The brain is a prediction machine, and its predictions powerfully govern our very perceptions. Mark Solms writes in The Hidden Spring: 

Most people don’t realize that our here-and-now perceptions are constantly guided by predictions, generated mainly from long-term memory. But they are. That is why far fewer neurons propagate signals from the external sense organs to the internal memory systems than the other way round. For example, the ratio of incoming connections to outgoing ones in the lateral geniculate body (which relays information from the eyes to the visual cortex and vice-versa…) is about 1:10. The heavy lifting is done by the predictive signals that meet the sensory ones arriving from the periphery. This saves an enormous amount of information processing and therefore metabolic work. Considering that the brain consumes about 20 percent of our total energy supplies, this is a valuable efficiency. Why treat everything in the world as if you’d never encountered it before? Instead, what the brain does is propagate inwards only that portion of the incoming information which does not match its expectations.

Our brains manufacture predictive maps of the world, but also and critically, of our internal experience. We can learn that bad things follow emotional expression. This is why you can torture a child into becoming phobic of his own anger or sadness. If you really want to stupefy a child, punish or shame him for his initiative, spontaneity, and preferences. 

According to Panksepp, motivation is the product of a distinct emotional system, which he terms SEEKING. It is “the most general-purpose emotional system of the brain,” and “a highly integrated longitudinal brain system that supports practically all intrinsic life-supporting organismic actions, interfacing with appetitive learning (secondary-process) mechanisms and higher cognitive (tertiary-process) brain functions.”

Think about whether primary education supports appetitive learning. Think twice about smacking that kid for having too much energy. Panksepp again:

Anatomically, the SEEKING system runs upward from the midbrain VTA [Ventral Tegmental Area] up through the lateral hypothalamus into the nucleus accumbens, toward the olfactory bulbs, and also includes many parts of the medial frontal cortical regions, though it is not limited to these ascending anatomical areas, as well as many regions farther down the brainstem to subcortical cerebellar regions. In terms of overall neurochemical modulation, the SEEKING system has been most closely associated with dopamine release—the VTA sends massive dopaminergic projections to the nucleus accumbens, but there are equally massive contributions from descending GABA systems.

If motivation is our general-purpose emotion, mediated by dopamine and GABA, it stands to reason that it’s implicated in most of what we term “mental illness.” While it is more popular to speak of dopamine irregularities in conditions like ADHD and depression, it is equally fruitful to consider their electrical signatures. 

Different frequencies of the brain (as measured by an EEG in hertz) represent different activity. The bandwidth between 1 and 4 Hz is termed Delta, the frequency of sleep. Alpha (8-12 Hz) represents wakeful relaxation. Theta (4-8 Hz) is the “subconscious” and creative bridge between Delta and Alpha, sleeping and waking. SMR (12-15 Hz) indicates engagement with the world, and Beta (15-35 Hz) hyperfocus. The even faster Gamma frequencies are associated with peak performance states. 

Every frequency has its use, but certain signatures suggest different clinical diagnoses. With ADHD, for example, we tend to see, at the frontal lobes, elevated Theta and suppressed Beta. This pattern is present in depression as well, but there we also frequently see imbalances of Alpha and Theta between the hemispheres. Anxiety, OCD, and perfectionism involve too much Beta activity. Too much or too little “coherence” in firing between areas can entail migraines, memory problems, and learning disabilities. 

John Demos shows us, in his Getting Started with EEG Neurofeedback, that we can make an educated guess about an individual’s brain signature if we know his drug of choice. Nicotine relaxes and focuses because it increases higher frequency Alpha (10-12 Hz). Benzodiazepines increase Beta, but reduce PDR (overall processing speed as measured at the back of the scalp). Antipsychotics reduce PDR even more than benzos, but at cognitive cost. Stimulants, from caffeine to Ritalin, improve Beta, but more importantly, decrease Theta. Those who report feeling alive or awake for the first time after taking ADHD meds, describe an escape from a Theta fog. 

Mental illness, trauma, and addiction are better described as durable habits (or a loss of neuroplasticity). They are learned, but perception- and life-altering predictions. We can see their power on an EEG, but may also witness their transformation. Emotional predictions are durable for at least two reasons. First, the brain is homeostatic; it marshals or conserves energy to promote survival. Tearing up one’s predictive map is metabolically expensive, and therefore to be avoided except as a last resort (cognitive dissonance is a feature, not a bug). Second, emotional learnings are a kind of procedural memory like that used when riding a bike. I know how to minutely adjust my balance on a bicycle, but I don’t really know how I do it. If I try to think my way through it, the result will be undignified and painful. Similarly, children contort their brains and emotions to meet the rules and roles of their family, but they don’t know what they do or how they do it. This is why motor and emotional learnings are called “implicit memory.”

We should expect emotional learnings about motivation to be especially helpful or harmful given the general-purpose nature of the SEEKING system. Drugs, including psychiatric medications, can counteract our learned brain patterning, but the fairly recent discovery of memory reconsolidation suggests more hopeful interventions. Memory reconsolidation is the brain’s in-built method to change its habits: if an implicit memory is rendered explicit, and its prediction repeatedly demonstrated to be in error, the brain rearranges itself, and the unthinkable becomes effortless.