Processing slower or more to think about?

How FAST can you sift & sort?

Intro by Madelyn Griffith-Haynie, CTP, CMC, ACT, MCC, SCAC
Part THREE of the Brain-Based Processing Series

How fast can you FILTER? 

THAT is the question.

CLICK HERE for Part I: ABOUT Processing Speed
CLICK HERE for Part II: Processing Efficiency

Introduction

EFD: TBI & ADD (and more!)

There are a great many disabilities that are manifestations of Exectutive Functioning Disorder [EFD] – some inborn, and some acquired subsequently.

Some EF struggles are a consequence of damage to the frontal cortex, others are a consequence of another disease or disorder and its impact on hormones or glucose metabolism — or anything that has an effect on the neurotransmitter balance in the Prefrontal Cortex [PFC].

With Exectutive Functioning Disorders, whether inborn or acquired subsequently, the filtering and focusing areas of the brain not operating well.

The resulting difficulty sorting out incoming stimuli, leads to problems with attention and focus, impulsivity, distractibility and follow-through, disorganization and decision-making, as well as low frustration tolerance leading to anxiety, short-fuses, and other mood and “conduct” problems.

Wikipedia puts it this way:

Executive function is an umbrella term for cognitive processes such as planning, working memory, attention, problem solving, verbal reasoning, inhibition, mental flexibility, multi-tasking, and initiation and monitoring of actions.^{[citation on Wiki]}

The PFC and Dopamine

You will see the name of this particular neurotransmitter in connection with a great many functions. Effective dopamine production appears to be necessary for reward-motivation, focus, and for the recombination of facts and factors in ways that result in clear decisions.

Faulty dopamine metabolism is implicated in quite a few disorders, depending on whether it is produced in greater or lesser supply than “normal,” and where the dopamine secreting neurons operate. One of the places in the brain where a great number of the dopamine-producing neurons are located is the PFC.

Even though cognition is a distributed process, we speak of the prefrontal cortex as responsible for the brain’s executive functions, including filtering incoming stimuli
(from the senses, as well as cognitive information), sequencing, and focusing on relevant stimuli, filtering out irrelevent.

The PFC and Processing Efficiency

Processing efficiency is essentially a measure of how well and how quickly the brain organizes information, which impacts our ability to focus on the important while ignoring the unimportant or  less important. It also considers how effectively the brain can shift from one activity or stimulus to another.

Future articles in this series will continue to explore this idea, but in THIS article, I am going to turn the platform over to a TBI advocate to further illuminate the importance of concepts of processing speed and processing fluency to YOUR day-to-day functioning (as well as the impact to your sense of Self and self-esteem, or that of your loved ones).

I want you to read what HE has to say about dealing with the after-effects of Traumatic Brain Injury [or, as many say, brain damage] — his own processing speed aha! 

I couldn’t say it better!

If you haven’t read the TBI Posts:
Lessons from the TBI Community
and Gathering the Tribe,
you might want to go there first.

Reblogged

Even though I want you to consider the following first-person article as a “reblogged” Part 3 to
The Brain-Based Processing Series, I’m not crazy about the screwy formatting quirks of the WordPress reblog function. (Many of you with ADD or NVLD won’t be able to deal with it and stay tracked on the content.)

Sooooo . . . you CAN get there from here!
You can read his article on his very own blog — right NOW.

You will find the link to his site in the “grey box” below the attributions and above the Related Links.

Once there, take time to read the comments too (at the bottom of the article).
Take advantage of some of that “hateful” anecdotal report —  it will be some
time yet before science proves what we’re figuring out!

Stay tuned – there’s A LOT more to explore about Processing Fluency
on the way to
learning to drive the very brain you were born with™
(even if it’s taken a few knocks in the meantime).

AS ALWAYS, if you’d like notification about additional posts in this series (or any other), give your name and email to the nice form at the top of the skinny column to your right. (If you’ve done this for another series, you’re good to go!  You only need to do this once.) Stringent NO SPAM policy.

———————————————————————
*ATTRIBUTION & gratitude:  black box graphic courtesy of
Wikipedia, under the Creative Commons License
——————————-
turtle running tired is
from free-clipart.net 

Part 3 will open in a new window or tab (depending on your browser settings) — you don’t have to remember to come “back” for more links or to review this article – it will still be right here.

Brain-based Processing Series, Part 3:
I’m not necessarily slower – I just have more to think about

Related Content here on ADDandSoMuchMore.com

• Lessons from the TBI community
• Gathering the Tribe: TBI-2

• TaskMaster: (Juggling Concept Introduction)
• TaskMaster: Juggling Invisible Balls
• ADD seldom rides alone

• Brain-based Coaching Paradigms
• TYPES of Attentional Deficits

Related Content around the ‘net

• Is a physical problem more important than a mental health problem (braininjuryselfrehabilitation.com)
• Invest in Brain Health to Drive Innovation and Prosperity (sharpbrains.com)
• The Brain Falters When Rules Change (medicalnewstoday.com)
• Is General Intelligence Compatible with Evolutionary Psychology? (blogs.scientificamerican.com)

• Brain Training (fitnesspedia.wordpress.com)
• Why Protect Your Brain? (shanellefurner.wordpress.com)
• Drug Boosts Frontal Cortex Dopamine, Cuts Impulsiveness (futurepundit.com)