Okay, so we're gonna cover internal calculators.
Okay, we're gonna map out kind of decision -making.
All right, we're gonna put a lot of time and
effort into what kind of reflects and goes into
the inputs for decision -making. How many decisions
do you think you make per day? It's a big question.
But we're going to map out these brain regions
here. These are pretty common brain regions that
we cover But I'm going to kind of generally speak
on these brain regions But then I'm going to
add in layers of what it means for the autistic
phenotype Okay, so One thing to know is the brain
is a prediction machine, right? And it's a metabolic
bank accountant. How much energy do I have on
board? How much can I allocate? because my goal
is to conserve the energy. So based off of this
situation that I'm in, what areas do I need to
activate and inactivate to satisfy my kind of
goal, satisfy the requirement of the living organism
in this environment, in this situation? Okay,
the brain is a prediction machine and it is a
metabolic bank accountant and another thing to
understand is You are not reacting to the world
around you. You are reacting to the predictions
you have about the world and the situation around
you. That is a major thing. You're reacting on
your predictions of the environment because we're
going to talk a lot about predictions and errors
because that's a major thing with learning. So
if you go into neuroscience or if you go into
like learning theory, You can look at prediction
error. Errors are huge for learning. But prediction
error is what happened minus what was expected.
prediction error is huge and you can even break
it down if you want to research it reward prediction
error or aversive aversion prediction error but
just lumping those together because it's okay
to separate those but in reality the living organism
is going to lump those together so we're just
going to call it prediction error what happened
in your life what happened in that situation
versus or minus what was expected to happen.
And then that delta will mean a lot of different
things. Okay, so let's just pretend like we're
encountering a situation. So we have sensory
inputs and then the state that we are in, remember
the metabolic bank accountant, what value does
that have or potentially have? and value. There's
an equation that goes into value. How much control
of the situation do I have or how much control
is needed? And then the action. What kind of
policy am I undergoing as a living organism here?
Prediction is heavily involved with this sensory
and then the prediction of the sensory plus your
state It's a very big input here. And then there's
also prediction with as you encounter the value.
Remember, this is a continuous loop. This isn't
just a linear think. So prediction is involved
with the value as well. And then how much control
do you have navigating this situation? Because
we're going to talk about adaptive responses.
Because. We have a good episode with the Insula
and the ACC about adaptive responses and who
leads the way and then the action that you're
doing and what kind of policy is that creating
for you as a living organism because that will
update our beliefs. You have core belief systems,
your phenotype, who you are as a person or said
differently your personality. Okay, so this is
what we're going to talk about. There's a lot
of biological energy here. So we're just going
to map out sensory with vision because one, I
like vision. I like the visual cortex and I like
vision biology from the retina. And we have good
episodes and whiteboards on the vision biology.
You can see this exact mapping with the corollary
discharge episode. And then you can also see
it with the superior colliculus episode that
we mapped out how easy it is to understand eye
gaze for the autistic phenotype, okay? Because
we have the frontal eye fields here as well,
okay? So we map this out. Retina will send two
pathways for vision, okay? One is to the lateral
geniculate nucleus, which receives about 85 to
90 % of the fibers, lateral geniculate nucleus.
And then... It will send information to the visual
cortex, V1. If you remember, visual cortex will
work back inward. But 10 to 15 % of the retinas
fibers will go to the superior colliculus. The
superior colliculus is huge, okay? Because this
is that machine -like structure that will just
bias your attention to the environment without
you understanding it's happening. It's very powerful.
And then it will speak up to the medial dorsal
part of the thalamus here, which is an executive
relay station. It's good for coordinating. And
then to the frontal eye fields. Okay, remember,
if you remember the corollary discharge episode,
this is also sending the corollary discharge.
And then the frontal eye fields will speak over
to the parietal lobe. Okay, there's two. subdivisions
here of the parietal lobe that are a region of
interest, the lateral intraparietal and the intraparietal
sulcus. Okay, remember the parietal is where
kind of sensory integration is happening. And
then in this very initial, before you even make
the eye gaze, remember that's what we're mapping
out here. If you remember the corollary discharge
episode. And then the parietal will speak back
down to the thalamic reticulidiculus here. You
should know it by now. If not, this is a protective
shell. It's a shell protecting the thalamus because
the thalamus here is a workhorse. It's major
workhorse here. So it needs help filtering out
unrelated and unwanted stimulus sensations. And
then it will go back to the lateral geniculate
and the parietal will also speak to the V2. It
will bypass V1. Remember, this is all happening
before the eye contact. This starts about 60
milliseconds before eye gaze, okay? And then
it will send this corollary discharge map for
a prediction, more prediction. And then once...
You make eye contact once you have attention
to the environment. You're sending your spotlight
of attention to something in the environment.
Doesn't matter if it's social or if you're reading,
if you're stuck on a topic or subject like a
lot of autistic phenotypes are. This is happening.
Remember we drew this out. But if you want to
sustain your eye contact, if you want to sustain
or sustain your attention, This will also run
back and it will help the frontal eye field say,
stay here. Keep your eye contact here. And it
will also remember the frontal eye fields has
a bi -directional signal to the medial dorsal
thalamus and the superior colliculus, okay? So
this is receiving the sensory information. via
vision. What happens next? Okay. But for the
autistic phenotype, you know, because of this,
this is all about sensory processing here. Essentially,
sensation to perception. Essentially the same
thing. For the autistic phenotype, this information
is coming fast and hard. It's heightened. Okay,
so a lot more information is coming in for the
autistic phenotype and that at more intensity
those higher gamma versus Beta and low gamma
for the so -called typicals and this is where
a lot of attention to detail is happening. Okay
and Visual thinking is happening in large part
of this visual cortex and all that information
coming in and a little subdivision of the parietal
called the percunius, which is also involved
in the default mode network. It's in the posterior
part of the parietal. But we're not going to
go there right now. But you need to know that
because of what we're going to map out here.
So now that something is selected in the environment,
what situation is this? What situation am I in?
So we introduce the orbital frontal cortex right
here, which is right here. Orbital frontal cortex
is right here. And it receives, remember, it
receives sensory information fast, not raw information
because that's already processed. That's what
all this green is. processing raw sensory information.
The orbital frontal receives the perception of
what this sensory information is fast because
this is state. This is all about what state are
you in and state is a very good spectrum. We
can use the word spectrum for all of our internal
states. that's a better use of the word spectrum.
The autism spectrum is very questionable. So
this is state. What state are you in? Not region,
not like location, not like Indiana or California
or New York. What bodily state are you in? So
for the Autistic Phenotype, we talked about,
especially in the Autism and Intuition video,
and a lot of different videos actually, that
there's, for the Autistic Phenotype, there is
a trade -off here. There's higher weight for
precision, okay, versus compression. There's
low compression, high precision here for the
Autistic Phenotype, which is in reverse. of the
so -called normals, the so -called people that
don't have this rate of information coming in
with the sensory processing and the heightened
awareness, the heightened intensity of these
higher gamma waves, these early regions being
blasted. For the normals, the typicals or whatever,
there is this generalization of sensory information
coming in. They just compress it into this generalization
or adjust, just to send it on, which is very
opposite of the autistic phenotype, where there's
a lot of detail in getting stuck. The autistic
phenotype has a tendency to get stuck and just
pay attention to very precise details of the
environment. But that is a strength for learning.
I've been on this kick about how autistic phenotypes
and the biology that gives us autism allows us
to have this accelerated learning. Small differences
in the environment though can be picked out.
It's noticed by the autistic phenotype. That's
a lot of pattern recognition here. Learning can
become so exceptionally fast and stable because
I've also talked about, especially in the visual
thinking episodes, that there's a lot of databases
being built, different catalogs for different
categories. Okay, remember the episode, there's
two episodes on visual thinking alone and one
is talking a little bit about weak central coherence.
which is kind of machine learning. Before AI
and machine learning, there was the autistic
phenotype's brain. That's the original AI. So
after the body, the brain is understanding what
kind of state it's in to make these decisions.
The medial part of the orbital frontal cortex
is coming on board, okay? Now, If the orbital
frontal cortex is here, the medial orbital is
more in the middle, more closer to the smid line.
And that's right behind here, okay? So it's right
behind the orbital. So it's also up here though,
just right on the other side of the eyebrows.
And this is reward. This is going to help signal
what is rewarding. This current experience that
I'm in for this specific living organism in the
specific time that will determine how much this
reward, potential reward is from the environment
or if it's learning a task, learning a topic
or subject. How good does this feel to me right
now? If state inference is less socially compressed,
social reward may be automatically, it might
dominate the valuation. So this reward little
hub with the medial orbital frontal cortex value
may depend more on internal structure than the
external. Okay, for the autistic phenotype, value,
because we're getting into value because reward
is a component that will equal value. For the
autistic phenotype, value is not external. External
is too chaotic. Remember, because of this rate
of information with these sensory processing,
value for the autistic phenotype is typically
internal. And this is part of this deep engagement
with this These certain domains that you can
kind of subject and identify the autistic phenotype
gets into versus the so -called typicals. But
value isn't just reward. There's a lot of cost
involved. How much effort? Remember with the
metabolic bank accountant, this is a good part
of that right now. Value is reward minus cost.
So that brings us to the insula. We have great
episodes on the insula and whiteboards. The insula
is very lateral okay. So it's right in here but
it's very lateral. We talk about the insula quite
a bit because it's privileged. It's privileged
to the brain states that's happening here. What's
happening in the brain. It's privileged to the
body. What kind of physiology? What kind of feelings
am I having in my body? Am I tired? Am I weak?
Do I not feel well? Is my heart rate beating
too fast versus just right for this environment?
Is my heartbeat fast for sitting on the couch
versus running? One of those is acceptable. The
other one is not. So, this insula is privileged
for the brain, the body, and the environment.
How is this living organism navigating the world?
How do I feel in this situation right now? So
for the autistic phenotype, the raw signals are
amplified. Remember, okay? And this shifts the
equation. Value equals reward minus cost. You
can put these in deltas. Deltas, the differences.
Differences of reward and cost. Is it too costly?
Does the cost outweigh the reward? We can put
these on seesaws again. Seesaws are always a
good thing. It's a good visual representation.
If cost increase, when cost increased, your avoidance
is going to increase. And that's true with the
autistic phenotype. It's true with anybody. Remember,
cause this is what we're mapping out. This isn't
necessarily secluded to the autistic phenotype.
There's more cost versus reward You will find
yourself reluctant to engage in that task. Reluctant
to repeat that task. And this is where preferences
and phenotype and personality is being created.
A lot of value here. What does the living organism
find valuable? When is the living organism having
a net gain of reward versus cost? They will repeat
that. It's not complicated and this isn't necessarily
because of weakness. It's because the cost term
is genuinely larger in this internal calculation.
Reward may dominate fully but there's an intense
sustained focus that's required. This is why
or a reason why habits are preferred. Okay now
that the brain integrates reward and cost the
ventral medial prefrontal cortex comes on board
and this is a very powerful hub the ventral medial
prefrontal cortex is powerful it receives a lot
of information there's a lot of connections running
through and out of the ventral medial prefrontal
cortex and it is down here it is at the bottom
side of the medial prefrontal cortex remember
the medial front frontal cortex is close to the
midline deep inside the prefrontal cortex it's
right here and this is this is receiving inputs
from the situation so the state dependent situation
the reward that the expected reward that the
living organism might get Okay, the cost. So
the insula is heavily weighted with this ventral
medial prefrontal cortex. And then the emotional
tone. The ventral medial will receive inputs
from things like the amygdala and hippocampus
for emotions and energy and kind of contextual
memory. Okay, last time I was in this situation,
this happened. All right. So value here is kind
of being understood. This is value. As these
little hubs are sending inputs, the ventral medial
prefrontal cortex will calculate those. So insular
cost, value, is in large part happening here.
Remember though it's a part of the medial prefrontal
cortex. I'll just keep that open. One way to
think about that what I just said is this area
right here is the scoreboard. And the living
organism will always want the reward to win.
It's like the home team. Because as more rewards
are being gained, net benefits, the living organism
is going to repeat that. It's going to prefer
that. And it doesn't matter if it's healthy or
unhealthy. It doesn't care. And remember, the
brain does not want to work. It just wants to
respond. We're going to get to why. For the autistic
phenotype, value becomes extremely stable whenever
that's internal. And this will support deep focus.
That logical intuition, see the Autism and Intuition
episode, systems reliability. Remember, one way
of thinking about that is what is reliable? What
is reliable for you? For me, we're all different.
We have different kind of preferences in life.
And one thing that this will kind of help modulate
or stamp is accelerated learning. Especially
in rule -governed domains. The structure, CB2.
Insistence on sameness. Okay, and this will kind
of structure when the structure is clear this
valuation Becomes powerful and more consistent
and it doesn't matter if it's autism or not But
sometimes evaluation isn't quite enough Imagine
this from intense inner world and intense preference
for that inner world and know the so -called
default mode network remember that I provided
a large hub for the default mode network right
there. And autism means self. So as we're mapping
out these hubs, you can see why the preference
is internal. And understanding that intense raw
sensory information here that's going to bias
us inward versus outward with all that chaos.
Sensory processing, this is what this is. The
biology that gives us autism here allows us to
be comfortable within ourselves. That insula
is a very powerful hub for what I just said.
Okay, and that leads us to the ACC. The ACC and
insula and the medial prefrontal cortex are all
powerful regions. Remember, the anterior cingulate
cortex is also in the medial prefrontal cortex.
And it's very medial. And it's also right through
here. The cingulate is very powerful because
it's wrapping around white matter tracks. This
is your controller. The ACC will tell you how
much control that it's going to need and put
forth. Alright. The ACC is very powerful. monitors
very powerful things so roles of the ACC is conflict
monitoring monitoring uncertainty all right and
it's how much effort and cost is associated with
this risk reward it's evaluating risk and reward
quite heavily and error detection that's a huge
part of learning error detection and what do
you do with those errors Do you analyze them?
Do you accept them? Or do you kind of project
them out or kind of spin up reasons of why those
errors happen? And those will always be external.
Mostly, if you do internalize those errors, you
might have a lot of negative self -talk. Either
way, you have to accept errors. If you want to
learn and grow in life as a human being, accept
the errors. It's a very powerful source of growth
and learning. Don't discount them. So, the ACC
is kind of help modulating. Is it worth thinking
harder? Is it worth performing harder for this
outcome? Remember, we have a very good early
episode of the podcast. the medial prefrontal
cortex leads the way. And in large part, the
ACC is doing that. It's helping lead the way.
One thing to know that the ACC and the insula
is part of the salience network, okay? Where
do you spend your spotlight of attention? And
now you can understand why. Because of the cost
involved. It's regulating how much cost Does
the living organism need to give give up? for
this environment for this task for this sensory
information and The control how much control
do I have over this situation? How much control
is it going to take and just imagine because
humans can do this how much thought has There's
a lot of energy associated with thought humans
capacity to think is infinite it's not a good
thing it can be it can but it's very costly so
now that we we've understood state reward cost
value and how much control the action happens
the action will now happen remember the dorsal
striatum of the basal ganglia's inputs motivation
lives Here, everything that I've just mapped
out is kind of feeding into motivation. You don't
define motivation. I hate to tell you. You don't
define it. Your central nervous system and who
you are based off these beliefs and phenotypes,
if you reverse engineer this and understand your
value, defines motivation. Remember, accept these
errors and get out of your own way if you want
to grow in life. okay so that leads us to the
dorsal striatum where motivation lives and this
is part of the basal ganglia okay and it's right
through here what color orange it's right through
here to the cadet the cadet will circle all the
way down and then the amygdala will branch off
of the cadet. The cadet is very large. It has
a head and a tail and then at the end of it is
the amygdala. Also a part of the amygdala is
the stria terminalis, which is also kind of this
circular thing. It's kind of a U -shaped thing.
But laterally, you can see the basal ganglia
episodes. We have a lot of episodes and even
whiteboards to explain this. The basal ganglia
is very powerful. But laterally here is the pertainment.
I'm gonna have to cover up the thalamus here,
but the pertainment is very lateral, okay? These
two little nucleus here is what is our action
selection. The ACC is heavily involved in action
selection too, but the inputs coming in to the
dorsal striatum will determine your movement.
I'm not going to spend any time on this video
with the dorsal striatum because there are many
whiteboards that are fantastic for the basal
ganglia. So the main thing here is to understand
this is where action and policy is living, okay?
Because these inputs coming into the dorsal striatum
will select your action. If you want them or
not, it doesn't matter. this is where behaviors
happen okay if there's a high valuation there's
there's a higher action probability okay so everything
we're we're doing is leading up to the action
so if the reward is high your dorsal striatum
is going to stamp that and repeat it this is
why things like addiction are huge in the dorsal
striatum and the ventral striatum the nucleus
accumbens This is why we never the living organism
likes things it's going to repeat those and that's
why habits are formed We are we are precisely
building habits at this point all of this build
up to this point remember these connections in
regions are building a summary and the living
organism the living organism and the dorsal striatum
is going to accept that summary as repeat