Bantari wrote:Interesting.
But then - how can we be sure its not just humming along on idle?
Just like a muscle which we not use at the moment, but it still has blood pumping through, and whatnot.
Sorry I missed your reply by this much.
We can be fairly certain that
something is going on. If not the whole brain, at least part of the brain is quietly coming up with new ideas and combinations of ideas. A lot of your brain's mass is preoccupied with absorbing and sorting sensory information. Part of it is creating the internal sensory representation of your own thoughts as you involve conscious and unconscious decision-making processes, such as internal dialogue, mental images, etc.
There have been many, many studies based on brain imaging of subjects who were engaged in specific active activities, such as juggling or balancing, as well as passive activities, such as being exposed to colors or sound. By manipulating normally unconscious activities as in the latter studies, sometimes in very subtle ways (the subjects were sometimes unaware of what the experiment was, only that one was taking place), we have isolated the parts of the brain which activate in response to stimuli both internal and external. We have a rough idea of which part of the brain does what and how it shows.
Of course we do not know everything, and sometimes the brain is simply firing away in ways we cannot replicate. It could be neural 'noise', but I believe researchers will eventually learn to find out what the subject is doing in their own mind (maybe therapists will learn as well, someday), and replicating this 'noise' will become much easier. Going from 'noise' to clear cause-and-effect is a common process in all sciences, and it goes to show that cognitive neuroscience is still in its adolescence.
Bantari wrote:I notice that most of the time when I play, I am not really using my full potential. I know I could concentrate more, read deeper, and play better - often by a few stones. Can it be said I am not using my brain's full potential? For important games, I make an effort to get more mentally involved, and so I concentrate better and read deeper. So I am using some more of the potential I have. Still, I know that with a little training, I could use even more of it, and concentrate even better and read even deeper. I have done so in the pest, in spurts.
But this leads me to a question - can I push it further?
...
The bottom line - It is clear to me that when people say stuff like "we use only 10% of our brains" they do not mean it in physical sense at all. They do not mean we can cut off 90% of our brain and still function normally, or at all. But can it be this is about the "potential" and the efficiency with which we use our brains? We can sure argue about exact percentages, but I am sure there is something to it.
Ah yes, this is definitely another issue altogether. This is the meat of what some refer to 'intelligence'. It's the issue that is obscured by the 10% myth and the only thing that really matters: performance.
'Potential' is a very poor term when dealing with the practicalities of our neurology. It's much too vague and is reminiscent of pop-sci terminology. Three major components affect performance in sports: fitness level (state of the body), skill level (technical expertise) and mental state. The same goes for mental activities, such as Go.
In Go, you would think about fitness in terms of how 'fit' your brain is. Are you awake? Did you have enough sleep? Did you 'stretch'? What did you eat recently? Is your body fit and relaxed? When observing the mind-body connection, it becomes very easy to mistake both. After all, one
is the other.
Skill level is, of course, Go experience and knowledge, reading ability, analytic skills, etc. For more information, peruse the other sections of this forum.
Mental state is the key here. Think of it as a multiplier to your mental faculties at a given time. The reason you perform much better or worse at any given time is not determined by how
much of your brain you use, but simply
how you're using it. So far, I haven't taught anyone here anything new. Enter sports metaphors.
One of the factors which affects performance is 'priming'. You will notice sprinters doing this all the time, right before the race. They'll stretch in very specific ways, pump their leg muscles in specific ways, at exact times before the start. Incidentally, these activities also serve as anchors for the proper mental state, and I will get to that soon. Another example of priming is the split-jump in racket sports. Once the best position on the court is achieved, the player performs a small hop and widens their base of support immediately before receiving their opponents' shot. This primes their leg muscles for rapid lateral movement, as the legs are relaxed while recovering from the hop's landing, and the player is moving upward slightly, putting less weight on the legs to allow for a faster start.
In Go, you could conceivably solve a few tsumego or quickly review one of your more successful games before seeking a new match. There is short- and long-term priming, and studying other subjects and using your brain in ways that have no obvious relation to the mental activity in question can in fact improve it. I have read of pros recommend their pupils to engage in a wide variety of mental activities to improve their game. Competitive long-distance runners prepare for weeks - even months - prior to their event, physically, mentally and gastronomically, in order to achieve optimal performance.
One of the reasons they can achieve this is that they track their performance over a range of different factors. Being competitive athletes, they understand how important their mental state is during and immediately before the performance. Every single professional athlete has a method of achieving the state of mind in which they have achieved optimal results, usually by performing a ritual of sorts. They have anchored the state to mental images and sounds, short activities, body positions, etc, and perform these steps in order to get into this state.
Again, being in the correct state is not using more of your brain, but the state must be congruent with the activity. You would not get into the same mental state to perform in Go as you would to make a public speech. The idea here is one of
precision. The more precisely you can tune your state to the activity, the better. The more specific you can make your anchoring ritual, the better.
Exponents of combat sports will tell you that the secret to power is the control of tension and relaxation. They practice the same punch a million times not only to have it come out instantly and to correctly transfer body weight efficiently. The real secret is that they train each of their muscles to relax in the correct areas and amounts at precise times. Tensing your biceps while throwing a punch will slow you down and be couterproductive. Tensing them while retracting your punch makes the retreat faster and is synergetic.
The secret to achieving the perfect mental state is simply this: keep a close eye on what affects it and how, consciously strive to attain the best state for your activity, then anchor it to some sensory triggers. Fire the triggers immediately prior to the event, and you will perform better. Keep a close eye on it as you perform and find out how you can improve on it. Rinse and repeat.
Sorry for the extremely long post. This is my area of predilection (intellectually speaking, at least), and I am a proud man full of ideas.
Presumably she administered the concoctions or was present when they were administered, and the pets could have reacted to her.
