AOPA Pilot Magazine - July 2016 - 22

LICENSE TO LEARN

Panorama and pleasure

BY ROD MACHADO

Why the view from the cockpit never gets old

ROD MACHADO

holds degrees in
aviation science
and psychology.

22 | AOPA PILOT July 2016

THERE ARE MANY WAYS to activate the pleasure center of a pilot's brain. Speak the words "Broken Hobbs
meter" or "pilot supplies, 75 percent off," and most aviators become highly aroused. Then again, a panoramic
view from the cockpit almost always stimulates a
pilot's pleasure center. Unlike the repetitive viewing
of an artistic painting, a movie, or TV show, the panoramic view is something pilots seldom tire of seeing.
After all, when was the last time you heard a pilot say,
"This view is killing me-quick, give me the Foggles"?
There's actually a scientific theory describing
why we derive pleasure from large, expansive views
of the terrain. According to neuroscientist Dr. Irving
Biederman in his 2006 article "Perceptual Pleasure
and the Brain," humans are infovores. We are naturally disposed to collect information through our
five senses, with the sense of sight absorbing the
most information. Biederman says we are biologically engineered to be infovores because it increases
our survival potential. For instance, if caveman Thog
looked around more often than Grog and spotted a
bog through the fog, he'd jog beside the bog, leaving
Grog to sink like a log.
Biederman posits that information is so critical
to our survival that we've developed a neural mechanism that rewards us for its collection. Our reward
is a release of feel-good, opioid (endorphin) molecules that bind to opiate receptors on brain cells
and modulate our pleasure/pain response to stimuli.
Biederman says the density of these opioid receptors increases along our ventral visual pathway, the
section of our brain responsible for recognizing
objects and scenes. The most dense opiate receptors are located in an area of our brain called the
parahippocampal cortex (don't poke at it with your
finger). This is where "visual information engages
our memories."
Do you see the connection here? A beautiful
view-a sight rich in new and novel information-
gives us great pleasure. Biederman suggests that
viewing something that contains a great deal of interpretable information, based on the associations we
make from memory, leads to more neural activity in
the parahippocampal cortex. That means an extra jolt
of feel-good endorphins.
A visual stimulus that provides very little information (a blank wall, for instance) produces less neural

stimulation, less activation of associations in memory, and less pleasure. A view of the Grand Canyon,
however, is rich in visual information and typically
inspires numerous memory associations. The result
is often a large release of endorphins.
"But wait," you say. "I've looked at the Grand
Canyon 10 times, and now it barely qualifies as a
respectable gorge. What's up with that?"
Think about the first time you viewed a painting by
Monet. A large number of neural cells were stimulated
by the new information on the canvas. The stimulation
was greater if the painting caused you to make many
new associations in memory. The result is a large
release of endorphins-a big jolt of feel-good molecules. But our brains are learning machines. Learning
anything means the total neurons needed to remember what we've learned decrease in number over time,
while those neurons coding what we've learned (our
memory of it) grow stronger in their connections with
other neurons. Additional viewings of the Monet,
therefore, involve less overall neural activity, which
translates into fewer endorphins being released. After
100 viewings of the Monet, you might no longer be as
awed by its beauty. Instead, you wonder why anyone
would pay so much monet to own one.
Beiderman's theory explains why pilots derive so
much pleasure from cockpit vistas. But why don't we
tire of our view from the cockpit? While Biederman
doesn't speak from the pilot's perspective, I might
posit that the view from aloft (up, down, right, and
left) is always changing and is seldom the same from
moment to moment. There's a constant flow of new
scenery and information that keeps our pleasure center stimulated. Looking out the window of an airplane
is similar to having Monet paint scenery on every wall
in your home, and then quickly repaint those walls as
you walk from room to room.
Biederman's theory of perceptual pleasure does a
lot to explain the experience most pilots have when
looking out the window during flight. Now you know
why we get high by getting high in an airplane. If,
however, you land with a big smile on your face and a
customs inspector asks, "Do you have any opiate-like
substances on your person?" please don't say, "Only
in my head."
AOPA
WEB

www.rodmachado.com

http://www.rodmachado.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of AOPA Pilot Magazine - July 2016