Weizmann Institute of Science scientists have discovered brain mechanisms that remember a sudden insight
When we suddenly grasp the answer to a riddle, or understand at once the solution to a problem, it is almost possible to feel the lamp lighting up above our heads. In the professional language, such moments are called "Aha!" moments, the kind of moments that Archimedes experienced in the bath. But why do the things we learn with such sudden insight stay with us in memory?
Prof. Yadin Dodai and research student Rachel Ludmer from the Weizmann Institute of Science, together with Prof. Nava Rubin from New York University, designed a unique test that allows to decipher what remains in the brain from those "Aha!" moments. They created "camouflaged figures" - photographs that were systematically camouflaged until they looked like meaningless ink blots. In most cases, when volunteers saw the masked images for the first time, they were unable to identify what was hidden in them. But after the masked figure was replaced in the blink of an eye with the original photograph - in a way that allowed the volunteers to get a quick glimpse of the original image - the volunteers experienced a moment of sudden insight: the object or figure appeared clearly even in the masked image. "This change happened", Ludmer says, "because their perception changed in the blink of an eye - exactly in the way that a sudden insight changes our perception of the world in a second." The participants were asked to repeat the exercise with dozens of pictures. To make it difficult to remember the moments of insight, the volunteers were invited to the lab again, and this time, they saw only the masked images (plus several masked images that they had not seen before), and were again asked to identify them.
A considerable part of the sudden insights experienced by the volunteers were preserved in their long-term memory. What caused this? To reveal what happens in the brain at the moment of insight, the first test of the volunteers was done inside an fMRI facility, which followed changes in brain activity. When the scientists checked the results, they were surprised to find that among the areas that stood out in the scans - such as, for example, areas known to be involved in object recognition - there is also an area called the amygdala. The amygdala is generally known as the center of emotions in the brain. On the other hand, the images that appeared in the current experiment - balloons, dogs, people looking through binoculars, and the like - were not ones that could evoke emotions. But the scientists found that amygdala activity predicted the volunteer's ability to recognize the masked figure long after the moment of sudden insight. The scientists hypothesize that the amygdala signals to the rest of the brain that there has been a change in the internal organization of information in the brain, and that it must be preserved over time. When he felt "Aha!", it was therefore the amygdala that made Archimedes remember the law of nature that he discovered in a flash of insight in the bathtub.
5 תגובות
Not long ago, I saw a program that explains exactly this phenomenon - the reason that precisely the homosfians (we) survived and the Neanderthals became extinct. It has been said that the Neanderthals were not stupid, as was commonly thought, from countless evidences found in archaeological excavations of tools as sophisticated as those of the Homo sapiens. But, and here is the big grief, the Homospians, in complete contrast to the Neanderthals, traded knowledge and tools between different tribes. That is, as soon as one of the members of the tribe discovered something, he would not quickly forget and keep this knowledge only to himself, he would actually spread it to his entire tribe and even to other tribes. And this is a very strong and prominent feature in us if you think about it... so it's not really surprising that we have an ancient organ in the brain that is responsible for this - and I don't think we should go that far and conclude that he is the one who "knows" the discovery.
Maybe but maybe not, maybe even probably not.
Interestingly, in Babylonian and/or Akkadian mythology Aha was the god of wisdom and the waters of the rivers (and the sweet water). In mysticism, water is associated with emotion, so perhaps these ancient sages already knew what today's scientists are looking to discover.
This research reinforces the claim that emotions have a significant facet in the lives of humans or animals in general.
That is, it is not 'proper' to underestimate the feelings of the individual, since emotions have an effect (sometimes a complete effect) on the decisions made by the individual.
And apparently it is also not 'good' to ignore the feelings and rely only on logic.
I have to say I'm not surprised at all.
Anyone who has ever solved a puzzle knows that it involves intense excitement.
The interesting thing is that sometimes you experience the excitement even before you actually know the solution (referring to "consciously knowing").
My personal experience is that I often feel that I have solved the problem and start to get excited even before I am able to describe the solution and only a split second later I become aware of the solution.