Does technology mash our brains?

August 16, 2010 7:51 AM

Scientists go off the grid to see what happens to their brains. A group of experienced brain scientists come together and take a rafting and hiking trip in wild Utah. Their experience is enlightening (though perhaps not transformative).
posted by GnomeChompsky (44 comments total)

Yeah, count me among the completely underwhelmed by this article. Everything scientists do is not science and everything that creates an experience affects the brain. I found many of the articles in their internet series quite good, but this was, well, not.
posted by Maias at 8:05 AM on August 16, 2010 [2 favorites]

I enjoyed the comments -- in particular, the part about how cell phone use might affect your sexual performance (especially if you're a rabbit).
posted by GnomeChompsky at 8:06 AM on August 16, 2010 [1 favorite]

My wife and I work in the field of memory and attention, and we know the researchers in the article (My wife worked with Todd Braver, in fact). We were talking about how the article presented the researchers. She thought it did a good job. I said, "Yeah, but people who don't know researchers won't understand that researchers work all the time. They'll think it's just a vacation." Burhanistan, thanks for proving me right :)

That said, I don't understand what's special about this trip. I go to conferences where hiking, rafting, etc. are part of the schedule every so often. It is a good break from the typical staring at Powerpoint presentations for hours on end. I mean, it's a nice slice of life from a collaboration between researchers at the top of the game, but I don't understand why the Times thought it was noteworthy.
posted by Philosopher Dirtbike at 8:21 AM on August 16, 2010 [2 favorites]

I wanted to know how they got an fMRI in a canoe.

For, you know, science.
posted by bonehead at 8:22 AM on August 16, 2010

Reminds me tons of Grandaddy's song The Group Who Couldn't Say:

"The tale I'm gonna tell
Is about the group who couldn't say
Together they discovered with each other the perfection of an outdoor day

They had won some kinda prize
For selling way more stuff than the other guys
They were the shrewdest unit-movers
So their bosses got 'em tours of the countryside

Holly saw a certain bird
But she couldn't work up any words
She kinda lost her shoes and lost her mind
And smashed her phone upon a fallen pine

And Darryl couldn't talk at all
He wondered how the trees had grown to be so tall
He calculated all the height and width and density
For insurance purposes..."
posted by hermitosis at 8:23 AM on August 16, 2010 [3 favorites]

From the article "Some of the scientists say a vacation like this hardly warrants much scrutiny. But the trip’s organizer, David Strayer, a psychology professor at the University of Utah, says that studying what happens when we step away from our devices and rest our brains — in particular, how attention, memory and learning are affected — is important science. "

It's different from a regular old vacation because they were paying attention to specific things rather than just enjoying themselves. I thought it was an interesting article. Although I think "studying ourselves on vacation" could be an interesting jumping-off point I think you have to study other people for it to be actual research.
posted by amethysts at 8:24 AM on August 16, 2010

This article, like many in the New York Times, may only be interesting to people living in New York City.
posted by Scientifik at 8:25 AM on August 16, 2010 [1 favorite]

Brain scientists?
posted by incomple at 8:26 AM on August 16, 2010

Well, since vacation=science now, does this mean we are one step closer to the the formal recognition of Bistromathics? I smell the establishment of a peer-reviewed journal on the horizon...

In the meantime, I'm going to apply for a grant to study the effects of paragliding in the Swiss Alps on my temporal lobes. You know, for Science!!
posted by the painkiller at 8:32 AM on August 16, 2010

amethysts: "It's different from a regular old vacation because they were paying attention to specific things rather than just enjoying themselves."

Ah, but then how could it be a vacation? If you were paying attention to things to any degree of clinical accuracy, it would by definition not be a vacation.
posted by boo_radley at 8:39 AM on August 16, 2010 [1 favorite]

I just got back from two weeks at a lake in Quebec and I have scientifically proven that after about the tenth day you enter a zen-like state of total relaxation where you don't give fuck all about anything but making sure there's plenty of ice for the next gin and tonic.
posted by bondcliff at 8:40 AM on August 16, 2010 [6 favorites]

This article feels like it is missing something. If it said, "The scientists went out to the woods, ate about 5 dry grams of silicide mushrooms, then experienced a change in their brains", then you might have an article..
posted by cavalier at 8:40 AM on August 16, 2010 [1 favorite]

I just got back from two weeks hours at a lake in Quebec in my backyard and I have scientifically proven that after about the tenth day minute you enter a zen-like state of total relaxation where you don't give fuck all about anything but making sure there's plenty of ice for the next gin and tonic.

(Some of us are more susceptible to the relaxation state than others, I guess.)
posted by Benny Andajetz at 8:45 AM on August 16, 2010

I said, "Yeah, but people who don't know researchers won't understand that researchers work all the time. They'll think it's just a vacation."

Are you researching the cognitive effects of posting personal anecdotes on metafilter?
posted by clarknova at 8:53 AM on August 16, 2010

I wanted to know how they got an fMRI in a canoe.

I hear it's a lot like drinking American beer - because it's fluxing close to water.
posted by CynicalKnight at 8:58 AM on August 16, 2010 [14 favorites]

Psilocybin. Silicide is something quite different.

Dirty hippy!

And, yeah, uh, right. Too many soldering irons...
posted by cavalier at 8:59 AM on August 16, 2010

Ah, so they had a nice vacation away from the office and it was relaxing.

Well, the drive up was nice and that jam session with the weird-looking kid on the porch was pretty fun, but holy god did things go downhill from there.
posted by griphus at 9:02 AM on August 16, 2010 [8 favorites]

I thought the article wasn't so much about the effects of a vacation as about the effects of spending time in a more "natural state" absent technology. The people were certainly working, just in a very different way than their typical day jobs -- and without the distraction (or aid) of technology. I enjoyed considering what factors may have contributed to their different mindset (physical exertion, exposure to nature, absence of technology, overcoming challenges within the context of a small tight-knit social group, etc.). I can tell you that when I spent some time in recent years working at a summer camp in the outdoors, I used technology much less than normal even though it was readily available.

And, on another note, I found it interesting that no women were invited (or, at least, weren't present) on their trip.
posted by GnomeChompsky at 9:04 AM on August 16, 2010 [1 favorite]

oh man just imagine what the findings would have been if they saw a double rainbow
posted by robocop is bleeding at 9:10 AM on August 16, 2010 [3 favorites]

And, on another note, I found it interesting that no women were invited (or, at least, weren't present) on their trip.

Which is interesting, because Braver's wife does similar research.
posted by Philosopher Dirtbike at 9:12 AM on August 16, 2010

While on a trip to a teensy tiny town, we left our cell phones in the car. I began ribbing a friend about her boyfriend, who is country-phobic and did not join us. "I don't have four communication devices within two meters of me! What will I do? Oh God, my body is not being permeated with electromagnetic radiation!" It was meant as a joke, then we began to wonder. The restaurants did not have little signs about free wi-fi. People were not staggering down the street, fingers pressed to their Bluetooth headsets, like zombies with earaches.

It is weird, when I think about it. I have to drive quite a way, then hike, not to be within a hundred meters of another human being, a house, or electronic equipment that is liable to beep at me. Everything wants looking after and its slice of attention. I head out to a reservation, I have to make a conscious decision to leave the cell phone behind, despite the oft-spoken of dread that Something Could Happen, pounded into me from all angles.

Sometimes I wonder if our tethering has some elements of insecurity in it, rather than just distraction and communication.
posted by adipocere at 9:28 AM on August 16, 2010 [2 favorites]

You could put aside all and everything electronic and stay home. No watch. No tv. No net. no music. and then: no phone calls (land lines), no newspapers, mail or magazines. Then see how you feel after two weeks of this. Or is it being immersed in Nature that also matters?
posted by Postroad at 9:33 AM on August 16, 2010

So this is something I'd need vacation time and money to understand?
posted by rainbaby at 9:33 AM on August 16, 2010 [2 favorites]

This isn't just about going on vacation.

Among other things, I'm a programmer. I've been doing it since I was 11. Much of the time I can't stop thinking about building software systems... I'll run into a problem and think "what I need is a system that does this." I have a list of personal projects that could probably keep me busy until I'm 80. I often don't want to go to bed at night because I want to work on them.

I also, however, grew up and have spent most of my lief in Utah. So I took a lot of camping trips and did a lot of hiking with family and friends. It's in the air there.

And I think there's a huge difference between what happens to me on a typical vacation where I can plug in and use my laptop (even w/o the internet) and what happens to me after a few days at Havasu Falls or what have you.

To quote Wendell Berry:

The mind that comes to rest is tended
in ways that it cannot intend:
is borne, preserved, and comprehended
by what it cannot comprehend.

Or:

The best reward in going to the woods
Is being lost to other people, and
Lost sometimes to myself. I'm at the end
Of no bespeaking wire to spoil my goods;

I send no letter back I do not bring.
Whoever wants me now must hunt me down
Like something wild, and wild is anything
Beyond the reach of purpose not its own...
Lost to all other wills but Heaven's—wild...

I find that after a few days off the grid (probably, yes, right around the "third day" the article posts), my mind starts to unwind in ways it rarely does otherwise. It's easier to be present. It's easier to do less panicked and deeper introspection. It's easier to be social, because you're all present there. It's easier to exercise, because things to do with your body just present themselves. And it's even easier to stop thinking about software systems, though I can if I want, and it's even easier for me to do certain other kinds of geeky things, like think about Mathematics that I normally avoid because chewing on a concept for hours at a time feels like I'm not getting things done. All the things you normally have to do just can't find you there, and it creates a kind of mental and even spiritual space that opens places up inside of you that you can forget are there.

And that's what I suspect this is really about. Internal space. The wilderness gets you there by the imposition of literal space (and, possibly, an encounter with world your body was originally fitted for). Of course, things like bugs, heat, cold, storms, diarrhea, food prep, hygiene, and a comfortable place to sleep all become more notable issues, and that's to say nothing of encountering actual emergencies. The wilderness can also be a pain (though even that may make you more grateful for your roof and bed and shower and range and toilet when you come back), but it's not about that. It's about a kind of space that most of us are increasingly not finding even when we go on vacation.

Or, to quote a jaguar: "We need the space to live, we need the space to feel that we are a part of the world and not a kind of a piece of object in a box..."
posted by weston at 9:38 AM on August 16, 2010 [9 favorites]

See, this is what gives science (and research funding) a bad name. That was one of the stupidest 'scientific' articles I have ever read three-quarters of.

One thing I found kinda funny is that they went to Glen Canyon, the main attraction of which is Lake Powell, which isn't even a real lake - it was created by a friggin' dam, a dam with a lot of technology; yes, they went 'off the grid' into that man-made lake. wait what?

i mean, come on. The article makes it seem like they went and lived on the arctic circle or something, when really they went to one of the most popular summer vacation spots in the United States and went rafting, which, it turns out, was quite nice. news at 11.
posted by Lutoslawski at 9:42 AM on August 16, 2010

Sometimes I wonder if our tethering has some elements of insecurity in it, rather than just distraction and communication.

I have wondered this as well, moreso lately. I sure do notice a lot of my friends and most of my students habitually checking phones etc. literally every few minutes, regardless of whether or not it's beeped at them. I don't think they are aware of how often they do it, and it really looks like an anxiety/insecurity reflex.

(I had to make a concerted effort to stop this habit myself, about a year ago. I actually had to learn not to check my phone unless it alerted me to a message, and am still trying to learn to check email only 2-3 times per day. My new rule to avoid the constant email-check-tick is that, when I do check it, anything immediately actionable must be acted upon immediately. This keeps me from checking it until I have time to, you know, actually deal with it, rather than reading reading reading and letting them pile up without doing anything about it. What this says about the topic of the post, I am not sure. I shall head out to vacation promptly to find out.)
posted by LooseFilter at 9:45 AM on August 16, 2010 [1 favorite]

So at the end, they have a good time and decide to do some research on the effect of hiking on the brain.

Reminds me of a Bloom County strip, where Donald Trump (in the body of Bill the Cat) has a epiphany upon contemplating the beauty of a single flower and the miracles of nature:

"My God! I should buy a giant nursery!"
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 9:54 AM on August 16, 2010

Psilocybin. Silicide is something quite different.

Silicide: death by clown.
posted by chambers at 9:55 AM on August 16, 2010

Hey wow some upper middle class white people stayed off the Internet for a week.
posted by The Straightener at 10:27 AM on August 16, 2010 [1 favorite]

As someone with ADD so intense I nearly flicker, I'm completely underwhelmed by the psych prof who thinks digital stimulation a makes me LESS able to function. If anything, it's the opposite--finally I have enough stimulation to allow me to actually get things done.

I like being in nature, I like being in front of a screen. Different environments call for different responses.

I'd have been more interested if any of these guys had other concerns besides their work--like a sick child, a baby, a payroll to meet. Seems like they've all got staff to worry for them.
posted by Ideefixe at 10:39 AM on August 16, 2010

Hey wow some upper middle class white people stayed off the Internet for a week.

Hey they didn't even bring their smart phones! How are they suppose to make important decisions like:

"Approved

Sent from my iPhone"

or

"Ok go

Sent from my iPhone"
posted by geoff. at 10:50 AM on August 16, 2010

Seriously. This is a fascinating subject area which has been mined in the most marvelous manner by David Abram. In this essay he writes about being in a primitive environment and being in tune with the ecosystem, and the strange experience he had returning to civilization, briefly using these powers with squirrels and such, and quickly losing them. Spending time in a natural habitat and attending to it may be vital to our being.
posted by bukvich at 11:16 AM on August 16, 2010

I call this "going camping".
posted by blue_beetle at 11:16 AM on August 16, 2010

Thin article, but color me a believer for other reasons.

Obligatory Richard Louv link.
posted by mrgrimm at 11:25 AM on August 16, 2010

I thought it was an interesting first step and was glad to see the article, but found it tantalizing rather than satisfying. The idea for researching this type of experience and its impacts on brain activity should be taken much farther.

There's an assumption in the world of experiential education, outdoor education, recreational camping, adventure travel, etc. that there is a material difference in the ways a person processes infromation, interacts, and learns when removed from their normal environment (which, these days, is necessarily a plugged-in environment) and challenged by a new one. The underlying assumption is that there are capabilities or even just strengths of the mind/brain that are suppressed during normal life in society but which can be accessed and tapped in these exceptional experiences. Regular life is rich in certain kinds of information (time/verbal/quantifiable), but tends to crowd out other streams of information, so that we essentially become blinded to that which isn't immediately necessary to deal with. We disregard things like attention to weather, changes in wind direction and temperature, plant varieties and where they are in their life cycles, materials and surfaces; and we also disregard possibilities, risks, interpersonal cues, and our own internal lives and physical feelings.

My own experience tells me that those underlying assumptions aren't BS. There are changes in the way one thinks and feels when in the outdoors/away from current technology alone, and changes that occur when you're in those situations with others. Thinking changes, and relationships change. New sets of priorities emerge. And all this is empirical enough that programs and trainings which offer this kind of experience have existed for a long time and seem to be instrumental in producing the desired results - ability to learn new information more quickly, faster bonding among a working group, better problem-solving approaches, re-ordered habits. This is the thinking behind basic training in the military, behind scouting and Outward Bound and all sorts other programs that seek to develop people in directions they wouldn't otherwise have gone. A century or more of practice lends its support to the idea that something different is going on in the minds of people outdoors, isolated from their usual information systems.

If we understood it better, we could apply it better. A better-rounded, more resilient, more adaptable, more flexible brain could result from punctuating our lives with periods away from interruptive technologies and days run by clock time. I hope this caught the scientist's attention; I hope it goes somewhere.
posted by Miko at 11:31 AM on August 16, 2010 [2 favorites]

See also E.O. Wilson's Biophilia Hypothesis
posted by mrgrimm at 11:34 AM on August 16, 2010

"Hey wow some upper middle class white people stayed off the Internet for a week."

And they talked about their research, which, for some of us, is interesting.

-Eideteker (B.A., Psychology)


I heard about this in a meeting last month but didn't realize the final piece was out. For someone who works here, I sure am bad at reading the paper. Thanks for the link!
posted by Eideteker at 11:46 AM on August 16, 2010

"Scientists go off the grid to see what happens to their brains. A group of experienced brain scientists come together and take a rafting and hiking trip in wild Utah."

'Six Flags Killer' Still At Large, Say Souvenir-Bedecked Police
posted by Rhaomi at 12:57 PM on August 16, 2010 [1 favorite]

Alright, it's been almost six hours...

metafilter: enlightening (though perhaps not transformative)
posted by gimli at 1:42 PM on August 16, 2010

One thing I found kinda funny is that they went to Glen Canyon, the main attraction of which is Lake Powell, which isn't even a real lake - it was created by a friggin' dam, a dam with a lot of technology; yes, they went 'off the grid' into that man-made lake. wait what?

No, they were on the San Juan River which eventually flows into Lake Powell, but you stop well before you get there. The San Juan River is very beautiful and remote and is famous for the Goosenecks which you can see from this satellite photo. I have been on this stretch and it is quite scenic and isolated. The canyon is quite narrow with 1000 foot vertical cliff walls. River permits are required and issued by lottery which limits the human impact.
posted by JackFlash at 2:33 PM on August 16, 2010

Brain scientists?

Look, not everyone can be a rocket surgeon, ok?
posted by never used baby shoes at 2:57 PM on August 16, 2010 [1 favorite]

Brain scientists?

For what it's worth, I just read a book about the brain by a brain scientist, and she used the phrase "brain scientist" throughout.
posted by Miko at 7:00 PM on August 16, 2010

I have wondered this as well, moreso lately. I sure do notice a lot of my friends and most of my students habitually checking phones etc. literally every few minutes, regardless of whether or not it's beeped at them. I don't think they are aware of how often they do it, and it really looks like an anxiety/insecurity reflex.

Or you know, they might have been checking the time or something.
posted by thsmchnekllsfascists at 7:01 AM on August 17, 2010

Or you know, they might have been checking the time or something.

Use your watch too much and you won't be able to tell time yourself.
posted by mrgrimm at 11:16 PM on August 17, 2010