emotional-regulation

Training our brains’ executive control to reduce rumination and improve mood

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happybrainIsraeli com­put­er ‘game’ teach­es brain to be hap­pi­er (Haaretz):

“There are peo­ple who think dwelling on their emo­tions is help­ful, view­ing it as a kind of wrestling match with their inner demons. But accord­ing to psy­chol­o­gists, it’s [Read more…] about Train­ing our brains’ exec­u­tive con­trol to reduce rumi­na­tion and improve mood

4 Essential (and Overlooked) Facts About Your Brain and Your Mind

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NeuronsAn aspir­ing clar­inetist begins by get­ting a sense of the way the instrument’s sounds are pro­duced by the air she blows through it. A dri­ver must be acquaint­ed with var­i­ous vehi­cle fun­da­men­tals, such as adding gas, accel­er­at­ing, and read­ing the speedome­ter. It is no dif­fer­ent with the brain. Max­i­miz­ing your brain’s health and per­for­mance begins with a basic under­stand­ing of how it works and how it evolves across the lifespan.

The human brain evolved to help us oper­ate in com­plex, chang­ing envi­ron­ments by con­tin­u­al­ly learn­ing and adapt­ing. Suc­cess­ful­ly doing so involves [Read more…] about 4 Essen­tial (and Over­looked) Facts About Your Brain and Your Mind

Can brain training work? Yes, if it meets these 5 conditions

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brain exerciseIn a mod­ern soci­ety we are con­front­ed with a wide range of increas­ing­ly abstract and inter­con­nect­ed prob­lems. Suc­cess­ful­ly deal­ing with such an envi­ron­ment requires a high­ly fit brain, capa­ble of adapt­ing to new sit­u­a­tions and chal­lenges through­out life. Con­se­quent­ly, we expect cross-train­ing the brain to soon become as main­stream as cross-train­ing the body is today, going beyond unstruc­tured men­tal activ­i­ty and [Read more…] about Can brain train­ing work? Yes, if it meets these 5 conditions

Working memory training can improve emotional regulation and behavioral health

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BrainTrainingMas­ter­ing emo­tions by sharp­en­ing mem­o­ry? It just might work (Los Ange­les Times):

“Emo­tion­al reg­u­la­tion — the abil­i­ty to take neg­a­tive feel­ings and rec­og­nize, accept and chan­nel them prop­er­ly — is an Achilles’ heel for many peo­ple, but espe­cial­ly for those with anx­i­ety-relat­ed dis­or­ders, [Read more…] about Work­ing mem­o­ry train­ing can improve emo­tion­al reg­u­la­tion and behav­ioral health

National Science Foundation report: Can interactive media boost attention and well-being?

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interactivemedia“Behav­ioral train­ing inter­ven­tions have received much inter­est as poten­tial­ly effi­cient and cost-effec­tive ways to main­tain brain fit­ness or enhance skilled per­for­mance with impact rang­ing from health and fit­ness to edu­ca­tion and job train­ing. In par­tic­u­lar, neu­ro­science research has doc­u­ment­ed the impor­tance of explic­it­ly train­ing (i) atten­tion­al con­trol, in order to enhance per­cep­tu­al and cog­ni­tive fit­ness as well as (ii) kind­ness and com­pas­sion, to [Read more…] about Nation­al Sci­ence Foun­da­tion report: Can inter­ac­tive media boost atten­tion and well-being?

10–12 hours of meditation training can improve daily-life emotional regulation

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Med­i­ta­tion Appears to Pro­duce Endur­ing Changes in Emo­tion­al Pro­cess­ing in the Brain (Sci­ence Daily):

“A new study has found that par­tic­i­pat­ing in an 8‑week med­i­ta­tion train­ing pro­gram can have mea­sur­able effects on how the brain func­tions even when some­one is not active­ly meditating…While neu­roimag­ing stud­ies have found that med­i­ta­tion train­ing appeared to decrease acti­va­tion of the amyg­dala — a struc­ture at the base of the brain that is known to have a role in pro­cess­ing mem­o­ry and emo­tion — those changes were [Read more…] about 10–12 hours of med­i­ta­tion train­ing can improve dai­ly-life emo­tion­al regulation