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Wednesday, February 15, 2006
The brain is set to procrastinate
By Zosimo T. Literatus, R.M.T.
Breakthroughs
Procrastination may not be just in your mind. But, literally, it can also be lodged in your brain.
A recent study, led by Barry Richmond, M.D., shows that suppressing a gene in a brain circuit in primates turned procrastinating primates into workaholics.
Richmond is a researcher at the Laboratory of Neurophysiology of the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) in Bethesda, Maryland (USA). The result has been reported in the Aug. 17, 2004 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
In the study, Richmond and colleagues trained monkeys to release a lever when a spot on a computer screen turned from red to green. The subjects knew they did the task correctly when the spot turned blue. In addition, a gray bar on the screen got brighter as they successfully progressed through a series of trials required to get a juicy reward. Without using punishment, the primates couldn’t proceed to the next level unless they completed the current trial.
To suppress the gene that makes a receptor for a key brain messenger chemical, named dopamine, Edward Ginns, M.D., a member of the team, devised a substance that tricks the dopamine receptor off for several weeks.
The suppressor substance, named DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) antisense expression construct, was injected directly into the rhinal cortex of the monkeys, producing a decoy molecule that deceives the dopamine D2 receptor. The substance depleted the area of D2 receptors, impairing the monkey’s ability to learn and recognize rewards. For a few months, monkeys could not associate the visual cues with the workload; thus, unaware of how many trials were needed to complete before they could get the reward.
They worked, as if unlimited work was needed to get the reward. The monkeys became extremely workaholic, as evidenced by the sustained low rate of errors in performing the experimental tasks, regardless of how distant the reward might have been.
To make sure that the lack of D2 receptors caused the observed primate behavior, the researchers designed a similar suppressor substance targeted at the gene of another receptor, also abundant in the rhinal cortex: the N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA). The test showed no impairment in the reward learning.
“This was conspicuously out of character,” Richmond observed. “Like people, they tend to procrastinate when they know they will have to do more work before getting a reward.”
The results opened up a new understanding on how nature sets up the workings of the primate “mind” and perhaps as an extension, the human mind. The mind has been conditioned to procrastinate. The only difference between humans and animals is the human will.
By will, humans can override the natural tendency to procrastinate. This power to will defines the history of human achievements and the advancement of civilizations. “It is not by spectacular achievements that man can be transformed,” Henrick Ibsen, a 19th century playwright and author of Bran, concurred earlier on, “but by will.” (For comments and suggestions, email to ztliteratus6046@lycos.com.)
For Bisaya stories from Cebu. Click here. (February 15, 2006 issue)
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