Anticipation

Edited excerpt from: Resilient Living 2022

Autumn is nearly here… What do you anticipate — Are you excited for the next season or dreading the end of Summer? What plans are you making?

We don’t often think about anticipation as anything special, but we use this brain capacity all the time to predict the future. Our brains analyze A LOT of information to anticipate what might happen next, so even though it doesn’t seem like much, it is! And how we anticipate the future influences how we move forward in life.

Resilient minds do more with anticipation than worry or dream… They accurately predict different possibilities to take their best, next step. So, they anticipate with purpose. This helps them avoid feeling anxious or stuck, to keep moving forward well. 

So, for this month, I’m sharing findings from 2 studies + activities to shine a light on how you use anticipation & its impact on your resilience. 

Brain & Body Wellness

Our brains need energy to function. Anticipation needs it, too.  So, a group of researchers used soccer to study how fatigue affects our ability to predict what might happen next (Alder et al., 2021). Here’s how:

Sixteen soccer players watched a film that had 20 brief, critical moments of soccer play from different matches (they saw the part immediately before a particular move and then predicted what would happened next). Across 4 conditions they made predictions wearing an eye-tracking device:

  • Rest (watching only)

 

  • Physical Exertion (watching after 30 minutes of treadmill running that mimicked soccer play)

 

  • Mental Exertion (watching after 40 minutes of a brain-draining Stroop task)

 

  • Physical + Mental exertion (40 minutes of running + the Stroop task).

 

The soccer players also rated their effort after each condition to indicate how fatigued it made them.

The researchers found:

The soccer players made less accurate predictions after experiencing more exertion, especially when physically + mentally fatigued.  AND as they became more drained, they scanned the field more to help them better anticipate what might happen next. BUT instead of helping, the extra (sometimes irrelevant) information made their predictions less accurate. Their minds became cluttered with unimportant details that got in the way of their correct anticipation of what might happen next.

The big idea:

As the soccer players’ fatigue increased, their brains searched for extra information to bolster their anticipation (by scanning the field more). But this didn’t improve their predictions, it made them worse. Their drained brains couldn’t filter out the irrelevant information, which made their thinking less accurate.

Soooooo… When anticipating the future, it’s best to use a refreshed mind (take a quick brain break, if needed)! Otherwise, our predictions may be less accurate. Our tired brains may overlook important details and get hung-up on irrelevant (or unhelpful) ones.

In Our World

Anticipation can also aid social bonding through brain synchronization (Peng et al., 2019)! Here’s how:

Thirty-four females were partnered in a brainwave study that involved fingers getting shocked. Each person wore a ring that zapped her finger with a low or high intensity shock. Both partners’ brain waves  were EEG-recorded across 40 trials.

To encourage anticipation, before each trial began, both partners were warned about who would get zapped and how intense the shock would be.

After each finger zap, partners rated the shock’s intensity using a 0 – 10 scale (based on what they felt OR what they thought their partner felt). They couldn’t hear, see, or feel each other, but the zapped person’s shock rating was displayed so they knew what each other was experiencing. They both also rated how unpleasant the experience was, to help the researchers see if any changes in empathy occurred.

The researchers found:
  • Both partners had increased brain wave activity (in the sensori-motor areas studied) when the high-intensity shocks were anticipated, no matter who was anticipated to receive them.

 

  • Partners’ brain waves were the most synchronized when high-intensity shocks were anticipated.
 
  • Empathy was highest when partners’ brain waves were highly synchronized. 
The big idea:

Our brains are naturally wired to connect when a threat is anticipated. Empathy emerges when brainwaves are synchronized, enabling a shared understanding of its potential impact.  The next time your child or co-worker shares a future fear  OR you want to be heard with compassion, remember the importance of brainwave synchrony. It’s the invisible glue that creates shared anticipation (connection) and empathy between two people.

Try This!

Consider This!

If we’re not careful, anticipation can lead to stressful anxiety about the future. Below are some questions we can ask yourselves to challenge unhelpful worries and think  more resiliently (Edelman, 2007):

 

  • What evidence do I have to support this worrisome prediction?

 

  • What’s the worst thing (realistically) that can happen?

 

  • What is the best thing that can happen?

 

  • What is most likely to happen?

 

By questioning the fear, we can create more balanced thinking. We help the brain consider other possibilities beyond a threatening outcome (it’s wired to think negatively for protection, but those aren’t the only options!). Taking time to think through the answers allows alternatives to catch up &  broaden our mental forecast! 🙂

Reflect on these quotes about anticipation:

 

“We cannot feel good about an imaginary future

when

we are busy feeling bad about an actual present.”

(Daniel Gilbert)

******

“Life can seem like a gloomy wait in the thick of black shadows.

And still

there are those who smile at the darkness,

anticipating

the beauty of an eventual sunrise.”

(Richelle E. Goodrich)

So, for this month, what are you anticipating AND how is your anticipation helping or hindering your resilience? Use it as a tool to move forward well.

References

Alder, D., Broadbent, D. P., & Poolton, J. (2021). The combination of physical and mental load exacerbates the negative effect of each on the capability of skilled soccer players to anticipate action. Journal of Sports Sciences, 39(9), 1030-1038.

 

Peng, W., Huang, X., Liu, Y., & Cui, F. (2019). Predictability modulates the anticipation and perception of pain in both self and others. Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, 14(7), 747-757.

 

Consider This! quotes found @ https://www.brainyquote.com