Deborah Rozman: The brain is not only about cognition

Deb­o­rah Rozman

What excites you the most about your job?
As the CEO of Heart­Math, I love our mis­sion of expand­ing con­scious­ness and our dai­ly work to help peo­ple build resilience and emo­tion­al coherence.

Please tell us about your inter­est in applied brain sci­ence. What areas are you most inter­est­ed in? What moti­vat­ed you to pur­sue work in your field?
I am par­tic­u­lar­ly inter­est­ed in how to improve peo­ple’s lives via the neu­ro­science of stress and emotions.

What is one impor­tant thing you are work­ing on now, and where can peo­ple learn more about it? 
We are work­ing on ways to make our Heart Rate Vari­abil­i­ty sen­sors more acces­si­ble and use­ful to every­one who wants to enhance his or her brain fitness.

What are 1–2 key things you’d like every per­son to under­stand regard­ing his/ her own brain and mind, that you think is com­mon­ly mis­rep­re­sent­ed or not addressed in the pop­u­lar media? 
That the brain is not only about cog­ni­tion. The heart’s input to the brain is crit­i­cal too for cog­ni­tive health and opti­mal performance.

Where do you see clear “low-hang­ing fruit” to enhance behav­ioral and brain health based on neu­ro­science and innovation? 
Part­ner­ing with activ­i­ty mon­i­tors to make neu­ro­feed­back more con­sumer-friend­ly with games and oth­er activ­i­ties. This is becom­ing eas­i­er as we seem more train­ing on the Cloud.

What sur­prised you the most at the 2013 Sharp­Brains Vir­tu­al Summit? 
The care and pas­sion of Alvaro Fer­nan­dez and the Sharp­Brains folks to bring every­one togeth­er. It did inspire me.

Final­ly, what do YOU do to stay sharp? 
I use the emWave and Inner Bal­ance HRV coher­ence feed­back to reset through the day and stay clear and sharp.

—This con­ver­sa­tion is part of the inter­view series with Speak­ers and Par­tic­i­pants in the 2013 Sharp­Brains Vir­tual Sum­mit (Sep­tem­ber 19–20th). Pre­vi­ous inter­views include:

• San­dra Chap­man: Using inno­v­a­tive think­ing, and brain train­ing, we can rewire the brain at every level
• Dhar­ma Singh Khal­sa: Why are yoga and med­i­ta­tion often over­looked for healthy brain aging?
• Sheri Osborn: We should all live a cre­ative life
• Cori Lath­an: It’s time for an annu­al brain check-up, a “brain thermometer”
• Tere­sa Kennedy: Total health includes phys­i­cal AND men­tal fitness