GABA

GABA is the chief inhibitory neurotransmitter of the central nervous system. It is responsible for lowering excessive activity in the brain. Sedatives and tranquilizers act by enhancing the effects of GABA. When the potency of GABA is elevated for reasons unknown ..it results in a condition called hypersomnia or around-the-clock sleep, which can be very disruptive. It renders people unable to work or maintain relationships. Dr. David Rye found that a drug called flumazenil counteracts both tranquilizers and GABA in patients suffering hypersomnia. Furthermore it targets only people with high sensitivity to GABA while leaving people with normal GABA response alone ..meaning it gets closer to the root of the problem [ link ].

Imagining things

People store and retrieve information based on self-interest, feelings and mirroring – or mentally simulating an activity. Kind of like watching a tennis match in preparation for a game. When presented with lists of character traits (adventurous, brave, compassionate) participants were asked one of five questions: 

1. what does it rhyme with (phonetic elaboration) 

2. what does it mean (semantic elaboration) 

3. can you identify with it (semantic self-referential processing) 

4. have you ever acted that way (episodic self-referential processing) 

5. can you imagine yourself acting that way now (self-imagining) 

Turns out question 5 (self-imagining) boosts recall more than any of the other questions [ link ].

Resource-based attention

In an elegant ‘simulation’ of economic-class differences, researchers found that people with means (those in higher economic classes) don’t have to focus so much on their immediate needs and are more likely to consider the future cost of borrowing when making purchase decisions. On the other hand, people with limited means, who do have to focus on immediate needs, make better use of the resources they have but lose sight of the future cost of borrowing. As a result, they are more likely to become over-extended [ link ]. This means that no matter who you are, having limited resources alters the way you perceive and make borrowing decisions. They simulated economic differences by altering either the amount of time or the number of opportunities each group had available to make choices. The group with less time made better use of it when making purchase decisions than the group with more time. However, when they were allowed to ‘borrow time’ from future periods, at exorbitant cost .. these advantages diminish. This tells me that it’s not some innate ability to defer gratification that distinguishes rich from poor. When you have less to spend ..your attention is, by necessity, focused on the demands of the present situation.