Basal Ganglia

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Our brain is one of the most fragile part of our body that constantly stores new information and keep our most precious memory since our first glance in this world. If we liken our brain to that of the structure of an onion, having layers upon layers, the outer layer of our brain, from an evolutionary standpoint, is the faculty that process new information. Deep inside the core, is the basal ganglia which was recently discovered of its actual functionality.

Basal ganglia controls our automatic behavior such as walking or breathing. Repeated actions or behavior undergo the process called “chunking”, our brain’s way of learning new #habits. As we process new information, our brain requires more memory space to store new memory for recollection. Converting routine activity into a concrete habit is one of our brains primal ability for maximum efficiency. Executing habits require far lesser brain activity and cognitive power than processing new information for the first few times.

Also, our basal ganglia, being the core of our brain, is the last to give up when the rest of our memory shuts down. Its the reason why some diseases prevents people to form new information longer than few seconds, as if they were stuck in a particular time forever, still retain old habits and possibly form new ones, as with the case with Eugene Pauly and Henry Molaison¹. Without our basal ganglia, we would never process even the simplest of task such as recognizing facial expression for not knowing where to focus our eyes on in a conversation.

The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg - Chapter 1: The Habit Loop
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2021-10-07

#Thoughts on Basal Ganglia
- Its amazing how our brain manages to process and store information that will be recollected at the time we need them. Additionally, “chunking” our routine activities into habits is astonishing, making way for more process intensive tasks such as having a conversation while driving, or coming up with a maneuver while guarding a basketball from an opponent¹. Having very little personal knowledge about machine learning, I suppose, most of the functions of a neural network are derived from the functions of our #Basal Ganglia. Neural networks are fed with information trained to soon become autonomous with making particulars decision. Similarly, we train ourselves to do specific activities over and over until we become good at the activity that it even becomes second nature to us.
  1. The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg - Chapter 1: The Habit Loop
    ↩︎
#Habits
- Our brain carve out new habits in our #basal ganglia, the core of our brain that converts routine into automatic behavior. Habits are vital to our survival, it helps us makes sense of the world in an efficient way, letting us to focus on the important stuff rather than dealing with minute details all at the same time.

Habit Change
- Old #habits are never forgotten nor can be extinguish altogether. We can only replace the routine within our habit loop, keeping the same cue and delivering the same cravings for the reward. It has been proven through and through by science, that even intercepting the neurological cravings with technology close to our #basal ganglia would not suffice to suppress the targeted habit. It can only suppress long enough while the old habits ready to pounce once the cue is triggered.
Habit Loop
- Every #Habits has their triggers to send our brain a message letting our #Basal Ganglia to take over.¹ For instance, every month you drive home from work to stop by at McDonalds to buy some fries. Calling it your “cheatday”. That cheatday once a month becomes twice a month. Twice a month becomes once a week. Then once a week becomes twice a week. You promise to yourself to consume fast foods as occasionally as you planned your diet, but sometimes you just can’t help it. Since it already became a habit, every time you drive home after work, your brain decides whether to go straight to McDonalds or go to the gym. Driving home was your cue or trigger. You park your car at McDonalds parking lot similar to how you park your car outside the gym. Someone takes your order and you order the same burger and fries combo you always have as if on cue–routine. Now you take a big bite out of your burger, that familiar yet exhilarating burst of flavors in your mouth, grease dripping down the side of your lips all the while fitting a french fry on whatever space you have left in your mouth sometimes chomping it down like a carrot. Thinking, you deserve to treat yourself every once in a while for working so hard, its time to “reward” yourself. A once a month commitment turned into a habit, and potentially into a lifestyle.
  1. The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg - Chapter 1: The Habit Loop
    ↩︎
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