Interesting article on "getting it" and the brain

[Dr. Richard Grossman]

Hi everybody,

We are beginning to understand brain differences in "getting it"  and "not getting it".  I suspect ultimately we will be able to look at this vis a vis the capacity for empathy as well as narcissism.  Here's the article:

"Successful Conversations Involve Mind Melds, Study Reveals"


http://www.livescience.com/health/coupled-brain-communication-conversation-100726.html

Richard

[Guest]

Hi Richard,
I'm not getting it; the article that is.
I seem to get stuck on downloading data from intellitxt.com (well, my PC gets stuck)...!

[Dr. Richard Grossman]

Hi Guest,

The link works for me (PC + Firefox).  You might try going to the Livescience web site and searching for the article.

Richard

[sKePTiKal]

Yes, it's very interesting to me; and I believe (if I remember what I've been reading correctly) that this "vulcan mind meld" is what we call "attunement" in the development of attachment between mom and infant; that early bonding can affect the way the infant will later connect with other people - the depth, the empathy, and the neural responses. At least it sets up a preference for a certain style of connecting - what I call "predilection"... just another word for preference.

For me, this explains why I connect better and closer with some people than others. It's not that I dislike the people I'm not able to "connect" with in this way (mind meld) it's simply that it takes more work for my brain to figure out how to "wake up" or "get the other's attention", to initiate the connection. It's usually worth the effort. Granted - sometimes it never happens at all and I have to accept that it's an impossibility.

I think my early experiences of "trying to connect" with my mom/dad pushed my creative streak to keep trying this & that, and I learned to try to adapt the "how I connect" to the other person. Of course, I never did succeed with my mom. But maybe that set the up the tendency for me to always adjust myself to others and their needs - instead just being myself. Given that for 10+ years, my job required that I make these kinds of connections to transfer tech skills (and failure was NOT an option) it's been, shall we say "different", for this to lose quite a bit of importance in my life. But then, here I am posting to all my friends... trying to connect because I want to!

LOL!

This article is a good, easy to understand, way to understand the connection between the science of how our brain works and the mental/emotional experiences that we all have. Because neuroanatomy is so complex (and the terminology is arbitrary and lacks a connection between "name" and "function") and then, layer on top all the processes of the brain and it's connection with the nervous system, I've been trying to find online sources on the brain, geared to kids. This helps immensely!  

[Guest]

For some reason the page loads for me and then auto-navigates away to a blank screen. I managed to grab it and paste into word processing though. Odd!

So, hoping I've read the same article: "The more two people's brains are "coupled" in conversation, the better the listener comprehends what the speaker is saying, the researchers say." - cart before horse?

What the piece says (to me!) is: if you understand what someone is trying to communicate to you, in the way in which they intend to communicate it, your brain will process *hey-presto* in the same way that theirs does! Who would have thought it.

"The results demonstrate the advantages of looking at both subjects involved in communication, rather than just looking at their brains in isolation" - was my literal LOL very inappropriate i wonder? It was enjoyable

[teartracks]

I'm having trouble getting the article too.

Will keep trying.

tt

[sKePTiKal]

And I just read a study in yesterday's WSJ...

where people "remembered" themselves doing actions that were described verbally or were viewed in video - rather than remembering that they saw the action taking place. The effect was less pronounced, if they read the action described. Again evoking this "mind meld" mirroring. But of course, it was a small study and limited sample so any conclusions need further study.

For me, this rather confirms Cozolino's idea that our brains are designed to be social; to function in connection with each other and even lends some validity to the idea of a "collective consciousness".

[Guest]

PR
reminds me of when I tell my partner a story, or vice-versa, and months later the one being told can remember the events as though they witnessed it. I have a particular story in mind that I can run as a film and see all the events unfold - and I wasn't there. I guess it takes good descriptive powers, plus full attention, plus similar brain architecture? Attention is key for me, choosing to pay 100% attention, almost turning my own brain 'off' if that makes sense.
Perhaps a collective consciousness is recognising in others that which we share. But we don't all share it and some can fake it, superficially.

[teartracks]

http://www.psych.utoronto.ca/users/spa/reading/Saxe_et_al_(2004).pdf

Interesting article, kind of tedious to read.

tt

[Guest]

looking forward to reading this TT. An article that starts with a joke looks promising.

[teartracks]

Guest,

If you understand 'other minds' after reading it, I bet MIT might like hearing from you!

tt

[Guest]

Oh-oh TT, sounds like it's going to be a difficult read then! I haven't got there yet.
Would I have to communicate with MIT through brain-waves alone I wonder...maybe if I stared at a street-view of it and thought really really hard... more later

[teartracks]

I've still not been able to read the link in Dr. G's., beginning post (it pops up then disappears).  But I found otherarticles on the  subject of 'mind meld'.  I lifted this quote from one of them.  

"To make the study as ecologically valid as possible, we instructed the speaker to speak as if telling the story to a friend,"

  This is so interesting for it is precisely what happens when I pray to God.  In the study, the speaker is talking to a machine as if talking to a friend.  When I pray, I'm talking to God, my friend, my old friend (pun intended).  It's not pretending or 'as if'.   The concept, I think,  follows what I'm trying to wrap my brain around in Henry Drummond's book,  Natural Law in the Spiritual World.  (you can read it online for free.)  I've harped about it in a couple of posts, but not very coherently.  He, a biologist in the 18th century, was ahead of his time?   Ecologically, the study can be labeled & conducted as outlined in the articles on 'mind meld' because the study is between the MRI (operated by man) and the speaker (man),  however, when the 'mind meld' transcends 'dimensions' (I'm not sure that is an accurate term or description), anyway when the natural world conducts 'business' with the spiritual world, then what is it called???????

tt
PS  I know the article(s) are about a lot of other scientific stuff.  Not trying to go off on a tangent or off topic.  It's all so exciting!

[Guest]

TT, re: article disappearing: hit Ctrl A then Ctrl C really fast as the article loads. Repeat several times because you won't let the darn thing get the better of you. Eventually you may end up with a copy to paste into something else. Or you may not.

[teartracks]

Guest,  thanks for the tip.

tt