Predictions of dopamine
– Consciousness May be an important part but it’s a slave to everything that lives beneath it.
– Expectation is the result of dopamine neurons and their predictions based on past experiences. When we aren’t correct (or our experiences and thoughts don’t lead to an accurate estimation of a future result) about an assumption of a future reward, we become frustrated. This leads to a refinement process.
– This process is necessary for us to go through though. Feeling pain or unpleasant feelings is a part of correcting course and getting dopamine neurons to more accurately predict future results.
– dopamine neurons constantly generate patterns based on experiences. If patterns are violated, they reduce the rate of fire for future expectations in similar scenarios with similar variables and environments.
– There are sequences that happen that usually tell you what will happen next without even being consciously aware of this pattern happening. This is what we label as intuition.
– The cortex immediately takes notice of anything that’s off and out of alignment with usual dopamine hits.
– people that have no antingulate Cingular cortex have an issue learning from their mistakes which leads to high percentages of drug abuse and addiction if not treated well.
– Our neurons and decision making is effective (or ineffective) because of the training we have given it. This also correlates with our desired outcomes. The “end goal” is what your brain is looking to get to with the least amount of mistakes or “losses”
– algorithms and mathematics are good predictors of outcomes and are used all the time for determining flights, take off time, landing time. And so forth.
– These algorithms find the optimal solutions by themselves. Seemingly inevitable mistakes disappear after a few courses take place. This is a similar model to dopamine neurons and the way they work for us.
– Dopamine is the molecular source of our feelings and emotions. We need to control them and treat them as such. Otherwise accuracy goes down and frustration skyrockets which can lead to depression, anxiety and other not so optimal results.
– The mind is structured similar to TD-Gammon – it generates predictions about what will happen and then measure the difference between expectations and actual results
– If you are playing cards and make a prediction of what card to choose to play and it ends up being incorrect, the dopamine neurons stop firing. On the other hand though, if you make an accurate prediction and “win” money you get to feel the pleasure of being correct and also learn the correlation between being happy and winning money through accurate predictive modeling. This translates into what we label as emotions.
– We come up with refined predictions on a daily basis and are often unaware of our refinement process happening.
– **Dopamine neurons need to be continually trained and retrained for optimal performance.**
– expertise is simply the wisdom that emerges from cellular error. Mistakes are often discouraged but shouldn’t be. They are the foundational learning blocks of our brains. Avoiding mistakes actually backfires.
– Usually in classrooms children are rewarded for their innate intelligence and not for trying to become smarter by asking questions and making mistakes (which again, backfires on learning capabilities)
– what we are rewarded for GREATLY IMPACTS what we want and how we want to do it. This also impacts the “why” behind the behavior.