Language is not essential for the cognitive processes that underlie thought

I will add an anecdata, then ask a question.

I could enter what we all here call the "Zone" quite often when i was young (once while doing math :D). I still can, but rarely on purpose, and rarely while coding. I have a lot of experience in this state, and i can clearly say that a marker of entering the zone is that your thoughts are not "limited" by language anymore and the impression of clarity and really fast thinking. This is why i never thought that language was required for thinking.

Now the question: would it be possible to scan the brain of people while they enter the zone? I know it isn't a state you can reach on command, but isn't it worth to try? understand the mechanism of this state? And maybe understand where our thought start?

Also known as “Flow”.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flow_(psychology)

Nice idea. In the zone, I don't think about the code. I am the code and the code is me.

That is, until the code refuses to work. Then the code is a bitch and I need a break.

Makes sense. If I am the code and the code is me, and the code doesn't work, then I'm done working too.

I also wonder - is the flow state for work the same as the flow state in other domains? IE team sports flow state is very similar - actions flow smoothly and feel automatic. Flow state in cycling feels really similar, but doesn’t create the same outputs.