Limbic-System

How ’sleeping on it’ can help the prefrontal cortex regulate emotional responses, making us feel better in the morning

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Instead of lying awake wor­ry­ing, we’re often told to “sleep on it” when mak­ing deci­sions both big and small. And there’s actu­al­ly a sci­en­tif­ic basis for this advice. Sleep can influ­ence our response to emo­tion­al sit­u­a­tions, and helps us to man­age our men­tal health.

To under­stand why sleep and emo­tions are so con­nect­ed, it’s impor­tant to first under­stand what hap­pens in the brain when we encounter some­thing emo­tive. [Read more…] about How ’sleep­ing on it’ can help the pre­frontal cor­tex reg­u­late emo­tion­al respons­es, mak­ing us feel bet­ter in the morning

The frontal lobes, the little brain down under and “Stayin’ Alive” (3/3)

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[Editor’s note: Con­tin­ued from Explor­ing the human brain and how it responds to stress (1/3) and On World Health Day 2020, let’s dis­cuss the stress response and the Gen­er­al Adap­ta­tion Syn­drome (2/3)]

More on the Cor­tex, the Lim­bic Sys­tem, and Stress:

The cor­tex is made up of four major sec­tions, arranged from the front to the back. These are called the frontal, pari­etal, occip­i­tal, and tem­po­ral lobes. Each of the four lobes is found in both hemi­spheres, and each is respon­si­ble for dif­fer­ent, spe­cial­ized cog­ni­tive func­tions. For exam­ple, the occip­i­tal lobe con­tains the pri­ma­ry visu­al cor­tex, and the tem­po­ral lobe (locat­ed by the tem­ples, and close to the ears) con­tains the pri­ma­ry audi­to­ry cortex.

The frontal lobes are posi­tioned at the front most region of the cere­bral cor­tex and are involved in move­ment, deci­sion mak­ing, prob­lem solv­ing, and plan­ning. There are [Read more…] about The frontal lobes, the lit­tle brain down under and “Stayin’ Alive” (3/3)

Studies suggest we better train the mind as we train the body: with cross-training and in good company

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Dif­fer­ent med­i­ta­tion types train dis­tinct parts of your brain (New Scientist):

“We are used to hear­ing that med­i­ta­tion is good for the brain, but now it seems that not just any kind of med­i­ta­tion will do. Just like phys­i­cal exer­cise, the kind of improve­ments you get depends on exact­ly how you train – and most of us are doing it all wrong [Read more…] about Stud­ies sug­gest we bet­ter train the mind as we train the body: with cross-train­ing and in good company

Should Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (not antidepressant drugs) be the first-line treatment for depression?

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Depres­sion: A change of mind (Nature):

“Cog­ni­tive ther­a­py, com­mon­ly known as cog­ni­tive behav­iour­al ther­a­py (CBT), aims to help peo­ple to iden­ti­fy and change neg­a­tive, self-destruc­tive thought pat­terns. And although it does not work for every­one with depres­sion, data have been accu­mu­lat­ing in its favour. “CBT is one of the clear suc­cess sto­ries in psy­chother­a­py,” says Ste­fan Hof­mann, a psy­chol­o­gist at Boston Uni­ver­si­ty in Massachusetts…

Anti­de­pres­sant drugs are usu­al­ly the first-line treat­ment for depres­sion. [Read more…] about Should Cog­ni­tive Behav­iour­al Ther­a­py (not anti­de­pres­sant drugs) be the first-line treat­ment for depression?

Your Trading Brain: Expert or Novice

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We had the for­tune to inter­view Dr. Brett Steen­barg­er on Enhanc­ing Trad­er Per­for­mance and The Psy­chol­o­gy of Trad­ing as we launched our Neu­ro­science Inter­view Series.

Below, Expert Con­trib­u­tor Dr. Jan­ice Dorn pro­vides an in-depth brain-based dis­cus­sion of the top­ic, con­clud­ing that “The brain is the most pow­er­ful struc­ture in the known uni­verse and the only trad­ing tool that the trad­er needs to become an expert.”

No mat­ter whether you are a Pro or Ama­teur Trader…this will cer­tain­ly exer­cise your brain! (Dr. Dorn is prepar­ing more arti­cles on trad­ing per­for­mance and the brain…so stay tuned).

This is Your Brain On Trading

– By Dr. Jan­ice Dorn

The open­ing bell sounds, and six­ty mil­lion traders enter the great­est are­na in the world to do bat­tle with each oth­er. They put their mon­ey, beliefs and skills on the line as they make deci­sions to buy and sell. Wel­come to the finan­cial mar­kets where bil­lions of dol­lars are won and lost every day. Volatil­i­ty com­pels all to engage their brains in the con­tin­u­ous process of deci­sion mak­ing. What sep­a­rates the win­ning from los­ing traders is the way they use their most pow­er­ful trad­ing tool—the human brain.

[Read more…] about Your Trad­ing Brain: Expert or Novice

Use It or Lose It, and Cells that Fire together Wire together

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Every­one has heard of “Use It or Lose It.” Now…what is “It”?

Last week I gave a talk at the Ital­ian Con­sulate in San Fran­cis­co, and one of the areas atten­dees seemed to enjoy the most was learn­ing about what our brains are and how they work, peak­ing into the “black box” of our minds. With­out under­stand­ing a few basics, how can we make good deci­sions about brain health?

At a quick glance:, the brain is com­posed of 3 “brains” or main sub-sys­tems, each named after the evo­lu­tion­ary moment in which the sub-sys­tem is believed to have appeared. [Read more…] about Use It or Lose It, and Cells that Fire togeth­er Wire together