Which Come First, Thought or Emotion?

Which comes first, thought or emotion?  Because sensory information streams through our cortices with many connection points into the limbic brain by the time the information reaches our cerebral cortex for logic processing we have already placed a “feeling” on that information.  It’s already encoded as either pain or pleasure, sadness or joy, etc.  Dr. […]

Can Learning NOW Prevent Alzheimers?

Alzheimers is a feared and dignity-stripping blight on many of our images of old age.  Recent research in neuroscience notes that those with Alzheimers have a shrunken hippocamus–inhibiting their ability to create new memories and access old ones.  Amazingly, the more you learn and keep your brain cognitively active TODAY can have influence on your […]

Wait Until your Father gets Home!

The Insula is important in our social brains. It’s involved with things like processing events in the future based on our current body states, and it is active when dealing with pride and disgust. Studies published in last year’s Journal of Cerebral Cortex noted that a sense of uncertainty increases insula activity and level of […]

Mindfulness Changing the Political Brain?

The time has come for politics to recognize the magic of both compassion and neuroplasticity!  “The fact that our brain is always changing means we’re not locked in to having the stress superhighway built into our nervous system…The cutting-edge research today shows us how mindfulness can help us reshape our brain and nervous system…Now studies […]