In today’s column, I explore the dreary and potentially imperiling emergence of brain fog.
Brain fog is a trending topic. You’ve undoubtedly heard the now-popular phrase or possibly used it yourself. The idea behind brain fog is that sometimes people will seemingly be unable to think clearly, as though their mind is shrouded in a dense or foggy atmosphere. Thoughts get jammed up and it becomes tedious and a hardship to put together a cogent semblance of thinking.
Of the potential ways to deal with brain fog, here’s one that you might not have previously considered. Surprisingly, it turns out that generative AI and large language models (LLMs) can be useful in detecting and resolving human brain fog. Please be aware that AI isn’t a grand solution for overcoming this mind-blocking malady and is merely one of many options that ought to be pursued when confronting brain fog.
Let’s talk about it.
This analysis of an innovative proposition is part of my ongoing Forbes.com column coverage on the latest in AI including identifying and explaining various impactful AI complexities (see the link here). In addition, for my comprehensive analysis of how AI is being used specifically in medical and healthcare applications, such as for mental health guidance, overall cognitive therapy, and mind-improving care, see the link here.
What’s The Deal About Brain Fog
A study on brain fog that was published in a prestigious journal on neurology and psychiatry aimed to ascertain what people generally mean when referring to brain fog. There isn’t an across-the-board accepted standard per se, and the catchphrase is used in widely varying ways.
The study was entitled “What Is Brain Fog?” by Laura McWhirter, Heather Smyth, Ingrid Hoeritzauer, Anna Couturier, Jon Stone, and Alan Carlson, Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery & Psychiatry, 2023, and made these salient points (excerpts):
- “The term ‘brain fog’ is increasingly used colloquially to describe difficulties in the cognitive realm.
- “But what is brain fog? What sort of experiences do people talk about when they talk about brain fog? And, in turn, what might this tell us about potential underlying pathophysiological mechanisms?”
- “This study examined first-person descriptions in order to better understand the phenomenology of brain fog.”
- “Brain fog is used to describe heterogeneous experiences, including dissociation, fatigue, forgetfulness, and excessive cognitive effort, and in association with a range of illnesses, drugs, and behaviors.”
- “Encouraging detailed descriptions of these experiences will help us better understand pathophysiological mechanisms underlying cognitive symptoms in health and disease.”
The upshot is that brain fog is typically associated with mental cloudiness.
People report that they cannot focus their minds, they cannot carry out mental feats of logic, they cannot remember things and otherwise indicate that they just can’t seem to make their brain operate as it normally has.
The degree of brain fog varies tremendously. One variation has to do with how long brain fog seems to last. It can be for a few seconds. It can be for hours at a stretch. Sometimes brain fog might last for days, weeks, or months. Another form of variation is how much it impacts your mind. Brain fog might be a pittance of cloudiness and barely gets in your way. Others might say that brain fog completely engulfs their mind and makes them essentially incapable of doing any outright thinking.
The causes of brain fog are equally varied.
Generally, there are three major categories of culprits. First, the underlying driver might be something physical in your body or brain. Second, the aspect might be principally a psychological one. Third, it could be that lifestyle factors are at play, impacting you both physically and mentally.
On the physical side, fluctuations in hormones could be part of the brain fog instigation, as could be chronic illnesses, inflammation, etc. Psychologically you might be under great stress, perhaps you aren’t getting sufficient sleep, or maybe you are encountering anxiety and depression. Your diet might be involved. Maybe you are dehydrated and lack sufficient water.
On and on the list goes.
Generative AI Enters Into The Fogginess Clearing
Before I get into the use of generative AI for aiding brain fog unraveling, make sure that if you are experiencing brain fog of any substantive caliber you seek out suitable professional diagnosis or treatment. See your regular physician or confer with a mental health therapist. The key is don’t fall for those zany remedies that you might find on the Internet. There are a lot of wild suggestions online, some of which are bound to do more harm than good.
Be wary.
Shifting into AI mode, you can readily make use of generative AI to aid in your brain fog considerations. All you need to do is create an account in any reputable generative AI app, including the major ones such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT or GPT-4o, Anthropic Claude, Google Gemini, Meta Llama, Microsoft Copilot, and others.
I logged into my favored generative AI app and pretended that my mind was a bit cloudy.
Let’s see what transpired.
- My entered prompt: “I’ve been feeling really out of it lately. I can’t focus on my work, and I keep forgetting things that I normally wouldn’t forget. What might this be?”
- Generative AI response: “It’s possible that what you’re experiencing might be described as brain fog — a general term for mental cloudiness or lack of clarity. To better understand your situation, can I ask you a few questions?
- My entered prompt: “Yes, go ahead.”
You can plainly see that the generative AI right away landed on the possibility of brain fog. I’m not suggesting that AI would always immediately go down that route. There is a solid chance that the AI will fish around for further details and might come up with some other considerations.
In any case, the example demonstrates that generative AI can be used to potentially diagnose brain fog.
Will the AI necessarily be correct in its diagnosis?
Nope.
Don’t assume that AI is somehow perfect in what it does. Modern-day generative AI is known for making errors, including generating falsehoods that are referred to as AI hallucinations (see my coverage about AI hallucinations, including what they are and how to avoid them, at the link here).
If AI says or suggests that you might have brain fog, give the assertion a moment of reflection but do not accept the proclamations of AI as golden.
Generative AI Asks Questions And Gives Answers
I continued my interaction with generative AI.
One side note is that oftentimes people tend to use generative AI on a one-and-done basis. Here’s what that means. Someone asks a question of the AI, gets an answer, and proceeds to log out of the AI. That’s kind of sad and missing the boat use of generative AI.
You see, the beauty and amazing element of generative AI is that you can carry on conversations. Rather than doing a one-and-done, you are more apt to gain value from AI by engaging in an interactive dialogue. I give various prompting tips and recommendations about this activity at the link here.
Here’s what happened with my discussion on the diagnosed potential of brain fog.
- Generative AI response: “I have several questions and will list them all at once. We can go through them one at a time or you can provide answers about all of them. Have you noticed changes in your sleep patterns? Are you feeling stressed lately? How’s your diet? Are you avoiding too much sugar or caffeine? Have you recently started any new medications? Do you have any medical conditions that might affect your energy or focus?”
- My entered prompt: “I haven’t been sleeping well for a couple of weeks, and work stress is through the roof. My diet isn’t great either, mainly lots of coffee and fast food because I’m so busy. No medications or illnesses.”
- Generative AI response: “Sleep deprivation, high stress, and a poor diet can all contribute to brain fog. Here’s what you could try to start improving your mental clarity. Aim for 7–9 hours of sleep a night. Create a bedtime routine. Set aside 15 minutes daily for relaxation techniques. Consider breaking your workload into smaller, manageable chunks. Incorporate more whole foods into your diet. Cut back on caffeine. Those are some ideas. Let me know if you’d like more details on any of those recommendations.”
The conversation is a bit compressed, artificially so.
I did this to be able to quickly illustrate to you what occurs in a brain fog discussion context. Most of the time, the AI would ask a question, you would answer, and the AI would proceed to the next question. This would normally be an extensive back-and-forth dialogue. Here, I got all the questions at once and answered them all at once.
After analyzing my answers, the AI offered various recommendations for clearing up my potential brain fog.
The good news is that the recommendations seem reasonable and sensible. According to the AI, I ought to sleep more; I should create a bedtime routine, and I might want to practice relaxation techniques. All in all, nothing seems untoward or controversial. I mention this due to always needing to double-check whatever the AI emits.
Keep The Dialogue Going As Desired Or As Needed
You can readily pause or stop engaging in a dialogue with AI whenever you like. Furthermore, most of the generative AI apps allow you to continue a previously paused or stopped dialogue. This allows you to go away, do other things, and come back to discuss a topic further.
In this example, I right away told the AI that the suggested steps would seem feasible but that I wanted something more immediate.
Here’s what occurred.
- My entered prompt: “Your recommendations seem doable, but it will take time to do them. What can I do right away?”
- Generative AI response: “In the short term, take breaks during work to give your mind a rest, use reminders or lists to stay organized, and start with small changes, like swapping one unhealthy meal for a nutritious one or doing a 5-minute mindfulness exercise. If these adjustments don’t help after a couple of weeks, or if your symptoms worsen, it might be a good idea to consult a healthcare provider to rule out underlying medical issues.”
- My entered prompt: “Thanks for the advice! I’ll start with these changes and see how it goes.”
- Generative AI response: “Take it one step at a time, and feel free to reach out if you have more questions or need further support. You’ve got this!”
I got the AI to provide additional suggestions about coping with my alleged brain fog.
You might also have observed that the AI was upbeat and encouraged me to resolve my brain fog qualms. Some critics say that AI should just lay out facts and not sway people toward or away from whatever is being stated. In essence, the AI should exhibit emotional wording.
One notable concern about emotional wording by the AI is that doing so leads people down a false path of believing that AI is sentient. We usually expect emotional language from fellow humans. When we see the same in AI, the chance of anthropomorphizing AI is heightened. The danger there is that you then start blindly believing the AI and begin to assume that the AI can do more than it really can.
For my coverage on those types of issues about AI ethics, AI law, and societal implications, see the link here and the link here, for example.
Brain Fog Nitty-Gritty And Next Steps
A few final thoughts for now.
In addition to using generative AI to potentially gauge and aid in overcoming brain fog, you can use AI to learn about brain fog. Use prompts to ask detailed questions covering a full gamut of facets involving brain fog. As always, take whatever the AI says with a grain of salt and make sure to double-check the information that the AI provides.
If you are of a mind to think about brain fog, here is some decidedly human-derived advice around brain fog by Thomas Edison: “To do much clear thinking a person must arrange for regular periods of solitude when they can concentrate and indulge the imagination without distraction.”
It worked for Edison, so maybe try the same approach to aid in getting rid of any brain fog you might experience. All the best in keeping your mind free and clear.
