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Recognize the Neurobiology of Distraction: Regain Your Self-Control, with Robert Sapolsky, Neuroscientist and Author, Behave
Frontal cortex
This world of the frontal cortex making you do the harder thing when it’s the right thing to do. Do you murder somebody? Do you like steal this money? Do you tell somebody “Wow, what a fabulous dinner you’ve made here.” – when it’s the most repulsive thing you’ve ever eaten. Like self-control plays out in those every day realms. Self control plays out on the simplest possible realm. “No, don’t check Facebook right now. You’ve got something to finish first. No, don’t get into a conversation with this person and gossip about whatever. You’ve got to get something.” Just the everyday small hiccups of it.
And one of the things that always sort of surprises people – throw somebody into a neuro imaging machine and you’re seeing levels of activation in different parts of the brain. And you suddenly have this very concrete realization – say give somebody a difficult task and the frontal cortex activates. Those neurons are working harder. Those neurons are requiring more oxygen and glucose. Willpower is not just a metaphorical term. Neurons need more energy. When you are running out of energy in that part of the brain, you’re more impulsive. You have more trouble with the working memory task. You have more trouble juggling two things, multitasking. You have more trouble doing the everyday little things that take a little bit of extra effort. The everyday events we have going on willpower is biologically a very real sort of thing.
And on the most mundane levels if your blood sugar is low you become more impulsive in that way as well. Just sort of a way, this is not necessarily oh, if you’re having trouble concentrating at work, quick eat a dozen Oreos. But the take-home message is to understand distraction, focus, intentional stuff – all of that is a biological phenomenon rather than a realm for testing like how much backbone we have in the face of temptation, when you sit there and either do or don’t check your email where you really should be paying attention to this instead. That’s as biological of an act as any other that we do.
Work with your biology
So if you have to turn all of this into some very practical kind of stuff – all of us should get a lot more sleep than we actually do. When we are sleep deprived the regulatory more expensive parts of our brain are wiped out. All of us should be less stressed. Duh, you think? But not only because it’s better for our blood pressure and our ulcer risks but also because you’re nicer and more empathic to other people. When you’re less stressed you’re more capable of doing the hard work of taking their perspective about the world instead of just your own. Probably we should be doing something that is universal among primates as opposed to what we do, which is to have a fairly steady level of caloric intake throughout the day rather than breakfast and lunch because what you’re doing then is – your brain is functioning differently when you’re having a rush of energy, when you’re coming off it, when you’re anticipating it. And, you know, that’s just your basic, you know, a gorilla is – exactly would advise you to do that, you know, what humans do with food instead. All sorts of ways to get more equilibrium in terms of the nuts and bolts stuff that’s fueling your brain is going to make much more equilibrated behaviors.