Brain Chemical Helps Us Make Decisions

A gambler's decision to stay or fold in a game of cards could be influenced by a chemical in the brain, suggests new research from the University of British Columbia.

The rise and fall of dopamine plays a key role in decisions involving risk and reward, from a baseball player trying to steal a base to an investor buying or selling a stock. Previous studies have shown that dopamine signals increase when risky choices pay off.

"Our brains are constantly updating how we calculate risk and reward based on previous experiences, keeping an internal score of wins and losses," says Stan Floresco, co-author and professor in UBC's Dept. of Psychology. "Dopamine appears to play an important role in these processes, influencing our everyday choices."

The study saw rats choose between safe and risky rewards -- similar to what investors face on Wall Street. Pressing one lever gave the rodents a small, but guaranteed reward, not unlike a bond. The other lever yielded a large reward or nothing, similar to a high-risk stock.

Researchers altered the rats' decision-making process by shutting down or turning on the dopamine signals in their brains. When the rats played risky and lost, researchers turned on dopamine signals when normally they would have decreased. Subsequently, the rats made riskier decisions. Conversely, when the rats played risky and won, researchers turned dopamine signals off. Here, the rats began to play more conservatively.

"By temporarily knocking these chemical signals out, it demonstrates how significant they are in altering our decisions, even if it's against our better judgment," says Floresco.

Abnormal dopamine levels are associated with several psychiatric disorders, including schizophrenia, depression and drug addiction.

Current treatments for these disorders involve drugs that heighten or lower dopamine levels, but not immediately following a risk and reward decision, like the rats experienced. Therefore, the potential clinical application of the approaches used in the study is unclear.

"The timing of the stimulation is important," explains Floresco. "By understanding how these signals work to influence our behavior, these findings can provide insight into what happens when these signals go awry, as may occur in numerous psychiatric disorders."

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What Exactly Is Your Subconscious Mind?

In the world of hypnosis, we often talk to folks about how hypnotherapy works with, and effects the subconscious.  Yet, it’s easy to forget that the average person doesn’t truly understand the function and purpose of this part of the mind – let alone what it even is or does.  If fact, many Hypnotherapists have trouble understanding it completely.

Therefore, I figured I would try to clear the air of confusion by breaking it down a bit in this blog post.

To begin with, it is estimated that the average human being has over 12,000 different thoughts each day.  The areas of the mind that are controlling these thoughts can be split into two different parts, the conscious and the subconscious.

So let's discusses these parts, their differences, and how the integrate with each other.

The Conscious Mind:

The conscious mind only represents a mere 12% of the total mind's capacity, and can only be concerned with, or hold one single thought at a time.  To some extent it has control over our nervous system, and is responsible for the voluntary actions of our muscles.

The conscious mind is mainly active when we are awake and is responsible for our decision-making processes, or rationalization and analysis.  It decides what action we will take, often based upon past subconscious experiences, and constantly re-assesses a situation to ensure that the correct action has been taken.

The conscious mind has no memory capacity, and therefore only deals with the 'here and now' situation.

When we go into a trance, whether induced as part of hypnosis, or as a natural process, our conscious mind is not really needed and becomes dormant.  It operates in a similar way to an autopilot on an aircraft - should anything happen that requires the conscious mind to reawaken, it will do so immediately.

The Subconscious Mind

The subconscious mind takes up the remaining 88% of our brain's capacity, and could be compared to a massive computer system that stores all of the information regarding our location, situation, feelings etc.

It controls our Autonomic Nervous System such as our heartbeat, breathing, organs and glands - in other words all of the things we do not have to think about.

The subconscious mind has no reasoning power, and cannot reject anything that it is told.

The subconscious mind has a perfect memory.  In fact if you were to merely glance at the face of a passer by in a crowd, your subconscious mind would be able to recall every detail regarding that person such as his clothes, facial lines or wrinkles, everything that you saw.  You may have to do some searching to find this information, but be assured that it would be there, even years later.  In fact, many Police Forces now use hypnotism to bring these memories to the forefront of a witness's mind.

As mentioned earlier, the conscious mind constantly refers to its counterpart for information.  For example, when a person is writing a word on a piece of paper, the subconscious mind will attempt to locate the correct spelling and then pass that information to the conscious mind so that it can instruct the muscles in the hand to act accordingly.

However, this is where we can run into a little bit of trouble. 

Let's take a child for example, who constantly misspells a certain word.  While it could be corrected, it is likely that as the child grows older, the incorrect spelling will always pop back into his or her mind when they go to spell it.  This is because the subconscious mind has recorded the incorrectly spelt word and has no way of knowing that it has been misinformed.  So even though the child can relearn the correct spelling, every time they try to spell this word in the future, their subconscious mind will need to stop and make a correction since the old spelling is still there.

Another problem that we can run into is this.  Since the subconscious cannot tell right from wrong, it often associates feelings or emotions with actions.  With smokers for example, the subconscious mind reminds them that lighting up that cigarette will help them feel calmer, less stressed or maybe more relaxed.  Have you ever heard the term comfort food?  Another example is With eating issues, the subconscious often associates snacking with filling a void such as feeling better, more fulfilled, or satisfied.  And the list goes on and on.

So in effect, the subconscious mind is like a computer program that runs our body for us.  It never sleeps and will continue to run it's program, such as digesting food, maintaining the body, healing cuts and bruises etc.  And it will continue to store new information.

So let's talk about how we reprogram our subconscious mind.

Whilst in a trance state, the subconscious mind will accept any suggestion it receives without question.  However, it must be a suggestion that is not conducive with the moral code of the subconscious.  So if your subconscious perceives it as a threat, then there is likelihood that the conscious mind will reawaken to analyze the situation accordingly.  For example, through hypnosis, I can convince your subconscious that you truly enjoy jogging.  However, if I were to try and convince it to make you jog off a cliff, it will totally reject this idea.  

So let's talk about brain wave states

There are four states of awareness that our brain goes through.  They are known as brain wave states and can be measured by a sophisticated piece of medical equipment known as an electroencephalograph machine (E.E.G.).  This machine measures the electrical activity taking place within the brain, and enables scientists to ascertain what level of awareness a subject has achieved.

When we are wide awake and alert we are in the Beta State.  Our conscious mind is fully active and ready to analyze any information it receives.  If we were performing a difficult task that requires a lot of concentration out brain would almost certainly be in the Beta State.

As we start to relax our brain wave cycles start to relax also.

Should this state of relaxation become deep enough, our brain would enter the Alpha State.  This state is often referred to as the meditative state, the Zen State, the daydreaming state, or the Trance State.  Although we are not actually asleep, we are also not really awake.  We are aware of things around us, perhaps we can hear noises or people talking, but they appear to be very distant.  In this state the conscious mind has effectively fallen asleep, and our subconscious mind remains in control of our Autonomic Nervous System.

In this state, any suggestions given to us would pass straight into the subconscious mind.  We are effectively hypnotized.

With further relaxation, we would fall into a light sleep, this is the Theta State, and from here we would normally fall into a deep sleep known as the Delta State.

Under normal circumstances, we all pass through these four stages when we fall asleep, and then move back through them in reverse order as we awaken.  Medical science has proven that we must all spend a certain amount of time in the Alpha State each day to function properly.

And there you have it - a simple explanation of what your subconscious mind is and how it works.  If you would like more information about your mind and hypnosis, be sure to contact us.

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More Brain Fact To Digest

It is estimated that between 50-70% of visits to the doctor for physical ailments are attributed to psychological factors.

Every time you recall a memory or have a new thought, you are creating a new connection in your brain.

While you sleep, your body produces a hormone that may prevent you from acting out your dreams, leaving you virtually paralyzed.

Each time we blink, our brain kicks in and keeps things illuminated so the whole world doesn’t go dark every single time we blink (about 20,000 times a day).

The average number of thoughts that humans are believed to experience each day is 70,000.
There are no pain receptors in the brain, so the brain can feel no pain.

A stimulating environment for a child can make the difference between a 25% greater ability to learn or 25% less in an environment with little stimulation.

While awake, your brain generates between 10 and 23 watts of power–or enough energy to power a light bulb.

Excessive stress has shown to alter brain cells, brain structure and brain function.

Oxytocin, one of the hormones responsible for triggering feelings of love in the brain, has shown some benefits to helping control repetitive behaviors in those with autism.

You can’t tickle yourself because your brain distinguished between unexpected external touch and your own touch.

A small area in the brain called the amygdala is responsible for your ability to read someone else’s face for clues to how they are feeling.

Scientists have discovered that men and women’s brains react differently to pain, which explains why they may perceive or discuss pain differently.

Women tend to take longer to make a decision, but are more likely to stick with the decision, compared to men, who are more likely to change their mind after making a decision.

Researchers have discovered that those experiencing the blues are more willing to spend more money in an attempt to alleviate their sadness.

As those who invest in dream dictionaries can attest, dreams almost never represent what they actually are. The unconscious mind strives to make connections with concepts you will understand, so dreams are largely symbolic representations.

Laughing at a joke is no simple task as it requires activity in five different areas of the brain.

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