the Brain - 02

And because the physical stuff is constantly changing, we are too.

We’re not fixed. From cradle to grave, we are works in progress.

Our perception of reality has less to do with what’s happening out there,

and more to do with what’s happening inside our brain.

The brain doesn’t really care about the details of the input; it simply

cares about figuring out how to most efficiently move around in the

world and get what it needs.

Our experience of reality is the brain’s ultimate construction.

★In fact, the brain generates its own reality, even before it receives

information coming in from the eyes and the other senses. This is

known as the internal model.

At any moment, what we experience as seeing relies less on the light 

streaming into our eyes, and more on what’s already inside our heads.

What you experience is not the

raw data hitting your eyes, but instead your internal model – a model

which has been trained on a lifetime of faces that stick out. 

Our internal model is low resolution but upgradeable

your internal model operates under the assumption that the world outside

is stable. 

Your eyes are not like video cameras – they simply venture out to find 

more details to feed into the internal model. They’re not like camera 

lenses that you’re seeing through; they’re gathering bits of data to 

feed the world inside your skull.

We think of color as a fundamental quality of the world around us. But

in the outside world, color doesn’t actually exist. 

The real world is not full of rich sensory events; instead, 

our brains light up the world with their own sensuality.

★★narrative:记叙文 故事

With seven billion human brains wandering the planet,here’s no single version

of reality. Each brain carries its own truth.

The unconscious machinery of our brains is at work all the time, but

it runs so smoothly that we’re typically unaware of its operations. As a

result, it’s often easiest to appreciate only when it stops working.

As a skill becomes hardwired, it sinks below the level of conscious

control. At that point, we can perform a task automatically and

without thinking about it –——without conscious awareness.

★★★Throughout our lives, our brains rewrite themselves to build dedicated

circuitry for the missions we practice

Synaptic突触 connections are not all of the same strength:depending on 

their history of activity, they can become stronger or weaker. 

As synapses change their potency,

information flows through the network differently. If a

connection gets weak enough, it withers and goes away. If

it gets strengthened, it can sprout发芽 new connections.

Some of this reconfiguring is guided by reward systems, which globally 

broadcast a neurotransmitter called dopamine when something has gone well.

★★★Attempts to consciously interfere with them typically worsen 

their performance. Learned proficiencies – even very complex ones – 

are best left to their own devices.(顺其自然?)

During flow, the brain enters a state of hypofrontality, meaning that 

parts of the prefrontal cortex temporarily become less active. These

are areas involved in abstract thinking,planning into the future, and 

concentrating on one’s sense of self.

★★★It’s often the case that consciousness is best left at the sidelines被迫退出 –

and for some types of tasks, there’s really no choice, because the

unconscious brain can perform at speeds that the conscious mind is

too slow to keep up with. 

The reach of the unconscious mind extends beyond control of our

bodies. It shapes our lives in more profound ways. 

--

the next time you’re in a conversation, notice the way words spill 

out of your mouth more quickly than you could possibly consciously control

every word you say. ★★Your brain is working behind the scenes, crafting 

and producing language, conjugations, and complex thoughts for you. (For

comparison, compare your speed when speaking a foreign language

that you’re just learning!)

We take conscious credit for all our ideas, as though we’ve done the hard work

in generating them. But in fact, your unconscious brain has been

working on those ideas – consolidating memories, trying out new

combinations, evaluating the consequences – for hours or months

before the idea rises to your awareness and you declare, “I just thought

of something!”

Our brains constantly pull information from the environment and use it 

to steer our behavior, but often the influences around us are not recognized.

Because the brain mechanisms for judging intrapersonal内心的 warmth overlap重叠 

with the mechanisms for judging physical warmth, and so one influences 

the other.

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In another study, it was shown

that if you sit in a hard chair you’ll be a more hard-line negotiator in a

business transaction; in a soft chair you’ll yield more.