A New Reality The Imminent Transformation of Science and Humanity

A New Reality The Imminent Transformation of Science and Humanity A New Reality: The Imminent Transformation of Science and Humanity Excerpt from Chapter 5 Evolving and Enhancing Our Minds By Jonathan Robert Banks 44Expert on peak performance Denis Campbell states that increasing brain flexibility and range of response is a major key to optimal performance and a healthy functioning brain. He argues that the underlying mechanism of attention and arousal that relate to this flexibility are mediated by the thalamus, which via dendritic connection to associated areas of the cortex (visual auditory, proprioceptive, etc) create a thalamo-cortical feedback loop, where thalamus and cortex communicate to produce behaviour. Campbell, cites Peter Kramer, psychiatrist and author of the book, Listening to Prozac, as placing a „major? importance on temperament, which he defined as our „basic natural? level of „sensitivity and emotional reactiveness.? Campbell points out that sensitivity is attention and emotional reactiveness is arousal––the set points of which are controlled by the thalamo-cortical mechanism, which he asserts is “…ostensibly the real governor 45of temperament.” In this model neurotechnologies are „tuning? or „exercising? these mechanisms. This adjusts the „set-points,? bringing stability and flexibility to an individuals temperament. As I mentioned brain research into peak performance and flow states will also boom, especially when neurotechnological peak performance training becomes a standard part of elite and professional athletes program. The electromagnetic technologies used for remediation will also be applied to peak performance, as they are now. Firstly for remediation, which allows peak performance to be built on a solid foundation. Apart from the research that has demonstrated links between brainwave manipulation and improved performance on simple tasks, more fundamental research has taken place on basic brainwave states that relate to more foundational mechanisms of peak performance. Barry Sterman of ULCA and the Sepulveda Veteran?s Hospital research centre analysed the EEG of high performance fighter jet pilots in demanding circumstances for the US Airforce and found the best performers were able to consistently shift into and maintain alpha states between tasks, states 59Campbell. He points out that these pilots are a good representative group for peak performance studies, as piloting these aircraft require flexible attentional styles, sharp hand eye coordination and excellent memory. Sterman tested pilots in a simulator with vigilance tasks (nothing punctuated by sudden events they had to respond to) and continuous management tasks that became hopelessly unmanageable. Sterman and colleagues reprogrammed the simulator so that the controls became progressively „skewed.? Pilots were monitored while the flight simulation went from normal to being impossible to control. Sterman found that while things were normal the pilots brains consistently transitioned from high alpha (10-12hz) when they were in ready states waiting for action and SMR and low beta (12-18hz) when they were engaged in control. Sterman called this alpha resting state post reinforcement synchrony (PRS). As the simulation become more and more difficult the pilot?s brains needed longer and longer in the alpha state to recover. With longer periods of managing progressively worsening controls the PRS rhythm began to lower in frequency into the theta range, which resulted in a decrease in performance until eventually burnout occurred (the complete inability to deal with the task). Sterman believes this PRS cycle, controlled by the thalamus is essential for optimal performance. Campbell concludes that this research demonstrates that attentional flexibility and the alpha state 60 that Allman reported an increase of alpha and are „critical? for peak performance. Hardt wrote sometimes theta in the left hemisphere before peak performance episodes in sport. He analysed US Olympic champion marksmen?s brainwaves and found that just before they squeezed the trigger they produced bursts of alpha in the left hemisphere. Marksmen, who had the potential but were not quite as successful as the Olympic level athletes, were taught to produce this state just before squeezing the trigger with neurotraining. Their performance improved by thirty percent, which made them Olympic medal contenders. Similar results were found with archers, golfers and basketball players doing free throws. 44 Towards a Philosophy of Optimal Performance Ibid Vol. 3 No. 1 p52-5814. 45 bid p56 59 n his article Towards a State of Optimum Performance. Megabrain Report The Journal of Optimal Performance Vol.3 No.1 p52-58 60 n his article A Tale of Self discovery Megabrain Report The Journal of Mind Technology Vol.2 No.3 p14-28 Buy now