Tag Archives: neuroscience

Mar 3 2025

PeggyJudyTime bonus preview

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Mind Magic: The Neuroscience of Manifestation and

How it Changes Everything

(with liberal editing by P&J so it won’t mess your mind with details)

“Have you ever rolled your eyes at someone talking about manifestation?

Unlike the vague “think positive thoughts” advice that floods social media, Jame’s Doty’s* approach bridges the gap between mystical manifestation and cognitive neuroscience.

The Science Behind the “Magic”

“We can now speak about manifestation in terms of cognitive neuroscience and the function of large-scale brain networks.”

“Value tagging”

This is your brain’s method for deciding what gets deeply imprinted in your subconscious. When you visualize goals while experiencing positive emotions, your brain’s reward system gets activated, making those goals more likely to materialize

Here’s an example of how it can work:. Each day

  • Write down your intentions

  • Visualize new experiences that reinforce how these intentions may play out.

“Having clear intentions makes you spot opportunities that might have been missed before. “It’s like turning on a flashlight in a dim room – suddenly, you see what was there all along. This heightened level of consciousness can help you make better decisions that align with your envisioned destiny. It also guides you to say “no” to things that do not align with my intentions”

  • Keep visual reminders in your home or workspace

  • Maintain a separate journal just for tracking these intentions and the “coincidences” that follow

Doty outlines a practical approach to manifestation:

  1. “Manifesting is essentially the process of intentionally embedding thoughts and images of the life we desire into the subconscious.”

  2. “We can now speak about manifestation in terms of cognitive neuroscience and the function of large-scale brain networks.”

  3. “To manifest consciously, we must learn how to reclaim and direct the power of our attention and understand the physiological mechanisms that allow us to direct that attention, as well as the obstacles and false beliefs that limit our power to do so.”

  4. “The way our goals get embedded is through a process called value tagging, the brain’s way of deciding what is significant enough to be imprinted at the deepest levels of the subconscious.”

  5. “When we practice visualization, we conjure powerful positive emotions, and these cue the selective attention system to tag the goals we desire as highly valuable and associate them with our reward system.

*James Doty M.D. is a Stanford neurosurgeon, neuroscientist, compassion researcher, inventor, entrepreneur, NY Times bestselling author and philanthropist.Doty grounds us in the practices that change our brain structures: attention, meditation, visualization, and compassion. This mind magic allows us to move through the world in ways that help us see clearly—reclaiming our agency, realizing our dreams, and reaching out to help others along the path.

“Where previous works about manifestation have focused narrowly on outward success and individual benefit, Mind Magic delivers an openhearted call to make manifestation part of a deeper contribution to healing the problems we face today.”

https://jamesgray.substack.com/p/mind-magic?utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web

Jan 31 2019

Our Inspiration – Maui and the Healing Power of the Brain

Anyone who has ever had a pet or watched wild critters knows animals are inspirational (I’m told there are even people who find reptiles, insects and other vermin fascinating – myself . . . I prefer mammals . . . but who’s to say . . .).

I’ve had a horse, Misty, dogs and cats.  My last kitty Maui, long after his passing, has been particularly inspirational:

  • Maui inspired me to write his story as a book to help children know that they too can flourish with patience and persistence.
  • Maui’s story is proof the brain, YOURS and mine, is capable of “rewiring” and “repatterning”. 

To read Maui’s story click here

  • Maui inspired Judy and I to create MAXyourMIND (formerly Catnipblog) to share neuroscience research and how we can all live better, healthier lives harnessing the power of our own minds.

Maui was part Siamese and lived up to the breed’s reputation of being intelligent, playful, social and quite mischievous.  

Maui

I named him for the jokester god of the Hawaiian islands. What happened to him was no joke.

When Maui was 11 years old, he had a  blocked ureter.  The treating vet told me Maui would not live.  I brought him home and helplessly watched Maui do nothing but lay on the floor with his chin on his favorite water bowl.  He didn’t eat for days and his back legs were weak.
One day Maui couldn’t move his back legs at all. The vet had neglected to tell me that cats not eating for 3 days or more can lead to heart problems which can result in a clot that blocks the femoral artery. The blockage causes the back legs to not function.  A permanent condition.

 The vet repeated Maui could die at any time and suggested putting him down. I was distraught.

Hope against hope, I took Maui home and helplessly watched him drag around with his two front legs.  It took him one human year or 7 cat years to rewire his brain and regain use of his back legs.

Maui taught me first hand about persistence, resiliency and how with patience the brain can be retrained  . . .  and the paws will follow.

For Maui and His Back Legs book, click here

Our human brains, too, have incredible plasticity.  Maximize aspects of your life by focusing on what you want and minimize what doesn’t support your wants and needs.

The old sayings “Practice Makes Perfect” and “The Power of Positive Thinking” have been proven accurate through scientific research . . . and Maui.

Peggy

 

 

 

Aug 15 2018

I remember I don’t remember being hung-over

I have little, VERY little, memories of my childhood or adolescence – or adulthood for that matter.  It concerned me when a therapist colleague said “not remembering” was an indication of repressed memory probably of horrible childhood trauma.  Ai yiiii yiiiiii.  Maybe I was beaten, or worse, and all these years believing I had nice parents.

I told a psychiatrist friend about my memory “affliction”thinking he would suggest decades of psycho-analysis at best and in-patient treatment at worst.  He looked passively at me and without the slightest hesitation said, “All that indicates is your childhood was boring.”

This is one of my aha moments that I DO remember and spurred me to investigate the neuro-biology of emotion.  What does that have to do with hang-over?  Read on!

Hung Over by Peggy

Excerpts from:

You already know without a doubt that most of your memories are ones that were highly emotional experiences.

“Emotional experiences can induce physiological and internal brain states that persist for long periods of time after the emotional events have ended, a team of New York University scientists has found. This study, which appears in the journal Nature Neuroscience,also shows that this emotional “hangover” influences how we attend to and remember future experiences.”

“How we remember events is not just a consequence of the external world we experience, but is also strongly influenced by our internal states–and these internal states can persist and color future experiences,”explains Lila Davachi, an associate professor in NYU’s Department of Psychology and Center for Neural Science and senior author of the study.”

“‘Emotion’ is a state of mind, . . . findings make clear that our cognition is highly influenced by preceding experiences and, specifically, that emotional brain states can persist for long periods of time.”’

” . . . data showed that the brain states associated with emotional experiences carried over for 20 to 30 minutes and influenced the way the subjects processed and remembered future experiences that are not emotional.”

“We see that memory for non-emotional experiences is better if they are encountered after an emotional event,” observes Davachi.

I’m so relieved!  Not only wasn’t I beaten . . . or worse . . .  the biggest hang-over I’ve experienced was the result of my exceptionally boring life.

(jw)

Initially posted on CATNIPblog.com

*To read the entire article, who the authors are and the research behind it click HERE.

Jan 9 2017

Blame game: roosters, virus and my dorsolateral prefrontal cortex

It’s the Year of the Rooster – I was born under the Chinese sign of the Rooster.  Always thought it to be a curse I was born under a sign that wasn’t fertile enough to lay an egg or two.

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According to my friend Sharon Bonin-Pratt (whose last post inspired this post) People born under the sign of the Rooster are hardworking, funny, trustworthy and talented.

I’m not hardworking, at times am funny, almost always trustworthy, and have latent talents that get laid but never hatched.

This Rooster year started off with a cold virus that delights roaming the cozy recesses of my sinus passages.   It’s day 11 (but who’s counting).  I’ve been a total slug – no energy, no resolve which gives me a perfect excuse for not making New Years’ resolutions.

(The truth be told, I never make resolutions for the New Year – learned long ago that when I inevitably fail to keep a resolution it leads to feeling badly.)  

What energy I have has been directed toward resolving to be more creative this year. 

In preparation I’ve been obsessively reading everything I can find on how to break my creative block and stop procrastinating.

Most everything I read about procrastination indicates that we procrastinate when we don’t want to do something that is not enjoyable.   Being a master procrastinator I also procrastinate with things that bring me enjoyment.

For inspiration, I read blogs of people who write, read or draw daily – all things which bring me enjoyment.  I feel badly I’m not like them  which leads me to read articles on procrastination and meeting goals (I know how to set them, just not meet them).

Finally the article below has liberated me! I know what to blame:

My dorsolateral prefrontal cortex is lazy . . . not me.

images

Creative block here’s neuroscience how to fix it.

by Elizabeth Shockman

“What is it exactly that helps us be creative? What fuels us when we get into an especially productive work flow? What makes the hours disappear when our brains focus on a task?”

“What, in other words, is happening in our brains when we’re being creative?”

“Cognitive neuroscientist Heather Berlin at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai says we know a little bit about what’s going on. Berlin studies the neuroscience of imagination, creativity and improvisation. And for those people who might be facing writer’s block? “There’s really no prescribed medication,” Berlin says. “There is no real magic pill.”’

Instead, she says, creativity depends on which part of the brain you might be using.

“When [people] are improvising, there tends to be a pattern of activation where they have decreased activation in a part of the brain called the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex,” Berlin says. “And that part of the brain has to do with your sense of self, your sort of inner critic, making sure that your behavior conforms to social norms.”

“Translation? When you’re at your most creative, “basically you lose your sense of self,” Berlin says. “You kind of release your inhibition. The second you become too self-aware that comes back online and you lose that flow state.”’

“In addition to losing inhibitions, people who are in a creative state have increased activation in a part of the brain called the medial prefrontal cortex, which has to do with the internal generation of ideas. In other words, the ideas are coming from within.”

“Some people, when they’re in the flow state … a lot of people say ‘It feels like it’s flowing through me. It’s coming from someplace else,’ you know, ‘It’s coming so naturally I don’t even have to think about it,’” Berlin says. “It’s called liberation without attention. You can only keep a certain number of variables in mind when you’re thinking about something consciously. But if you let it go, you actually can come to a greater understanding because the unconscious can do much more complex processing.”

“For those suffering from creative block, Berlin has some practical advice:”

“You have to take in all the information and then go for a walk,” Berlin says. “Go out, do something else. Because those people who sit there and just obsess over thinking about it too much, using your prefrontal cortex you’re actually limiting yourself. So letting it go can actually help you get over, let’s say a writer’s block or a creative block.”

I’d go for a walk but I have a cold.  Maybe some other time . . .

 

 

Jul 22 2015

If you want to remember – Forgeta bout it!

I’m so smart.  I’ve been employing this strategy for years!  The only problem is when I remember what I forgot, I forget why I needed to remember what I forgot to remember.

gettyimages-475158629edit_slide-4874e948fe7a268e4ff21523af7a56cdfcc5dfe9-s800-c85

Leigh Wells/Ikon Images/Getty Images

Trying To Remember Multiple Things May Be The Best Way To Forget Them

by CHRIS BENDEREV

“A new scientific model of forgetting is taking shape, which suggests keeping multiple memories or tasks in mind simultaneously can actually erode them.”

“Neuroscientists already knew that memories can interfere with and weaken each other while they are locked away in the recesses of long-term memory. But this new model speaks to what happens when multiple memories are coexisting front and center in our minds, in a place called “working memory.”‘
“It argues that when we let multiple memories come to mind simultaneously, those memories immediately lock into a fierce competition with each other.” When these memories are tightly competing for our attention the brain steps in and actually modifies those memories,” says Jarrod Lewis-Peacock, a neuroscientist at UT Austin.”

“The brain crowns winners and losers. If you ended up remembering the milk and forgetting the phone call, your brain strengthens your memory for getting milk and weakens the one for phoning your friend back, so it will be easier to choose next time you’re faced with that dilemma.”

It’s a strain on my brain

to remember

whether it’s June, July or December

Multiple memories,

lots of tasks

my brain crowns the winner

which I reward with dinner

Eats I never forget

Food being a permanent mind set

P.S. I forgot to tell you that you can read the entire article by clicking on the title above.

 

 

 

 

Apr 22 2015

“S” is for Stroke of Insight

“One morning, a blood vessel in Jill Bolte Taylor’s brain exploded. As a brain scientist, she realized she had a ringside seat to her own stroke. She watched as her brain functions shut down one by one: motion, speech, memory, self-awareness  . . . ”

One of the best TEDTalks EVER!  VIVID, moving.

Brain researcher Jill Bolte Taylor studied her own stroke as it happened.

“How many brain scientists have been able to study the brain from the inside out? I’ve gotten as much out of this experience of losing my left mind as I have in my entire academic career.” — Jill Bolte Taylor

“Amazed to find herself alive, Taylor spent eight years recovering her ability to think, walk and talk. She has become a spokesperson for stroke recovery and for the possibility of coming back from brain injury stronger than before. In her case, although the stroke damaged the left side of her brain, her recovery unleashed a torrent of creative energy from her right. From her home base in Indiana, she now travels the country on behalf of the Harvard Brain Bank as the “Singin’ Scientist.”

 

Feb 19 2015

Highjacked

I eat all the leftovers in the refrigerator.  I make a batch of brownies from a mix and eat the batter slowly, very slowly, breathing in the chocolately aroma, feeling the slightly gritty grains of batter between my tongue and roof of my mouth.  Spoonful by spoonful the intense sweetness permeates every sense of my being.  I eat all the batter because turning on the oven is too complicated and not understanding what temperature or how long they need to bake too dangerous.

I search all the kitchen cupboards. The only thing left that is edible is a box of Saltine crackers and ketchup, necessities of life when you are a student and working your way through college.  Intently focused, I carefully break the crackers apart into their neat little squares and slowly, carefully arrange them on a plate.  It takes time to  decorate them with swirls and globs of ketchup before I carefully spread the red with the tines of a fork marveling at the artistic lines I’m creating in the ketchup.

tumblr_low7rldARv1qhr40c“Taste this – they’re delicious, like the best pizza ever.” I walk slowly, carefully balancing the plate, into the living room toward my roommate Shelly who’s sitting on our Salvation Army couch, her feet propped up on the wooden spool coffee table that once held wire cable for telephone repair and abandoned on a Berkeley street corner. 

“Taste these – just like pizza, they are delicious,” I repeat, shoving the plate into Shelley’s line of vision as she blankly stares in the direction of the orange paper-mache flower in the milk carton that decorates the wooden spool.   Mechanically, and without the enthusiasm I think warranted, she chews slowly, very slowly, silently, reflectively.  Not waiting for her response I eat the rest of the pizza crackers while carrying the plate back to the kitchen to make more.

gourmet pizza ingredients

gourmet pizza ingredients

How Marijuana Highjacks Your Brain To Give You The Munchies

by Angus Chen

“Shortly after toking up, a lot of marijuana users find that there’s one burning question on their minds: “Why am I so hungry?” Researchers have been probing different parts of the brain looking for the root cause of the marijuana munchies for years. Now, a team of neuroscientists [led by Tamas Horvath at the Yale School of Medicine] report that they have stumbled onto a major clue buried in a cluster of neurons they thought was responsible for making you feel full.”

“An effect when cannibus is introduced in the brain . . . “creates a kind of runaway hungry effect. “Even if you just had dinner and you smoke the pot, all of a sudden these neurons that told you to stop eating become the drivers of hunger,” Horvath says. It’s a bit like slamming down on the brakes and finding weed has turned it into another gas pedal.

” . . .  Last year, researchers foundthat cannabinoids lit up the brain’s olfactory center, making mice more sensitive to smells. Before that, other researchers discovered cannabinoids were increasing levels of dopamine in the brain; that’s the swoon that comes with eating tasty things.”

“For anyone who’s experienced it — you realize that’s exactly what’s happening,” he [Horvath] chuckles. “You just can’t stop, no matter how much you put in your mouth.”

. . . and I might add . . .  

You just can’t stop no matter 

WHAT you put in your mouth.

To read the entire article click here

 

 

Feb 6 2015

Brain-to-brain communication has arrived.

The “stuff” of science-fiction is no longer fiction.

“You may remember neuroscientist Miguel Nicolelis — he built the brain-controlled exoskeleton that allowed a paralyzed man to kick the first ball of the 2014 World Cup. What’s he working on now? Building ways for two minds  to send messages brain to brain. Watch to the end for an experiment that, as he says, will go to “the limit of your imagination.”‘

Jan 13 2015

My bathroom mirror isn’t the only thing that’s foggy

The reason my memory isn’t as good as it used to be is because the longer I live the more data is stored so it takes longer for my brain to sort it all out – like when I walk into the bathroom, can’t remember why and leave.  

I have tens of thousands of kilobytes of bathroom memory” stored: take a shower, read a magazine, brush my teeth, get an aspirin, read another magazine, put on lipstick . . .  My brain has to search decades of stored data.  It usually finds the reason within 20 minutes or so before I embarrass myself.

A judy rat

A judy rat, young man

I was excited to read that “Researchers found they could stop normal, age-related memory loss in rats by treating them with riluzole already on the market as a treatment for ALS.

another judy rat, child

Another judy rat, little girl

By examining the neurological changes that occurred after riluzole treatment, . . . researchers “discovered one way in which the brain’s ability to reorganize itself — its neuroplasticity — can be marshaled to protect it against some of the deterioration that can accompany old age, at least in rodents,”

Another judy rat, female

Another judy rat, teen age girl

After 17 weeks of treatment, the researchers tested the rats’ spatial memory . . . and found they performed better than their untreated peers, and almost as well as young rats!!

 

Another judy rat, male

Another judy rat, old man

I’ve printed the article so I can read it the next time I’m in the bathroom and can’t remember why.

If you want a copy for your bathroom click

Existing Drug, Riluzole, may Prevent Foggy ‘Old Age’ Brain

 

 

Nov 19 2014

What Happens When Your Brain Doesn’t Sleep?

I think my brain is suffering:  Impaired Wit, Cerebral shrinkage, Eating binges, Hallucinations, Risky decisions, Anger, Lost memories, False memories, Head-in-the-clouds, slurred speech are some of the impacts from diminished or non-restorative sleep.

However, I won’t tell you which of those my brain is suffering from.  You’ll have to read my blog posts to figure it out.

I can’t read this chart.  The print is too small so click here for a larger image: What Sleep Deprivation Does to Your Brain.

How sleep impacts the brain

How sleep impacts the brain

I wonder if diminished sleep and diminished eyesight are related . . . .

Oct 19 2014

Only watch this if you sleep. On second thought – watch this if you DON’T sleep

Did you know your brain creates waste all day and gets rid of waste all night? Not enough sleep may be a key to Alzheimer’s disease research.

“The brain uses a quarter of the body’s entire energy supply, yet only accounts for about two percent of the body’s mass. So how does this unique organ receive and, perhaps more importantly, rid itself of vital nutrients? New research suggests it has to do with sleep.”

 

May 11 2014

How many times have I TOLD you to do something creative!?

I’ve reposted almost the entire NPR article for you because you might not remember how to

click here to access the URL.  You’re Welcome.

mandela 11

Detail of a Mandela, by Ida

“Brain training is big business, with computerized brain games touted as a way to help prevent memory loss. But new research shows you might be better off picking up a challenging new hobby.”

“To test this theory, Dr. Denise Park, a neuroscientist at the University of Texas at Dallas, randomly assigned 200 older people to different activities. Some learned digital photography. Another group took up quilting.”

Quilting, which requires measuring and calculating, also helped improve participants' memory.

Quilting, which requires measuring and calculating, also helped improve participants’ memory.

Courtesy of UT Dallas

“Quilting may not seem like a mentally challenging task,” Park says. “But if you’re a novice and you’re cutting out all these abstract shapes, it’s a very demanding and complex task.”

“The groups spent 15 hours a week for three months learning their new skills. They were then given memory tests and compared with several control groups.”

First Magnolia by Cathy

” First Magnolia by Cathy

‘”Rather than just comparing them to people who did nothing, we compared them to a group of people who had fun but weren’t mentally challenged as much,” Park says”.

“That “social group” did things like watch movies or reminisce about past vacations. Another control group worked quietly at home, listening to the radio or classical music or playing easy games and puzzles.”

“Park’s research, which was published in the journal Psychological Science, showed that not all activities are created equal.”

“Only people who learned a new skill had significant gains.”

‘”We found quite an improvement in memory, and we found that when we tested our participants a year later, that was maintained,” Park says”.

“The greatest improvement was for the people who learned digital photography and Photoshop — perhaps, Park says, because it was the most difficult.”

“So how does learning a new skill help ward off dementia? By strengthening the connections between parts of your brain, says cognitive psychologist Scott Barry Kaufman. While brain games improve a limited aspect of short-term memory, Kaufman says, challenging activities strengthen entire

Icicles, by Ida

” Icicles, by Ida

networks in the brain.”

‘”It really is strengthening the connectivity between these team players of these large-scale brain networks,” he says.”

“Denise Park likens it to an orchestra.”

“Players come in and players go out,” she says. “Sometimes when something is really demanding, the whole orchestra is playing, but they’re not playing harmoniously.”

“The goal is to keep each individual player in best form, and make sure there’s coordination. And improving your own coordination, through quilting or learning to play bridge, may be a way to maintain your memory, and have a bit of fun, too.”

‘”We hope that by maintaining a very active brain, you could defer cognitive aging by a couple of years,” Park says.”

“There’s one more important thing you can do to ward off memory loss: exercise. Art Kramer, a neuroscientist at the University of Illinois, studies the impact of exercise on the brain”.

“In one study, he found that just 45 minutes of exercise three days a week actually increased the volume of the brain. Even for people who have been very sedentary, Kramer says, exercise “improves cognition and helps people perform better on things like planning, scheduling, multitasking and working memory.””

“So if you’re looking to boost memory, there’s reason to challenge both your body and your mind.”‘

I won’t say I TOLD you so . . .

Jul 19 2012

Sleeping on the Job

  1. Max’s cough is a bit better today.  No longer honking loudly like a goose and not as frequent.  He’s still not feeling very peppy and his stubbornness (don’t tell him I told you) is stronger than normal.
  2. After little sleep for the past four nights I am a bit more stubborn than usual too.
  3. Based on the study below I must make a DISCLAIMER:

To every client who saw me this week

I cannot be held accountable for anything I said as unbeknownst to me, my brain may have been asleep

even though we both thought I was awake.

by Christine Dell’Amore
National Geographic News
Published April 27, 2011

If you think you can function on minimal sleep, here’s a wake-up call: Parts of your brain may doze off even if you’re totally awake, according to a new study in rats.

Scientists observed the electrical activity of brains in rats forced to stay up longer than usual. Problem-solving brain regions fell into a kind of “local sleep”—a condition likely in sleep-deprived humans too, the study authors say.

Surprisingly, when sections of the rats’ brains entered these sleep like states, “you couldn’t tell that [the rats] are in any way in a different state of wakefulness,” said study co-author Giulio Tononi, a neuroscientist at the University of Wisconsin, Madison.

Despite these periods of local sleep, overall brain activity—and the rats’ behaviors—suggested the animals were fully awake.

This phenomenon of local sleep is “not just an interesting observation of unknown significance,” Tononi said. It “actually affects behavior—you make a mistake.”

For example, when the scientists had the rats perform a challenging task—using their paws to reach sugar pellets—the sleep-deprived animals had trouble completing it.

Sleep Allows Neurons to Reset?

Tononi and colleagues recorded the electrical activity of lab rats via electroencephalogram (EEG) sensors connected to the rodents’ heads.
As predicted, when the rats were awake, their neurons—nerve cells that collect and transmit signals in the brain—fired frequently and irregularly.

When the animals slept, their neurons fired less often, usually in a regular up-and-down pattern that manifests on the EEG as a “slow wave.” Called non-rapid eye movement, this sleep stage accounts for about 80 percent of all sleep in both rats and people.

The researchers used toys to distract the rats into staying awake for a few hours—normally “rats take lots of siestas,” Tononi noted.

The team discovered that neurons in two sections of these overtired rats’ cerebral cortexes entered a slow-wave stage that is essentially sleep.

Why Do We Sleep?

It’s unknown why parts of an awake brain nod off, though it may have something to do with why mammals sleep—still an open question, said Tononi, whose study appears tomorrow in the journal Nature. (Read about mysteries of why we sleep in National Geographic magazine.)

According to one leading theory, since neurons are constantly “recording” new information, at some point the neurons need to “turn off” in order to reset themselves and prepare to learn again.

“If this hypothesis is correct, that means that at some point [if you’re putting off sleep] you’re beginning to overwhelm your neurons—you are reaching the limit of how much input they can get.”

So the neurons “take the rest, even if they shouldn’t”—and there’s a price to pay in terms of making “stupid” errors, he said.

“Even if you may feel that you’re fit and fine and are holding up well,” he said, “some parts of your brain may not [be] … and those are the ones that make judgments and decisions.”

STUBBORN! Humph, that’s putting it mildly.

May 18 2012

How to Maintain Optimism in the Face of Reality

This was of personal (and professional) interest to me given that the last several days I wasn’t feeling very optimistic.  Seems my brain’s left inferior frontal gyrus was not gyrating.

P.s.  Be patient while the video loads.  If you don’t like what Tali says you will like how she looks (certainly not like a stereo-type neuroscientist).

“Optimism bias is the belief that the future will be better, much better, than the past or present. And most of us display this bias. Neuroscientist Tali Sharot wants to know why: What is it about our brains that makes us overestimate the positive? She explores the question in her book The Optimism Bias: A Tour of the Irrationally Positive Brain.
In the book (and a 2011 TIME magazine cover story), she reviewed findings from both social science and neuroscience that point to an interesting conclusion: “our brains aren’t just stamped by the past. They are constantly being shaped by the future.”

In her own work, she’s interested in how our natural optimism actually shapes what we remember, and her interesting range of papers encompasses behavioral research (how likely we are to misremember major events) as well as medical findings — like searching for the places in the brain where optimism lives. Sharot is a faculty member of the Department of Cognitive, Perceptual and Brain Sciences at University College London.”

Jan 16 2012

“What you pay attention to GROWS” and not just for monkeys

Dr David Bresler

Dr Marty Rossman

I’ve had the incredible fortune of studying under David Bresler  Ph.D and Marty Rossman M.D.  Both are pioneers in the field of MindBody Medicine.   They founded The Academy for Guided Imagery, a teaching academy for health care professionals to provide treatment using individualized one-on-one imagery for health and wellness.

Not only did they train me to teach Interactive Guided Imagery(sm) they introduced me to a different way of thinking and experiencing my world.

Many of you already know that I keep ranting and raving about the power of our minds and not to dwell on the negative, not to focus on what we can’t do but on what we are capable of.  SO!  When I came across this article by Dr Rossman I HAD to share!!

Shifting Your Attention Can Change Your Brain

from The Worry Solution by Martin Rossman, M.D.

“Repetitively shifting your attention to positive outcomes may actually result in growth in areas of your brain that start to do this automatically. My colleague, neuroscientist Dr. David Bresler, always says that

“what you pay attention to grows” and research proves him correct.

Neuroscience journalist Sharon Begley wrote in a 2007 Wall Street Journal article, “Attention, … seems like one of those ephemeral things that comes and goes in the mind but has no real physical presence. Yet attention can alter the layout of the brain as powerfully as a sculptor’s knife can alter a slab of stone.

Not to be confused for either Dr Bresler or Dr Rossman

” She describes an experiment at University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) in which scientists “rigged up a device that tapped monkeys’ fingers 100 minutes a day every day. As this bizarre dance was playing on their fingers, the monkeys heard sounds through headphones. Some of the monkeys were taught: Ignore the sounds and pay attention to what you feel on your fingers…Other monkeys were taught: Pay attention to the sound.”

After six weeks, the scientists compared the monkeys’ brains and found that monkeys paying attention to the taps had expanded the somatosensory parts of their brains (where they would feel touch) but the monkeys paying attention to the sounds grew new connections in the parts of the brain that process sound instead.

UCSF researcher Michael Merzenich and a colleague wrote that through choosing where we place our attention, “‘We choose and sculpt how our ever-changing minds will work, we choose who we will be the next moment in a very real sense, and these choices are left embossed in physical form on our material selves.'”

I promise I won’t say “I told you so.”