Do you need more thinking, fantasy, motivation, emotions, or balance? Are you filled with pleasure, enthusiasm and curiousity - if we may explain these 5 main important brain networks? Are you becoming enthusiastic when you understand this more?
Some important brain networks are often ruling our brain (according or against our will). Even when we need to be in another network! The names of the brain networks are not so easy to understand and remember. That is bad, because they may be so helpful to remember and use consciously! How may we simplify the complex brain network theories that are emerging the last years? I choose to test to call 5 important brain networks for:
1)THINKING,
2)IMAGINATION,
3)MOTIVATION,
4)EMOTION,
5)WHOLENESS BALANCING - networks.
Often used names of the 5 important networks are:
Central executing network (CEN),
Default mode network (DMN),
Panksepps 7 deep emotional networks (seeking, rage, fear, lust, care, grief, play),
Salience network (SN).
Test to rename the networks:
THINKING: Central Executive Network (CEN): Consciousness
IMAGINATION: Resting. Default Mode Network (DMN): Fantasy
MOTIVATION: Seeking. Curious. The motivation-and-reward system anchored in the nucleus accumbens, described by Jaak Panksepp as one of 7 primary emotions.
EMOTIONAL NETWORKS, specifically those identified in the lower non-cognitive brain regions by Panksepp. The 6 other deep primary emotions networks - other than Seeking, are: Rage. Fear. Lust. Care. Grief. Play. networks.
WHOLENESS BALANCING: Integration. Salience Network (SN). Awareness: Value, social awareness network.
So let’s play with names that you may associate better! Get inspired to grasp brain network theory!
When we simplify to 5 important brain networks: We simultaneously have to remember there are moment to moment created new inter connected, cross links between the main important 5 brain networks and many other networks not mentioned here.
Some functions of these networks:
1)THINKING: Consciousness: Focused attention, planning, decision-making. Our logic and fact network. It is oriented toward achieving goals. It is linked to motoric and executive network. The thinking is in our conscious mind (dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, or dlpfc). Here a small bit of information (called working memory) is consciously considered. It may remember only 4-7 words for 30 seconds. Therefore: Speak 10 words or less! This is the only network that is conscious. The working memory is linked to further networks and may store memories as long time learned memory. Thinking is primarily “outward” attention. Your left prefrontal cortex has your positive and optimistic inner chat.
When you are tired or lack skills in your thinking networks, you may lack facts or logic, and you may reason and argue more out of fantasy than factual situation.
When we focus 20 minutes or so – our thinking gets tired. Then you need to reduce stress and fantasies: yawn, stretch super slowly, relax and observe without judging. Then you may see/feel/experience glimpse of the other networks that are unconscious. When your brain is relaxed and stressed down - you may start a next 20 minutes period of focused logical attention.
Ask: Yawn-stretch-relax-observe – then ask:
What do you think you want?
2)IMAGINATION: Fantasy: Mind-wandering. Daydreaming. Default mode network (DMN). Resting network. Resting means the place the attention automatic goes to rest, when the focus thinking network is tired - and empty of neurotransmitters and oxygen. Imagination, visualizing, fantasy. Creative problem solving. Lots of old memories (bad and good). Your negative inner chat. Some of it happens in your right prefrontal cortex. These vague feelings and thoughts (positive and negative) are mostly unconscious. Maybe our brain is wandering here 50 % of our wake day.
When your focused thinking network gets tired after about 20 minutes, your brain drops into this resting and fantasy network. Then you may not be so effective at work this moment! It helps to reduce stress: yawn, stretch super slowly, relax and observe without judging. When you do, you may get ideas to creative problem solving. Or you may manage to visualize and foresight. Write the ideas down! And when you get relaxed and without stress, you are ready for next 20 minute focused thinking period.
Ask: Yawn-stretch-relax-observe – then ask:
What does your fantasy tell you?
3)MOTIVATION: Curiosity, desire, pleasure-seeking. Want more of everything that may be helpful now or in the future. Insight, friends, things, money, possibilities. Motivation and reward network. This is the emotion Panksepp identifies as SEEKING.
Ask: Yawn-stretch-relax-observe – then ask:
What do you feel you really seek and want?
4)EMOTION: Panksepp’s other six primary emotions: CARE, PLAY, LUST, RAGE, FEAR, GRIEF. Rage and fear are linked to the fight, flight, freeze response we have inherited from reptiles. Such emotions have helped us to survive. Our inner fantasies makes us feel rage and fear. Negative fantasies often dominate to much of nowadays peoples lives.
Ask: Yawn-stretch-relax-observe – then ask:
What feelings are dominante in your mental state now?
And now the one network we have developed short and we often forget:
5)WHOLENESS BALANCING: Awareness: See Chang et al 2017 about the role of Salience Network (SN) to balance thinking and imagination. Balancing consciousness and fantasy. And balance the networks of motivation and deep emotions - to imagination and to thinking. This is a network for intuition, social insight and behavior, integration and balance. Wholeness, holistic, overview and system level solutions. You use it to find balance among values. Balance values and empathy with self and others. Balancing between present and future needs and interests. Balance long and short time lines network.
Seeking for wholeness may be seeking synergy possibilities. Look for similarities, common interests to seek possibilities. To find next level to overcome dilemmas.
This network assigns a “moral value” to emotional experiences, enhances empathy and compassion, and coordinates the interaction of the other networks. It is the slowest developing network in the brain.
Are you triggered when you are first to be part of the next level balanced long term solution, part of the future, drag future un til now, finding the road other will follow, trend setter? Use your wholeness balancing network!
What happens if you forget to use your wholeness balance overview network? You may live too much in fact network or too much in fantasy network. You may be one-eyed, one-sided bias focused. You may want to place wind turbine industries – into wild untouched nature with habitats for genetic diversity. Change land use from biodiversity into industry.
Ask: Yawn-stretch-relax-observe – then ask:
What might your deep inner wisdom and insight tell you?
What would a wholeness balanced solution look like?
All five networks overlap in a key area that we can stimulate through the practice of mindful awareness, allowing us to intuitively glimpse how these five networks are functioning.
Neuro-tip:
Shift to another network:
We shift often and quickly, but we use the new network «polluted» with «overhang», rests and ruminants from the last network.
When you want to shift to another brain network, you need to relax. You need to get out of the current network. You may manage to do the shift through an exercise to:
Yyawn, stretch super slowly, relax, observe without judging.
Then you may observe a glimpse of an important unconscios resource inside yourself. Very smart to grasp this inner resource!
When you are in the relaxed aware state, you may ask you a question that opens you into one of the other desired networks.
Do you want to experience
to get access to one of your brain networks when you need it
contact helge.christie@gmail.com
Sources:
1)Chand GB1, Wu J2, Hajjar I1,3, Qiu D2,4.:
Brain Connect. 2017 Sep;7(7):401-412. doi: 10.1089/brain.2017.0509. Epub 2017 Aug 10.
Interactions of the Salience Network and Its Subsystems with the Default-Mode and the Central-Executive Networks in Normal Aging and Mild Cognitive Impairment.
2)Panksepp Jaak, 2012: The archaeology of mind. Neuroevolutionary origins of human emotions.