Mental Navigation Framework Helps People Change Pathological Thinking

The stereotypical image of psychotherapy shows a diligent lying connected a couch, exploring their deepest traumas. This leads to consciousness of unconscious habits, thoughts, and drives and has agelong been a cornerstone of psychotherapy. However, the cognitive processes underlying nan caller consciousness that emerges-what's really happening successful nan patient's encephalon connected that couch-remain a mystery. 

"Part of nan problem pinch psychotherapy is that we haven't had bully insights into nan mechanistic problems," said Jaan Aru, an subordinate professor astatine nan University of Tartu, successful an question and reply pinch the Observer. "So, it's very difficult to creation a therapy." 

In a 2025 insubstantial in Perspectives connected Psychological Science, Aru and Nick Kabrel, Aru's postgraduate student astatine nan University of Zurich, wrote that becoming alert of unrecognized psychological and behavioral challenges is nan astir important system successful conversation-based psychotherapy. Furthermore, they reason that becoming alert tin beryllium champion framed arsenic a process that expands one's cognitive representation and changes nan measurement 1 navigates done nan mind. This model besides provides a testable mentation astir nan neural correlates down successful psychotherapy. 

Kabrel came to this mentation done individual experience. He noticed really a therapist's questions could punctual him to hunt done his memories and beliefs, and nan introspection was amazingly powerful. He wondered what was happening successful his brain in those moments and noticed thing that sparked his interest. 

"When I hunt done representation aliases hunt successful my mind, it ever feels arsenic if I americium navigating successful immoderate benignant of environment," he said. 

As he looked into this thought of intelligence navigation, he realized he was not alone. In a 2024 paper, he and Aru showed that patients and therapists utilized much spatial language-such arsenic "this is unexplored territory" aliases "I'm going successful circles"-during psychotherapy sessions than during mundane conversation. 

In nan caller paper, Aru and Kabrel projected a model based connected really individuals conception their soul worlds successful nan shape of cognitive maps: system representations of phenomena for illustration objects, concepts, people, and memories, and nan relationships among them. Research revealing really nan encephalon represents three-dimensional abstraction helped animate really this navigation whitethorn hap successful nan encephalon (O'Keefe and Dostrovsky, 1971; Hafting, 2005). In nan hippocampus, spot cells occurrence erstwhile animals are successful a circumstantial location, while nan entorhinal cortex's grid cells enactment for illustration a coordinate map. More caller investigation revealed these cells besides encode absurd concepts, specified arsenic time, sound, societal hierarchies, and connection meanings (MacDonald, 2011; Aronov, 2017; Park, 2021; Solomon, 2019; Viganò, 2021). 

"The encephalon is highly apt to make usage of this mapping strategy successful these different domains, too," Aru said.

This thought of intelligence navigation could beryllium a very wide model to understand reasoning and absurd cognition."

Jaan Aru, Associate Professor, University of Tartu

Framing introspection successful this measurement whitethorn thief group recognize that changing nan measurement they navigate done their thoughts could thief them retired of a pathological measurement of thinking. 

For example, personification suffering from depression might deliberation they are flawed, and immoderate relationship pinch personification other that ends negatively will beryllium interpreted arsenic their responsibility because of these perceived flaws. As they proceed to position nan world done this aforesaid antagonistic lens, this thought shape gets reinforced. It's analogous to hiking done a forest: The much a way is used, nan wider it gets and nan much apt it is to beryllium utilized again. 

But a therapist helping them spot a different interpretation-a different navigational route-may let them to reframe their thoughts and not spot everything arsenic their fault. Kabrel recommends a psychotherapist opportunity thing like, "This is nan spot wherever we are stuck. We travel backmost present each time, but we request to grow this." 

Aru thinks this thought is not conscionable for group pinch intelligence illness, but for everyone. 

"Often nan problem is that group person very constrictive maps, very constrictive ways of thinking. And it's a very wide problem," he said. "Our extremity arsenic a nine could beryllium to grow nan measurement group really think." 

On a smaller scale, nan extremity of nan insubstantial is to promote psychological scientists and neuroscientists to creation experiments to trial this caller model and nan imaginable neural correlates involved. In nan meantime, Aru knows that immoderate scientists whitethorn beryllium doubtful. 

"It's wholly understandable if location are scientists who would say, 'Oh, you're stretching it excessively far. How do you cognize that it's really related to grid cells?'" he explained. "For me, this is nan nosy point astir science. You tin effort to make these links, and sometimes these links are really there. Then abruptly we mightiness beryllium knowing thing that we antecedently didn't, and we mightiness beryllium expanding our ain intelligence maps pinch that."