I’ve often wondered, since first learning the little factoid that “the stomach has almost as much neural complexity as the brain”, whether we’ve mis-located the source of the ‘willpower’ problem.
If our digestive tract is a fully-trainable neural net with direct two-way feedback to our brains (and it certainly seems like it is), then it might be fruitful to start figuring out how to re-train it directly, or short-circuit it. Concepts like “reward circuits” and “willpower” almost invariably focus on the brain in our heads; has anyone done any studies on what the stomach’s internal reward circuits look like?
I’m not familiar with much of the rigorous science on gut stuff, a lot of it is fairly new. I will say that the Cue Action Reward model of habit formation works the best when you use the strongest cues and rewards, i.e. sex or food. I started training fasted a couple years ago. I didn’t realize that I was reprogramming my cue action reward from
cue: hunger
action: look for food
reward: calories
to
cue: hunger
action: go exercise
reward: a ton of calories
to the degree that when hungry my first thought is now to go exercise.
I’ve often wondered, since first learning the little factoid that “the stomach has almost as much neural complexity as the brain”, whether we’ve mis-located the source of the ‘willpower’ problem.
If our digestive tract is a fully-trainable neural net with direct two-way feedback to our brains (and it certainly seems like it is), then it might be fruitful to start figuring out how to re-train it directly, or short-circuit it. Concepts like “reward circuits” and “willpower” almost invariably focus on the brain in our heads; has anyone done any studies on what the stomach’s internal reward circuits look like?
I’m not familiar with much of the rigorous science on gut stuff, a lot of it is fairly new. I will say that the Cue Action Reward model of habit formation works the best when you use the strongest cues and rewards, i.e. sex or food. I started training fasted a couple years ago. I didn’t realize that I was reprogramming my cue action reward from
cue: hunger
action: look for food
reward: calories
to
cue: hunger
action: go exercise
reward: a ton of calories
to the degree that when hungry my first thought is now to go exercise.