Scott Adams is the man behind Dilbert Comics–one of my favorites. 18 months ago he lost his conversational speech to a rare condition called Spasmodic Dysphonia. Recently he reported having miraculously regained his speech. The strange thing about this condition–and how the mind works–is that he could sing and give professional speeches but he could not carry out casual conversations since different types of speech are processed in different regions of the brain and follow different neural routes.

Interestingly, he recovered his speech by talking in rhymes and trying to blur the line between rhymes and regular speech. How does the mind know what rhymes and what doesn’t? What is the difference between “Yellow” and “Yellow Fellow”?

Neural networks are a complex collection of neurons which talk to each other through chemical signals generated from electrical impulses within the brain. Like a current running through the wire, information flows across the neural network through a series of chain reactions much like a ballet, where each performer responds to a cue from another performer and the chain reaction of responses accomplishes an act. So a particular neural mapping is the path followed by a chain reaction, however, if a certain mapping is damaged then the physiological function accomplished by that mapping is lost. In lab rats for example you could tap a certain part of their split open brain and cause their leg to move. However, if that part is damaged altogether it might so happen that they would not be able to move their legs anymore. In Scott’s case it was conversational speech he had lost. However, the chain reaction required for rhymes follows a slightly different path and that neural mapping was still intact.

One can only speculate on how things work but it appears that Scott conditioned his mind to reinforce the functioning neural maps responsible for rhymes and manipulated them in slight iterations (by using rhymes to lean toward conversational speech) to find a new mapping to accomplish the the same function of conversational speech. It’s almost as if when the mind is searching within itself for a rhyme, it ends up at a different state in the neural network map from where it then proceeds to deliver that rhyme as speech through a still functional mapping.

So going forward if you can land your mind in that state by consciously making an effort to concoct a rhyme (or conditioning your mind so that subconsciously you always consider a rhyme) you can then proceed from there to deliver regular speech instead of the rhyme–akin to taking a detour and making that detour your regular route.

Gives a whole new meaning to the simple mind over matter issue.

EEG or Neurofeedback training sounds like a sci-fi concept to those hear about it the first time. It’s something you can do to monitor your brain activity, then learn to recognize the graphs that are generated from monitoring your mental state and eventually excercise your mind to will it into a particular state of mind. It’s like working out your mind, much the same way you work out your body.

EEG devices let you see the results and measure your performance so it’s not like walking in the dark — you can actually see the results of your mental activity and assess your success in controlling your mental states. The devices can be bought for around $800 or so off the internet. OpenEEG is an open source project for assembling your own neurofeedback device and they have some software that lets you assess the results of your neurofeedback sessions.

How does it work?

Everytime the brain is going through any kind of mental state, there is a series of neurons that fire. Neurons are nerve cells, and like any cell they have a positive and negative charge — which creates electrochemical activity. Neurons pass the message (or electrochemical charge) along a line of neighbouring neurons. In Mind Wide Open, Steven Johnson refers to the firing of neurons as a ballet. I tend to visualize neural activity to be like a firework of neurons (quite literally the flow of electrochemical charge). Each set of fireworks gives us a different state of mind. When we are really attentive, fearful or excited or any other emotional state, a particular type of neural firework or ballet is taking place in some region of the brain. Each of those mental states has a different constellation of neurons firing and EEG/neurofeedback devices can capture most of this activity and recognize the constellations.

EEG devices have electrodes attached to different parts of your head and they are sensitive to any electrochemical activity. These electrodes are connected through a wire to a central unit which processes incoming data from all electrodes and generates a graph (or maybe some other kind of output) based on which electrodes are firing and how intensly.

If you have the EEG/neurofeedback device attached to your head and do some of your regular activity like reading a book or watching a movie, you can view what the graph looks like when you were really concentrated or excited. Each individual’s brain generates a distinct graph and once you recognize which graph patterns correspond to what mental state it becomes really easy to assess — almost objectively — what mental state your mind is in. It also makes it easy to will your mind into producing that particular graph and thereby getting yourself into any mental state (I think actor’s would be really good at this).

Things get even more exciting, however, when data is flowing in the opposite direction: from the computer to your brain by directly injecting chemicals into regions of your brain. Drugs already do this by inhibiting or stimulating particular parts of your brain but a direct neural interface allows for a more controlled experience. You could experience a more specific type of euphoric feeling, or reactivate a lost memory. The future is almost here.