How Cognitive Inflexibility Prevents Fluid Thinking

Source: Gerd Altmann/Pixabay

"Superfluidity" is a term I borrowed from the world of physics to describe a frictionless state of flow marked by absolutely zero viscosity or loss of kinetic energy when an athlete is really in the zone.

As an ultra-endurance triathlete and marathoner, I realized soon after reading Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi's seminal book, Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience, that I needed another word to describe episodic bursts of awe-inspiring fluidity that were more sublime than the everyday flow states I experienced by rote in my daily training. On this continuum, superfluidity is to flow as orgasm is to coitus.

When I retired from sports and became a writer, I realized while typing my first book's manuscript that during most 8-hour days of writing—when I was technically "in the zone" and my skill level perfectly matched the challenge—that my day's work might result in 2,000 words of usable content.

Notably, just like in sports, during my weekly process of trying to create flow states as a writer and optimize my creative thinking, there were episodic bursts of superfluidity at the keyboard when my brain seemed to completely "unclamp" and was able to operate without any friction or viscosity.

During these brief windows of extreme, turbo-charged cognitive flexibility at my typewriter, I might produce 6,000 words (three days' work) in one-third the time with significantly less mental effort. As a writer, it's become clear to me over the years that superfluid thinking is the antithesis of cognitive inflexibility.

Cerebellum (Latin for "little brain") in red. Cerebellar means "relating to the cerebellum."

Source: Life Sciences Databases/Creative Commons (CC-BY-SA-2.1-jp)

Cognitive Flexibility: The Cerebellum May Coordinate Fluid Thoughts, Just Like It Coordinates Fluid Movements

During episodic bursts of superfluidity, I have a hunch that every part of the cerebrum and cerebellum coordinates like a well-oiled machine; the whole brain (all four hemispheres) works in concert to connect the dots between seemingly unrelated ideas in new and useful ways.

Almost every "Eureka. I've found it!" flash of insight that I've ever experienced has occurred in a superfluid flow state. These "Aha" moments usually happen when I'm jogging, which means I have to type the ideas into a text message and send it to myself on my smartphone, so I don't forget how the concepts are interconnected when my superfluidity subsides.

Because my late father was a neuroscientist who wrote The Fabric of Mind, I grew up looking at athletic and academic pursuits through the lens of cerebral ("book smarts") and cerebellar ("muscle memory") skill sets. For The Athlete's Way, Dad and I created a split-brain model that presented the cerebellum as key to creating automaticity, which promotes flow states and minimizes cerebral overthinking in sports and day-to-day life. (See, "Cerebro-Cerebellar Circuits Remind Us: To Know Is Not Enough.")

In terms of creating superfluidity on demand, the million-dollar question for me has long been, "How are the cerebrum and cerebellum working together to create frictionless flow states that are free of any viscosity?"

This brain map shows cerebro-cerebellar circuits connecting both hemispheres of the cerebrum and cerebellum.

Source: Photo and illustration by Christopher Bergland (circa 2009)

My Decades-Long Quest to Decode a Hand-Drawn Brain Map

Since 2009, I've been filtering any neuroscience-based research related to cerebro-cerebellar circuits through a brain map that I drew with some Sharpies and colored highlighters decades ago. In a recent post, I explained why solving the mysteries held in this brain map is like looking for a buried treasure or holy grail. New research is helping to decode this enigmatic map.

This week, researchers from the RIKEN Center for Brain Science in Japan published a paper (Balan et al., 2021) that sheds light on how atypical neurodevelopment of the cerebellum may be linked to autism-like cognitive inflexibility in "knockout" mice missing the SUV39H2 gene.

The recent RIKEN discovery of an association between cerebellar abnormalities and cognitive inflexibility reminds me of Jeremy Schmahmann's "Dysmetria of Thought" hypothesis, which posits that just like the cerebellum helps to coordinate fluid movements, it may also play a role in coordinating fluid thoughts in ways that promote cognitive flexibility.

Another recent study (Molendowska et al., 2021) suggests that mastering a new skill via "practice, practice, practice" can reorganize white matter in ways that change architectural microstructures and rearrange the brain's blueprints.

Taken together, the latest research suggests that finding ways to optimize the structure and function of white matter tracts and cerebro-cerebellar circuits that connect different gray matter regions throughout the entire brain could increase one's odds of avoiding cognitive inflexibility.

Flow Essential Reads

In the Zone: How the Brain Helps Us Flow

If You Want the Flow You Have to Let It Go

Much more research is needed to identify what interventions and daily lifestyle choices create brain changes that facilitate flow states and "superfluid" cognitive flexibility.