Archive for February, 2012
My Broken Wrist and My Brain
The Glossy Black Cockatoos (c) Hugh Todd
We were on a bush walk in South Australia and came upon a sign that said the area is the habitat of the very rare (only about 260) glossy black cockatoo. If you saw that sign, what would you do? Right, haul out your binoculars, walk very quietly, and look around. We saw evidence of the seeds they feed on, so we were sure we’d spot the bird. No luck, so we continued on the hike, all the way down an embankment to the water, across river rocks to our destination, The Old Cannery.
It wasn’t much of a site, but the journey there was worth it. On our return trip, once again at the place the bird could be, I wondered what would happen if my partner became incapacitated. I certainly would not be able to get him out. Just then, as I was walking along, looking up for yet once more chance to see the magnificent bird, I tripped and fell hard onto roots and rocks.
My wrist and arm were sore, my hand was bleeding, and my pride severely damaged. Once we hiked out, I was able to drive the car, albeit uncomfortably. We changed our ferry reservation to earlier, and went home to ice, ibuprofen and a wrap. All that happened on a Friday.
We returned to Colorado the following Monday and I saw an orthopedist the next day. Yes, I had two small breaks and was fitted with a splint to immobilize my wrist.
Here’s the part where my brain comes in. On the trip I read a most fascinating book The Brain that Changes Itself by Norman Doidge, MD. Most of the book is about brain plasticity, including how the brain creates new maps to deal with malfunctions and injuries. So, I decided to observe what was happening as my brain and body had to cope with my wrist.
First of all, I’m very left handed and the break is on that side. Beforehand I did very little with my right side, but it came to attention almost immediately. I drove to the ferry with my left hand on the gearshift (ouch) but my right arm, almost without my being aware, reached over to help. Since then, I observe myself becoming more and more ambidextrous: eating, brushing hair, closing car door, cooking, sorting laundry, typing (as fluid as ever with right and peck with left), and sleeping on my other side.
It might be wishful thinking, but I also notice my thoughts are more concrete and I’m more apt to remember details. I even found myself to a destination with logic rather than my GPS. Maybe Dr. Doidge’s writing is influencing me, or maybe what I’m experiencing is what he writes about. Whichever, I intend to keep using my right hand once the left is healed because I like having greater capacity.
Have you ever had a similar situation? What did you notice?
Brainy Terms from Science News
There was an excellent article on January 14, 2012 in Science News titled “Brainy ballplayers: Elite Athletes get their heads in the game” by Nick Bascom. The article explains the vital role brainpower has in the prowess of super athletes (and the rest of us too).
The article not only does an excellent job of citing the latest research on the relationship of the brain to athletic performance, it also explains some of the terms neuroscientists and other specialists are using these days. Here are definitions of some of those terms to upgrade our shared knowledge:
Overall brain activation: neural regions that are engaged. The more expert we are the lower the overall brain activation we display. In other words, we don’t use what we don’t need to do a task with focused attention.
Brain Mapping: set of neuroscience techniques that spatially represent the activity of the brain to show what the brain is doing whether we are consciously or unconsciously engaged.
Motor centers: Areas of the brain that direct movement (superior parietal and premotor). These areas are heightened for professional athletes while amateurs show dispersed activity, especially in the regions that control emotions (basal ganglia and limbic system). It’s why high-performing people tune out everything but what they are doing at the moment.
Optimal solution: Experts don’t pay too much conscious attention to what they’re doing; rather they rely upon their expert brain that knows what to do. In the article he sites Yogi Berra’s famous line, “I can’t think and hit the ball at the same time.” So much for the multitaskers among us.
Automaticity: To access complex actions automatically requires a huge amount of training and practice to develop nerve connections. The author says attributes we’re born with play a big role in how close to perfection we can come, regardless of the amount of practice.
Noise: Sensory static that “prevents the muscles from hearing the message the brain is sending.”
Mirror-neurons: a system for matching what you do with what you see others doing.
Anticipation: the ability to predict a movement. We decide if we should expend energy on a certain response by reading what another person is doing. I think of people listening, and sometimes people shut down because they aren’t interested enough to follow along. The ability to anticipate well means one can sort out relevant versus irrelevant clues. That can be expedient or troublesome.
Forward models: the ability to pre-plan. Previous experiences allow the brain to go into calculation mode to predict how to respond.
Priors: the accumulated knowledge the person has seen before. The expert’s predictive machine is constantly being updated. That’s why many CEO’s will say they trust their gut to make a decision when actually it’s their forward model and priors telling them what they know and what the likelihood of success will be.
Prefrontal cortex: part of the brain often called The Director. It’s job is to control information and sometimes it puts us into over-analysis, which paralyzes and clouds judgment. We overthink when we should just be listening, not judging, composing, or thinking.
The article ends with a quote from a song by En Vogue, “Free your mind, and the rest will follow.” Of course, there’s also this one, “Chance favors the prepared mind.”
A Listening Formula with a Twist
I certainly did not invent the following formula for attentive listening, and I don’t know where to give credit either. Regardless, it’s a very nice four-step process to remember:
Receive, Appreciate, Summarize, Ask
It works as a general rule of thumb. The twist though is when you throw listening habits into the mix. Each of the four habits will respond differently to a step in the process.
For example an Inner-personal listener will receive information if it has personal value and ignore other kinds of information, let’s say that which would be of interest to a Problem-solving listener. While the Inner-personal listener might be very well-intended, but unaware of his listening habits, he’d gloss over the facts and details that would appeal to a Problem-solving listener. Furthermore, he probably wouldn’t be aware that had occurred. The outcome: limited reception.
A listener must learn to Appreciate that there are different listening habits and preferences before she can accept the variety in styles. If we continue with two different listeners from above, the Problem-solving listener will appreciate it if the Inner-personal listener picks up on all the details in the interaction because that would mean they are on the same wave-length (or have synchronized mirror neurons). However, when that doesn’t happen, the outcome is antipathy rather than appreciation.
I’m sure you’re getting the drift: Listening is not formulaic; it is a highly individualized activity that requires awareness, knowledge, and intent. While it’s very good to have a process like Receive, Appreciate, Summarize, Ask in your head as you interact with others, you must also remember to tailor each step to the styles of others.