where do ideas come from?


A very exciting new way of looking at brain functions has been presented by the Finnish brain researcher Matti Bergstr –m, professor of neurophysiology at the University of Helsinki, Finland.

He was puzzled by the problem of how ideas are generated in our brains . Why isn t the ˜output the same as the ˜input , or put another way, how can we generate completely new, even unexpected, thought patterns?

In his research Matti Bergstr m found that the brain could be described as a bi-polar system.

The brainstem is the oldest part of the brain. With its impulses it regulates our level of consciousness. The brainstem is one of the two poles.

The other pole is the cortex, the 3 mm folded layer of nerve cells , covering the two hemispheres. The cortex is divided into four lobes , involved in functions which include planning, receiving sensory information from the body, adjusting behaviour, making decisions, memory and perception.

These two poles generate impulses that influence the brain functions in two ways. The brainstem generates cascades of random signals “ disorder , chaos. Matti Bergstr m names that part the ˜chance generator . The cortex is the ˜knowledge generator . It generates information “ order.

He says:

When the random signals from the brainstem and the organized signals from the cortex meet, we get an interaction, a battle between chaos and order. On that ˜battleground , in the perpetual battle between the two poles in your brain, there will be a lot of casualties. Complex patterns of information ( ˜knowledge ) will be bombarded by the chaotic impulses from the brainstem and be shattered. There will also occur ˜ mutations in the thought patterns, ie totally new patterns, unexpected, unforeseeable ideas will be formed . In our everyday language we call them ˜flashes or ˜bright ideas .

Let me show you with a picture:

click to expand

Matti Bergstr m says: ˜It s here on the battlefield of ideas that we see the new forms appear, the phenomenon we call creativity .

People who suffer from mental diseases can t cope with all these new ideas. They get hallucinations and agony from not being able to handle them with their knowledge. There are, of course, people with the opposite imbalance “ people with such a strong ˜knowledge generator that they don t permit any new ideas at all! In the kind of societies we live in, where knowledge and facts are valued higher than imagination and creativity, we don t consider that imbalance to be a mental disease; those people are often chosen or elected to lead the rest!

Creativity is stimulated when we move the balance a little towards chaos and disorder. That is an explanation of why most people are creative when they have fun or are relaxed . The process goes on in the brain all the time, even when we are asleep, but the balance is then very near the impulses from the brainstem. That could be an explanation of why our dreams often are so fragmentary or even weird. We don t have access to the structured information from the cortex other than in fragments , coming up from the subconscious level.

Although people say they get excellent ideas while they sleep, they will also find that these ideas seldom survive daylight ! What may seem sensible while you are asleep often turns out to be completely silly when you are able to evaluate it with your full senses.

How do we evaluate new ideas? There are good ones as well as bad ones.

Matti Bergstr m says:

Every new idea must fight for its existence, and find ˜space among the synaptic connections to survive. It is actually the same ˜survival-of-the-fittest conditions as in the physical world that are applied to the world of ideas. I call it ˜Neurodarwinism . The competition in the inner realms of synapses and memory patterns is enormous so that chances of survival are very small. The best way to make it stay is to make the ideas or the words you want to remember unique in some way. That will literally make an impression !

A way of exploring Matti Bergstr m s results is to use methods where you become aware of the flow of thoughts and ideas in your brain. That is what the rest of this book is about.




Learning Maps and Memory Skills
Learning Maps and Memory Skills (Creating Success)
ISBN: 0749441283
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2004
Pages: 63

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