Your brain doesn’t see the world continuously. It samples it. Tiny eye movements called saccades help us focus by engaging attentional networks, including the Reticular Activating System (RAS) and the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) (Corbetta & Shulman, 2002). When predictable patterns are disrupted, dopamine signals a “prediction error”, making novelty exciting and driving attention, learning, and motivation (Schultz, 1998; Friston, 2010). We’re wired to focus on patterns and fascinated by surprises. Video: @quantumdigest