Fun With Stress 1.4

Physical & Mental Input

Reading time: 6 minutes

The human organism can be considered as a giant receiver-transmitter: receiver of input and transmitter of output. Earlier we discussed how sensory information that’s being picked up by our sense organs is a form of physical input, because it has to come into physical touch with our sense organs in order to perceive it. Now we will look at two more forms of input with the capacity to push our buttons: physical input coming from inside our body and mental input coming from our mind.

Our body, like any physical object, has an inside and an outside. Everything within the boundary of the skin we’ll call our body, everything outside the boundary of the skin we’ll call the external world.

Some-body and the external world. Image: DanaTentis

Myriad types of sensors in our tissues and internal organs provide the brain with information from within our body, which we will therefore call internal physical input.[1] Our sense organs provide the brain with information from the external world, which we’ll therefore call external physical input. Sensory information therefore comprises of both internal and external physical input, and sensory nerves provide the brain continuously with information from both our body and the external world.[2]

Just like our sense organs ceaselessly send information to the brain about the state and condition of the external world, so the sensors in our tissues and internal organs continuously send information to the brain about the state and condition of our body. Yet the transportation to and processing by the brain of internal physical input follows the same principles as that of external physical input. Information from the sensors in our tissues and internal organs travels via sensory nerves up towards the brain, where it is valued significant or insignificant. The latter category contains the vast bulk of daily sensory information which is sent towards the brain but is immediately forgotten, like the state of our stomach after having finished digesting a meal. When information is valued as significant however, it will be moved on down the line for further processing to the Emotional Brain / Limbic System, following the same procedures as significant sensory information coming from the external world as we have discussed in part 1.2.

The brains of these performers need to be trained in order to discriminate perfectly between significant and insignificant information both from their bodies as well as the external world. Image: IgorSuassuna

Unlike physical processes however, where a clear distinction can be made between information entering the brain via sensory nerves and information leaving the brain via motor nerves (which will be discussed later), that distinction is much more difficult to make when it comes to mental processes. Mental processes involve the range of activities happening in our minds, like thinking and reasoning for example,[3] and we are going to consider mental processes as input when they push our buttons and create a physical stress response, since in this story we predominantly will focus on input that pushes our buttons.

Nevertheless, we’ve already established that the vast bulk of either physical or mental input never creates output that we’re actually consciously aware of. Let’s examine therefore a few of such cases to get a little bit of an idea how these processes work in us, and which indicates a healthy condition. We’ll begin with a case of internal physical input that creates output we’re hardly ever aware of.

Suppose we swallow a chunk of food. As soon as it’s swallowed, watchmen in our oesophagus yell to the brain, “Brain, food just entered the oesophagus!” – which is internal physical input. The brain then sends messages (that is: information) via motor nerves to muscles in the oesophagus to start contracting in order to pump the food down to the stomach, which is output coming from the brain. When the food has passed, the watchmen yell, “Brain, the food has passed!” (input) upon which the brain turns off the ‘switch’ to the muscles in the oesophagus by ceasing to send messages (output). But now the food has entered the stomach, whose watchmen shout, “Brain, food just entered the stomach!” upon which the brain switches on the digestion process in the stomach. You see where this is going. Now, all these bodily processes are not known to cause output we’re consciously aware of. Usually we don’t think about how to beat our heart. Diffusion of oxygen molecules through the walls of our lung-alveoli into the bloodstream are not known to cause immense joy or excruciating sadness, and the production of immune cells in bone marrow won’t change our behaviour from reading a newspaper to jumping up and ordering pizza.

When it comes to external physical input, the biggest bunch will be immediately forgotten and hence won’t create any output that we’re consciously aware of. Imagine walking through a city. We see people walking, talking, calling, running or begging. There’s street lights, concrete roads, cars, buses, airport shuttles, buildings, entrance doors, street signs, trees, clouds and billboards. We hear a cacophony of sounds; endless chatter, cars driving by, horns, planes flying over, bird song, cell phones going off. And we smell burning rubber, Chinese food, Chanel #5, spring blossoms and what not. By far most of this input is instantly forgotten and doesn’t create output we’re consciously aware of. Observing traffic usually won’t make us highly emotional and stilted architecture isn’t generally known for driving us into a food frenzy.

As far as mental input is concerned, we must first distinguish between our Working and Thinking Minds, because the former does not push our buttons while the latter, in most cases, does.

While in Working Mind mode, we are focusing on problems and tasks in the present moment. We are then deploying two types of thought: Insightful thinking which is used for problem solving or long term planning, and experiential thinking that focuses on a task at hand. In other words, as we come across a problem while building a log cabin, the utilized thoughts to overcome the problem usually don’t make us cry. Also the thoughts we use while planning a trip are not known for making us believe to be Napoleon Bonaparte all of a sudden. Working Mind thoughts therefore usually do not push our buttons. Moreover, while in Working Mind mode, there is generally no awareness of ourselves, because we are busy with things outside of ourselves.

So far we covered some examples of physical and mental input that is not stored in the brain and is immediately forgotten. However, that changes radically as soon as we enter a Thinking Mind mode.

Thinking Mind focuses exclusively on the past or future; judging, comparing, blaming and shaming things or situations from the past, and worrying about the future. Usually we get into Thinking Mind mode when we wish to relax or sleep; moments when we don’t have a specific task to focus on. The infamous incessant chatter inside our mind happens when we’re in Thinking Mind mode, and is by default about significant and meaningful matters for us: mostly about current things or situations we experience as problematic. Moreover, while in Thinking Mind mode there is generally a lot of awareness of ourselves, and usually not in the most positive of ways. Therefore this type of thought creates output that we’re consciously aware of, because it has the potential of pushing our buttons quite hard.

In the next part we will go deeper into input which is judged as significant and can thus push our buttons with less or more force. We will also investigate how this can affect our output in the form of thoughts, feelings (emotions), visceral reactions and actions.

For now,
Jolly greetings,
Erik Stout

[1] Except hair, nails, the outer layers of our teeth and cartilage, because these tissues are not in direct contact with our nervous system.

[2] Slightly different terms for input are used in the medical world. Sensory input is composed of somatic sensory input and visceral sensory input. The Latin ‘soma’ can be roughly translated into ‘body,’ and the term ‘viscera’ points to the internal organs. Somatic sensory input includes information about our physical outside via receptors in our sense organs, and information about our physical inside via sensors in our muscles, bones and joints. Visceral sensory input includes information about our physical inside via sensors in most of our internal organs.

[3] In psychology mental processes refer to internal, invisible activities in our minds. They shape our interactions with the world and influence our behaviour and emotions. The eight recognized mental processes are: perception, attention, memory, learning, language, thought, motivation, and emotion.