Our thoughts are similar to a private theatre, and they can interest us. They can be unpredictable and on cue. They can move us to action and sometimes to tears.
Feelings can also be triggered by thoughts and can affect what is shown in our mental theatre.
Our lives are made up of images and phrases in our minds. By some estimates, we may have four to eight thoughts per minute.
It can add up to several thousand thoughts a day, even accounting for some periods of fatigue or apathy.
Changes in stream of thought can be caused by psychological disorders. Depression and dementia can reduce thought rate, but manic states and attention deficit disorder can increase it.
There are many thoughts that can be classified as either spontaneously or involuntarily. They don't feel deliberate, they spring to mind. Some may be ideas or intuitions relevant to a current situation, intrusive thoughts linked to preoccupations, or free associations while the mind wanders. There are some recollections of autobiographical memories.
Where do thoughts come from? The ideas evoked by what we see and hear are an obvious source of environmental stimulation.
When the environment is stable, like when walking a familiar path or sitting on a bus, there are often speaches.
Long-term memory, unconscious pieces of phrases, images, actions, and ideas are some of the things that give rise to dreams.
These mental construction blocks are the activity of networks of neurons in the grey matter, whose connections have been strengthened by many experiences.
The neural networks are normally inactive, but when they are excited by other brain activity, they compete for access to consciousness.
The competitive strength of networks is influenced by their relevance to our situation, as well as our goals, needs, interests, or emotions.
When we are hungry, we think about food more than when we have an important dinner to prepare.
Emotions play a key role in many types of thoughts. intrusive thoughts are forced upon us by emotions so that we focus on high-priority information like threats. intrusive thoughts can be produced by anxiety, pointing to real or imagined threats. Repetitive flashbacks and ruminations can be caused by post-traumatic stress.
Positive emotions make us focus on high-priority content, but they also facilitate more remote or unusual associations which increase memorization and creativity.
During euphoria, intrusive thoughts often include optimistic anticipations and imaginative ideas. Positive thoughts are generated by passion.
Weak emotions such as worries, desires, irritation, stress, surprise, or interest are involved in orienting many of our thoughts.
Microemotions can be brief and unconscious. They mainly cause micromovements like muscle tension or facial microexpressions and they produce small reactions.
Micro-fears can cause what-if thoughts and worries that can cause anxiety and insomnia. Goals, wishes, and conversation themes are activated by desires.
Microemotions of guilt or pride can cause moral intuitions of anticipated disapproval or approval of others, which is essential to develop pro-social behavior such as cooperation, helpfulness, and other types of behavior that benefit others. Microemotions of boredom or craving for stimulation can cause distraction or mind wandering and may underlie some symptoms of attention deficits.
Our thoughts are influenced by microemotions. They distract our attention from its present object, they make our perceptual systems notice things related to their dominant theme, and they help us retrieve memories relevant to that theme. Microemotions are triggered by a perception or an idea that is significant enough to subtly affect emotional systems.
The amygdala is a hub for several brain circuits. The hub has access to the low parts of our brain. It can affect the emotional significance of perceptions or retrieved memories.
The brain's amplifier in the brain stem is activated by the amygdala hub. The systems juice up the level of neural activity and steer it towards the theme that is consistent with the emotion.
A self-sustaining loop is created between thought and emotion when the evoked thought is emotional.
Spontaneous thoughts are mostly motivated by feelings, emotions, and our mental theatre.
Better control of stress levels, emotions, and daily experiences may improve the quality of these thoughts.
Francois Richer is a professor at the University of Quebec.
This article is free to use under a Creative Commons license. The original article is worth a read.
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