The Brain's Way

Imagine a machine that can rewire itself, finds its own way to work around non working circuits, heal its own bugs and viruses, find and adapt to new sources of energy and know when it needs repair and attention.

No, it’s not the latest product from Silicon Valley, it is the human brain. The recent discoveries about the brains ability to adapt, its neuroplasticity, have truly redefined how we imagine the brain and how we treat it in the face of disease and trauma.

Someday, it may also lead us full circle to better design and development of artificial intelligence and machines that might actually mimic the amazing abilities of the brain.

At the cutting edge of all of this is the work of Dr. Norman Doidge, the author of The Brain's Way of Healing: Remarkable Discoveries and Recoveries from the Frontiers of Neuroplasticity

My conversation with Dr. Norman Doidge:

Technology is in your Brain.

We are all connected. In a macro sense the Internet and technology connects us all. But think about all of our individual networks. Our social networks, on and off line, our business networks, our networks as customers, as consumers and as family members. And like a complex venn diagram, these networks get stronger and denser and smarter as they all interconnect with each other.

But is there a point where it’s too much. Where the density or even the brittleness of these networks, affect our thoughts, our emotions and potentially, like an autoimmune disease, collapse in on themselves by reaching a kind of break point?

That's the jumping off point for brain scientist and entrepreneur Jeff Stibel's book Breakpoint: Why the Web will Implode, Search will be Obsolete, and Everything Else you Need to Know about Technology is in Your Brain.

My conversation with Jeff Stibel:

This is Your Brain on Emotions

We live in a world in which we praise logic and reason.  Yet to a large extent we are still ruled by our emotions. Moreover new research shows us the power of emotions and that to very real extent, we do just as well making our decisions and choices from a combination of emotion and reason. All of this relates to what we now understand about how the emotional system works, what are the genetic and biochemical components of the brain and can we define and maybe even change our emotional style?

These are the areas of cutting edge research being explored by Dr. Richard J. Davidson. Davidson has defined six emotional dimensions that reflect the discoveries of modern neuroscientific research.

My conversation with Dr. Richard J. Davidson about The Emotional Life of Your Brain.

Click here to listen on your ipad or iphone

This is your brain...

The idea that consciousness is confined to the brain, like software in a computer, has dominated our science and philosophy for over two centuries. Alva Noe, Berkeley philosophy professor and author of OUT OF OUR HEADS says that the analogy is deeply flawed.  He makes the case that mind and awareness are processes that arise during a link with our surroundings.  

My conversation with Alva Noe:

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Poverty and the brain

Growing up poor isn't merely hard on kids. It might also be bad for their brains. A long-term study of cognitive development in lower- and middle-class students found strong links between childhood poverty, physiological stress and adult memory. A fascinating article in WIRED. 

Money quote:

The income-achievement gap is a formidable societal problem, but little is known about either neurocognitive or biological mechanisms that might account for income-related deficits in academic achievement. We show that childhood poverty is inversely related to working memory in young adults. Furthermore, this prospective relationship is mediated by elevated chronic stress during childhood.