The Neuroelectricity of Flow
When it comes to the physical interactions of your brain, the first stop is classic neuroelectricity. Why? That’s because, before we had ways to measure brain activity, like electroencephalogram (EEG), a lot of what we knew about how the brain worked came from various brain injuries. A striking example of this was the case of Phineas Gage. Image of his famous brain injury below:
Credit: https://www.tokresource.org/phineas-gage/
As the story goes, Phineas Gage was an American railroad construction foreman working with blasting powder, a fuse, and a tamping iron. While working, Gage inadvertently struck the fuse which caused the tamping iron to be blasted through his left front lobe. This area responsible for voluntary movement, judgement, foresight and plays a part in controlling emotions. After this injury, people who were close to Gage said he was “no longer Gage”. He had supposedly gone from well-tempered and logical to aggressive, impulsive and irrational.
Fortunately, we no longer need rely on brain injuries in order learn about the brain. Although brain injuries still help, various neuroimaging tools such as fMRI, MRI, PET Scans, CT scans, MEG and EEG, help us see inside the brain and correlate its activity to specific emotions, movements and sensory experiences.
Our interest is in EEG, or electroencephalogram.
Credit: https://media.proprofs.com/images/QM/user_images/1826446/1499937439.jpg
The electroencephalogram (EEG) consists of small sensors placed all over the scalp. These sensors read brainwaves created by the changes in the voltages of large groups of neurons. The EEG machine then amplifies these brainwaves and converts them into readable data on a computer screen. From this data we can determine what frequency the various groups of neurons are “humming” at.
There are 5 frequencies which we have associated certain mental states with, these frequencies are DTABG, Delta, Theta, Alpha, Beta & Gamma. Here’s a quote from Steven Kotler’s, “The Rise Of Superman”, which describes these frequencies and their associated mental states.
“ “Delta,” the slowest brain wave (meaning the one with the longest pauses between bursts of electricity), is found between 1 Hz and 3.9 Hz. When someone is in a deep, dreamless sleep, they’re in delta. Next up, between 4 Hz and 7.9 Hz, is “theta,” which correlates to REM sleep, meditation, insight, and (as is often necessary for insight) the processing of novel incoming stimuli. Between 8 Hz and 13.9 Hz hovers “alpha,” the brain’s basic resting state. People in alpha are relaxed, calm, and lucid, but not really thinking. Beta sits between 14 Hz and 30 Hz, and signifies learning and concentration at the low end, fear and stress at the high. Above 30 Hz there’s a fast-moving wave known as “gamma,” which only shows up during “binding,” when different parts of the brain are combining disparate thoughts into a single idea.” ” – Steven Kotler
What we are most interested in is a “high theta/low alpha” state. This state has been associated with high performance and Flow states. In this state, we put away conscious thought or that “inner voice” that can often stop you from moving forward with negative self-talk or doubt, and instead rely on our instinctive/intuitive feelings. Even more epic, is that fact that “Gamma” waves, which are responsible for “AHA” moments (the binding of two separate ideas into one – I.E. creative spark), only happen in arise out of the high theta/low alpha state. This means that the longer we spend in high theta/low alpha, the more naturally creative we can be. How can we spend more time in a high theta/low alpha state? More on this later. First, we dive into the neuroanatomy and neurochemistry of Flow.
