Norman Doidge

Sherrington supported the idea that all of our movement occurs in response to some stimulus and that we move, not because our brains command it, but because our spinal reflexes keep us moving. This idea was called the “reflexological theory of movement” and had come to dominate neuroscience.

Normally, when we make a mistake, three things happen. First, we get a “mistake feeling,” that nagging sense that something is wrong. Second, we become anxious, and that anxiety drives us to correct the mistake. Third, when we have corrected the mistake, an automatic gearshift in our brain allows us to move on to the next thought or activity. Then both the “mistake feeling” and the anxiety disappear.

Scans show that the more obsessive a person is, the more activated the orbital frontal cortex is.