The “crocodile brain” is a metaphor, not a literal part of the brain. It’s a way of understanding the immediate, visceral reactions that can influence decision-making before logic kicks in. As far back as 6 million years ago, our ancestors were subject to nature’s wrath, which forced them to take action immediately or die after thinking it over. This is why the Croc Brain continues to be the first phase of handling information even though we entered into cultural society over four thousand years ago.
Once you hear the boom surrounding you, see the horrible image or simple instruction in front of you, whether you are easy to remember; Conversely, whether it is hard to pay attention while the speaker or teacher elaborate the complex idea or math format for the first time. Why? The message will be avoided by your Croc Brain if you are not interested in it or do the deliberate effort. Almost everyone will be faced with a situation where the boss or professor asks you to cut to the chase or make the presentation simple at first. It’s the way our brain works.
So the question is how could we make a message entering into the Neocortex Brain which is in charge of processing logical thinking and absorbing complicated ideas. Before that, Mid-Brain is the phase two where we have to pass when considering the duration, path, and outcome among the things. However, it will involve the neurochemical system coming from two little nuclei down in the base of the brain called nucleus basalis. Simply put, once we decide to dig in something, the adrenaline and acetylcholine will be secreted in the brainstem and body, and those two things bring about a state of alertness. Then our attention, which is mostly a diffuse light, is brought to a particular duration path and outcome, we call focus. Like the normal situation when you think about what they are really trying to say?
For the above example, you don’t have to consume your energy to figure out the duration and outcome. However, when you make a decision to learn a new language or a specific hard skill or a new way of conceptualizing something, the acetylcholine and the norepinephrine converge to mark those synapses for change. That means it almost has a feeling of underlying agitation and frustration. That’s because the circuits that turn on before acetylcholine are of the stress system.
Back to how to take the complicated message into the Mid-Brain, the right approach is to take the audience as much focus to a behavior or to a thought, or to an action pattern, that is, you need to stimulate them to think from their perspective, not to do the one-direction output. Moreover, there has to be a sense of urgency, something out of preference, and a real desire to learn. The degree of plasticity is remarkable due to incentive. These circuits in the brain that mother nature set up are designed to be anchored to a real need.
Switch into yourself, how can we improve our concentration on the goal and perform better? You need to break down your goal into a series of small milestones and missions to do. Unconscious focus will not happen if that work is not done with a particular end goal in mind, you will get plasticity in a kind of across the board — focus component. Therefore, at least some, top contour understanding of how urgency and focus must converge for that to happen can be useful whether or not something feels like flow, what we call highly desirable states.
