Attention ≠ Thinking

Few, if any, have contributed more to our understanding of Flow State, Steven Kotler's team.

“The prefrontal cortex is where thinking happens,” [Arne Dietrich, Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience] explains. “It’s where we take simple ideas and add all kinds of layers of complexity to them. But I was slipping into flow on a regular basis and always amazed by the clarity of the state. All that complexity was gone. Decisions were easy and automatic. It was like the opposite of thinking.”

"We’re trading energy usually used for higher cognitive functions for heightened attention and awareness.” The technical term for this exchange is transient hypofrontality, with hypo (meaning slow) being the opposite of hyper (i.e., fast).

"In flow, which parts of the brain become hypofrontal determines the nature of the experience — with a quick rule of thumb being: the greater the deactivation of neuronal structures, the more profound (and bizarre) the experience."

SOURCE: Steven Kotler's Linked-In