Brain Fog
For the sake of earthly ambitions such as raising existing standards and improving the quality of life, we, as the founders of modern life, have built social patterns that involve complex and fast-paced systems in contrast to simple and static social structures. Experiencing its positive and negative consequences in parallel with the ordinary flow of life, we remained confident that this choice would save us time, ease our lives and increase our level of comfort. Given that we are highly emotional beings, we never seriously considered how the conveniences we have created might challenge our mental and physical health, and thus we voted for the 鈥渇ast option鈥�. How does this state of acceleration, which in a sense is equivalent to denying the nature of our evolutionary process, affect our neurocognitive nature and the ecosystem that we are part of? Being exposed to heaps of information in endless mirrored rooms, how can our constantly occupied minds use clear reasoning to distinguish the imaginary from the real or the true from the false?
The scientific term that best reflects this state of mental cloudiness that we are experiencing is 鈥渂rain fog鈥�, which, although being mentioned in medical books and articles for years, we have started to hear more frequently during the Covid-19 pandemic that has brought radical changes in our lives. Brain fog, which occurs when people鈥檚 cognitive functions are pressured, is not being defined as a disease, but rather as a 鈥渟tate of discomfort鈥� that can cause new neurological complications and trigger other diseases. While reducing basic cognitive functions such as thinking and focusing, brain fog also seems to cast an invisible veil over attention, creative thinking and problem-solving abilities, which are the basic components of human survival instincts.
As a consequence of social life coming to a standstill during the mandatory quarantine period at the beginning of the pandemic, effects on the prefrontal cortex (forebrain) region of the human brain, which is responsible for performing 鈥渉igher cognitive鈥� functions appeared. This negative impact on the forebrain, which plays a key role in the execution of brain functions such as memory, decision-making, perception and executive control, created something like a mental cloudiness for some. The blurring of mental acuity created by brain fog brought about a feeling of depersonalization stimulated by losing touch with reality. People, uncertain of their memories and becoming alienated from themselves and eventually from their surroundings, seemed to resemble Meursault, the indifferent main character in Albert Camus鈥� novel, 鈥淭he Stranger鈥�:
鈥溾�� Never in my life had I seen anyone as clearly as I saw these people; not a detail of their clothes or features escaped me. And yet I couldn鈥檛 hear them, and it was hard to believe they really existed.鈥�
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For the sake of earthly ambitions such as raising existing standards and improving the quality of life, we, as the founders of modern life, have built social patterns that involve complex and fast-paced systems in contrast to simple and static social structures. Experiencing its positive and negative consequences in parallel with the ordinary flow of life, we remained confident that this choice would save us time, ease our lives and increase our level of comfort. Given that we are highly emotional beings, we never seriously considered how the conveniences we have created might challenge our mental and physical health, and thus we voted for the 鈥渇ast option鈥�. How does this state of acceleration, which in a sense is equivalent to denying the nature of our evolutionary process, affect our neurocognitive nature and the ecosystem that we are part of? Being exposed to heaps of information in endless mirrored rooms, how can our constantly occupied minds use clear reasoning to distinguish the imaginary from the real or the true from the false?
The scientific term that best reflects this state of mental cloudiness that we are experiencing is 鈥渂rain fog鈥�, which, although being mentioned in medical books and articles for years, we have started to hear more frequently during the Covid-19 pandemic that has brought radical changes in our lives. Brain fog, which occurs when people鈥檚 cognitive functions are pressured, is not being defined as a disease, but rather as a 鈥渟tate of discomfort鈥� that can cause new neurological complications and trigger other diseases. While reducing basic cognitive functions such as thinking and focusing, brain fog also seems to cast an invisible veil over attention, creative thinking and problem-solving abilities, which are the basic components of human survival instincts.
As a consequence of social life coming to a standstill during the mandatory quarantine period at the beginning of the pandemic, effects on the prefrontal cortex (forebrain) region of the human brain, which is responsible for performing 鈥渉igher cognitive鈥� functions appeared. This negative impact on the forebrain, which plays a key role in the execution of brain functions such as memory, decision-making, perception and executive control, created something like a mental cloudiness for some. The blurring of mental acuity created by brain fog brought about a feeling of depersonalization stimulated by losing touch with reality. People, uncertain of their memories and becoming alienated from themselves and eventually from their surroundings, seemed to resemble Meursault, the indifferent main character in Albert Camus鈥� novel, 鈥淭he Stranger鈥�:
鈥溾�� Never in my life had I seen anyone as clearly as I saw these people; not a detail of their clothes or features escaped me. And yet I couldn鈥檛 hear them, and it was hard to believe they really existed.鈥�
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