The gorillas that we see (or fail to see) in our field
of vision are determined by our mental models or
the hypotheses in our minds as to what exists (subjects in shirts passing a basketball . . . or something
more). Wind and Crook define mental models in
terms of cognitive neuroscience. Mental models are
internal patterns in the brain evoked by neural activity. Sensory stimuli fl ow into the cortex and evoke
internal patterns, which the brain uses to represent
the external situation. People think they see the
real world, but they actually see the neural patterns
or mental models (or structured relationships and
concepts) already in their minds. People do not see
the sensory stimuli they take in; they see the mental
models evoked by their neural activity (see generally
Freeman, 2000, 2001).
LN2
The focus of this chapter and, indeed, this
textbook, is how we can best cultivate an ability
to see health care differently without casting aside
all new ideas as preposterous, and without losing all perspective on the past and present. The
goal is to embark on a journey toward discovering a better U.S. health care system by considering
new ideas while retaining the best of the old and
present ideas.