Visuospatial Regulation  ·  Cognitive Interference

Still

Intrusive threat loops draw on the brain's visuospatial machinery. Give that machinery a demanding task and the loop has less to run on. This practice occupies that capacity — not by fighting the noise, but by leaving no room for it.

The mechanism

DisplaceVisuospatial working memory has finite capacity. A spatial task fills it. The threat loop has nowhere to run. CompleteEach completed row triggers a small dopamine release. Repeated enough times, the nervous system reorients from threat-scanning to task-completion. EmergeThe regulation happens without you trying. You finish and notice the noise has stopped. That is the mechanism confirming itself.

The session

3:00 Quiet

Slow-falling shapes. No time pressure. No failure state. Place pieces, complete rows, let the system do its work. The only goal is to stay with the task.

Holmes et al., Oxford 2009  ·  Molecular Psychiatry 2017

How loud is the loop right now?

QuietVery loud

Three minutes. No score. No failure. Keep your attention on the shapes and let everything else wait.