Our cognition is shaped by the environment it operates in
Today, more and more thoughts, decisions, and interpretations occur in interplay with AI, algorithms, and optimized interfaces. This not only changes our behavior but also reshapes the structure of the brain.
Research shows that the brain can begin to reorganize after just one week of new stimulation, and that both working memory and motor training lead to measurable changes within four to eight weeks. At the same time, studies have linked long-term overtime to negative effects on executive brain function.
This article examines what the brain is exposed to in today's cognitive landscape, the biological changes that may occur, and why this affects our ability to think clearly, much sooner than we might expect.
Systems without interpretive space
We have built systems that reward engagement, but forgotten that engagement requires interpretation. When feedback loops are driven by optimized interfaces and instant responses, the space where meaning is formed disappears.
In the article Systems for Engagement Require Structures for Interpretation, we describe how digital environments reduce our capacity to process what we encounter. Instead, we get stuck in reaction.
Example: When a user receives AI-generated answers directly in a search field, the likelihood of opening and comparing multiple sources drops. What gets reinforced is the most familiar response.
In parallel, AI interfaces often reinforce what we already believe. We input our patterns and receive a synthetic sense of certainty—filtered, polished, and returned as truth. Read: Synthetic Safety: When AI Confirmation Logic Shapes Cognition
The biological consequence of not thinking
When we no longer need to hold a thought, follow a line of reasoning, or remain in complexity, something happens in the brain. It begins to adapt.
Synaptic pruning means that unused neural connections disappear. Dendritic atrophy occurs when neurons lose contact. Both processes are activated by cognitive underuse.
Studies have shown that after just seven days of motor training, adults exhibit changes in cortical structure. After four to eight weeks, differences in both behavior and brain structure become clear.
Conversely, recent research shows that prolonged overtime can reduce brain volume in regions responsible for executive function and emotional regulation. Read: When Our Cognitive Endurance Falters – On Mental Wear in Polarized Environments
Letting AI do the work changes us
Using AI as a support is not the problem. But automatically offloading our cognitive processes alters both thought and structure.
Read: What Happens to the Brain When AI Does the Work?
Every time you let a system make a decision for you without reflection, cognitive outsourcing occurs. Over time, this changes not only how you think—but what you believe is possible to think.
This is reinforced by the fact that new language models are often trained on their own output. We enter a circular feedback loop: we affirm the model, and the model affirms our previous patterns.
Further reading
– When AI Writes the World: Risks of Next-Gen Models Trained on Their Own Reflections
The following articles are currently available in Swedish, with English translations coming soon:
– Cognitive Integrity and the Silent Reshaping of Our Thinking
– Cognitive Integrity: A Systemic Requirement in the Information Age
What we risk losing
We are building systems that react faster than we can think. We outsource interpretation, optimize away friction, and train the model on ourselves.
What happens to the human encounter in such a system? What happens to what requires uncertainty, interpretation, and delay?
Read: On the Limits of Knowledge and the Human Encounter
What if it has already begun
The shift is not ahead of us. It’s already happening, in our brains, in our choices, in every moment we let a system take over what once required our own effort.
What reshapes our cognition is not future technology, but our current use of it. And it happens fast. Studies show that the brain can begin to reconfigure after just one week of new stimulation, or the lack of it.
Before you outsource the proces, engage your own circuitry. Your brain isn’t just a recipient of output. It’s a generative system.
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Resist instant conclusions.
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Reconstruct the reasoning behind the result.
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Articulate complexity in your own terms.
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Allow ambiguity to stay unresolved, even just for a moment.
Let your brain participate in the process. Give it time to think for itself. Develop your complex thoughts.
So you don’t lose what makes you more than just a system that responds.
Text: Katri Lindgren Part of the series: Metacognitive Reflections
References
Scholz, J., Klein, M. C., Behrens, T. E. J., & Johansen-Berg, H. (2009). Training induces changes in white-matter architecture. Cerebral Cortex, 17(1), 205–210. https://academic.oup.com/cercor/article/17/1/205/285626
Tavor, I., Jones, O. P., Mars, R. B., Smith, S. M., & Behrens, T. E. J. (2020). Short-term plasticity in the human brain during motor skill learning. NeuroImage, 220. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6866965/
Yang, Z., Fan, L., Li, X., Jiang, T., & Liu, H. (2024). Neuroplastic effects of working memory training: Multimodal imaging evidence. NeuroImage. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1053811924002829
Kim, H., Lee, H., & Cho, Y. (2024). Association between overtime work and structural brain changes: A pilot study. Neurobiology of Stress. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40360285/
