Monthly Archives: August 2010

The “AHA” Brain Fix

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Neuroscientists have proposed a simple explanation for the pleasure of grasping a new concept: The brain is getting its fix. The “AHA” of comprehension triggers a biochemical cascade that rewards the brain with a shot of natural opium-like substances, said Irving Biederman of the University of Southern California. He presents his theory in an invited article in the latest issue of American Scientist.

“While you’re trying to understand a difficult theorem, it’s not fun,” said Biederman, professor of neuroscience in the USC College of Letters, Arts and Sciences.

“But once you get it, you just feel fabulous.”

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Your Brain’s Got Rhythm

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Two [neuronal] groups can only communicate efficiently with each other when their rhythms are coordinated, or synchronized.

Two [neuronal] groups can only communicate efficiently with each other when their rhythms are coordinated, or synchronized.

Scientific American, one of my favorite mags, included an article on brain rhythm. It makes perfect sense to me that our inner communication system should rely upon specific rhythms – which may explain why we like music so much – especially music with a strong beat. Here are some outtakes with my comments:

In an attempt to understand what makes us tick, researchers have been probing various regions of the brain, such as the premotor cortex, which helps make movement possible, and the auditory cortex, responsible for processing what we hear. But neuroscientists now say communication between regions – as opposed to within the areas themselves – may be the key that has eluded analysis until now, in part, because of technological obstacles.

Earl Miller, a professor of neuroscience at Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Picower Institute for Learning and Memory, says that today’s faster computers and more advanced electronics may provide scientists with the tools they need to unlock the brain’s mysteries.

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Something wonderful is about to happen and this might be it!

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Something wonderful is just about to happen TO YOU!

Something wonderful is just about to happen TO YOU!

Choose today to CONSIDER that something wonderful is about to happen TO YOU! Just considering it sets up the energy for it to occur. Let go of controlling just WHAT that wonderful thing might be – control tends to deflate wonder because control is based on fear rather than joyful amazement.

Each day, awake with your customary energy circle in which you place the excitement of “something truly wonderful is about to happen to me, and maybe today is the day…”. When the mail arrives, get excited about it – each piece of mail might be “it”. When you answer the phone, be aware that “this might be it!”

The principle of thought and abundance suggest that we tend to get what we think about and focus attention upon. Want some excitement and joy in your life? Focus attention on it by anticipating it – get giddy about it.

Then set it up to happen again by expressing gratitude to the universe for supplying what you wanted. And get really clear about letting go of how it has to look or how it has to happen to get you to accept it – be open to surprise.

Something wonderful is just about to happen TO YOU! Maybe this article is IT…

My thanks to Wendi Friesen for this idea. She can be found at www.wendi.com.

Rapid Switching

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You can either learn or remember.

You can either learn or remember.

You can either learn or remember. Researchers at Duke University used functional magnetic resonance imagery (fMRI) to demonstrate this competition in a group of college age adults. Their evidence is compelling. Many psychological studies have also shown that you can either listen for new information or consider your response to that information (remembering similar past events). One or the other – not both simultaneously.

New OR old rather than new AND old. You can either listen to your partner’s complaint OR search your memory for a snappy comeback – not both simultaneously.

The problem, of course, arises when the switch is turned to focus the brain on remembering when learning is indicated – or visa versa. Too many times I’ve come back with a response to my wife’s information that was completely off or indicated that I was not intent or focused on what she was saying. Rather, I was “remembering” similar information – and probably getting side-tracked by a mind tangent – rather than “learning” I was “remembering”. Oops!

“I can do that, daddy!” My father heard these words often from me as a kid – especially after a short demonstration of a skill he was trying to teach me. He’d invariably turn the task over to me whereupon the task would get horribly bungled because I had no clue what I was doing. I was remembering a similar task rather than paying attention to the lesson at hand. The switch was in the wrong position. Oops!

So how does one manually turn the switch from one state to the other? Certainly this could be a valuable skill for many tasks including academic learning, attending to the needs of a partner, or learning how to operate equipment.

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What and How

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Perhaps you already know that you have two hemispheres to your cortex. Although each hemisphere seems to govern certain types of thought patterns, they communicate with each other to such a degree that it is hard to discern their separate functions. However, by taking charge of those hemispheres you can take charge of your mood, your choices, and your communications – making it easier for you to function, achieve goals, study, interact, and communicate with yourself and others.

brain_1.jpgYou don’t need to be a neurosurgeon or brain specialist to take charge of your brain. Just as you don’t have to understand how a computer works to make it work for you, you can obtain substantial benefit from your brain without having to understand how it works. You just need the right “software” a program you can run. And just as with your computer’s software, which program you run and what you input into the program can make quite a difference in the output you get.

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Distance – An Effective Way to Deal with Emotions

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When you’re upset or depressed, should you analyze your feelings to figure out what’s wrong? Or should you just forget about it and move on?

The best way to move ahead emotionally is to analyze one\'s feelings from a psychologically distanced perspective.

The best way to move ahead emotionally is to analyze one’s feelings from a psychologically distanced perspective.

New research suggests a solution to these questions and to a related psychological paradox: Processing emotions is supposed to facilitate coping, but attempts to understand painful feelings often backfire and perpetuate or strengthen negative moods and emotions.

The solution is not denial or distraction. According to University of Michigan psychologist Ethan Kross, the best way to move ahead emotionally is to analyze one’s feelings from a psychologically distanced perspective.

With University of California, Berkeley, colleague Ozlem Ayduk, Kross has conducted a series of studies that provide the first experimental evidence of the benefits of analyzing depressive feelings from a psychologically distanced perspective. The studies were supported by funding from the National Institutes of Health.

“We aren’t very good at trying to analyze our feelings to make ourselves feel better,” said Kross, a faculty associate at the U-M Institute for Social Research (ISR) and an assistant professor of psychology. “It’s an invaluable human ability to think about what we do, but reviewing our mistakes over and over, re-experiencing the same negative emotions we felt the first time around, tends to keep us stuck in negativity. It can be very helpful to take a sort of mental time-out, to sit back and try to review the situation from a distance.”

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