Marie Kon-Don’t: Your Brain on Self-Control

Typically, our local neural networks deal with it by grouping similar items together, thus allowing our homeowners to find the things they need.

But when Marie makes them take out all of their clothes, shoes, bags, and books, their neural networks get overwhelmed, and the visual cue causes stress to go through the roof. The cascade of stress hormones triggers the fight-or-flight response. Chemically-speaking, epinephrine triggers an adrenaline rush, and cortisol keeps the body revved up (and in spring-cleaning mode) until the mess gets to manageable levels.

​
 

Habit loops work

When Marie asks homeowners to identify what sparks joy, she is asking them to define their intrinsic value of tidying up. Finding what sparks joy leads to a habit, but how?

Computational methods are particularly useful in understanding this. One such method is reinforcement learning, which according to Richard Sutton and Andrew Barto, is about “learning what to do… so as to maximize a numerical reward signal”.

As the homeowners tidy, they explore what items spark joy, and what don’t. By doing this, they learn how to maximize their reward signal; and as it becomes more natural, tidying up turns into a habit.

​

​To succeed, start with things you hate

Marie has a prescribed order: starting with clothes/shoes and ending with sentimental items. This is smart because the habit created by spring-cleaning clothes and shoes acts as a defense against the “pain” of tidying up.

Clearing off sentimental items triggers the anterior cingulate cortex and insula (parts of the brain) in the same way that the sensation of pain does. Researchers came to this conclusion by observing hoarders, as they feel an emotional connection to everything, and think of themselves as indecisive. Hoarders also seem to have a pathological tendency to overeat according to other research – clearly, a case of one bad habit begets another one. 

So by following this order, Marie allows the homeowners to acclimatise gradually to higher activity in the anterior cingulate cortex and insula, thus setting the homeowners up for a more successful spring-cleaning session.

​

So, be aware of your shopping brains!

Neuroscience research suggests that a network of brain connections is responsible for the inhibition of basic impulsive drives. 

So when you go shopping, being goal-oriented when evaluating things to buy helps inhibit the drive to purchase. In neuroscience language – self-control is not reduced to a single process or a normative task of top-down processes. Instead, the ventromedial prefrontal cortex’s (vmPFC) goal-oriented approach inhibits the drive to purchase by comparing the value of each item.

That’s because our instinctive behaviours are controlled by complex interactions between the cortex and the brain stem in our brains. Fortunately for us, this region is modulated by the prefrontal cortex – otherwise we may indulge in every whim and every instinctive behavior that we feel. For instance, the instinct to run away when faced with a public speaking task. The way our brain stem is wired may force us to run away, but the cortical response keeps us standing. Similarly, when our instinctive nature is exploited during a shopping frenzy, it is the prefrontal cortex that puts on the brakes. 

But first, a caveat: Knowledge about brain activation while shopping or clearing up clutter is illuminating, but can it alone help control our urges? 

​