The dilemma for the brain is rather like that of a multinational company that over the years has got itself tied up in red tape. “So all the connectivity, all the structuring, all the delicate wiring constitutes a model of associations, a connectivity in there that’s meant to emulate in some way what’s out there.”īut this setup has a major downside, because while the models become more accurate over time, they invariably become less efficient and flexible. “The brain is of itself the model,” explains Karl Friston, a neuroscientist at University College London. Our brains have evolved to model the world in increasingly fine detail. Listen to our podcast about the brain during sleep:
#Altered state of mind store update#
Only the discrepancies between the brain’s predictions and sensory data, known as “prediction errors”, are allowed to pass upwards through its information-processing hierarchies to update the models – to learn. Rather than laboriously using incoming data from our sense organs to assemble internal representations of our surroundings from scratch, moment by moment, the brain deploys “virtual-reality” models to predict what’s happening, allowing us to stay one step ahead of the game in a noisy, confusing, fast-moving world. To understand why, it’s important to grasp how brains generate conscious experience. Sleep and dreaming are vital for maintaining physiological and emotional stability, but how exactly do they stop us from losing the plot? The answer, it seems, helps to explain the mind-healing potential of all kinds of altered state, from meditation, hypnosis and virtual reality to near death experiences and psychedelic trips. As the pressure to sleep builds, it’s almost as if the delusions, terrors and visions of our dream world escape into waking consciousness.ĭreams are the altered state of consciousness almost everyone experiences every night, whether we remember them or not. Since then, “wakeathons” have been banned in most countries and Guinness World Records no longer lists them because the long-term physical risks include cancer and heart disease and the acute mental effects are almost indistinguishable from psychosis. This was the 1950s, but we know the details because his slow mental disintegration was recorded in meticulous detail by psychiatrists from Detroit’s Lafayette Clinic. The hapless DJ had been attempting to break the world record for staying awake, going 220 hours without sleep. He collapsed and was rushed to hospital where he fell into a deep sleep, waking 14 hours later refreshed and seemingly back to his former self.
One moment he was floating on a black cloud surrounded by the indistinct forms of ballet dancers, the next he was broadcasting live from the scene of a fire elsewhere in the city.īy the ninth day he could barely speak or walk. He saw flames spurting from the walls and a grey mist hanging over the pool table.
Why does drinking alcohol trigger my anxiety?.
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