Irreversible maladaptability

This article by Dr Piotr Wozniak is part of SuperMemo Guru series on memory, learning, creativity, and problem solving.

Optimum adaptation and the environment

The brain is a perfectly adaptable device, however, optimality of adaptation reflects the conditions to which we are to adapt, i.e. the environment. A child laborer on a cocoa farm in Ivory Coast will perfectly adapt to his situation at work: operating the machete, understanding local cocoa economics (but not global economics), local cocoa trading network, spraying a herbicide (but not its health effects), social structure on his cocoa "farm", social skills needed on his plantation (e.g. how to lie or run away from inquisitive cameras), etc. The same perfectly adapted child transplanted overnight to a factory in Taiwan or a college in Japan will struggle to readapt. A child adapted to the comforts of living in western Europe, rendered helpless via compulsory schooling would struggle much harder when transplanted to an Ivorian rain forest. It might die early through ignorance of the threats of the forest (parasites, diseases, etc.). He may require a long and painful period of hardening of which, an important part would be to forget the pleasures of lazy comfort.

Optimum adaptation to one environment may be a maladaptation in another environment

Dangers of unfreedom

One of the biggest threats to long-term adaptability is learned helplessness. It is dangerous because it makes the affected individual stop trying. It takes away goals, valuations, and pleasures. The individual adapts to being helpless.

Adaptability via helplessness should rather be called maladaptability. The missile in a tunnel metaphor explains helpless maladaptability. In the war of the networks, prolonged conflict may result in structural changes in the brain. Not only do synaptic connections die as a result of a normal learning process. Neurons in disuse are at the risk of recycling. A living neuron consumes energy and space. Prolong disuse is likely a death sentence. That's part of the law of adaptability (see: conceptualization). Vanishing populations may affected the wiring of white matter. If those processes start early and last long enough they will become irreversible. The brain architecture is adaptable too, and changes to network topology may make rewiring hard. Given unlimited time in an unlimited concept network, re-adaptation should in theory make all things reversible. However, the conceptualization process itself in a finite network progress from plasticity to stability. In conditions of limited freedom, time is the enemy. Every single day of bondage makes the reversal harder. War of the networks reduces future adaptability by stabilizing present adaptations. Adaptation to bondage is a form of maladaptation.

Prolonged limits on freedom may result in hard to reverse maladaptation: learned helplessness

Figure: C. elegans has a nervous system made of only 302 neurons. However, this is enough to implement an exploratory algorithm that is reminiscent of human curiosity, creativity, and problem solving. When the worm finds a patch of food, it will explore it. However, on occasion it will take an unexpected dash in a random direction in search of new patches (bacteria). Similar algorithms can be found in other animals, however, human learn drive is far more complex. It is based on knowledge valuation and the exploratory breaks are reserved for period of learntropy dropping well below the expected value. Human creativity is also based on knowledge, while in the worm its only aspect is a random choice of a direction. For the worm, a new patch of bacteria is a problem solved, for a human it might be a new idea for terraforming Mars. Last but not least, the metaphoric tool for inducing learned helplessness (marked as "school") in primitive animals will rather only have the form of drive habituation. Nevertheless, the little worm may present a convincing illustration than the intelligent missile metaphor is far more universal and may be relevant to primitive nervous systems as well. For more on the universality of the learn drive see: The psychology and neuroscience of curiosity

Neuronal mechanism

Maladaptation is nothing else than a form of learning. In periods of brain growth, it has a signification impact on architectural conceptualization. When it reaches dramatic levels it may result in neuronal death (see: War of the networks). The more radical the re-conceptualization of networks, the harder it is to reverse changes.

Figure: Neuronal feedback loops in competitive decision making. Input patterns determine the input value (e.g. as computed by knowledge valuation network). Inhibitory neurons IA and IB decrease the chance of firing in the competitive decision neuron (Decision A or Decision B). History of prior decisions will determine synaptic stabilization, which will favor decisions that used to bring higher past rewards. See also: War of the networks, Competitive feedback loops in binary decision making at neuronal level, and Learn drive at school

Re-adaptation struggle

Neurogenesis lasts as long as the brain is alive, however, it primarily serves new learning. The entire areas of the cortex may be reused for new purposes. Re-adaptation will always produce a new product, and will likely be inferior due to: (1) wiring problems and (2) network stabilization. The older we get, the harder it is to re-adapt (see: Older people learn slower). Yo-yo adaptations are particularly harmful. When the network keeps receiving conflicting signals separated in time, it re-adapts as if the signals were in direct conflict, but the hit-and-miss nature of network conceptualization may produce more extensive changes that are harder to reverse. Metaphorically speaking, if you have a cranky girlfriend, you can cycle between love and hate until you end up with indifference, or an unpredictable extreme of hatred or infatuation. The sensation of hate must be strong enough to make love imperceptible. This is how the brain simplifies decision making. Yo-yo adaptations might be responsible for the yo-yo effect in dieting. After years of dieting, the entire appetite control system may be affected by irreversible maladaptation. An injured individual is deprived of natural appetite control. She needs to control food intake by "rational" decisions. Eating is instinctive. For dieters it becomes a daily exercise in problem solving. See: Optimum diet

Adaptations are limited by the size of the concept network, its topology, available time, and the environment. From the point of view of the population they are statistically optimal (see: Optimality of the learn drive).

Conceptual adaptation is optimized for the size of the concept network, the available window of time, and may be considered optimum from the point of view of a population

Productivity as therapy

I received some feedback from very smart readers in the subject. My words about learned helplessness and the impact of daycare and school induce anxiety. They keep looking at their own lives and wondering who would they be if they were not exposed to a significant degree of coercion. I invariably insist that anyone who is capable of reading my text with comprehension is already well-shielded by his own capacity to learn and re-adapt. The mere act of reading text on some obscure educational website is a definite indicator of a healthy learn drive. The only true reason to worry is the anxiety itself. It may be an effect of fear conceptualization with roots going deep to the years of being raised in an authoritarian setting. Over years, I saw similar anxieties evolve into a serious problem associated with the perception of self. A good remedy is massive learning, creative productivity, exercise, sleep, and simple living (as described in Simple formula for a happy life). Study the flow and learned optimism.

The best therapy for maladaptation is a happy and productive life