This issue is about "Embodied Cognition". This book also has a subtitle called "How the Body Affects Thinking and Behavior."
Virtual reality technology is very hot now. You may have heard this saying: the brain is the control center of the body, and our various emotional feelings can be realized by touching brain neurons. But is the body really just a puppet of the brain? Of course not. The book "Embodied Cognition" points out that we do not always "know before we act", but often "act before we know". Our bodies also have a powerful ability to shape our minds, influencing our thinking and behavior.
Many astute scientists are good at discovering hidden truths in subtle ways, and the author of this book is like this. She went to pick up her 2-year-old daughter from kindergarten and found that she was very unhappy and asked to take cold medicine. Was she sick? The author asked and touched his forehead, but there was nothing unusual. Later, she called the teacher and found out why her daughter was unhappy. It turned out that a little boy had taken away her favorite toy. Is there anything special about this everyday life event? As a brain scientist, the author did find something unusual, that is, why did her daughter ask her for cold medicine? Originally, she was in a bad mood after her toy was robbed. Why did she think of taking cold medicine? Does this question imply that there is something in common between feeling unwell and feeling bad? Or more generally, is there anything connected between the body and the mind?
This is actually the core point of this book. The author believes that our body is not just a tool driven by the mind as traditionally believed. On the contrary, the body not only strongly affects the mind, but also participates in it. Shaping our minds is what the title of this book, "Embodied Cognition," means. As the name suggests, "embodied cognition" means that our mental activities are closely related to our bodies. The theoretical basis behind this view is that our brains cannot clearly distinguish between physiology and psychology. The brain areas that manage physiology are usually also the brain areas that manage psychology. In this case, we can use the body to influence or even create the mind.
How to understand it? The titles of each chapter in this book are the best explanations, such as, "Wrinkles are gone, sorrow is gone", "Fingers are nimble, math is strong" and "Dance, learn math" and so on. This sounds like it goes against our common sense. Our daily experience is that people will frown when they are in a bad mood. The former is the cause and the latter is the effect. How can it be the other way around? Also, what is the relationship between mathematical ability and dexterity of fingers? Indeed, these are our common sense. But although common sense brings convenience to our lives, it does sometimes obscure the truth. This is exactly the case in the matter of body and mind.
The author of this book is Sean Belloc. She is a professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Chicago. She mainly studies human behavior and brain science. In this book, she uses a large amount of experimental data and interesting The phenomenon of life shows us the powerful influence of the body on mental activities.
Next, I will tell you the key points of this book in detail. Let’s take a look at how the body affects our emotions, thinking, and understanding of others.
Part One
Let’s first look at the first point, how the body affects our emotions.
Does the body affect emotions? The answer is "yes", and the impact is huge. Let’s first look at facial expressions and depression treatment. Existing medications and psychotherapy can help most patients with depression escape the suffering of the disease, but there are still some patients who cannot get help from these two treatments. what to do? Let's look back and think about it. Regardless of drugs or psychotherapy, they actually have one thing in common, which is to treat the patient's brain. The assumption behind this therapy is that the brain is the root cause of the disease, so only by targeting the root cause can the disease be effectively treated.
There is nothing wrong with this line of thinking at first glance, and it can often help us get out of trouble, but the root of the problem and the solution to the problem are actually two different things.
Experiments show that having breasts is not necessarily a mother, but having warmth is a mother. Little monkeys need warmth more than milk, because the warm physical sensation gives them psychological comfort. Many expressions we use every day reflect the relationship between body temperature and psychological feelings. For example, when praising a friend, we will say "your enthusiasm is like a fire", but when facing an enemy, it makes people tremble. The trembling "autumn wind sweeps the fallen leaves".
In the same way, we may ask, why is there such a connection between body temperature and psychological feelings? Here I have to mention the "brain island". The function of the insula is to record physical feelings, but it also records psychological feelings. That is to say, if the body feels "cold", the heart is likely to feel "empty and lonely". If the body feels warm, the heart will also feel "empty and lonely". People accept. What enlightenment does this give us? That is, we can affect our psychological feelings by changing our physical feelings. For example, if we feel lonely, go out to bask in the sun, put on comfortable and warm clothes, or drink a cup of hot tea, etc. A warm body will Make us feel loved.
Okay, that’s the first point we want to make. We illustrate how the body affects our emotions through facial expressions, body posture, and body temperature. So will our rational activities, such as crucial mathematics, Chinese language, and even creativity, be affected by the body? If so, how was it affected?
Part 2
Next, let’s look at the second point, how the body affects our thinking. In this part, we mainly focus on the impact of the body on three aspects: mathematical ability, word understanding ability, and creativity.
First, let’s look at the relationship between physical fitness and mathematical ability. According to statistics, the winners of national mathematics competitions are usually good at music. There is a long-standing saying that listening to music, especially music by Mozart, improves children's IQ. So is this really the relationship between these mathematical geniuses and music? Not really. In fact, their extraordinary mathematical abilities are related to the fingers they use to play instruments. We know that playing a musical instrument requires coordinated finger movements, and scientists have found that the more flexible your fingers, the better at math.
Why is this? Existing research believes that there are two main reasons. The first is that fingers and numbers have the same neural entities in the brain. As we mentioned earlier, the brain areas that record physical feelings are also the brain areas that record psychological feelings. , physical warmth will make us feel psychological warmth at the same time. Similarly, since fingers and numbers correspond to the same nerve cells in the brain, flexible fingers are likely to make us sharper when thinking about mathematical problems.
The second reason is that the way we use our fingers as children affects the way our brains process numbers as adults. Think back to when you were a child, when you were learning to count, did you break your little finger? When people ask us how old we were when we were children, we usually raise our fingers and answer, "Four years old." And when we count the number of items, we mutter something while clicking here and there with our fingers. An experiment can be used to illustrate the close relationship between finger movements and number understanding. Imagine that you are now asked to use one finger of your right hand to press the number you see on the screen on the keyboard. If you were used to learning to count from 1 to 5 with your right hand as a child, then it can be predicted that you will When recognizing numbers less than 5, it takes less time than using the fingers of the left hand to press the keyboard. This suggests that finger movements improve our understanding of numbers.
Finger dexterity is closely related to mathematical ability, and we already know why. So how does the body affect our understanding of words? Let’s look at two phenomena.
First of all, when we understand the sentence "Xiao Ming turned up the volume of the TV", if we turn our wrist clockwise at the same time, then we will understand this sentence faster; the second phenomenon, When understanding the two sentences "Li Lei called me" and "I told Han Meimei a story", if they are accompanied by an action similar to pulling something to the chest, then when understanding the sentences "Li Lei called me "When it comes to this sentence, the time it takes will be shorter; conversely, if it is accompanied by an action similar to pushing things out, then when it comes to understanding the sentence "I tell Han Meimei a story", it takes less time. will be shorter.
These two phenomena respectively illustrate that whether we are understanding concrete concepts, such as turning up the volume, or abstract concepts, such as receiving and transmitting information, body movements will affect our understanding of sentences. When the body movements are consistent with the meaning of the concept, our understanding will improve.
The reasons behind these phenomena can be explained by the major discovery made by biologist Donald Hebb in 1949. Donald discovered that brain cells that are active many times at the same time are more likely to be connected together. What does that mean? That is to say, the activity of one neuron stimulates the activity of another neuron. Because they stimulate each other multiple times, a result occurs. some growth or metabolic changes. These changes occur throughout the connections between cells, allowing cells to activate each other more efficiently, a phenomenon known as "Hebbian learning." Regarding the specific issue of word understanding, scientists have found that when a person makes some small movements, such as moving legs, feet, fingers or tongue, the motor cortex of the brain responsible for moving the body is activated, focusing on the back, when When people read action words related to legs, arms, and mouths, such as kicking, picking up, and licking, the front area responsible for movement will also be activated. In other words, the brain area that controls "legs" is also involved in understanding the word "kick."
This close relationship between the body and word understanding can actually bring a lot of enlightenment to our education. Modern education, whether in the East or the West, is static education. What does it mean? Children should sit quietly on the stool and only understand through their minds when learning. However, when we understand the important role of the body in understanding mathematics and word concepts, perhaps we should improve our teaching methods. Psychologist Art Grunberg has dedicated his life to studying how people learn, and he has demonstrated this strongly through experiments. He asked children to read some sentences. Some of the children read the sentences aloud while simultaneously We were asked to use props to act out what the sentences said. For example, for a sentence like "goats eat hay", other children just read the sentence aloud and repeated it. As a result, the children who performed the sentence content improved their understanding of the story by 50%, which shows that physical participation helps improve children's learning ability.
Let’s talk about the relationship between the body and creativity. If we encounter a problem and sit in front of the table scratching our heads and still can't figure it out, the author of this book will suggest that we stand up and move around. Even if we take a few steps around the house, we may have unexpected gains. A moving body makes it easier to generate ideas. Of course, there is no convincingness without experiments. Let’s look at an experiment related to this.
Suppose you are a doctor, and now you have a patient with a gastric tumor that cannot be operated on, and will die if the tumor is not eliminated. The good news is that high-intensity laser irradiation can eliminate tumors. The bad news is that high-intensity laser irradiation will destroy the healthy tissue surrounding the tumor. How can we eliminate tumors without destroying healthy tissue? This is a difficult question and requires innovative thinking. Two groups of college students were also faced with this problem. The same tumor pictures were displayed on their computer screens, but one group of students was also asked to track the small dots on the computer screen. This small dot was found in the Gastric Tumor Health Organization The edges move erratically. As a result, the group of students who were asked to track the dots were more likely to come up with a solution.
The solution is to place a number of individual lasers around the patient, each targeting the stomach tumor. If each laser delivers a small amount of radiation, enough radiation can eventually accumulate to destroy the tumor without causing damage to surrounding tissue. From what it sounds like, we might think it was the little dots that reminded those students.
But in fact, those students who followed the dots believed that the dots distracted their attention and interfered with their thinking. So how to explain the higher innovative ability of this group of students? That is, by moving the body to simulate solutions, people can easily come up with ingenious ways. In this case, the moving eyeballs simulate lasers placed around them. Therefore, this experiment shows that it is easier to get inspired by moving the body than sitting in front of a desk and thinking hard, because the moving body may just capture the solution. This is why innovative companies like Google and Apple prepare dedicated exercise areas for their employees, just to get them moving.
Okay, that’s the second key point of this book. We explain how the body affects our thinking through three aspects: mathematical ability, word comprehension and creativity.
Part Three
Now we shift the focus away from ourselves and look at the people around us. Sometimes we complain that he still doesn’t understand after I’ve been talking for so long. , it's like "playing the piano to a cow"; sometimes we are so happy that he knows everything before I say anything, and he is simply a "bosom friend". What role do our bodies play in understanding others? Next, let’s talk about how the body affects our understanding of others.
We can understand other people’s actions, intentions and even emotions. If you think about it carefully, this is actually an incredible thing. When Li Lei opened the book, we knew it was an English book. When Li Lei opened his mouth, we knew he was going to say "how are you". How did we do it? Of course, it is possible that you can’t help but say, this is experience! Wait a minute, the author of this book will re-explain this phenomenon from the perspective of new scientific discoveries.
Let’s go back to 1996. Giacomo Rizzolatti, a neuroscientist at the University of Parma in Italy, and his research team were about to make a major discovery while observing the behavior of monkeys eating peanuts. . The researchers monitored that when the monkeys reached out to grab peanuts and put them in their mouths, neurons in the premotor cortex of the monkey's brain were activated. This is not surprising because this area has long been thought to be responsible for choreographing movements. After once again verifying the theory through observation, the researchers went to have lunch with satisfaction, leaving the monkeys who were covered in wires and unable to move in the laboratory. Everything seems so normal, but who knows, exciting moments are coming. One researcher came back early and ate ice cream in front of the monkeys. The researcher was surprised to find that the monkeys' premotor neurons were very active. In other words, although the monkey has no eating action, it sees others eating, so it has an eating reaction deep in the brain.
This amazing discovery is called "mirror neuron", a mirror of a mirror, an image of an image. As the name suggests, this type of neuron will reflect the actions we see like looking in a mirror, just like It's like doing the action yourself. This is why when you watch others yawn, you yawn too. Currently, scientists have discovered such neurons in several areas of the human brain. It is hailed as the most important neuroscientific discovery of our time, and some even consider it to be comparable to the discovery of DNA in the history of science.
So what is the importance of this discovery, and what does it have to do with our understanding of others? Before mirror neurons were discovered, scientists tended to use empirical logic to explain our understanding of other people's behavior. For example, why we know that Li Lei will say "how are you" when he opens his mouth? It's because we have seen him many times in the past. , reasoning from experience, it's likely to be the same this time.
After the discovery of mirror neurons, scientists tend to believe that the reason why we can understand Li Lei's behavior is because we have read "how are you" with similar actions, and now see Li Lei's actions, the brain mirrors Neurons immediately replay the relevant experience, and we understand it instantly without logical reasoning.
The key here is that in order to understand others, it is best if we have had similar physical experiences before. For example, scientists have found that when watching a football game, the brain responses of those who have been athletes or have similar sports experience are different compared to those who are keyboard fans. Rather than watching the game with their eyes, they were replaying it in their brains.
Mirror theory is used to explain not only how we understand other people’s actions, but also how we understand other people’s emotions. In order to see more clearly the important role of the body in this, below, we leave the concept of mirroring and use an experiment to talk about the impact of the body on understanding the emotions of others.
The experiment was like this. Two groups of college students, AB, were asked to watch the expressions of people's faces in the video. When they found that the expressions changed, they pressed the button. During this process, students in Group A had to imitate the expressions they saw, while students in Group B had a pencil in their mouths and were unable to imitate the expressions. It was found that students in Group A who could imitate expressions took much shorter time to recognize expressions than Group B. What this means is that when we imitate others through some physical movements, we become more aware of other people's emotions. This can be used to explain why couples who have lived together for many years become more and more similar in appearance. This is because in order to understand each other's emotions, they can't help but imitate each other's facial expressions. Over time, they become more and more similar. And according to surveys, couples who are more alike are more satisfied with their marriages.
Finally, let’s talk about the opposite situation. Since mirroring other people’s actions is so important to understanding others, what happens if this mirror is blurry? In other words, what will happen if the body cannot imitate other people's movements and expressions? The consequences can be serious.
Some scientists believe that a lack of mirror reflection is the culprit of autism. Unlike children with normal development, children with autism have difficulty imitating the movements and expressions of others, and accordingly they are more likely to be unable to accurately understand the movements and expressions of others. Of course, it must be noted that some scientists do not agree that the lack of mirroring is the root cause of autism, because not all autistic people are unable to imitate the movements and expressions of others. Like the mirror neuron theory, these controversies await further research in the future.
However, regardless of whether the mirror neuron theory is used to explain the understanding of others, an indisputable fact is that the body is the basis for our understanding of others, just like whether it is "geocentric" or "heliocentric" , the earth and the sun are still moving.
Summary
At this point, the main content of this book is almost covered. Next, I will briefly summarize the three important contents of this book for you.
First, the body affects our emotions. For example, if the face cannot frown for a long time, it will help reduce negative emotions. Expansive body postures can make us more confident and more willing to take risks, while warm physical sensations can give us a comforting psychological feeling, while the opposite can make us feel "empty, lonely, and cold."
Second, the body affects our thinking. For example, flexible fingers are related to agile mathematical abilities. Coordinating body movements will improve our word understanding ability. A freely moving body is more likely to obtain innovative thinking.
Third, the body will affect our understanding of others. For example, watching others yawn, and our yawning movements are synchronized, will make us more empathetic to other people's behaviors and emotions.
The above is the main content of the book "Embodied Cognition". Embodied cognition is called the second wave of cognitive science. In contrast, the first wave can be appropriately called "disembodied cognition," which means that our cognitive activities have nothing to do with the body.
It is precisely based on this point of view that we sometimes compare mental activities to computer software, and sometimes liken them to the connection methods of neural networks. Both software and connection methods illustrate that mental activities have nothing to do with physical hardware. Our expectations for the future The imagination is also based on this understanding. As long as the software or connection method is still there, even if our body is damaged, our mind can still be copied and uploaded to a new body. This is actually the scientific version of the immortal soul, to paraphrase Descartes. In other words, "I think, therefore I am."
However, with the rise of embodied cognition, scientists are increasingly aware of the important role of the body in mental activities. "I think, therefore I am" is gradually turning to "I do, therefore I am". exist". This shift may have a comprehensive impact on philosophy, psychology, neuroscience, medicine, linguistics, ethics and other disciplines. However, the research on embodied cognition is still in the initial stage of exploration. How the body and mind interact requires further research. The introduction of embodied cognition in this book also focuses on the description of the phenomenon and does not carry out systematic research. Analysis, so if you want to further understand the theories related to embodiment, you need more systematic books. It is recommended to read Damasio's trilogy "Descartes' Error", "Feeling What Happens" and "Looking for Spino" Shakespeare".
For us, the topic of embodied cognition has strong practical significance. Since the body has such a great impact on emotions, thinking, and understanding of others, should we let the body move immediately? Get up?