Have our brains' neural networks been destroyed by modern culture?

[JurisDoctorOfDoom]

One of the reasons I'm not big on peak oil or sustainability activism is I feel most of America has been so atomized that people are not even capable of collective action. I think some of the older (over 55) peak oil crowd may understand this intellectually but I often wonder if they REALLY understand the degree of psychological atomization among people in general and particularly people under 30 or so. There are a lot of ideas floating around out there I think would be great but might be beyond what many Americans are capable of participating in because the parts of their brains necessary for collective action have been smashed to shit by a combination rat race, consumerism, chemicals in the environment, etc.

The car culture is a good example. You can't spend a significant portion of your life in your little cage on wheels trying to avoid other people in their cage on wheels while on the way to earn a bit of cheese without it affecting the actual physical structure of your brain. The brain rewires itself for the task at hand which is fighting by oneself against everything and everybody.

Anyhoo, the following was posted to Kunstler's blog and is along these lines:

When cats are raised, their brains at first have extremely complex neural networks and interconnections. As the cat matures (compared to a wild cat),domestication kills off that complexity. They, the domesticated cats, no longer have to find, kill and eat as a survival mode. The d. cat's brain has become simplified and basic.

A wild cat's brain in adulthood is complex. His neural equipment for survival is honed to a sharp edge which allows survival.

Our neural organization of our brains has been modified by our energy rich way of life(at least in the west). Our actual brain has been "rewired" growing up through this energy rich civilization. The process follows a simplifying function of the neural organization of the organism(us). Our brain neural nets have been "tuned out" or destructured from our collective survival neural brain networks. It, the survival nodes, are less interconnected with the rest of the brain and less wired up in every way.

The current state of our collective brains has been denatured to a higher degree than ever by the hydrocarbon bonanza lifestyle. Our interaction with this powerful energy source has collectively selected our current neural brain networks and deselected others. The current set selected brain networks collectively have tuned out the brain complexity to a higher degree than ever. We are the most domesticated tabby ever due to hydrocarbon energy slaves working 24-7 to grant every whim without much internal neural wiring. The complexity has been externalized!

Of course, this would happen in every culture to a matter of degree but the availability of energy and technology has amplified this effect.

Source:
http://jameshowardkunstler.typepad.com/clusterfuck_nation/2006/11/the_cera_report.html#comment-25569234

[oliver.rochford]

Matt:

There is no doubt that the way we live and interact is a major contributor to how our brains develop.

Every experience, every moment, every action creates new neural connections, pathways in your brain.
Tasks we are very good at, or have practised alot are better imprinted and fire quicker. Certain skills
require pathways to be developed to be executed effectively and efficiently.

But there is more to the mind than just neurons firing off electrical jolts, there is also
chemistry. And outside stimuli can have a major longlasting effect on your brain.

The best examples are gratification. Users of extacy and other similar stimulants later
require 'more' stimulation to show happy emotions, as their brain happy hormone producers
had regressed due to the xtc fulfilling that role.
On the addiction side, tests with rats were conducted where rats were given cocaine _once_
along with a specific sound. Months later, said sound was played but no cocaine given, and the rats showed
major signs of anticipation in their brain chemistry, and depression afterward.

Now think about our environments, the skills and attirbutes we promote and condone, the way we live etc.

Evolutionary Psychology and Behaviourial and Cognitive sciences are topics you may want to read up on if this interests you.

ollie

[Chip Haynes]

The question is not whether or not we have gotten lazy, both mentally and physically. We have. The real question is: Can we adapt to the changes that will be brought on by the oil crash? Can we adapt quickly to new physical demands and mental challenges that will be required to survive.

The short answer: Yes and no. (Some will, some won't.)

Cars, television, video games, and all the comforts of home (and work and play) have conspired to make us a nation of lardwaddles. And what are we facing? At some unannounced point in the not-so-distant future, the hunt is on.

Are you a carnivore or herbivore? Which pack will you run with?

Welcome to the jungle.

[JurisDoctorOfDoom]

Matt:
But there is more to the mind than just neurons firing off electrical jolts, there is also
chemistry. And outside stimuli can have a major longlasting effect on your brain.

Ollie,

That is my exact point. That Americans are suffering from physical brain damage as a result of their lifestyles, the chemicals in the food and water supply, the chemicals they knowingly (cigarretes, narcotics) and unknowingly consume.

Evolutionary Psychology and Behaviourial and Cognitive sciences are topics you may want to read up on if this interests you.

ollie

I write about this stuff constantly. Heck half my posts have some type of reference to "the environment in which we evolved" or "well you know, back in the hunter gatherer days. . . "

 

[Leaf]

Most people by the time they are 24 years old are set..if they are individualistic at this age they will likely be all their life.Americans are a I culture. And we can all trace as to why this has really come about and fossil fuels surely pushed it along......And I also feel if peak oil didnt happen for say 100 more years..Place like India or Nepal will also be like Americans ..individualistic..cars, TV, consumerism and stuff really push this thought.
Amercians are for the most part zombies of what the TV says and where the car goes.
It will be quit lively from post peak oil point A to post peak "50 years after" point B.

[Nicole]

The brain and nervous system is amazingly adaptable.  You CAN rewire your brain but it takes time, and the younger you start (that means now) the faster and better the rewiring will work, but it has been shown even the very old can spark dramatic neural changes by engaging their minds in though-provoking activities like puzzles and creative outlets.

[podunkinak]

  It has also been  shown that trama can foster huge changes that no other method can, sometimes good others for the worse. My wife and I have been married for 14 years and still have not bought a TV. My childeren are lean and healthy,read a lot of books that engage their mind and pursue creative activities indoors and out. It is amaizing how many people thought we were destitute because we didn't have a TV or 5. All this technilogical crap and silly appliances do rott the mind and make people fat and lazy. Need prooof ? just look around. Stupid fat people seem to be the fastest growing class in our society.

[JurisDoctorOfDoom]

The brain and nervous system is amazingly adaptable.  You CAN rewire your brain but it takes time, and the younger you start (that means now) the faster and better the rewiring will work, but it has been shown even the very old can spark dramatic neural changes by engaging their minds in though-provoking activities like puzzles and creative outlets.

Nicole,

yes it can happen, just like a person who is 150 pounds overweight and diabetic as a result of 40 years of eating junk and drinking can become much fitter and healthier but and this is the big BUT take a representative sample of 150 pounds overweight diabetics and very few are going to make that change.

For a generation that has been raised from Day 1 (say post-1975 and definitely post-1985) on a steady diet of nintendo playstation combat simulations, food ridden with mind-altering chemicals, and corporate propaganda disguised as unbiased reporting of reality, the prognosis for a sufficient rewiring of the brain to occur in more then a tiny percentage of the population is between slime and none. It's even worse for these kids born post 1990 or post 1995. Some of them will enter adulthood never NOT having been online, on the cellphone and on the computer game system within the last 12 hours at any point in their life. (and don't get me started on the food these kids subsist on.)

[Chip Haynes]

So, by this estimation of our collective mental fitness and physical reality, it looks as though the Amish will rule America.

I can live with that.

(Assuming I live.)

[Sgt.Warner]

I enjoy reading books on Jungian Psychoanaysis.  It provides many insights into the behaviour of us 2 legged things.  He is very heavy into mysticism and alchemy, as being the reason for much scientific discovery.  Jung also believe dreams are a window to the sub-consiousness.  I think neural networks have the ability to "heal" themselves which is really just what the network is attemting to do in this modern industrial era.  People did not evolve in this environment, so i think that it will simply be human nature to revert back to a traditional lifestyle.  I am a firm believer that in the right circumstances, almost any human can react well to external change, because fundamentall, we are still genetically the same as we have been for a long time.  The problem is culture is so screwed up, and culture has no impetus to change.  Maybe when middle-class families begin going to bed without supper, that will create an impetus.

[mem]

I was about to say no--evolution is a long long process, and I'm sure much of the original wiring is still available for us.  People will use it differently today, though.

But then I was remembering an article I read on the train this morning. 

http://abcnews.go.com/US/story?id=2668627&page=1
With nearly a third of American students in the nation's top 100 public school districts failing to complete high school — and that number tops 50 percent in some cities — educators see an epidemic. But what can be done about it?....

Maybe it is true. 

[oliver.rochford]

Sgt.Warner: Good for you mate I've always found Jungian psychology interesting, but somehow alot of it doesn't ring true to me.
But it's a darn sight better than Freud!
Personally, I think that all of the psychiatric disciplines and theories are right...some of the time. Very much depending on the subject and circumstances

Matt:

On that note:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/6169120.stm

Broken home linked to psychosis

People from broken homes may be more prone to psychotic illnesses such as schizophrenia, research suggests.

Researchers said their findings suggest the illnesses are not simply brain diseases, but linked to factors such as social adversity.

Last year, I also saw an incredibly interesting documentary called 'The Dyslexia Myth' which discussed some new research that indicates that a condition like dyslexia is caused by insufficient interaction with the subject as a baby and toddler. Try get it via p2p or possibly on youtube/google video

I.e. instead of playing with the kid, you sit it in front of the TV which is one-way and non-interactive.
The result of this is that certain faculties and behaviour patterns are not trained and developed. These include for example sounds, like 'googaa', which the young brain begins to associate. It's but one example.
In later life then, because these neural pathways are not formed well, related abilities such as reading/writing are affected.

Ollie

[Chip Haynes]

You know, the thing is, here we are thinking that we're all smart and savvy and clever, and all it takes is some obese, over-caffienated pig in an SUV, yelling into a cell phone as they blow through a red light to punch a big hole in Darwin's Theory- and we're outta here.

Sometimes it's natural selection- sometimes it's random bad luck.

[oliver.rochford]

Sometimes it's natural selection- sometimes it's random bad luck.

I think we overate intelligence and intellect.

As far as Gaia is concerned, you only need enough brains to survive. With a little more intelligence, you may even be able to thrive.
But too much intelligence and not enough health/strength/speed/etc and you are toast like anybody else.

There are creatures doing perfectly well with no intelligence whatsoever.

Survival is the only victory criteria (according to Dawson, even survival of an organism is secondary to survival of the gene....even through mutation and evolution), and the other living things the only judges.

Ollie

[Nicole]

yes it can happen, just like a person who is 150 pounds overweight and diabetic as a result of 40 years of eating junk and drinking can become much fitter and healthier but and this is the big BUT take a representative sample of 150 pounds overweight diabetics and very few are going to make that change.

Of course.  MAY and WILL are two very different things.

For a generation that has been raised from Day 1 (say post-1975 and definitely post-1985) on a steady diet of nintendo playstation combat simulations, food ridden with mind-altering chemicals, and corporate propaganda disguised as unbiased reporting of reality, the prognosis for a sufficient rewiring of the brain to occur in more then a tiny percentage of the population is between slime and none. It's even worse for these kids born post 1990 or post 1995. Some of them will enter adulthood never NOT having been online, on the cellphone and on the computer game system within the last 12 hours at any point in their life. (and don't get me started on the food these kids subsist on.)

I am blessed with a staff of these kids.  Yes, they are utterly ignorant about many things including the concept of hardship and where food comes form.  On the other hand, their ability to process information and quickly sort through minute details is far superior to my own, and I have a mind that is very detail oriented itself. 
Their ability to focus on macro issues seems to be compromised.  They learn new "precision" processes very well, but seem to have difficulty learning to empathize with others and learn how items interact.

I suspect these weakness are at least partially a function of their youth.  Recent research has show that it is normal for teenagers to be self-centered and they outgrow it later.  But I do think there is a difference in thought process.  Not necessarily an inferior one: it's a process that suits them very well in the world they live in.  Can people who have difficulty with complex interactions and macro issues ever understand in their gut how to grow food, or will they be lost without reference books that tell them step by step?  I think so.

In some ways, I think modern life has infantalized many members to modern Western society.  Technology and cultural structure artificially holds us into a passive and receptive state of development.  This is exactly what humans do to dogs -- we hold them in a perpetual state of puppyhood because we always provide their food and necessities and they are never required to emerge as true adult dogs who are responsible for their own well-being.