Cognitive Flexibility: When the Brain Returns to Rewrite Its Own Script
Cognitive Flexibility: When the Brain Returns to Rewrite Its Own Script
Based on Der-Avakian et al. (2025), “Conserved frontal neurophysiological markers of cognitive flexibility in humans and rats”
Introduction — Brain Bee First-Person Consciousness
I notice that changing my mind is never an instantaneous decision.
Before the mind declares “now I will choose something different,”
the body has already reorganized its tensions, breathing rhythm, micro-expressions, and expectations.
Flexibility does not begin in thought.
It begins in the body — and only afterward becomes a decision.
The study on cognitive flexibility confirms exactly this lived sensation:
the brain can only shift strategies when its networks recover energy, reassess the situation, return to the starting point, and reconstruct a new path.
The Study — What Did the Researchers Discover?
Der-Avakian et al. (2025) identified frontal neurophysiological markers of cognitive flexibility that are conserved across species, appearing both in:
humans
and rats
This means that the mechanism of shifting strategies is not cultural or psychological —
it is biological, ancestral, and deeply embodied.
The study shows that in order to change course, the brain must:
synchronize frontal networks
release rigidity
generate new electrical patterns
update predictions
and invest metabolic energy to let go of the previous pattern
Changing direction is expensive.
Persistence is cheaper.
That is why flexibility is difficult — even for the brain itself.
Mental Hyperspace — The Embodied Architecture of Change
In our model, the Mental Hyperspace is composed of five fundamental bodily axes:
Interoception — the sensing of internal bodily conditions and metabolic signals of energy or threat.
Proprioception — the body’s spatial map in motion, its postural axis, and its available range of action.
Learned tensions — crystallized bodily patterns accumulated over time that shape perception and behavior.
Emotion metabolization — the transformation of affective states into stable bodily configurations (feelings).
Momentary bodily adjustments — spontaneous micro-regulations that precede consciousness and prepare new perceptions.
Cognitive flexibility is the ability to move fluidly within this hyperspace.
And the study shows that such movement depends on specific frontal oscillations —
signals that allow the brain to interrupt the current mode of operation
and make room for something new.
This confirms a central principle of our model:
Cognitive flexibility is a bodily property, not an intellectual one.
Tensional Selves — Change Occurs in the Body Before the Mind
Your concept of Tensional Selves appears vividly in this study.
When I shift strategies, it is not the mind that chooses first.
It is the body that:
releases one tension,
reorganizes another,
adjusts breathing,
modifies posture,
and opens perceptual space.
Only afterward does the mind declare:
“I have changed.”
The study confirms this, showing that frontal markers shift before the conscious decision emerges.
Thus:
The decision is not the cause of change — it is the final effect of the body’s reorganization.
The Study Allows Us to Map the States of Our Model:
Zone 1 — Natural action
Moderate flexibility.
The body can adjust trajectories without conflict.Zone 2 — Openness / Fruition
Maximum flexibility.
Energy flows freely toward new paths.
The Damasian Mind operates at high creativity.Zone 3 — Constriction / Saturation
Flexibility collapses.
The body stabilizes rigid patterns, repetitive thoughts, and automatic actions.
There is no metabolic surplus to shift strategies.
The study confirms that frontal-lobe flexibility depends directly on available bodily energy.
The Damasian Mind — To Change Is to Reorganize Interoception
Flexibility emerges through a metabolic sequence:
the body detects internal tension (interoception)
adjusts posture or breathing (proprioception)
frontal networks reorganize priorities
the cognitive shift becomes possible
When this sequence does not occur, the person does not “choose” —
they simply repeat.
This reinforces your formulation:
Flexibility is anchored in bodily states, not in abstract reasoning.
Yãy Hã Miy (Maxakali Origin): Flexibility as Imitation and Re-Creation
In Yãy Hã Miy, the person:
imitates,
adjusts,
transforms,
and re-creates a new way of being.
Cognitive flexibility is the neural equivalent of this process:
the brain perceives the current pattern,
internally imitates alternative futures,
adjusts its rhythms,
and only then shifts behavior.
The recurrent frontal patterns observed in the study are the “neural imitation” of possible selves.
Human Quorum Sensing (HQS): Voting for Another Path
Cognitive flexibility depends on an internal consensus — a QSH process.
Frontal areas vote for change
Sensory areas vote for maintaining the current pattern
Limbic areas vote for the safety of habit
When metabolic energy is available, the internal QSH converges:
“Let’s change.”
When energy is low (Zone 3), the QSH collapses:
“Stay the same.”
Existential Metabolism — Change Requires Energy
Flexibility has an energetic cost.
The study shows:
High frontal energy → the brain generates new routes
Low frontal energy → the brain defaults to repetition
This is why stress, exhaustion, inflammation, or sleep deprivation make flexibility almost impossible.
The body protects itself by reducing available options.
Flexibility as Dynamic Belonging
To change strategy is the body saying:
“I can belong in another way.”
The study shows this capacity is ancestral, conserved, shared across species.
Flexibility is not just a cognitive skill —
it is the biological essence of adaptation, consciousness, and survival.
Conclusion — The Art of Rewriting One’s Own Script
Der-Avakian’s study reveals something fundamental:
Flexibility is frontal
It is metabolic
It is bodily
It is ancestral
It is shared across species
And it is the bridge between tense states and creative states
Flexibility is the doorway to Zone 2.
It is the moment where the body allows the self to reorganize.
To change is not a logical decision.
It is a bodily permission.
And once the body changes,
consciousness follows.
