Flow An Altered State of Consciousness?

1. FlowAn Altered State of Consciousness? Presented by: Liana Ma Casey Armstrong Jessica Shindo

2. Outline of Presentation Introduction Review of Research Neural Bases of Flow Flow as an ASC Significance

3. 1. Introduction “Flow” coined by a psychologist in 1975 Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi Positive aspects of human experience joy creativity the process of total involvement with life Order in consciousness

4. “The opposite state from the condition of psychic entropy is optimal experience. When the information that keeps coming into awareness is congruent with goals, psychic energy flows effortlessly. There is no need to worry, no reason to question one’s adequacy. But whenever one does stop to think about oneself, the evidence is encouraging: “You are doing all right.” The positive feedback strengthens the self, and more attention is freed to deal with the outer and inner environment.” M. Csikszentmihalyi (1990) Athletics “being in the zone” Religion “ecstasy,” perhaps nirvana Art, Music “aesthetic rapture”

5. Challenge-Skill Balance. A balance between the demands of the situation and personal skills. • Action-Awareness Merging. Deep involvement that makes actions seem automatic. • Clear Goals. Certainty about what one is going to do. • Unambiguous Feedback. Immediate and clear feedback that reaffirms actions. • Concentration on Task at Hand. Feeling focused. • Sense of Control. Happens without conscious effort. • Loss of Self-Consciousness. Concern for self disappears as person becomes one with activity. • Transformation of Time. Time passes faster, slower, or there is unawareness of time. • Autotelic Experience. Feeling of doing something for its own sake, with no expectation of future reward. Components of Flow

6. 2. Review of Research 1975 - original research and theoretical model M. Csikszentmihalyi Currently studied by Psychologists interested in happiness Anthropologists interested in evolution Sociologists interested in contrast to anomie Methods Interviews, surveys, introspection Jackson’s Flow State Scale (FSS) Multi-method, quantitative, qualitative For sports and physical activity Self-rate frequency of components on scale of 1-5

7. 2. Review of Research Examples of studies Intrinsic motivation R. deCharms, 1968, 1976 Flow experience in elite athletes S. Jackson, 1996 Flow experience and music education L. Custodero, 2002 Flow and Dissociation - Emotional well-being in sports and recreational and pathological gambling B. Wanner et al., 2006 Educational, clinical and commercial applications policy reviews, sports journals, art and music magazines, anthropological sources

8. 3. Neural Bases of Flow Structures of:brain stem hypothalamus somatosensory cortices Damasio Neurotransmitters: Serotonin Dopamine

9. Brain Activation • Activation of the right superior temporal gyrus • Associated with intuitive leaps and sudden insight. • All neuronal resources are focused on sensory cortex (occipital, temporal) • self-related areas are inactive.

10. Cortical Inactivation • Feeling of losing oneself • Inactivation of cortical areas • Medial PFC, dorsolateral PFC, anterior and posterior cingulate cortex, inferior parietal cortex • Rapid sensorimotor task abolishes subjective self-awareness experience

11. Hamilton Study • Participants who had and had not regularly experienced flow participated in a flashing stimulus task • Had not experienced regular flow: cortical activation high above baseline during stimulus • Had experienced regular flow: activation decreased when concentrating • investment of attention decreased mental effort • More accurate in sustained attentional task • reduced mental activity in every channel except the one involved in concentrating on flashing stimuli, flexibility of attention

12. Alpha Waves • Elevated alpha-wave levels in the brain • Can retain cognitive consciousness for far longer • Gamma-aminobutyric acid produced • neurotransmitter that blocks unwanted stimuli

13. DA Release • Shifting attention causes release of DA into midbrain • High and sustained levels of DA cause feelings of pleasure and elation • DA release high with rapid onset • conscious state of pleasure or ‘high’ is reported.

14. 4. Flow as an ACS • Flow State or Flow Experience • Is the pleasure just a side effect of flow? • Enjoyable by definition, but also other dimensions (Jackson) • Is it the same as a peak experience? (Jackson) • Or, is it an emotional state? • Akin to a “state of rage” or something like that. • (Damasio) A state of emotions that has “important repercussions on the way your cognitive apparatus operates.”

15. Losing Your Self • Brain shuts down introspection as it enters flow state. (Goldberg 2006) • Consciousness as a “dialogue between specific self-related prefontal regions and sensory cortex.” (Baars et. al) • (Crick & Koch; 2003) Front of the brain has a “homunculus” like function where it observes the sensory back of the brain

16. Flow vs… • Biofeedback: • More control and conscious effort • Action and awareness are separate • Meditation • Is generally induced, as opposed to spontaneous • Separation of Self from Body: Dissociation • Hypnosis • Similar loss of control and “consciousness” but different controller. • Displacement of Self: the Hidden observer

17. Being “in the zone” • It can happen ANYWHERE to ANYONE - no training. • But, it happens the easiest (and generally most studied in sports.

18. 5. Significance M. Csikszentmihalyi “Emotions are in some respect the most subjective elements of consciousness, since it is only the person himself or herself who can tell whether he or she truly experiences love, shame, gratitude, or happiness. Yet an emotion is also the most objective content of the mind, because the ‘gut feeling’ we experience when we are in love, or ashamed, or scared, or happy, is generally more real to us than what we observe in the world outside, or whatever we learn from science or logic.” “Thus we often find ourselves in the paradoxical position of being like behavioral psychologists when we look at other people, discounting what they say and trusting only what they do; whereas when we look at ourselves we are like phenomenologist, taking our inner feelings more seriously than outside events or overt actions.”

19. Discussion

20. 5. Significance The approach Do self-reports of internal states (a.k.a. “introspective behaviorism”) lack scientific validity? Is it too fleeting to study, or do some individuals chronically experience flow (as in the case of studying déjà vu)? M. Csikszentmihalyi says we should represent consciousness as phenomenological (dealing directly with events/phenomena) as we experience and interpret them, rather than focusing on the anatomical structures, neurochemical processes, or unconscious purposes that make the events possible Lesions, pathology vs. positive aspects

21. Csikszentmihalyi, Mihaly, and Isabella S. Csikszentmihalyi. Optimal Experience: Psychological Studies of Flow in Consciousness. London: Cambridge UP, 1992. Custodero, Lori A. “Seeking Challenge, Finding Skill: Flow Experience and Music Education.” Arts Education Policy Review 103.3 (2002): 3-9. Jackson, Susan A. “Toward a Conceptual Understanding of the Flow Experience in Elite Athletes.” Research Quarterly for Exercise and Sport 67.1 (1996): 76-90. Tenenbaum, G., Fogarty, G., and Jackson, S. “The Flow Experience: A Rasch Analysis of Jackson’s Flow State Scale.” Journal of Outcome Measurement 3.3 (1999): 278-294. Wanner, Brigitte, Robert Ladouceur, Amelie Auclair, and Frank Vitaro. “Flow and Dissociation: Examination of Mean Levels, Cross-links, and Links to Emotional Well-Being across Sports and Recreational and Pathological Gambling.” J Gambl Stud 22 (2006): 289-304. Sources

22. Sources Cont. Hunter, Jeremy & Csikszentmihalyl, Mihaly. “The Phenomenology of Body-Mind: The Contrasting Cases of Flow in Sports and Contemplation.” Anthropology of Consciousness. Sept/Dec 2000, Vol. 11, no. 3-4, pp 5-24. Goldberg, Iian & Harel & Malach. “When the Brain Loses Its Self: Prefrontal Inactivation During Sensorimotor Processing.” Neuron. April 20, 2006, Vol. 50, pp 329-339. Jackson, Susan A.“Toward a conceptual understanding on the flow experience in elite athletes” Research Quarterly for Exercise and Sport. Vol. 67, No. 1, pp 78-90.

23. Csikszentmihalyi, Mihalyi. Flow. New York: Harper & Row, 1990. • Goldberg, IIan I., Harel, Michal., Malach, Rafael. “ When the Brain Loses Its self: Prefrontal Inactivation During Sensorimotor Processing.” Neuron 50. (2006) : 329-339. • Damasio, Antonio. Personal Interview. 2000.