How to develop speed of thinking. Disturbances in the dynamics of thinking

Thinking is the process of constructing an image of the surrounding world and its knowledge, which gives rise to creativity. Pathology of thinking is divided into disorders according to tempo (accelerated, slow thinking), structure (discontinued, paralogical, detailed, sperrung, mentism), content (obsessive, overvalued and delusional ideas).

History, norm and evolution

Judgments about a person are based on observing his behavior and analyzing his speech. Thanks to the data obtained, we can say how much the world corresponds (adequate) to the inner world of a person. The inner world itself and the process of knowing it constitute the essence of the thinking process. Since this world is consciousness, we can say that thinking (cognition) is the process of forming consciousness. Reasoning as such can be represented as a sequential process in which each previous judgment is connected with the next one, that is, a logic is established between them, which is formally enclosed in the “If ... then” scheme. With this approach, there is no third, hidden meaning between the two concepts. For example, if it is cold, then you should wear a coat. However, in the thinking process, the third element may be motivation. A person who is hardening himself will not put on a coat when the temperature drops. In addition, he may have a group (social) idea of ​​what low temperature and my own experience with similar temperatures. A child runs barefoot through cold puddles, although he is forbidden to do this, just because he likes it. Consequently, thinking can be divided into processes of logic, processes associated with speech (including its pace), individual and social motivation (goal), and the formation of concepts. It is absolutely certain that in addition to the conscious, actually expressed process of thinking, there is also an unconscious process that can be identified in the structure of speech. From the position of logic, the thinking process consists of analysis, synthesis, generalization, concretization and abstraction (distraction). However, logic can be formal, or it can be metaphorical, that is, poetic. We can refuse something because it is harmful, but we can also because we don’t intuitively like it or its harm is justified not by experience, but by the word of authority. Such a different logic is called mythological or archaic. When a girl tears up a portrait of her lover because he cheated on her, she symbolically destroys his image, although in a logical sense, a piece of paper with a picture of a person has nothing to do with the person himself. A person and his image, or his object, or parts of a person (hair, for example) are identified in this mythological thinking. Another law of mythological (archaic, poetic) thinking is binary oppositions, that is, oppositions such as good - evil, life - death, divine - earthly, male - female. Another sign is etiology, which leads a person to think, “Why did this happen to me,” although he is well aware that a similar accident has occurred many times in others in the past. In mythological thinking, the unity of perception, feelings and thinking (statements) is inseparable; this is especially noticeable in children who talk about what they see and what they feel without a distinct delay. Mytho logical thinking in adults it is typical for poets and artists, but in psychopathology it manifests itself as an uncontrolled spontaneous process. The thinking process is formed as a result of learning. Tolman believed that this occurs due to the formation of a cognitive chain, and Keller pointed to the role of sudden insight - “insight.” According to Bandura, this learning occurs through a process of imitation and repetition. According to I.P. Pavlov, thinking processes reflect the physiology of conditioned and unconditioned reflexes. Behaviorists developed this theory into the concept operant training. According to Torndike, thinking is a reflection of behavior associated with trial and error, as well as fixing the effects of punishment in the past. Skinner identified such operants of learning as prejudices, one's own reflective behavior, behavioral modifications associated with learning, and the formation of new behavior (shaping). Behavior and thinking shape goals as a result of reinforcement, positive or negative (one form of negative reinforcement is punishment). Thus, the thinking process can be shaped by selecting a list of reinforcements and punishments. Positive reinforcements that contribute to the formation of motivation and specific thinking patterns include: food, water, sex, gifts, money, increased economic status. Positive reinforcement encourages reinforcement of behavior that precedes reinforcement, such as “good” behavior that is followed by a gift. In this way, cognitive chains or behaviors are formed that are rewarded or socially acceptable. Negative reinforcement is caused by darkness, heat, shock, loss of social face, pain, criticism, hunger or failure (deprivation). Thanks to the system of negative reinforcements, a person avoids the way of thinking that leads to punishment. Social motivation for the thinking process depends on culture, the influence of an authoritarian personality, and the need for social approval. It is driven by the desire for the prestigious values ​​of a group or society and consists of a strategy for overcoming difficulties. The highest needs according to Masloy are self-actualization, as well as cognitive and aesthetic needs. An intermediate place in the hierarchy of needs belongs to the desire for order, justice and beauty, as well as the need for respect, recognition and gratitude. At the lowest level are the needs for affection, love, belonging to a group, as well as physiological needs.

The main thought processes are the formation of concepts (symbols), judgments and inferences. Simple concepts are essential signs of objects or phenomena; complex concepts involve abstraction from the object - symbolization. For example, blood as a simple concept is associated with a specific physiological fluid, but as a complex concept it also means proximity, “bloodiness”. Accordingly, the color of blood symbolically indicates gender - “ blue blood" The sources of interpretation of symbols are psychopathology, dreams, fantasies, forgetting, slips of the tongue and mistakes.

Judgment is the process of comparing concepts through which a thought is formulated. This comparison occurs according to the type: positive - negative concept, simple - complex concept, familiar - unfamiliar. Based on a series of logical actions, a conclusion (hypothesis) is formed, which is refuted or confirmed in practice.

Symptoms of Thought Disorder

The following variants of thinking disorders are distinguished: by tempo, content, structure.

Tempo thinking disorders include:

• - acceleration of thinking, which is characterized by an acceleration of the tempo of speech, a jump of ideas that, despite the significant intensity of the tempo, do not have time to be expressed (fuga idearum). Often ideas are productive in nature and are associated with high creative activity. The symptom is characteristic of mania and hypomania.

Once you think about one thing, you immediately feel the urge to talk about the details, but then new idea. You don’t have time to write it all down, but if you write it down, new thoughts appear again. It’s especially interesting at night, when no one bothers you and you don’t want to sleep. It seems like you can write a whole book in an hour.

• - slow thinking- a decrease in the number of associations and a slower rate of speech, accompanied by difficulty in choosing words and the formation of general concepts and conclusions. It is characteristic of depression, asthenic symptoms, and is also observed with minimal disorders of consciousness.

Here again they asked me something, but I need time to concentrate, I can’t do it right away. I’ve said everything and there are no more thoughts, I have to repeat it all over again until I get tired. When asked about conclusions, you generally need to think long and hard and it’s better if you do your homework.

• - mentism- an influx of thoughts, which is often violent. Usually such thoughts are diverse and cannot be expressed.
• - sperrung- “blockage” of thoughts, is perceived by the patient as a break in thoughts, a sudden emptiness in the head, silence. Sperrung and mentism are more characteristic of schizophrenia and schizotypal disorders.

All this looks like a whirlwind at the time of conversation or when you are thinking, there are many thoughts and they are confused, not a single one remains, but it is no better if they disappear. I just said a word, but there was no next word, and the thought disappeared. Often you get lost and leave, people get offended, but what can you do if you don’t know when it will happen.

To thinking disorders by content includes affective thinking, egocentric thinking, paranoid, obsessive and overvalued thinking.

Affective thinking characterized by a predominance of emotionally charged ideas in thinking, a high dependence of thinking on others, a quick reaction of the mental and emotionally inseparable process to any, often insignificant, stimulus (affective instability). Affective thinking is characteristic of patients suffering from mood disorders (depressive or manic thinking). The system of judgments and ideas when affective thinking completely determined by the leading mood.

It seems that you have already decided everything for yourself. But in the morning you get up- and everything is gone, the mood is gone, and all decisions have to be canceled. Or it happens that someone upsets you, and then you get angry at everyone. But it also happens the other way around, a little thing, they will tell you that you look good, and the whole world is different and you want to be happy.

Egocentric thinking - with this type of thinking, all judgments and ideas are fixed on the narcissistic ideal, as well as on whether one’s own personality is useful or harmful. The rest, including social ideas, are swept aside. This type of thinking is often formed in dependent individuals, as well as in alcoholism and drug addiction. At the same time, egocentric traits may be normative for childhood.

It’s not clear what they all demand from me, my parents think that I should study, N., with whom I’m friends, that I need to look better. It seems like no one really understands me. If I don’t study and don’t work and don’t want to earn money, then it turns out I’m not a person, but I don’t bother anyone, I only do what I like. You can’t please everyone, but let them walk the dog themselves, she loves them more.

Paranoid thinking - thinking is based on delusional ideas, combined with suspicion, mistrust, and rigidity. Delusion is a false conclusion that arises on a painful basis, for example, it can be secondary from an altered mood, increased or decreased, hallucinations, or primary, as a result of the formation of a special logic that is understandable only to the patient himself.

Too much around is connected into one chain. When I was going to work, a man dressed in all black pushed me, then at work there were two suspicious calls, I picked up the phone and heard angry silence and someone’s breathing. Then a new sign “You’re here again” appeared at the entrance, then the water was turned off at home. I go out onto the balcony and see the same man, but dressed in a blue shirt. What do they all want from me? You need to add an additional lock to the door.

Delusional ideas do not lend themselves to persuasion, and there is no criticism of them from the patient himself. The cognitive connections that support the existence of delusions based on the feedback principle are as follows: 1) distrust of others is formed: I am probably not too friendly - other people therefore avoid me - I understand why they do this - increased distrust of others. The stages of delirium formation according to K. Conrad are as follows:

• - trema - delusional premonition, anxiety, discovery of the source of the formation of a new logical chain;
• - apophene - the formation of a gestalt of delirium - the formation of a delusional idea, its crystallization, sometimes sudden insight;
• - apocalypse - the collapse of the delusional system due to therapy or affective exhaustion.

According to the mechanism of formation, delusions are divided into primary - it is associated with the interpretation and construction of step-by-step logic, secondary - associated with the formation of holistic images, for example, under the influence of an altered mood or hallucination, and induced - in which the recipient, being healthy person, reproduces the delusional system of the inductor, a mentally ill person.

According to the degree of systematization, delirium can be fragmented and systematized. According to content, the following options are distinguished: crazy ideas:

• - Ideas of relationship and meaning. People around him notice the patient, look at him in a special way, and hint with their behavior at his special purpose. He is in the center of attention and interprets environmental phenomena that were previously not significant to him as significant. For example, he associates car license plates, glances of passers-by, accidentally dropped objects, words addressed not to him as hints related to himself.

It started about a month ago when I was returning from a business trip. There were people sitting in the next compartment and they looked at me in a special way, with meaning, they deliberately went out into the corridor and looked into my compartment. I realized that something was wrong with me. I looked in the mirror and realized that it was my eyes, they were kind of crazy. Then at the station everyone seemed to know about me, they specially broadcast on the radio “Now he’s already here.” On my street they dug a trench almost to my house, this is a hint that it’s time to get out of here.

• - Ideas of persecution - the patient believes that he is being followed, finds a lot of evidence of surveillance, finds hidden equipment, gradually noticing that the circle of pursuers is expanding. He claims that his pursuers irradiate him with special equipment or use hypnosis to control his thoughts, mood, behavior and desires. This version of delusion of persecution is referred to as delusion of influence. The persecution system may include ideas of poisoning. The patient believes that poison is being added to his food, the air is being poisoned, or objects that have been previously treated with poison are being replaced. Transitive delusions of persecution are also possible, in which the patient himself begins to pursue imaginary pursuers, using aggression against them.

It's strange that no one notices this- There is listening equipment everywhere, they even talked about it on TV. You look at the computer screen, but in fact it is looking at you, there are sensors there. Who needs it? Probably the secret services, which are engaged in recruiting people who should be involved in the secret drug trade. They specially mix ecstasy into Coca-Cola, you drink it and you feel like you are being led. They teach it and then use it. I was washing in the bathroom, but I didn’t close the door, I felt like they were coming in, leaving a bag in the hallway, blue, I didn’t have one like that, but there was something smeared inside it. You touch it, and a mark remains on your hand, by which you can be identified anywhere.

• - Ideas of greatness are expressed in the patient’s conviction that he has power in the form of exceptional strength, energy due to divine origin, enormous wealth, exceptional achievements in the field of science, art, politics, and the exceptional value of the reforms he proposes. E. Kraepelin divided ideas of greatness (paraphrenic ideas) into expansive paraphrenia, in which power is the result of an increased (expansive) mood; confabulatory paraphrenia, in which the patient ascribes to himself past exceptional merits, but at the same time he forgets the real events of the past, replacing them with a delusional fantasy; systematized paraphrenia, which is formed as a result of logical constructions; as well as hallucinatory paraphrenia, as an explanation of exceptionalism, “suggested” by voices or other hallucinatory images.

During a period of catastrophic inflation, when salaries amounted to millions of coupons, patient Ts., 62 years old, believes that he has extremely valuable sperm, which is used to grow an army of the SSA. The high value of excrement is characteristic of the Moses symptom (Moses), in which patients claim that their feces, urine and sweat have a value comparable only to gold. The patient also claims to be the president of America, Belarus and the CIS. He assures that a helicopter arrives in the village with 181 virgins, whom he inseminates at a special point at the breeding plant, and 5,501 boys are born from them. He believes that he revived Lenin and Stalin. He considers the President of Ukraine to be God, and Russia - the First King. In 5 days he inseminated 10 thousand and for this he received from the people 129 million 800 thousand dollars, which they bring to him in bags, he hides the bags in the closet.

• - Ideas of jealousy consist in the conviction of adultery, while the arguments are absurd. For example, the patient claims that his partner has sexual intercourse through the wall.

She cheats on me anywhere and with anyone. Even when I get down and agree with my friends about control, it still works out. Proof. Well, I come home, there is a trace of a person on the bed, such a dent. There are spots on the carpet that look like sperm, my lip is bitten from a kiss. Well, at night, sometimes, she gets up and goes, as if to the toilet, but the door closes, what is she doing there, I listened, moans were heard, as if during an orgasm.

• - Love delusion is expressed in the subjective conviction that she (he) is the object of love politician, a movie star or a doctor, often a gynecologist. The person in question is often persecuted and forced to reciprocate.

My husband is a famous psychotherapist, and he is constantly pursued by patients, especially women, but among them there is one who is different from all the other fans. She even steals our rugs and makes scandals with me that he is dressed incorrectly or looks bad. Often she literally sleeps in our yard, and there is no escape from her. She thinks that I am a fictitious wife, and she is the real one. Because of her, we constantly change phone numbers. She publishes her letters to him in newspapers and there describes various indecent things that she attributes to him. She tells everyone that her child is his, although she is 20 years older than him.

• - Ideas of guilt and self-blame are usually formed against the background of low mood. The patient is convinced that he is guilty of his actions before his loved ones and society; he is awaiting trial and execution.

Because I can't do anything at home, everything is bad. The children are not dressed like that, my husband will soon leave me because I don’t cook. This must all be for the sins of my family, if not mine. I must suffer to atone for them. I ask them to do something with me, and not look at me with such reproach.

• - Hypochondriacal delusion - the patient interprets his somatic sensations, paresthesia, senestopathy as a manifestation of an incurable disease, for example, AIDS, cancer. Requires examination, expects death.

This spot on the chest used to be small, but now it is growing. It is melanoma. Yes, they did histology for me, but probably incorrectly. The spot itches and shoots into the heart, these are metastases, I read in the encyclopedia that there are metastases in the mediastinum. That's why I have difficulty breathing and a lump in my stomach. I have already written my will and I think that everything will end quickly, as weakness is growing.

• - Nihilistic delirium (Cotard's delirium) - the patient assures that his insides are missing, they are “rotten”, similar processes occur in the environment - the whole world is dead or is on various stages decomposition.
• - Delusion of staging - is expressed in the idea that all surrounding events are specially arranged as in a theater, the staff and patients in the department are actually secret service officers in disguise, the patient’s behavior is staged, which is shown on television.

I was brought here for interrogation, supposedly you are a doctor, but I see how your shoulder straps are outlined under your robe. There are no patients here, everything is arranged. Maybe a special film is being made based on an intelligence scenario. For what? To find out from me the truth of my birth, that I am not at all who I say I am. This is not a pen in your hands, but a transmitter, you write, but in reality- transmit the encryption.

• - The delusion of a double consists of the conviction of the presence of a positive or negative, that is, embodying negative personality traits, double, which may be located at a considerable distance and may be associated with the patient through hallucinatory or symbolic constructions.

Patient L. assures that his incorrect behavior is not his behavior at all, but his twin, who was abandoned by his parents and ended up abroad. Now he acts on his behalf to recruit him. “He is exactly the same as me, and even dressed the same, but he always does things that I would not dare to do. You say that it was I who broke the window at home. That’s not true, I was in a completely different place at that time.”

• - Manichaean delusion - the patient is convinced that the whole world and he himself are an arena for the struggle between good and evil - God and the devil. This system can be confirmed by mutually exclusive pseudohallucinations, that is, voices that argue with each other for possession of a person's soul.

I go to church twice a day and carry a Bible with me at all times because I have trouble figuring things out on my own. At first I didn’t know what was right and what was sin. Then I realized that there is God in everything and there is a devil in everything. God calms me down, but the devil tempts me. For example, I drink water, take an extra sip - it’s a sin, God helps to atone - I read prayers, but then two voices appeared, one of God, the other of the devil, and they began to argue with each other and fight for my soul, and I got confused.

• - Dysmorphoptic delusion - the patient (patient), often a teenager, is convinced (convinced) that her face shape is changed, there is an anomaly of the body (most often the genitals), insists on surgical treatment anomalies.

I'm in a bad mood because I always think about the fact that my penis is small. I know that it increases during an erection, but I still think about it. I’ll probably never be sexually active, although I’m 18 years old, it’s better not to think about it. Maybe have surgery now before it's too late. I read that it can be increased with special procedures.

• - Delusion of possession - consists in the fact that the patient feels himself transformed into an animal, for example, into a wolf (lycanthropy), into a bear (Lokis symptom), into a vampire or into an inanimate object.

At first there was a constant rumbling in the stomach, like turning on the ignition, then between the stomach and bladder a space like a cavity with fuel was formed. These thoughts turned me into a mechanism, and a network of plexuses with wires and pipes formed inside. At night, a computer was built behind the eyes, with a screen inside the head, which showed quick codes of glowing blue numbers.

All forms of delirium are similar to mythological constructs (mythologems), which are embodied in archaic traditions, epics, myths, legends, plots of dreams and fantasies. For example, ideas of possession are present in the folklore of most countries: a girl is a fox werewolf in China, Ivan Tsarevich is a gray wolf, and the Frog Princess in Russian folklore. The most common plots of delirium and corresponding mythologies relate to the ideas of prohibition and its violations, struggle, victory, persecution and salvation in stories of origin, rebirth, including miraculous ones, death, and fate. Wherein actor plays the role of saboteur, giver, magical helper, sender and hero, as well as false hero.

Paranoid thinking is characteristic of schizophrenia, paranoid disorders and induced delusional disorders, as well as organic delusional disorders. The equivalents of delusions in children are delusional fantasies and overvalued fears. At delusional fantasies the child talks about a fantastic made-up world, and is sure that it really exists, replacing reality. In this world there are good and evil characters, aggression and love. Just like delirium, it is not subject to criticism, but it is very changeable, like any fantasy. Overvalued fears are expressed in fears towards objects that do not themselves have such a phobic component. For example, a child may be afraid of the corner of the room, part of the parents’ body, a radiator, or a window. The full picture of delirium often appears in children only after 9 years.

Overvalued thinking includes highly valuable ideas, which are not always false conclusions, develop in special sthenic individuals, but they dominate their mental life, crowding out all other motives, there is no criticism of them. Examples of highly valuable formations are the ideas of revolutionary transformation of the world, invention, including the invention of a perpetual motion machine, the elixir of youth, the philosopher's stone; ideas of physical and moral perfection with the help of an endless number of psychotechniques; ideas of litigiousness and struggle against a specific person through litigation; as well as extremely valuable ideas for collecting, for the implementation of which the patient completely subordinates his entire life to the object of passion. The psychological analogue of overvalued thinking is the process of formation and formation of love.

Overvalued thinking is characteristic of paranoid personality disorders.

I quarreled with my loved ones and wanted to live separately. But this is completely impossible, since I have nowhere to take my collection. They accuse me that I spend all my money on old and empty bottles and they are everywhere, even in the toilet. There are bottles from the time of the siege of Sevastopol by the British and French, for which I paid a fortune. What do they understand about this? Yes, I gave it to my wife because she broke, supposedly by accident, a bottle that was hard for me to get. But I was ready to kill her for it, because I exchanged it for a whole collection of beer bottles.

Obsessive thinking characterized by stereotypically repetitive thoughts, ideas, memories, actions, fears, rituals that arise against the patient’s will, usually against a background of anxiety. However, in contrast to nonsense and overvalued ideas, there is complete criticism of them. Intrusive thoughts may be expressed in recurring memories, doubts, for example in memories of hearing a melody, an insult, obsessive doubts and double-checking the gas, iron, closed door. Obsessive attraction is also accompanied by obsessive thoughts that must be impulsively carried out, such as compulsive theft (kleptomania), arson (pyromania), suicide (suicidomania). Obsessive thoughts can lead to phobias, that is, obsessive fears, for example fears of crowded places and open spaces (agoraphobia), closed spaces (claustrophobia), pollution (mysophobia), fear of infection specific disease(nosophobia) and even fear of fear (phobophobia). The occurrence of fears is avoided by rituals.

Even as a child, Kostya, when he went to an exam, had to first get dressed, and then undress, touch me 21 times, and then wave me three more times from the street. Then it became more and more difficult. He washed himself for 20 - 30 minutes, and then spent hours in the bathroom. He spent half my salary on shampoo. His hands had cracks from the water, so he rubbed his palms with a sponge, thinking that this would wash away the infection. In addition, he was afraid of sharp objects and demanded that they be removed from the table so as not to cut himself. But eating is a whole torture for him. He places the spoon on the left, then on the right, then he levels it slightly in relation to the plate, then he levels the plate, and so on ad infinitum. When he puts on his trousers, the creases must be straight, but to do this he must climb onto the sofa and pull the trousers down from the sofa. If something doesn’t work out for him, everything is repeated all over again.

Obsessive thinking is characteristic of obsessive-compulsive disorders, anancastic and anxiety disorders personality.

Thinking disorders by structure can be divided into changes in the system of logic (paralogical thinking), changes in the smoothness and coherence of thinking.

Paralogical thinking E.A. Sevalev divides it into prelogical, autistic, formalizing and identifying. Each of these types of thinking is based on its own logic.

Prelogical thinking is the equivalent of the mythopoetic thinking we described above. In psychopathology, such thinking is characterized by filling images and ideas with ideas of witchcraft, mysticism, psychoenergetics, religious heresy, and sectarianism. The whole world can be understood in the symbols of poetic, sensual logic and explained based on intuitive ideas. The patient is sure that he should behave one way and not another based on signs of nature or his own premonitions. This type of thinking can be considered regressive because it resembles childish thinking. Thus, prelogical thinking operates with archaic logic, characteristic of ancient peoples. Characteristic of acute sensory delirium, hysterical personality disorders.

All these troubles are due to the fact that I was jinxed. I went to a psychic, and he said that I needed to put a screen against the evil eye and damage and gave me some kind of herb. This helped immediately, but then the neighbor said that the damage was repeated, and showed a dirty door and a tossed tuft of hair. I went to church and asked to bless the apartment, as the troubles continued and my husband began to come home drunk every evening. This also helped for a short time. There must be a strong evil eye. She went to Grandma Marfa, who gave her a charged photograph and hid it under her husband’s pillow. He slept soundly, but in the evening he got drunk again. Against a strong evil eye, you probably need a strong energy drink.

Autistic thinking is characterized by the patient’s immersion in the world of his own fantasies, which in symbolic form compensate for inferiority complexes. With external coldness, detachment from reality, and indifference, the patient’s rich, bizarre and often fantastic inner world is striking. Some of these fantasies are accompanied by visualized ideas; they fill the patient’s creative output and can be filled with deep philosophical content. Thus, behind the colorless scenes of the personality, magnificent feasts of mental life take place. In other cases, when changing emotional state Autistic patients can openly express their creative imagination. This phenomenon is referred to as “inside-out autism.” An autistic child has relatively rich fantasies, and even high success in certain abstract areas of knowledge, for example philosophy, astronomy, are masked by avoidance of bodily contact, gaze, uncoordinated motor skills and motor stereotypies. One of the autists expressed his world so symbolically: “with the ring of self-creativity, you can firmly secure yourself outside.” Autistic thinking is based on fantasy logic, which is understandable based on unconscious individual motivation and is a compensation for high sensitivity to stress. Therefore, the autistic world is a kind of escape from cruel reality. It is characteristic of schizophrenia, schizotypal and schizoid personality disorders, although it can also occur with accentuations, that is, in mentally healthy people.

My son is 21 years old, and I take care of him all the time, since he has always been an unusual boy. He graduated from 11th grade, but did not know anyone in the class. I negotiated the grades myself. He doesn’t go outside on his own, only with me. He only reads books about birds. He can sit on the balcony for hours and watch sparrows or tits. But he never says why he needs this. He keeps diaries and has filled many thick notebooks. It is written in them like this: “she flew up and sat on a branch and ran her foot across her abdomen three times,” a bird was drawn next to her, and these drawings with different comments were written in all the notebooks. I tried to persuade him to go to university, but he refused, he was not interested. When we go out for a walk, he stops by some tree and looks at the birds for a long time, then writes it down. He doesn’t write to anyone about his observations and doesn’t want to talk about them, he doesn’t watch TV or read newspapers, and doesn’t know how much bread costs.

Formalizing thinking can also be called bureaucratic. The cognitive life of such patients is filled with rules, regulations and patterns, which are usually drawn from the social environment or associated with upbringing. It is impossible to go beyond these schemes, and if reality does not correspond to them, then such individuals experience anxiety, protest, or a desire for edification. Characteristic of paranoid personality disorders and Pick's disease.

There must be order throughout the world. It is completely untrue that some of our neighbors come home late, I struggle with this, and I made a lock with keys on the entrance. Everything we achieved before was connected with order, but now there is no order. There is dirt everywhere because they don’t clean it up, it needs to be restored. state control over everything so that people don’t wander around the street. They don’t like that at work I demand to report on who went where and when he will return. It is impossible without this. There is no order at home either, every day I post a diagram of how much was spent and how many calories my wife and daughter should consume depending on their weight.

Symbolic thinking is characterized by the production of symbols that are understandable only to the patient himself, which can be extremely pretentious and expressed in invented words (neologisms). So, for example, one of the patients explains the word “syphilis” this way - physically strong, and the word “tuberculosis” - I take the one I love to tears. In other words, if the usual complex concept(symbol) can be interpreted based on the characteristics of culture (collective unconscious), religious allegories, semantics of the group, then with symbolic thinking such an interpretation is possible only based on personal deeply unconscious or past experience. Characteristic of schizophrenia.

I didn't just decide that my parents weren't real. The fact is that my name Kirill contains the truth. It consists of the words “Cyrus” - there was such a king, it seems, and “silt”, that is, found in a swamp. It means they just found me and I have a real name, but not a last name.

Patient L. creates a special symbolic font based on the inclusion of “feminine in the understanding of the letter”: a - anesthetic, b - shaving, c - performing, d - looking, e- extractive, e - natural, w - vital, living, z - healthy, i - going, ......n - real, ...s - free, ...f - milling, naval, ...sch- panelboard, ..yu - jewelry.

Identifying thinking is characterized by the fact that a person uses in his thinking meanings, expressions and concepts that actually do not belong to him, but to other, often authoritarian, dominant individuals. This type of thinking becomes the norm in countries with a totalitarian regime, requiring constant reference to the authority of the leader and his understanding of a particular situation. This thinking is due to the mechanism of projective identification. Characteristic of dependent and dissocial personality disorders.

I try to explain to them that there is no need to do this, because they will judge you and will not understand you. Who? All. You need to behave in such a way that you are like everyone else. When they call me “upstairs”, I always think that I have done such a thing that they found out about me, because everything seems to be in order. I am no worse or better than others. I love the songs of singer P., I bought a dress like hers. I like our president, he is a very careful person, he says everything correctly.

Changes in the fluidity and coherence of thinking are manifested in the following disorders: amorphous thinking is expressed in the presence of coherence among themselves in the meaning of individual parts of a sentence and even individual sentences when escaping general meaning what was said. It seems that the patient is “floating” or “spreading out”, being unable to express the general idea of ​​​​what was said or directly answer the question. Characteristic of schizoid personality disorders and accentuations.

You are asking about when I left the institute. In general, yes. The situation seemed to be such that I didn’t really want to study, somehow gradually. But that’s not what we’re talking about; immediately after admission, disappointment arose, and I stopped liking everything. So day after day I wanted to change something, but I didn’t know what, and everything stopped interesting me, and I stopped going to classes because of this very disappointment. When it’s not interesting, then, you know, there’s simply no need to study further, it’s better to work smart, although there weren’t any particular troubles. What question did you ask?

Subject-specific thinking characteristic of persons with mental retardation, expressed in primitive speech with formal logic. For example, to the question - how do you understand the saying “The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree?” answers: “The apples always fall close to the tree.” Characteristic for mental retardation and dementia.

Reasonable thinking expressed in reasoning about a question instead of a direct answer to the question. Thus, the wife of one patient says this about her husband: “He is so smart that it is absolutely impossible to understand what he is talking about.”

To the question “How do you feel?” the patient answers: “It depends on what you understand by the word feelings. If you understand by them your sensation of my feelings, then your sense of self will not correspond to my thoughts about your feelings.”

Characteristic of schizotypal disorders, schizophrenia and accentuations.

Thorough thinking characterized by detail, viscosity, and sticking on individual parts. When answering even a simple question, the patient tries to endlessly delve into the smallest details. Characteristic of epilepsy.

I have headaches. You know, in this place there is a slight pressure on the temple, especially when you get up or immediately after lying down, sometimes after eating. This slight pressure in this place happens when you read a lot, then it pulsates slightly and something beats... Then you feel nauseous, this happens at any time of the year, but especially often in the fall, when you eat a lot of fruit, however, the same thing happens in the spring when it rains It happens. Such a strange nausea from bottom to top and you swallow... Although not always, sometimes it happens, as if there is a lump in one place that you cannot swallow.

Thematic slippage characterized by a sudden change in the topic of conversation and a lack of connection between spoken sentences. For example, to the question “How many children do you have?” the patient answers “I have two children. I think I’ve eaten too much this morning.” Thematic slippage is one of the signs of a special structure of thinking and speech - schizophasia, in which a paralogical connection is likely between individual sentences. In the above example, in particular, the indicated connection is established between the children and the fact that they refused food in the morning, so the patient ate it himself.

Incoherent thinking(incoherent) - with this type of thinking, there is no connection between individual words in a sentence, repetitions of individual words often appear (perseveration).

Verbigeration- a thinking disorder in which the connection not only between words, but also between syllables is disrupted. The patient may pronounce individual sounds and syllables stereotypically. Various degrees Disconnected thinking is characteristic of schizophrenia.

Speech stereotypies can be expressed as repetitions of individual words, phrases or sentences. Patients can tell the same stories, anecdotes (gramophone record symptom). Sometimes standing turns are accompanied by attenuation, for example, the patient utters the phrase “ Headache It bothers me sometimes. I get a headache sometimes. Headache me. Headache. Head". Speech stereotypies are characteristic of dementia.

Coprolalia- the predominance of obscene phrases and phrases in speech, sometimes with complete displacement of ordinary speech. Characteristic of dissocial personality disorders and manifests itself in all acute psychoses.

Diagnosis of thought disorders

Methods for studying thinking include studying the structure of language, since language is the main field of manifestation of thinking. In modern psycholinguistics, studies of the semantics (meaning) of a statement, syntactic analysis (study of sentence structure), morphemic analysis (study of units of meaning), analysis of monologue and dialogical speech, as well as phonemic analysis, that is, the study of the basic sounds of speech that reflect its emotional content. The rate of speech reflects the speed of thinking, but it should be remembered that the only tool for comparing the speed of speech, as well as its content, is the thinking of the doctor himself. The level and course of thought processes is studied using the methods of “regularities of a number series”, a test of quantitative relations, unfinished sentences, understanding of plot pictures, highlighting essential features, exception tests and the formation of analogies, as well as the Ebbenhausen test (see the corresponding section of the textbook). The processes of symbolization and identification of unconscious thinking structures are studied using the method of pictograms and associative experiments.

The long weekend is coming, and many Russians will go on holiday outside the city. It's a good idea to know how to protect yourself from tick bites. The temperature regime in May contributes to the activation of dangerous insects...

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Acceleration of thinking is characteristic of manic and hypomanic states of various origins and is observed in manic-depressive psychosis, as well as in manioform states of exogenous origin, sometimes in schizophrenia, mainly in the onset and in its circular form. When thinking is accelerated, disturbances in its dynamics come to the fore, manifested in the lability of judgments.

Characterized by rapid, facilitated emergence and change of thoughts. The judgments of patients with accelerated thinking are superficial. This, as well as attention disorders inherent in states with accelerated thinking, explains the low mental productivity of patients in a manic state. Mental productivity is even lower with symptomatic mania of intoxication or infectious origin, since in these cases the phenomena of increased exhaustion become of great importance mental processes(such conditions are classified as astheno-manic). The performance of patients with mild hypoplasia may be relatively good. manic states, with cyclothymia. The more pronounced the acceleration of thinking, the less effective the patient’s activity.

Attention disturbances in manic states are primarily characterized by its instability. The combination of unstable attention, facilitated formation of associations, and accelerated flow of thoughts leads to peculiar changes in the patient’s speech - individual statements are not connected by any common idea, random associations are characteristic, often in consonance. The object of thinking becomes any object to which the patient pays attention. With a significant acceleration of thinking, they talk about a leap of ideas - thoughts replace each other so quickly that from the outside it is perceived as a continuous stream of words. At the same time, with a leap of ideas, in contrast to schizophrenic fragmentation, it is still not difficult to grasp the sequence of thoughts and their, albeit very superficial, interconnection. Only in cases of extremely sharp acceleration of thinking does the observer lose the ability to perceive transitions between individual thoughts. In these cases they speak of manic (vortex) confusion. Accelerated thinking, due to its instability, is characterized by an easy loss of the object of reasoning.

Acceleration of thinking. Acceleration of thinking, flight of thoughts, tachypsychia or tachyphrenia (from Greek tachis - fast, fast, phren - mind, mind) - accelerated change of thoughts and ideas, usually accompanied by tachyphenia or tachylalia (tachy + Greek phemi - speak, lalia - speech) , that is, speeding up speech and speaking a lot. At the same time, an accelerated change in emotional manifestations is usually observed - tachythymia (tachy + Greek thimos - mood), as well as an accelerated change and increase in the amplitude of movements, including acts of expression - tachykinesia (tachy + gr. kinetikos - related to movement). Accelerated walking is designated by the term tachybasia (tachy + Greek basis - walking), accelerated reading - tachylexia.

As a rule, the acceleration of thinking is combined with increased distraction of attention. At the onset of the disorder, internal distractibility predominates, when patients are distracted by random thoughts and ideas. Nevertheless, some patients at this time become very observant, noticing previously hidden details in the behavior of others. In more severe cases of the disorder, external distractibility comes to the fore—switching attention to some random external impressions (Osipov, 1923). At the height of the disorder, distractibility of attention reaches the degree of aprosexia, that is, a complete loss of voluntary attention, acceleration of thinking - jumps of ideas, and inconsistency of thinking - incoherence or aprosectic ataxia of thinking, according to V.P. Osipov.

Some idea of ​​the degree of acceleration of thinking is given by the number of words spoken by patients per unit of time. It exceeds 80–90 words per minute (an approximate indicator of normal thinking speed) and reaches 200 words or even more. Patients, however, testify that even with very rapid speech, they do not have time to verbalize many of their thoughts: “In my thoughts I am already in Moscow, but in my speech I am still in Siberia.” Thus, they seem to indicate the existence of non-speech phenomena of thought, that is, the possibility of separate occurrence of thinking processes and thinking processes. The time for thinking over answers to questions is significantly reduced, pauses between words and phrases are shortened, and the flow of speech sometimes does not stop for a single minute.

Subjectively, the acceleration of thinking is accompanied by a feeling of special ease of appearance and extraordinary clarity of thoughts, a distinctness unusual for them before, some special depth and brightness. Many thoughts that normally go unnoticed easily pop up in the mind. The process of translating thoughts into words is facilitated. There are no difficulties in choosing the right words or forming phrases. At the same time, it seems to patients that their formulations are unmistakably correct.

As a rule, the ability to think to oneself is lost: whatever patients think about, they immediately say out loud. They speak much louder than usual, sometimes almost breaking into a scream. Speech, as it accelerates, increasingly takes on the form of a monologue, and dialogue skills are reduced. The phonemic structure of speech suffers, since individual phonemes and syllables do not have time to pronounce. Patients' stuttering disappears if it occurred in their normal state.

The logical structure of thinking is destroyed, it becomes associative, since the place of logical relations is taken by associations of similarity, contiguity and contrast. Abstract and general concepts are replaced by concrete ones, that is, the level of thinking decreases significantly. If in the normal state the patients had some other thinking disorders, then with a significant acceleration of mental activity they recede into the background and become less noticeable. The productivity of thinking decreases as it accelerates. A slight acceleration of thinking can lead to a significant increase in thinking productivity, so that in a relatively short time, patients are able to do what they were supposed to do. in good condition it could take them months, even years. This, however, has to be judged from the words of the patients themselves. Pathopsychology accelerated thinking insufficiently studied.

Tachyphrenia is usually characteristic.

Disorders of the associative process include a number of disturbances in the way of thinking, expressed in changes in tempo, mobility, harmony, and focus. The following clinical phenomena are distinguished.

Acceleration of thinking characterized not only by the abundance and speed of occurrence of associations, but also by their superficiality. This leads to the fact that patients are easily distracted from the main topic of conversation, and speech acquires an inconsistent, “jumping” character. Any remark from the interlocutor gives rise to a new stream of superficial associations. Speech pressure is noted, the patient strives to speak out as quickly as possible, and does not listen to answers to the questions asked.

A patient diagnosed with manic-depressive psychosis, meeting a doctor in the morning, rushes to him, starting the conversation with compliments: “You look great, doctor, and the shirt is just right!” I'll give you, doctor, a nice tie and a mink hat. My sister works at a department store. Have you been to the department store in Presnya, on the fourth floor? Do you know how high the floors are? As soon as I walk, my heart is pounding. Can I get an electrocardiogram? No! Why bother you in vain? It's time for me to check out. I'm so healthy. In the army I trained in barbells. And at school I danced in an ensemble. Do you, doctor, like ballet? I'll give you tickets to the ballet! I have connections everywhere...”

Extremely pronounced acceleration is designated as " leap of ideas"(fuga idearum). In this case, speech breaks down into separate cries, the connection between which is very difficult to understand (“verbal okroshka”). However, later, when painful condition passes, patients can sometimes restore a logical chain of thoughts that they did not have time to express during psychosis.

Acceleration of thinking - characteristic manifestation manic syndrome(see section 8.3.2) may also occur when taking psychostimulants.

Slowing down your thinking is expressed not only in the slow pace of speech, but also in the poverty of emerging associations. Because of this, speech becomes monosyllabic and lacks detailed definitions and explanations. The process of forming conclusions is difficult, so patients are unable to comprehend complex questions, cannot cope with counting, and give the impression of being intellectually impaired. However, slowing down of thinking in the vast majority of cases acts as a temporary reversible symptom, and with the resolution of psychosis, mental functions are completely restored. Slowing down of thinking is observed in patients in a state of depression, as well as in mild disorders of consciousness (stunning).

Pathological thoroughness (viscosity)- manifestation of rigidity of thinking. The patient speaks with thoroughness not only slowly, drawing out words, but also verbosely. He is prone to excessive detail. The abundance in his speech of unimportant clarifications, repetitions, random facts, introductory words prevents listeners from understanding the main idea. Although he constantly returns to the topic of conversation, he gets stuck on detailed descriptions, gets to the final thought in a complex, confusing way (“labyrinthine thinking”). Most often, pathological circumstance is observed in organic diseases of the brain, especially in epilepsy, and indicates a long course of the disease, as well as the presence of an irreversible personality defect. In many ways, this symptom is associated with intellectual disorders: for example, the reason for detail lies in the lost ability to distinguish the main from the secondary.

A patient with epilepsy answers a doctor’s question about what he remembers about his last seizure: “Well, there was one seizure somehow. Well, I’m at my dacha, they dug up a good garden. As they say, maybe from fatigue. Well, it was there... Well, I actually don’t know anything about the attack. Relatives and friends said. Well, they say that there was an attack... Well, as they say, my brother was still alive, he also died of a heart attack... He told me while he was still alive. He says: “Well, I dragged you.” This nephew is there... The men dragged me to the bed. And without that, I was unconscious.”

From pathological thoroughness the associative process should be distinguished thoroughness of patients with delirium. In this case, the detailing does not serve as a manifestation of irreversible changes in the patient’s way of thinking, but only reflects the degree of relevance of the delusional idea for the patient. A patient with delirium is so carried away by the story that he cannot switch to any other topic, constantly returns to the thoughts that worry him, but when discussing everyday events that are of little significance to him, he is able to answer briefly, clearly and specifically. Purpose medicines can reduce the relevance of painful delusional ideas and, accordingly, leads to the disappearance of delusional circumstance.

Reasoning also manifests itself in verbosity, but thinking loses focus. Speech is replete with complex logical constructions, fanciful abstract concepts, terms, often used without understanding them. true meaning. If a patient with thoroughness strives to answer the doctor’s question as fully as possible, then for patients with reasoning it does not matter whether their interlocutor understood. They are interested in the process of thinking itself, and not the final thought. Thinking becomes amorphous, devoid of clear content. When discussing the simplest everyday issues, patients find it difficult to accurately formulate the subject of the conversation, express themselves in florid ways, and consider problems from the point of view of the most abstract sciences (philosophy, ethics, cosmology, biophysics). Such a penchant for lengthy, fruitless philosophical reasoning is often combined with absurd abstract hobbies. (metaphysical or philosophical intoxication). Reasoning is formed in patients with schizophrenia with a long-term process and reflects irreversible changes in the way of thinking of patients.

On final stages diseases, violation of the purposefulness of thinking in patients with schizophrenia can reach a degree fragmentation, reflected in the breakdown of speech (schizophasia) when it completely loses any meaning. The associations used by the patient are chaotic and random. It is interesting that in this case the correct grammatical structure is often preserved, expressed in speech by the exact agreement of words in gender and case. The patient speaks measuredly, emphasizing the most meaningful words. The patient’s consciousness is not upset: he hears the doctor’s question, correctly follows his instructions, constructs answers taking into account the associations made in the speech of the interlocutors, but cannot fully formulate a single thought.

A patient with schizophrenia talks about himself: “I have worked in all sorts of ways! I can do it as an orderly, and the stitching turns out straight. As a boy, he used to make a chair and make rounds together with Professor Banshchikov. Everyone sits like this, and I speak, and everything works out congruently. And then in the mausoleum everyone was carrying bales, so heavy. I’m lying in a coffin, holding my hands like this, and they’re dragging and folding everything. Everyone says: they say, abroad will help us, but I can work as an obstetrician here too. For so many years I have been delivering babies in Gorky Park... well, there are boys and girls... We take out the fetuses and put them away. And what the cooks do is also necessary, because science is greatest path to progress..."

Incoherence (incoherence)- a manifestation of the gross disintegration of the entire thinking process. With incoherence, the grammatical structure of speech is destroyed, there are no complete phrases, you can only hear isolated fragments of phrases, phrases and meaningless sounds. Incoherent speech usually occurs against the background of a severe disorder of consciousness - amentia (see section 10.2.2). At the same time, the patient is inaccessible to contact, does not hear or understand speech addressed to him.

Manifestations of thought disorder can be speech stereotypies, characterized by the repetition of thoughts, phrases or individual words. Speech stereotypies include perseverations, verbigerations and standing turns.

Perseverations are most common in dementia caused by vascular lesion brain, with age atrophic processes in the brain. At the same time, due to intellectual impairment, patients cannot comprehend the next question and, instead of answering, repeat what was said earlier.

A patient diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease, at the doctor's request, names the months of the year with some delay, but in the correct order. Fulfilling the doctor’s request to name her fingers, she shows her hand and lists: “January... February... March... April...”.

Verbigerations can only conditionally be classified as thinking disorders, since they are in many ways reminiscent of violent motor acts.

Patients stereotypically, rhythmically, sometimes in rhyme, repeat individual words, sometimes meaningless combinations of sounds. Often this symptom is accompanied by rhythmic movements: patients sway, shake their heads, wave their fingers and at the same time repeat: “Lying-lying... between-between... buzzing-buzzing... pushing-pressing... looking-looking...”. Verbigerations are most often a component of catatonic or hebephrenic syndromes (see section 9.1) characteristic of schizophrenia.

Standing speed - these are stereotypical expressions, similar thoughts, to which the patient returns many times during the conversation. The appearance of standing speed is a sign of decreased intelligence, empty thinking. Standing movements are quite common in epileptic dementia. They can also be observed in atrophic diseases of the brain, for example, in Pick's disease.

A 68-year-old patient, suffering from epilepsy since adolescence, constantly uses the expression “mental-brain system” in his speech: “These pills help with the mental-brain system,” “The doctor advised me to lie down more for the mental-brain system,” “Now I hum all the time , because the mental-brain system is recovering.”

A 58-year-old patient diagnosed with Pick's disease answers the doctor's questions:

- What is your name? - No way.

- How old are you? - Not at all.

- Who do you work for? - No one.

- Do you have a wife? - Eat.

- What is her name? - No way.

- How old is she? - Not at all.

- Who do they work for? - Nobody...

In some cases, patients have the feeling that some processes in thinking occur against their will and they are unable to control their thinking. Examples of such symptoms are an influx of thoughts and interruptions in thinking. influx thoughts (mentism) is expressed by a painful state for the patient of a chaotic stream of thoughts rushing through the head, usually occurring in the form of an attack. At this moment, the patient is unable to continue normal work,

distracted from the conversation. Painful thoughts do not represent any logical series, so a person cannot express them coherently; he complains that “thoughts go in parallel rows,” “jump,” “intersect,” “cling to one another,” “get confused.”

Interruptions in thinking (sperrung, stopping, or blockage, of thoughts) cause the feeling that “thoughts have flown out of my head,” “my head is empty,” “I was thinking and thinking and suddenly it was as if I ran into a wall.” The violent nature of these symptoms can instill in the patient the suspicion that someone is deliberately controlling his thinking and preventing him from thinking. Mentism and sperrung are a manifestation of ideational automatism (see section 5.3), most often observed in schizophrenia. Difficulties in thinking that arise during fatigue (for example, with asthenic syndrome), in which patients cannot concentrate, concentrate on work, and involuntarily begin to think about something unimportant, should be distinguished from attacks of mentism. This state is never accompanied by a feeling of alienation or violence.

The most diverse disorders of the associative process are typical of schizophrenia, in which the entire figurative mindset can be radically modified, acquiring an autistic, symbolic and paralogical character.

Autistic thinking is expressed in extreme isolation, immersion in the world of one’s own fantasies, and separation from reality. Patients are not interested in the practical significance of their ideas, they can think about a thought that obviously contradicts reality, and draw conclusions from it that are as meaningless as the original premise. Patients do not care about the opinions of others, they are quiet and secretive, but they are happy to express their thoughts on paper, sometimes filling up thick notebooks. Observing such patients, reading their notes, one can be surprised that patients who behave passively, speak colorlessly, indifferently, are actually overwhelmed by such fantastic, abstract, philosophical experiences.

Symbolic thinking characterized by the fact that patients use their own symbols, incomprehensible to others, to express thoughts. These may be well-known words that are used in an unusual meaning, making the meaning of what was said unclear. Often patients make up their own words (neologisms).

A 29-year-old patient diagnosed with schizophrenia divides his hallucinations into “objective” and “subjective”. When asked to explain what he means, he states: “Subjection is color, movement, and objects are books, words, letters... Solid letters... I can imagine them well, because I had a surge of energy...”.

Paralogical thinking manifests itself in the fact that patients, through complex logical reasoning, come to conclusions that clearly contradict reality. This becomes possible because in the speech of patients, which at first glance seems coherent and logical, there is a displacement of concepts (slipping), substitution of the direct and figurative meaning of words, and violations of cause-and-effect relationships. Often paralogical thinking is the basis of a delusional system. At the same time, paralogical constructions seem to prove the validity of the patient’s thoughts.

A 25-year-old patient, talking about her family, emphasizes that she loves her mother very much, who is now 50 years old and looks quite healthy. However, the patient is very concerned that her mother may get sick and die before her eyes, so she intends to kill her as soon as she turns 70 years old.

Autistic, symbolic and paralogical thinking are not specific manifestations of schizophrenia. It has been noticed that among relatives of patients with schizophrenia, more often than in the population, there are people without current mental illness, but endowed unusual character(sometimes reaching the level of psychopathy) and a subjective way of thinking, with unexpected logical constructions, a tendency to fence off from the outside world and symbolism.

Hello, dear friends!

The speed at which our brain processes information plays a huge role, both in decision-making and in life in general. How efficiently and quickly we respond to external factors and irritants, our success and well-being depend.

How to speed up the brain's reaction? After all, he is a supercomputer weighing only a few pounds! But a person’s movement depends on his ability to correctly send signals to the body.

The center of control and issuance of commands that control life is also responsible for relationships with other people, perception and emotional assessment of what is happening.

Optimizing your brain's response is an opportunity to be better! That is why for today’s article I have selected some tips that will help you increase your mental abilities.

1. Physical activity

Californian scientists have proven that with systematic physical activity, a person’s convolutions begin to move better, producing so-called “gray” cells in the body.

So, for example, in battle, an individual must concentrate at lightning speed and make informed decisions. Coordination of body movements, assessment of threat or distance to the enemy is similarly carried out using brain signals.

The life of an individual sometimes depends on how effectively the reaction to the signal given by the computer is structured. Therefore, to develop the speed of thought and the entire body, I definitely advise you to go in for sports.

2. Thinking training

When it comes to skill development, it is important not only physical exercise. You can independently develop the desired area of ​​the brain and make it work more productively.

How to do it? Firstly, it is worth understanding in advance what type of thinking prevails over you? Secondly, earlier in my materials I wrote about how to develop logical thinking or improve left hemisphere brain, responsible for feelings and creativity.

However, I would like to note that the thought process itself and independent analysis greatly helps to develop inactive parts of the brain. I invite you to discover new sensations.

Try unknown smells or dishes, experiment while traveling, take up a craft previously unknown to you. And necessarily, to open new horizons.

3. A simple question “Why?”

Start a new and useful habit for yourself. Did you probably know that gray matter is predisposed to undisguised curiosity? So that’s why I suggest you develop the piquant skill of asking a question “ Why?»

Ask yourself this question at least 10 times a day. Compare findings, conclusions, study new information and develop. You will be surprised how many prospects and opportunities will open up for you when you introduce such a small question into your speech routine!

4. Eat more nuts

Nuts contain oil. Starting from cedar to walnut. Previously, it was considered useful only for the treatment of heart disease. But now research has revealed that it works great in increasing the speed of brain function.

Thanks to nuts, the amount of oxygen that enters the head increases and its proper circulation is ensured. In addition, it promotes more efficient functioning of membranes in the body's cells.

This is why people who are not lazy and add a lot of nuts and plant foods to their diet are less susceptible to nervous disorders, attention problems and memory problems.

Also, for the sake of successful digestion, it is worth noting that nuts are rich in proteins, which means it is better not to mix them with carbohydrates (honey, raisins, ...)! This is one of the rules of balanced nutrition, which will help you digest and assimilate food much more efficiently.

5. Train your memory

Techniques that help strengthen memorization skills have a beneficial effect not only on thinking, but also on the memory of body physics. Practice and exercise are the recipe for a positive implementation of a new habit.

Dancing, aerobics, gymnastics, as well as meditation help our body establish all vital regulatory systems. By memorizing movements, exercises and poses, you strengthen the connection between the body and the brain signal.

And the chemical reactions themselves that occur during activity train muscle memory and strengthen the entire body, and this increases the level of movement speed.

Reading, solving problems and training visual memory, along with logical puzzles, are excellent in developing a person.

6. Proper nutrition

Can unhealthy fats make you stupid? You won't believe it, but it's true! Researchers at the University of Toronto have proven the fact that fat has a negative effect on the mental capabilities of experimental subjects - that is, rats.

Why is this happening? When you give up junk food, a person’s brain begins to work easier and faster. When harmful animal foods with huge amounts of fat are replaced with food plant origin, then the flow in the body increases rich in oxygen blood to the brain.

And this in turn increases the indicators of the thought process and reaction speed.

7. Improving acquired skills

Of course, our lives are full of familiar and ordinary activities. Among them you can find sewing, drawing, and cooking. But I will advise you to diversify your leisure time by complicating household chores and acquired skills.

This will help stimulate neural connections to additional load. Start reading literature that, in addition to theory, has practical implementation. Get acquainted with drawing styles unknown to you, master a different type of cutting or sewing. Discover the world of raw food cooking and put what you learn into practice!

This approach obliges you to achieve more high performance, and the brain - to be healthy and productive.

8. Games

An active lifestyle and the desire to move, rather than lie on the couch, helps keep gray matter in good shape. Did you manage to find some free time? Be sure to spend it on fresh air in the company of children or friends!

Games of tennis, football, basketball, frisbee and any strength training are perfect for you! Go hiking, reach the top and don’t be too lazy to buy a gadget that measures the number of steps per day

A new-fangled lotion can be very useful for those people who spend most of their time sitting. And with the help of the application, you can always understand whether you walk home or can you afford to take public transport?

9. Train your concentration level

Concentration is a panacea for increasing brain performance! But you should understand that its “eaters” are not always noticeable and perceptible. Learning to see exactly when you got distracted? What was the reason to do this?

By doing one thing after another and being in the “here and now” state, you will be able to achieve high marks for your work in reality.

10. Aromatherapy and relaxation

In order not to burn out all the cells in your head from too much effort, you should pay due attention to rest. I will advise you to resort to aromatherapy to tone up or, conversely, relax.

Substances that stimulate the body may contain notes of cypress and mint. But in case of calm, use a rose. A geranium scent might also work.

Friends, I’ll put an end to this.

Subscribe to my blog updates and recommend it to your friends to read. In the comments, tell us how you speed up brain reactions and what proven exercises do you recommend?

See you on the blog, bye-bye!