How to Calm an Overstimulated Brain According to Scientific Research
Everything from endless doomscrolling on constantly pinging smartphones to the refined sugar in our diets is engineered to manipulate our core biological instincts, and this pervasive manipulation is making us increasingly unwell. Bestselling author and scientist Nicklas Brendborg provides a detailed explanation to journalist Helen Coffey about how individuals can reclaim control over their brains and counteract these modern pressures.
The Concept of Supernormal Stimuli and Biological Hijacking
If you have ever attempted a calorie-controlled diet or embarked on a digital detox, you have likely experienced the intense struggle between willpower and temptation. Mainstream culture often frames this surrender to basic impulses as personal weakness, suggesting we should possess enough self-control to ignore our phones or refuse a sweet treat. However, what if our difficulty in stopping harmful behaviours is not actually our fault? What if our fundamental biological instincts are being systematically exploited?
This is the conclusion reached by Nicklas Brendborg, a Danish biotech researcher. His forthcoming book, Super Stimulated, delves into the power of what are termed supernormal stimuli or superstimuli. These are exaggerated versions of what animals naturally find attractive, essentially a stimulus that is bigger, brighter, or stronger than the naturally occurring option. The term originated with Dutch scientist Nikolaas Tinbergen, who discovered through bird experiments that birds would choose to sit on fake, brightly coloured, oversized eggs over their own real eggs.
The reason for this behaviour is not avian stupidity or fickleness; it is biologically ingrained. Brendborg explains that birds have evolved an instinct equating bigger, brighter eggs with better health and resource access in females. In nature, biological limits prevent eggs from becoming excessively large or bright, so birds never developed a ceiling for this preference, allowing humans to trick them into making poor choices.
Modern Applications: From Food to Technology
This same biological hijacking applies directly to humans. A clear parallel is found in sweets versus natural fruits. Humans evolved a preference for sweetness over millions of years because it signalled ripe, non-poisonous food in nature. Since naturally occurring foods have inherent sweetness limits, we never evolved a ceiling for this desire. Modern technology, however, enables the creation of strawberry candies that are ten times sweeter than wild strawberries, leading many to prefer the artificial sweet over the fruit. This initiates an unhealthy cycle detrimental to health and wellbeing.
This phenomenon extends across the contemporary food landscape. Even savoury ultra-processed foods are loaded with added sugar, which our stomachs detect and crave, alongside excessive salt and saturated fat, all targeting evolved tastes. Essentially, our food is designed to promote overeating, contributing significantly to the worsening obesity crisis, where two-thirds of British adults are now classified as overweight.
The problem transcends food. Other superstimuli include pornography, which amplifies natural sexual appetites; drugs, which artificially boost dopamine for temporary euphoria; and screens and smartphones, particularly with relentless news cycles causing mental overload. Smartphones and social media exploit biological imperatives, using bright colours akin to ripe berries and warping innate desires for social connection and approval by offering enhanced virtual validation through likes and view counts.
The Deliberate Design of Addiction and Mental Health Impacts
None of this occurs accidentally. Food scientists meticulously adjust recipes to maximise addictiveness, even using brain scanners on subjects eating ice cream to identify formulas that best activate brain reward centres. Products are engineered to delay satiety, encouraging overconsumption without fullness. Similarly, big tech companies analyse vast data from phones to constantly refine apps for compulsiveness, making the struggle against unhealthy behaviours an uneven battle against well-funded, intelligent systems.
This manipulation has severe mental health consequences. Excessive phone use correlates with rising loneliness and mental health issues. Algorithms consistently showcase superior individuals, fostering negative social comparisons and feelings of inferiority. Brendborg emphasises that recognising this engineered manipulation allows us to stop self-blame for perceived weaknesses.
Practical Strategies to Reclaim Control and Improve Wellbeing
Despite the challenges, we can fight back effectively. Overconsumption of salty and sugary foods desensitises our palates, requiring ever-increasing amounts for the same pleasure. However, we can resensitise them; studies show that reducing sugar intake makes desserts taste 40 percent sweeter after three months, making natural berries seem sweeter and superstimuli overly sickly.
Brendborg recommends making diets as boring as possible, as variety strongly correlates with overeating. Boredom is key to countering most superstimuli. For phones, simple hacks like switching screens to greyscale or using apps that replace icons with text lists can reduce excitement. Keeping phones out of bedrooms and using traditional alarm clocks also helps.
Deleting social media from smartphones is a straightforward solution, or implementing the nuclear option of having a functional kale phone for essentials and a separate cocaine phone for entertainment kept at home. Embracing boredom may seem unappealing, but it could be crucial for achieving a healthier, happier life. As Brendborg's insights reveal, understanding and mitigating these supernormal stimuli is essential for modern mental wellbeing.
