Okay, so we last talked about internal calculation.
Okay, we went through this whole process here
of state Reward and cost which equals value value
equals reward minus cost you can see this here
Control how much control does the living organism
have in the environment in the task that is performing?
And then the action and policy the policy is
who you become The belief systems, your core
beliefs, the phenotype, your personality, this
is all about learning and repetition. Okay, remember,
as the reward is high, if we want to put this
in a seesaw because it's a great visual representation,
reward is high and cost is low. This equals repeat.
This is a bad problem in modern society because
you can do things with without Effort for reward
and that's not the way evolution is built evolution
is built with this effort first and then reward
on the opposite of that if If cost is high reward
is low this equals a void So, high reward equals
repeat. The living organism is going to repeat
that. High cost is avoidance. The living organism
is going to avoid that task. We ended last episode
about the dorsal striatum because we built the
habit. We built repetition. The living organism
is going to repeat things that it conserves biological
energy, okay? Remember, that's the whole purpose
of the internal calculator. The brain does not
want to work. It just wants to respond. And it's
a metabolic bank accountant. We're going to add
on to that today. It's a metabolic bank accountant
because it's determining how much energy do I
have available to me to execute these things,
to execute life. And it will allocate and conserve
biological energy. So if this cost is low, it's
going to want to repeat that. that cost is high
is going to want to avoid that. That's the whole
network of this metabolic bank accountant. So
we built this habit, okay? And we kind of talked
about how the autistic phenotype is within these
little networks here. But this is true with everybody.
That's the beauty of this. So with this habit
and evaluating this these values with this reward
and cost, we can know that under uncertainty,
cost is very high and we have to exhibit more
control over the environment. And that's the
ACC here. That's a big part of the ACC. There's
a lot of good research on autism in the ACC.
One, the spindle neurons. Those are fast acting
for social environments. social environments.
Now to see phenotype avoids that too costly and
then the it's the ACC is a part of the salience
network okay so that helps modulate your attention.
What do you consider valuable is the way that
you can look at the the salience network. What
what has your attention? Is it external or is
it internal? The ACC has a big input into the
the dorsal striatum which is where the habits
are built, where repetition is built, and we
love habits. Living organisms love habits because
it automates the response. You don't have to
think about things, okay, and it conserves energy.
We love habits. We love repetition. That equals
reward or minimizes cost. So this repetition
with the autistic phenotype is meaningful. So
let's add in some let's talk a little bit more
about the prediction because that's this big
equation here for learning remember you can This
prediction error is kind of zoomed out. You can
zoom in to it with reward prediction error or
aversive prediction error But we're going to
add in another little equation here. That's a
part of this that's going to kind of help explain
reward and cost different or just kind of add
to it. Another key takeaway from the first episode
that we did here is you are not responding to
the world, to the environment. You are responding
to the predictions you have here, especially
here, here, and here. You are responding to the
predictions you have about the world, about your
task, about how you are navigating the world.
Remember for this equation right here. you are
trying to ultimately save and conserve biological
energy. Two major things that we always talk
about is space -time, how these neural correlates
are operating, how fast they are operating, through
space and time, and then biological energy. We're
human beings. We conserve energy. We live off
of energy. Okay? So if you really want to add
in some more autism stuff here with that attention
to detail, the autistic phenotype, especially
socially, can really pinpoint and send attention
to those really small details about the discrepancies
of the world, the discrepancies of social situations.
All the meaning is trying to comprehend. And
this fast rate of sensory processing that we
outlined here in green, just using vision, but
it's also true with the auditory brainstem response.
Good whiteboards on that. And even touch. So
there are a couple of neuromodulators that I
want to talk about. Because one, this isn't fixed.
The intensity here isn't fixed. So there are
two neuromodulators here, dopamine and neuroepinephrine.
that I want to talk about that really amplifies
this stuff that we're talking about. And remember,
we talk about dopamine with the basal ganglia
episodes with the substantia nigra, which is
right through here in the mesencephalon, the
midbrain. Okay. And the substantia nigra pars
compacta is the dopamine and it speaks up to
the cadet here and the pertainment. This is the
dorsal striatum. the top part of the striatum.
Okay, we're going to introduce the nucleus accumbens,
which is right here, and we're also going to
introduce the ventral tegmental area. Ventral
tegmental area is another spot for dopamine,
and it will speak heavily to the nucleus accumbens.
The nucleus accumbens is in the ventral striatum,
the bottom side. The striatum Striata means stripes
because there's a lot of white matter tracks
running through here that makes it look like
these little neculi have stripes. It's the internal
capsule. If you look at an overhead view of the
brain, you can see these internal capsules kind
of look like this. They kind of look X'd. One
on this side and then one on the left side. And
then you can also see the caudate neculis. pushes
in on the third ventriculars, the ventricles.
There's a lot of biological power running through
this ventricular system, a lot, because of the
water. So these white matter tracks provides
this better space -time and biological energy.
So the dopamine here is really modulating effort,
gain, Because this is going to be the new equation
here is the net gain The learning rate how fast
do you want to repeat a task or repeat a stimuli
and How much you want to avoid it? This is dopamine
here is really big in learning and reinforcement.
It's not just addiction, but it's heavily involved
in addiction And dopamine will also be about
expiration. How do you navigate the life, your
life? Whenever things are good, whenever the
living organism has a net gain, it will repeat
that and dopamine increases. It will stamp this.
It reinforces this activity, this behavior. And
this state and value will get heavy inputs from
this area from the VTA, the nucleus commens,
the VTA up through the cortex and the motivation
rises and this becomes more of what you do for
your core beliefs, your phenotype, your personality,
and so forth. How much are you being hijacked
by this? Okay, so let's say the contrary. You
don't like something. The prediction you made
didn't give you the outcome or there's a lot
of cost involved so you avoid things so dopamine
will drop dopamine drops so this these connections
and then the pars compacta will stamp the basal
ganglia the dorsal striatum specifically to not
want to do that and your motivation decreases
so dopamine here with this little neural correlate
that we have is intensifying. That's why they're
called modulators. You might think of them as
neurotransmitters, but that's kind of limited.
They're much more than that. So remember, dopamine
updates this OFC for the state because it's telling
you what kind of state you're in. In the moment,
the ventral medial prefrontal cortex, they have
strong connections with the neuromodulatory systems,
things like serotonin even and norepinephrine
and dopamine. There's a lot of subcortical inputs
running through the ventral medial prefrontal
cortex too because that's where the value is
at ultimately being calculated. Remember we called
this area the scoreboard okay and the striatum
of course we cover that in the basal ganglia
a lot and then the ACC as well dopamine will
help signal how much control is involved remember
because it's the ACC is like how much effort
do I need here? There's a lot of uncertainty
here. Uncertainty is a big thing in life. I promise
you, you don't lack uncertainty. How much are
you being hijacked by these areas right here,
especially the ventral medial prefrontal cortex
and the ACC? The other area is, now, it's neuroepinephrine,
and it's from the locus aurelius, sometimes called
the blue spot. But I already have blue and I
really want to do the neuromodulators in the
same color Kind of running out of colors here,
but the locus turuleus is right here. It shows
up as blue on scans And remember if we just want
to talk about it real fast the dorsal raffae
runs up through here in the para aqueductal gray
in the mesencephalon The raffae is right through
here. It runs kind of more vertically. The locus
coeruleus here is sprinkling the brain with neuroepinephrine.
It's brain energy, essentially. Okay, and if
you see the pathways of neuroepinephrine, it
lacks specificity, but it's just going all the
way up through here in the cortex and the subcortical
areas. There's massive amounts of, essentially
it's just like sprinkling the brain. That's the
best way I've heard it described. It sprinkles
the brain without specificity and it will even
reach over there to the cerebellum. Okay. Neuroepinephrine
here as a neuromodulator is help guiding effort
and gain. So more of that value. Okay. It will
it will increase attention. that will give attention
some intensity. It's very similar to dopamine.
Remember, they come from the same amino acid
tyrosine. Dopamine and norepinephrine and melanin
are all like this. You don't know what melanin
is, I don't think. I don't know, maybe you do.
This will help also the signal to noise. What
do I need to spend my attention to versus weed
out the noise and cognitive effort? Okay, this
is a big thing and we're going to talk about
a little bit about that expiration and effort
versus quitting because quitting will be right
here. So whenever neuroepinephrine increases,
the engagement of this ACC increases. It's kind
of a little heightened rate. It's intense. But
the living organism is saying, okay, this is
worth it to me or I need to do this. So the ACC
will help Control, more effort. And what it's
doing here with all of these cortical areas is
telling you to stay on task, time on task, it's
worth it. Whenever neuroepinephrine is decreased,
your engagement drops. They're very similar to
dopamine. The engagement drops and the control
relaxes. You're more likely to give up. We're
gonna get there with astrocytes and giving up.
and then the system will just reduce effort to
conserve the energy. How hard should I be working
and pushing right now is a question that neuroepinephrine
is help solving. But alongside neuroepinephrine
and even dopamine, there's a type of glia cell
that we haven't talked about that we should,
and it's called astrocytes, glia astrocytes.
And this is our best friend. That's the best
way I'm going to be able to explain it, I think.
You can see wonderful research on gliastrocytes
and persisting versus quitting here. This is
a very good paper. Self -press is a very good,
very good paper. Dopamine and norepinephrine
equals effort versus outcome. So whenever you
are... providing effort whenever your brain,
this whole system here, the whole brain, is performing
tasks, giving effort, using biological energy,
and the outcome is satisfying, or it's a net
gain, a net benefit, you will persist. You will
give more effort. Remember to maintain this reward.
This is a good way of looking at it. When a reward
is high, Dopamine and norepinephrine are going
to be high and effort, based off of the outcome
that you're getting, will sustain. In contrast
to that effort versus outcome, whenever the effort
you're providing is not yielding the results,
whenever that cost is high, whenever you're performing
a task and it's not giving you what you think
you should be getting, or you're used to getting,
or you're predicted to get, you will quit. So
dopamine and norepinephrine is kind of helping
persist or quit. And the astrocytes, especially
in the locus coeruleus, is your best friend.
Whenever reward is high, it's your hype man.
It's telling you. keep going you're doing the
right thing and remember from the first episode
this high net gain with reward doesn't matter
if it's healthy or unhealthy it doesn't matter
if you want to do it or you don't want to do
it it doesn't matter think about things like
addictions and think about things like bad habits
how much are you being how much are you being
held captive because of high reward. Think about
smartphone usage. Think about social media technology.
You are being hijacked. You are being captive.
Because of this dopamine and norepinephrine and
those rewards, your brain is telling you to keep
going. The brain is dumb. It doesn't want to
work. It just wants to respond. Whenever the
effort is not giving you the results, the astrocytes
being your best friend is like, what are you
doing? Why do you keep doing the stupid stuff?
What are you doing? And the astrocytes will come
in and shut the neuroepinephrine off. it will
come in and just basically blanket the neuroepinephrine
from the locus aurelius and your brain will not
release all of this neuroepinephrine for the
biological energy anymore. And that's exactly
what this is. You can also see kind of a different
version of it with different areas, but these
two kind of go hand in hand. This paper right
here, they did six, experiments trying to prove
themselves wrong and they couldn't do it. This
is where Astrocytes is your best friend and is
telling you to quit. The effort that you're providing
versus the rewards that you're getting, the outcome
is not worth it and it doesn't matter if it's
healthy or unhealthy. It doesn't matter if you
want to do it or you don't want to do it. Quitting,
quitting It's all mental. This will signal way
before your body will actually give up. And this
is based off of you as a living organism, based
off of everything that we've talked about here.
We are so identical in these structures, these
neural correlates, these brain regions, but we
are so different. We are so different with the
amount of effort and motivation that we have.
And for what? Don't allow yourself to be held
hijacked because of this. Every time you want
to repeat things, you can think of it as it's
rewarding. and there's a good equation here that
I really want to kind of add into this prediction
error what happened minus the expected okay and
that's net benefits equals expected value minus
but remember that is this minus metabolic cost,
that delta. This right here is the equation of
your life. That is what you need to know. Because
remember, the brain is dumb. It doesn't want
to work. It's just wanting to optimize this and
you will be held hijacked you will be held captive
on the things that you're doing especially with
social media especially with technology so this
is a huge component of this this is a broad equation
here you can see things you can see some great
papers some more cell press trends in neuroscience
here that talk about this stuff This is a great
paper for that. Trends in Cognitive Science.
Another great paper of this. The Metabolic Internal
Calculations. Everything is about internal calculators
to conserve energy. The things that give you
reward, you're going to repeat those, if you
want to or not. The things that are costly to
you biologically, metabolically, you are going
to avoid those. So I wanna wrap up with just
saying about what kind of situation is kind of
weighted differently, okay? So when things are
stable, a pretty good equation here of result.
you're able to persist a little bit. So a stable
environment is the OFC, the ventromedial prefrontal
cortex, and the striatum is there's a little
bit more weight on there. So there's less cognitive
effort with the ACC, so less control over the
situation. And the insula is kind of, they're
not that much in play as much. And that's a good
thing because this uncertainty We don't like
that. We don't like it whenever things are rough
Whenever things are hard in contrast the ACC
and the insula and the amygdala remember the
amygdala is there's a little bit more weight
on that and This will mean that the control needs
to increase the energy cost needs to increase
So back to this again back to this and back to
this whenever you're in a high sensory low when
things are chaotic like the autistic phenotype
especially socially remember all of these sensations
here the insula the insula is heightened there's
a lot more weight on the insula remember it's
privileged then the parietal low because it's
there's a lot of sensations the parietal is helping
make sense of the sensations and the thalamus
there's a lot of inhibition needs to be a lot
of inhibition here, because if you were forced
to perceive all the sensations that you actually
have going on, you will be overwhelmed. It's
too much. That's why the thalamus has little
assistance, like the thalamic reticular nucleus
and the subthalamic nucleus of the basal ganglia,
not mentioned here. We did not mention the subthalamic
nucleus here, except for that time. Whenever
you're in a deep focus or flow when things are
going well, you have this like cognitive hide,
the OFC, the ventral medial prefrontal cortex,
and the striatum are also more weighted because
we're just automating these responses here. So
you're in a good state, the value is in a good
spot, it's clear, and then you can execute the
task, the dorsal striatum. So this is a good
reason of why the brain is a metabolic bank accountant
Okay, control is metabolically expensive Okay,
error processing is expensive but this because
we're we can add in this equation these equations
all of these brain regions all that internal
friction and Updating the models is expensive
We don't like when our beliefs are challenged.
We don't like change. I just said that. What
I just said means we don't like change, and you
know that. Updating our models is expensive,
meaning we have to change. And that goes back
to this. There's so much that goes back to this
and being hijacked and captive here. That's a
big thing. That's the biggest takeaway. So I
just want to end with this right here and everything
that I just went on this rant about is why habits
emerge, routines emerge, okay? And we conserve
these energies and we just repeat that. And we
like that prediction because it's common to us.
We don't have to have all of this effort and
work. So that means less friction. So the main
thing here, is the brain is trying to maximize
the value whether you want to or not whether
you like the stimulus or not it's trying to minimize
uncertainty because it's costly you have to do
a lot of effort here okay and then minimize this
metabolic load that is the main goal of the brain
the net benefits so This is kind of just wrapping
up. This is true with everybody, not just the
autistic phenotype. It's just context dependent.