Understanding that your brain does most of its work behind the scenes is a key insight to living a better life
We are not consciously aware of most of what our brain does.
It may seem like we make decisions and take actions by thinking about them consciously. But we now know that our perceptions of ourselves and our world are processed – and most of our decisions are made – during unconscious brain activity before we are consciously aware of them.
Our brains monitor and control, outside of our conscious awareness, the majority of the physiological functions necessary for life, like breathing, blood pressure, and body temperature. And when our brain perceives a threat, before we are even aware of it, our brain sends widespread signals to prepare our body to fight or flee. Only after this process is well underway do we become “conscious” of the possible threat, and of the response of our body, including our pounding heart, tense muscles, and other physiological changes. Unfortunately, many tragedies occur from acting hastily while in this “fight or flight” state.
There is about a 300 millisecond (approximately 1/3 of a second) gap between our brain receiving a visual signal and our first conscious perception of that signal. During that time, our brain carries out a huge amount of work to process sensory information into recognizable forms associated with learning from past experiences. Only then do we “perceive” a chair or a house, recognize a face, or “hear” a voice. We are not even aware of the visual signal until our brain does a lot of work. Our brains then process our conscious awareness of the perception so that it seems synchronous with the earlier time the sensory input was received.
Most of us have experienced carrying out complex behaviors without thinking about them. Activities that we have learned and carried out often, such as driving a car or walking down a street, may be done automatically, even while we’re consciously thinking about something else. Some of us have experienced driving a car to a familiar location without having been consciously aware of most of the drive. Others may remember arriving somewhere familiar, only then to remember that their intent had been to drive to another less familiar location.
Highly skilled activities such as playing a musical instrument or participating in a rapid-action sport require unconscious deciding and acting. In each of these types of activities, conscious processing is simply much too slow for the effective performance of the required actions. Therefore, musicians and athletes practice and learn the requisite skills, then they depend on unconscious processing, deciding, and initiation of actions for their successful performances.
Unconscious brain processing is responsible for many other aspects of how we make decisions. How we feel and the decisions we make can be significantly affected by cultural attitudes and beliefs we were taught beginning in early childhood. We’re also powerfully influenced by hunger and thirst, by our impulses to eat foods that we know consciously may not be healthy for us, or by impulses to eat more than we consciously know that we should. Deep-seated sexual drives can cause us embarrassment or even result in behaviors that violate our own personal values and destroy important relationships.
Our brains monitor and control, outside of our conscious awareness, the majority of the physiological functions necessary for life
We are profoundly affected by deeply engrained (and unconscious) biases about people in other groups, and by our deep-seated need to be accepted by members of our own group. And our brain sends powerful impulses for us to conform to dominant group behaviors. These influences can drive us toward decisions inconsistent with our values, our well-being, and the well-being of those around us.
However, even when it seems that we are deciding consciously, it may be otherwise. Studies using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to detect increases in blood flow associated with brain activity now suggest that most of our decisions are made unconsciously. Even when we make decisions and take actions that we experience as having been made consciously, fMRI studies show that those decisions were already made, and the resulting actions initiated unconsciously, in our brains up to 10 seconds before we are consciously aware of having made such decisions. Unconscious processing, deciding, and acting may be the norm for most of our decisions.
In summary, what we perceive and experience, and the decisions we make, are heavily influenced by processes going on in our unconscious brain. These unconscious processes are critical to our brain’s functioning and to our survival, but they may also generate impulses and decisions that are in conflict with our values and our own best interests. Our perception of the world does not always mirror reality.
Becoming aware of the thoughts, feelings, impulses, and decisions coming from our brain’s unconscious processing, and learning strategies and strengthening our skills to take conscious control of our behaviors, is essential to living our best possible lives.
Further Reading