high school exams do you remember the feeling the nervousness the restlessness the churning in your stomach then the time starts everything in the room seems to disappear except that piece of paper in front of you time moves strangely intuition takes control and every answer comes to you this is the flow state initially coined by mihichiksemnihai he describes the flow state as characterized by simultaneous absorption concentration and enjoyment it occurs when you're in a state of intense focus absence of worrying high responsiveness and when self-consciousness disappears in recent years scientists such as ulrich dietrich and van
der linden have begun to decode what happens in the brain when we are in the zone considering that flow can happen during many different activities it's difficult to see which areas and systems it's caused by key areas theorized to be affected by flow are the locus corellius the default mode network and the dopaminergic pathway the locus corillius is a small nucleus in the ponds responsible for releasing the chemical neuroepinephrine it's linked to various other parts of the brain as shown here [Music] in the adaptive gain theory the locus coreless neurons fire in two different states
phasic and tonic the phasic state corresponds with focused precise behavior and task relevant decision making the tonic state is associated with fluctuating attention and distractibility as shown on the jerker's dodson curve during flow there is intermediate tonic activity which causes strong phasic activity hence the modulation of neuroepinephrine release affects the cortical circuits for task performance and allows for sustained attention during flow to add to this the transient hyperfrontality hypothesis considers flow as an altered state of consciousness caused by the temporary regulation of the prefrontal cortices as shown in the brain scans from an experiment regarding
focused attention to audio this and other parts of the default mode network have lowered activity the default mode network is the explicit system of awareness of thought and self-consciousness it links to the absence of worrying that people describe when in flow [Music] flow is known as an autotalk experience this means the pleasure in itself leads to a desire to engage in the activity again this feeling is partially accredited to the nucleus accumbens a core component of the dopaminergic pathways this is the system of gratification dopamine energizes increases creativity and diminishes feelings of fatigue or resistance
serotonin a known mood stabilizer plays a role too [Music] ulrich argues that in flow serotonin release causes the dorsal raphe nucleus to reduce activity in the medial prefrontal cortex this activation is also seen to interact with the dopamine system leading to long periods of sustained motivation the chemicals mentioned as well as others and flow have a strong correlation making it a pleasurable experience all of these theories come together and explain the things that we already know and feel about flow the more we discover the more we find out about the most addictive sustainable state of
mind the state that could unlock unlimited amounts of drive and efficiency and the most insane part is everything that you will ever need to access the flow state is already within you [Music] [Music] you
