operated manually from then on.

So how do we as adults flip the switch that turns on acetylcholine?. Once this critical period is over, there are only a handful of ways we can do it: when we make a conscious effort to pay attention, when we get physical exercise, or when we are exposed to something important, surprising, or novel – in other words, when our brain releases dopamine.

Another way to look at the DNA of Peak Performance is to think of it as a prizewinning photograph. Noradrenaline prompts you to point your camera in just the right direction, dopamine helps you to zoom in until you have a pleasing composition, and finally there’s acetylcholine, which enables you to sharpen your focus until it’s picture-perfect. Get only one or two of these elements just right and what you have is a snapshot. Add the third and suddenly it’s a work of art.

ONE SIZE DOESN’T FIT ALL – THERE’S NO UNIVERSAL STANDARD FOR OPTIMUM AROUSAL.

The depiction of the performance curve as a simple inverted U provides a clear and conscise explanation for how performance works. But as you may have already noticed, the graph doesn’t have any units. How do you measure arousal? In inches? In ergs? In Scoville units? In other words, exactly how much arousal is required to reach peak performance? The short answer is that we can’t really say. The longer answer is that it can vary dramatically from person to person and from one task or situation to another. There’s no universal standard for optimum arousal. In that respect, arousal has a lot in common with spicy food.

SPICY, BUT NOT AS SPICY AS HERS

Put yourself for a moment in the role of a server at a Thai restaurant in California. A well – dressed couple stroll in and sit down in a booth just below the framed pictures of the king and queen. When you come over to take their order, she orders “Thai basil with pork, very spicy,” while he asks for the same dish, but with chicken, adding, almost as an afterthought, “but not as spicy as hers.” What are you going to tell the chef? You have a hunch that if he makes the dishes ‘very spicey’ according to the standards of the small village outside Bangkok where he grew up, your customers may single-handedly worsen one of the state’s periodic droughts by constantly asking to have their water glasses refilled. Who knows? They may even sue.

The definition of spicy in a Thai restaurant is a bit like the definition of arousal in a Yerkes-Dodson graph. One person’s standards for what constitutes arousal can vary widely from another’s. Some of us are ‘right-side performers’ like Gordo Cooper. Others are ‘left-side performers’ like Louise Pasteur. Still others lie somewhere in between. Luckily, we have a kind of spiciness test that we administer to our seminar attendees to guage each one’s optimum level of arousal.
 
Thanks for sharing, it was a good introduction into how our brains work. Especially interesting was the fact that the prefrontal cortex only starts working at age of 20 (or thereabouts). Something I can personally confirm looking back at my past. ;D
 
Mikey said:
Thanks for sharing, it was a good introduction into how our brains work. Especially interesting was the fact that the prefrontal cortex only starts working at age of 20 (or thereabouts). Something I can personally confirm looking back at my past. ;D

Indeed! I also found the part interesting that experience (located in the basal ganglia) can somewhat “replace” your prefrontal cortex if it is thrown off-line by your limbic (threat) system, and that it can look like your general state of arousal has shifted to “more arousal”. But as FF said, you cannot really alter your basic state of arousal, but you can train (the “train to death” paradigm that is used in emergency medicine for instance) to manage situations that require a higher amount of arousal.

Thanks for posting this video, Keit, abolutely fascinating!
 
Thanks for sharing Keit, very interesting videos.

I haven't watched the whole video just the short ones.

But as FF said, you cannot really alter your basic state of arousal, but you can train (the “train to death” paradigm that is used in emergency medicine for instance) to manage situations that require a higher amount of arousal.

Is there any information on how to train so you can manage situations that require higher amounts of arousal? As this would be useful I would think.
 
987baz said:
Thanks for sharing Keit, very interesting videos.

I haven't watched the whole video just the short ones.

But as FF said, you cannot really alter your basic state of arousal, but you can train (the “train to death” paradigm that is used in emergency medicine for instance) to manage situations that require a higher amount of arousal.

Is there any information on how to train so you can manage situations that require higher amounts of arousal? As this would be useful I would think.

As I mentioned above, the concept is to “train yourself to death”: You train something over and over again, so that under pressure (when your PFC gets wiped out by your limbic system), your basal ganglia (where experience is stored) kick in. Reactions then are being done “reflexively” and don’t require the PFC to be online. FF gave as an example soldiers training to fire their rifles under combat situations, after having trained this over and over again, or emergency personel training an intervention over and over again, so that they can use their BG to get the task done, even if their PFC is off-line. Or pilots come to mind, too.

At least that is what I got from her talk - hope this clarifies your question!
 
nicklebleu said:
987baz said:
Thanks for sharing Keit, very interesting videos.

I haven't watched the whole video just the short ones.

But as FF said, you cannot really alter your basic state of arousal, but you can train (the “train to death” paradigm that is used in emergency medicine for instance) to manage situations that require a higher amount of arousal.

Is there any information on how to train so you can manage situations that require higher amounts of arousal? As this would be useful I would think.

As I mentioned above, the concept is to “train yourself to death”: You train something over and over again, so that under pressure (when your PFC gets wiped out by your limbic system), your basal ganglia (where experience is stored) kick in. Reactions then are being done “reflexively” and don’t require the PFC to be online. FF gave as an example soldiers training to fire their rifles under combat situations, after having trained this over and over again, or emergency personel training an intervention over and over again, so that they can use their BG to get the task done, even if their PFC is off-line. Or pilots come to mind, too.

At least that is what I got from her talk - hope this clarifies your question!

Thanks for the clarification nicklebleu, yes that makes sense to me now, it's like being on "autopilot", you've done the action so many times that it pretty much becomes instinctual :cool2:
 
nicklebleu said:
987baz said:
Thanks for sharing Keit, very interesting videos.

I haven't watched the whole video just the short ones.

But as FF said, you cannot really alter your basic state of arousal, but you can train (the “train to death” paradigm that is used in emergency medicine for instance) to manage situations that require a higher amount of arousal.

Is there any information on how to train so you can manage situations that require higher amounts of arousal? As this would be useful I would think.

As I mentioned above, the concept is to “train yourself to death”: You train something over and over again, so that under pressure (when your PFC gets wiped out by your limbic system), your basal ganglia (where experience is stored) kick in. Reactions then are being done “reflexively” and don’t require the PFC to be online. FF gave as an example soldiers training to fire their rifles under combat situations, after having trained this over and over again, or emergency personel training an intervention over and over again, so that they can use their BG to get the task done, even if their PFC is off-line. Or pilots come to mind, too.

At least that is what I got from her talk - hope this clarifies your question!

And that is why The Work on the self is so important. Compare this to the "training" described by Samenow in the last chapter of "Inside the Criminal Mind". It is almost exactly what we do here in terms of what we call "The Mirror", only way more intensive.

Also note the emphasis on acetylcholine and relate that to the effects of nicotine.
 
Thank you for sharing! Here is the full lecture:


https://youtu.be/zuTyq31cl8g

Mirror Neurons 0:37 -- 5:30
Maslow Pyramide Proven Wrong - Social Needs are Most Relevant 07:00 -- 11:33
Prefrontal Cortex, Limbic System, and High Performance 12:28 -- 16:44
Reward Circuit, Dopamine, and Experiment Winning Lottery Versus Being Paralysed 16:45- 20:45
Threat And Negativity Bias 20:45 -- 25:01
Interaction Prefrontal Cortex and Limbic System 25:38 -- 28:04
Dopamine, Acethylcholine, and Focused Attention 36:46-38:38
Arousal and Performance: Sensations Seekers Explained 38:38 - 49:40
Basal Ganglia, Expertise, and Young Talents 51:18 - 54:23
 
Laura said:
nicklebleu said:
987baz said:
Thanks for sharing Keit, very interesting videos.

I haven't watched the whole video just the short ones.

But as FF said, you cannot really alter your basic state of arousal, but you can train (the “train to death” paradigm that is used in emergency medicine for instance) to manage situations that require a higher amount of arousal.

Is there any information on how to train so you can manage situations that require higher amounts of arousal? As this would be useful I would think.

As I mentioned above, the concept is to “train yourself to death”: You train something over and over again, so that under pressure (when your PFC gets wiped out by your limbic system), your basal ganglia (where experience is stored) kick in. Reactions then are being done “reflexively” and don’t require the PFC to be online. FF gave as an example soldiers training to fire their rifles under combat situations, after having trained this over and over again, or emergency personel training an intervention over and over again, so that they can use their BG to get the task done, even if their PFC is off-line. Or pilots come to mind, too.

At least that is what I got from her talk - hope this clarifies your question!

And that is why The Work on the self is so important. Compare this to the "training" described by Samenow in the last chapter of "Inside the Criminal Mind". It is almost exactly what we do here in terms of what we call "The Mirror", only way more intensive.

Also note the emphasis on acetylcholine and relate that to the effects of nicotine.

Using Samenow's methods and thinking errors as a framework, it seems you can alter your basic state of arousal as it occurs. Power and control seem to be big contributors for arousal, particularly when there are vulnerabilities spotted in others, in situations or in various systems. When you identify what is actually 'exciting' you as it happens, it can be countered. The consideration of being aroused by power and control dampens the impulse rather quickly! This seems different than training the brain to mechanically bypass arousal and is probably more effective because you can apply it any type of situation as it comes up. Another benefit is that you are consciously rewiring the brain in the situation rather than relying on mechanical methods. However, I haven't watched the videos so I'm not sure if 'mechanical methods' is what is being suggested or not.
 
I think that these are two different situations:

The one that you mentioned is certainly something that we all need to thrive for.

But incertain strictly defined situations I think tha “mechanical” approach is better, like pilots training for an emergency response, etc. In this case the scope of the acdtion is very tightly defined, and trying to broaden the scope would probably degrade the quality and speed of the required intervention. The optimal course of action probably would be to train both situations, because even pilots may experience situations, where their “mechanical” approach is insufficient. A good example of that is the book about a near-disaster that Qantas experienced with one of their newest jets, and how the pilots struggled to maintain the aircraft in the air - a very interesting read if you are interested in aviation or the management of complex situations under a lot of pressure.

Book can be found here.
 
nicklebleu said:
But incertain strictly defined situations I think tha “mechanical” approach is better, like pilots training for an emergency response, etc. In this case the scope of the acdtion is very tightly defined, and trying to broaden the scope would probably degrade the quality and speed of the required intervention.

Yes, I think it depends on the nature of the situation. If it is an emergency that requires quick action, than “mechanical” approach is absolutely necessary, because "thinking" takes longer time, and because high arousal state shuts down access to the long term memory, so no point relying n that. There is a saying in Russian that describes this state: "The eyes are afraid, but the hands are doing". Unfortunately it does require "training to death" to achieve this state, and it takes time.

But if it isn't an emergency situation, and there is a place and time (even if only several minutes) to contemplate a response, then it is appropriate to realize that one's thinking is flawed and take conscious steps to modify it.
 
For Chronic, Mysterious Illnesses, This Could Be a Lifesaver
Story at a glance:
  • Limbic hyperactivity or dysfunction appears to be a foundational core of the dysfunction and challenges associated with multiple chemical sensitivity (MCS), electromagnetic hypersensitivity (EHS), chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS), fibromyalgia (FM)and a number of other conditions
  • Your limbic system is the emotional and reactive part of your brain, responsible for filtering sensory and emotional information, and sorting that information into two distinct categories: safe or unsafe
  • When neurons along that neural network are damaged or not working functionally, your limbic system can start to categorize information that would not normally be considered dangerous as life-threatening; essentially, your brain gets stuck in the fight-flight-or-freeze mechanism
  • Limbic retraining helps you retrain your limbic system to respond in a functional manner, thereby reducing symptoms
  • Remember, though, even if your symptoms dissipate through limbic retraining, you still need to mitigate the cellular injury that toxic chemicals, mold or EMF exposure has inflicted
 

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