Brain Science: Neuroscience, Behavior

Mireille and Adam discuss the process of forming memories, the various types of memory, anxieties, phobias, panic attacks, and how our attention and our memory relates to learning. Where you place your attention influences what you might remember. What you are able to remember influences how you feel, the choices you make, and your future outcomes.

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Featuring:

• Mireille Reece, PsyD – LinkedIn
• Adam Stacoviak – Website, GitHub, LinkedIn, Mastodon, X

Show Notes:

Questions to consider as you listen to this episode:

1. What is memory?
2. How does the process of forming memories work?
3. Types of memory?
4. How does this relate to learning?
5. What can I do differently given this understanding of memory?

Also listen to:

• Brain Science #11: Competing for attention
• Brain Science #12: Your choice is your superpower

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In the wake of the coronavirus outbreak being declared a global pandemic and a national emergency here in the United States as well as many other countries around the world, it would be extremely difficult to have a serious conversation here on Brain Science that’s not colored by today’s very serious events. Mireille and Adam discuss the anxiety, fear, and panic that many may be facing. How do we navigate the unseeable unknown? How should we respond to change and the state of the world we are now living in?

Don’t panic. Prepare for change. Be adaptable. Be resilient.

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Featuring:

• Mireille Reece, PsyD – LinkedIn
• Adam Stacoviak – Website, GitHub, LinkedIn, Mastodon, X

Show Notes:

• ‘Brace for turbulence,’ Coronavirus is the black swan of 2020
• COVID-19 (2019-nCoV) real time dashboard
• Coronavirus and the remote work experiment no one asked for

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Mireille and Adam discuss the power of choice as it relates to our locus of control, decision making, and the changes we want to make in our lives. Emotions play a role in decision making as do our values and the perceived payout. When we are aware of the choices we make, we have the capacity to change them and henceforth, the direction of our lives, and the way we feel.

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Featuring:

• Mireille Reece, PsyD – LinkedIn
• Adam Stacoviak – Website, GitHub, LinkedIn, Mastodon, X

Show Notes:

• Who Moved my Cheese?
• Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman — this review on NY Times was interesting to read
• The riddle of experience vs. memory by Daniel Kahneman from the TED Conference

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Mireille and Adam discuss the mechanism of attention as an allocation of one’s resources. If we can think of attention as that of a lens, we can practice choosing what we give our attention to recognizing that multiple things, both externally and internally, routinely compete for our attention. Distraction can also be useful when we utilize it intentionally to manage the focus of our attention.

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Featuring:

• Mireille Reece, PsyD – LinkedIn
• Adam Stacoviak – Website, GitHub, LinkedIn, Mastodon, X

Show Notes:

Attention is the mechanism through which the brain focuses resources on some thing. If you can direct your attention, then you can direct where your brain puts its resources. You can think of attention similar to that of a camera lens. What lens and at what focal length are you using to focus with?

• The Web 2.0 Show #43 w/ Kathy Sierra: Creating passionate users
• Watch! Pay attention: you can change your brain by Kitty Chisholm at TEDxLondonBusinessSchool — where she says “It’s a very a competitive environment,” when it comes to attention.
• Add this to your book shelf — Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
• As well as Finding Flow: The Psychology of Engagement with Everyday Life by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

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Mireille and Adam discuss shame as an emotional and experiential construct. We dive into the neural structures involved in processing this emotion as well as the factors and implications of our experience of shame. Shame is a natural response to the threat of vulnerability and perception of oneself as defective or inherently “not enough.”

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Featuring:

• Mireille Reece, PsyD – LinkedIn
• Adam Stacoviak – Website, GitHub, LinkedIn, Mastodon, X

Show Notes:

What is shame?

Brené Brown, leading researcher on shame, vulnerability and connection — ​​​​”Shame is the most powerful, master emotion. It’s the fear that we’re not good enough.”

The “hustle” of not enough

Shame is the response to threat. It is a stress response. ​​Think of Shame as the inner critic. The one who berates and belittles you out of this place of fear of inadequacy or inherent flaw.

Shame vs. guilt

1. Shame = I AM bad/marred/irreparably flawed.
2. Guilt = I DID something bad.

Guilt is rooted in a behavior you did whereas shame is all encompassing, fundamentally who you are as defective or inadequate.

Behavioral response

Shame prompts hiding. Because when we feel ashamed, we don’t want to expose ourselves to others. If we “feel” or believe ourselves to be marred, it makes sense that we would be apt to hide.

From an evolutionary perspective - ​​Shame is a signal that you aren’t part of the tribe, which would’ve been threatening or dangerous.

​​​Is the culture of today conditioning us to feel dis-content more often?

“I stopped trying to keep up with the Jones’ because I realized that when I wake up someone moved the line.”

Examine what you are optimizing for as opposed to applying the “one-size-fits-all” approach.

How do I manage shame more adaptively?

1. Identify the emotion. What is the perceived threat that I’m reacting to?
2. Identify your tribe. Who can I connect with? Who’s part of my tribe?
3. What is my system for soothing? I need to upload new soothing/calming data.

It all comes back to being grounded in knowing what you’re optimizing for and recognizing that being who we are — being human, always involves vulnerability so we have to practice showing up.

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Mireille and Adam dig deeper into empathy as a construct. What key brain structures are involved? How can we better understand empathy to be able to better navigate ourselves and our relationships with others both at home and in the workplace?

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Featuring:

• Mireille Reece, PsyD – LinkedIn
• Adam Stacoviak – Website, GitHub, LinkedIn, Mastodon, X

Show Notes:

Daniel Siegel, MD, in his book Aware notes 5 Aspects of Empathy:

1. Emotional Resonance: Feeling another person’s feelings.
2. Perspective Taking: Seeing through the eyes of another.
3. Cognitive Understanding: Imagining the mental experiences of another and their meaning.
4. Empathic Concern: Caring about the well-being of another. *This is the gateway for compassion.
5. Empathic Joy: Feeling happy about another’s happiness or success.

​​Empathy: In face-to-face interactions, communication has a multi-modal nature involving the processing of visual facial cues (such as the speaker’s facial expression), the tone of the voice (i.e., affective prosody) and the choice of words (i.e., semantics).

**Empathy involves a working model of another person in the mind’s eye.

Brain structures involved:

1. Pre-frontal cortex: Involved in perspective taking. Executive function.
2. Anterior Cingulate Cortex: The anterior cingulate cortex is sometimes divided into four regions, each of which seem to underpin a separate function (see Bush, Luu, & Posner, 2000).
3. Mirror neurons: a brain cell that reacts both when a particular action is performed and when it is only observed. These are activated in the process of empathy.

In particular, the Anterior Cingulate Cortex includes:

• The anterior region, which is involved in executive function
• The dorsal region, which is involved in cognitive processes
• The ventral region, which is involved in emotional regulation
• The posterior region, which is involved in evaluative processes (e.g., Bush, Vogt, Holmes, Dale, Greve, Jenike et al., 2002)

​​Claus Lamm, PhD, University of Vienna, investigates the processes that regulate firsthand pain and those that cause empathy for pain through numerous studies on the influence of painkillers. ​​According to Lamm, research “suggests that empathy for pain is grounded in representing others’ pain within one’s own pain systems.”

The Role of Facial Expression in Empathy: The value of “looking at” the face of another to provide another data point to understand where they are emotionally.

How might you build your empathy skills? Consider EMPATHY as an acronym: (adapted from Harvard psychiatrist, Helen Riess, MD)

E: Eye contact
M: Muscles of facial expression
P: Posture. What is the person’s body language?
A: Affect/Emotion.
T: Tone of voice. Affective prosody.
H: Hearing the whole person.
Y: Your response. Emotions are contagious.

Getting practical - What can I do differently in order to cultivate empathy?

1. Mindfulness as training for increased compassion and empathy.
2. Practice responding with empathy outside of the live event: after an actual incident, reflect on what or how you could’ve responded differently that would’ve helped you “see” the other person more effectively or changed the interaction between you?
3. Build your internal file of empathy from a conceptual level so that you have a bigger, broader frame of reference for others.
4. Give back. Volunteering as practicing loving-kindness; giving to others’ without expectation of return.

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Mireille and Adam discuss goal setting and the different types of goals we set. We reflect on how can you set goals that work for you and measure them. We also talk about how you go about building the behaviors that align with your identity and resistance we face when we do this. We also share our 2020 goal for Brain Science. This is a must-listen episode to get a grounded perspective in planning your goals for this year and decade.

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Featuring:

• Mireille Reece, PsyD – LinkedIn
• Adam Stacoviak – Website, GitHub, LinkedIn, Mastodon, X

Show Notes:

Goal setting — are you ready for the new year/new you?

​​The Marshmallow Test (Carol Dweck, Ph.D.) — The role of delayed gratification in growth mindset and why self-control is the engine of success.

​​3 types of goals

• Outcome - Outcome goals are very often binary and involve winning, for example, wanting to win a gold medal or wanting to be the largest company in your sector. Whilst outcome goals are hugely motivating, they are not under your control as they are affected by how others perform and/or other external forces.
• Performance - A performance goal is a performance standard that you are trying to achieve. These are the performance standards you set for yourself to achieve if you are going to build towards your outcome goal. Over time, performance goals build upon one another to help you achieve your outcome goal.
• Process - Process goals support performance goals by giving you something to focus on as you work towards your performance goals. Process goals are completely under your control. They are the small things you should focus on or do to eventually achieve your performance goals.

​​The Kaizen Way - “itty bitty” steps to move you in the direction of the goal you want to achieve.
​​
​​Areas of life for goal setting: vocational, relational, personal, financial, health, etc.

“SMART” Goals

1. Specific
   ​2. Measurable
   ​3. Achievable
   ​4. Realistic
   ​5. Time Bound

​How committed am I? ​​If I’m optimizing in one way, it will invariably affect other aspects of my life. Therefore, have I considered the implications of this goal in my life?

​​The Role of Identity in the goal setting process. Are my goals aligned with my identity?

Accountability and Goal Setting

The American Society of Training and Development (ASTD) study on accountability found that you have a 65% of completing a goal if you commit to someone. And if you have a specific accountability appointment with a person you’ve committed, you will increase your chance of success by up to 95%.

The WILL and the WAY

​​There’s a lot of research around this at the Social and Affective lab at the University of Oregon. Will and Way –– “The will refers to the motivational and affective processes that drive goal pursuit such as approach motives, and the way refers to the suite of cognitive capacities and abilities that enable goal pursuit such as inhibitory control. Neither part is sufficient on its own; both are necessary for effective self-regulation.” (https://sanlab.uoregon.edu/research/)

Inhibitory control is a major part of goal achievement. I have to be able to “inhibit” my desire/drive for another behavior and replace it with the more adaptive or desirable one.

Our goal for 2020?

The goal for Brain Science in 2020 is to ship WEEKLY episodes (YEAH!). Can you help us achieve our goals? Give us feedback. Join us in Slack to share YOUR circumstances or challenges so we can work with you to help you hack it! Or get in touch on Twitter via @Changelog or @BrainScienceFM.

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Mireille and Adam discuss the role of our thoughts, how they run our lives, and how they make us feel. We talk through alternative ways to think, the power we hold in starving our habitual neural networks, and the ways our thoughts help us to be our best selves. How aware are you of the quality of the soil of your mind?

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Featuring:

• Mireille Reece, PsyD – LinkedIn
• Adam Stacoviak – Website, GitHub, LinkedIn, Mastodon, X

Show Notes:

Thoughts and the thinker – How do our thoughts affect how we do ourselves and live our lives?

The Role of Attention or Awareness: If we aren’t considerate or reflective of our thoughts, we ignore the environment in which we grow.

Maladaptive thoughts: Aaron Beck – 10 Cognitive Distortions

1. Catastrophic Thinking: Imagining the worst case scenario.
   Context and gratitude as alternative options.

Thoughts affect feelings and feelings affect thinking.

2. All or nothing thinking: Thinking in binary or absolutes modes. This type of thinking perpetuates more cognitive rigidity and lends to feeling hopeless.
   Reframing strategies – Use specifics in lieu of the generalities or extremes.
   Building skills in new lanes…moving from expert to novice when you move the skill or knowledge into a new area or relationship.

3. Don’t SHOULD on yourself! Creating an external construct and imposing and applying it to oneself. These are within the context of your own internal self-talk and personal expectations.

4. Mental Filters: Focusing on one aspect or detail of a situation and obsessing over it.
   Reframe – What else can you focus on…put on a different lens to see your world.

It isn’t just about NOT doing these things, it’s about being intentional and reflective around the thoughts we think and putting forth effort in the direction that you want to go.

Use the “Best Friend” test. Would you say to your best friend what you say to yourself?

Resources: Shawn Achor, author of The Happiness Advantage

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Mireille and Adam discuss empathy, respect, and compassion and the role each of these interpersonal constructs play in strengthening our relationships, both personally and professionally. What exactly is empathy, respect, and compassion? What are key indicator lights to be aware of when any of them are lacking or off-kilter? We also discuss Dr. John Gottman’s research on “The Four Horsemen” in relationships.

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Featuring:

• Mireille Reece, PsyD – LinkedIn
• Adam Stacoviak – Website, GitHub, LinkedIn, Mastodon, X

Show Notes:

Respect, empathy, and compassion as multiple parts of a system:

1. We need understanding or respect for others. Respect means I don’t have to have experienced what someone else has in order for it to be true.
2. We use empathy to “see” things from another’s perspective, not my perspective of their perspective.
3. Compassion as “suffering with” others – holding the awareness of another’s experience and coming alongside them. This results in action not simply knowledge.

INQUIRE about others’ experience – instead of telling someone how they should feel or think YOU can ask questions to improve the clarity of YOUR understanding of THEIR experience. This is a way in which we can “build” our skill in terms of having empathy for others. Seek to understand, not judge.

Have REGARD for others’ experiences – this is evidence of respect. It is easy to use ourselves to make sense of what we don’t know; therefore, we need to learn how to consider the direction of the “lens” we use.

Collaboration as a key component of respect and empathy. How do we make sense of others’ perspectives or experiences?

Challenges with feedback from others:

• Invalidation ==> telling someone that they shouldn’t feel or think what they do, in fact, think or feel.
• We are apt to struggle with an undercurrent of distrust in one’s self when we get feedback like this from others.

Indicator lights of having difficulty giving respect, empathy, or compassion with ourselves and others.

1. Arguing or poor communication
2. Depression (cognitive rigidity)
3. Guilt as reflection of giving something I don’t have to give or not giving someone what they want
4. Anxiety (chaos)

We can acquire and cultivate the skills of respect, empathy, and compassion. We don’t improve any skill we don’t practice. How can we do things differently relationally?

• Create clear expectations for ourselves and others. Use clarity to help manage these differently
• Co-operate with others

Dr. John Gottman’s 4 horsemen in (marital/couple) relationships:

1. Criticism - negative judgments in absolute terms
2. Defensiveness - avoiding responsibility or blaming others
3. Contempt - a fundamental sense of disrespect, ridicule or disgust. Name calling – erodes the fabric of a relationship. (ex. mean-spirited sarcasm or eye rolling) **This is the most problematic in a relationship.
4. Stonewalling - putting a wall between you and your partner

Being able to identify the Four Horsemen in your conflict discussions is a necessary first step to eliminating them, but this knowledge is not enough. To drive away destructive communication and conflict patterns, you must replace them with healthy, productive ones.

Fortunately, each horseman has a proven positive behavior that will counteract negativity.

This infographic highlights some of Dr. John Gottman’s most notable research findings on marriage and couple relationships.

What’s a good action plan for change? Self-awareness is key place to start.

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Mireille and Adam discuss key aspects of mental health and what it looks like to manage our own mental well-being. What are the key ingredients to managing it? How do our relationships and boundaries impact it? Are sleep, food, and activity really that important? We talk through these questions and more to better understand mental health and the ways in which we contribute to our well being.

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Featuring:

• Mireille Reece, PsyD – LinkedIn
• Adam Stacoviak – Website, GitHub, LinkedIn, Mastodon, X

Show Notes:

Mental health is a system issue — if one aspect isn’t working well, it impacts the system as a whole. Similar to that of a symphony, we, as individuals, work better when we acknowledge and allow all of our systems to work together. When key ingredients that contribute to our mental health are depreciated, we can expect that other aspects of our lives will be influenced as well. Mental health is variable. Just like our physical health, the knowledge base we have is always in flux. We never stop managing our mental health just like we don’t stop managing our money, health, relationships, etc. Remembering that there are always “knowns” and “unknowns” when we talk about health will help us better apply what we know about these things to us as individuals.

Key ingredients for mental health

Below are some key ingredients that impact our mental health.

Managing our physical body

Sleep, food, and activity are critical — as are the rhythms of each of these.

• Sleep - at least 7 hours; 8 is better
• Food - this is variable for all bodies. Food is fuel and without food (fat, protein, carbohydrates and fiber) our bodies don’t “move” in the same way
• Activity - We need to exercise. We need to move around. Movement helps to “discharge” the negative and input the positive. It’s an exchange base.

Relationships and boundaries

As we’ve discussed previously, we fare better when we’ve got good social relationships and boundaries too. Boundaries involve consideration of our resources and the allocation involved in these. What are you committed to in terms of work responsibilities, home, relationships and relational demands, and stressors in general?

• Constraints are a good thing
• Boundaries provide clarity in terms of the expectations between you and others
• These are particularly helpful for kids and teenagers

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Mireille and Adam discuss coping skills and strategies to use when managing the emotions and struggles of everyday life. We talk through some common ways people manage their emotions, strategies for emotional coping, as well as problem solving coping.

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Featuring:

• Mireille Reece, PsyD – LinkedIn
• Adam Stacoviak – Website, GitHub, LinkedIn, Mastodon, X

Show Notes:

We discussed the concept of SMART goals — they are specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and based on a specific time frame.

We discussed the concept of HALT. Are you hungry, angry, lonely or tired? If so, coping will invariably be different, regardless of your age.

We also discussed several examples of emotional coping strategies:

1. Name it to tame it
2. Grounding - Our senses are real-time, so orienting yourself to what you can see, smell, taste, touch, or hear will give you a realistic view of your circumstances and environment.
3. Deep breathing
4. Meditation - Check out Rick Hanson, Ph.D.
5. Visualization
6. Ice — Allow a small ice cube to melt in your hand. It’s a distraction and a file for tolerating the “wave” of emotion.
7. Music — Listening to music or singing (various parts of the brain are involved).
8. Front-loading — Doing things in a certain way to conserve energy to allocate to other things.
9. Graduated exposure vs. Flooding

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Mireille and Adam explore the habit loop, the role of environment as a cue, behavior change, the role of dopamine, willpower as a finite resource, and the impact of social influences on habits.

As with any change, we need to collect data. Instead of trying to change a habit right away, treat yourself like a scientist in a data gathering stage and experiment with different rewards to better understand your habit loops. Making and breaking a habit is different for everyone.

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Featuring:

• Mireille Reece, PsyD – LinkedIn
• Adam Stacoviak – Website, GitHub, LinkedIn, Mastodon, X

Show Notes:

Key takeaways:

• Take stock of your resources
• Look at the context of your own life
• How does this benefit myself and my team/my board?
• Accountability — who’s on your team?

Links:

• The habit loop
• The meaning of Gracious
• MIT study on why habits are hard to make and break

Book recommendations:

• The Power of Habit
• Atomic Habits
• Essentialism - The Disciplined Pursuit of Less by Greg McKeown (Adam’s favorite chapter is “Protect the asset”)

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Mireille and Adam explore the importance of relationships and the concept of attachment. We often think of ourselves as individuals, but our lives are spent embedded within the context of social relationships. These relationships influence and shape our brains, which deeply influences who we are.

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Featuring:

• Mireille Reece, PsyD – LinkedIn
• Adam Stacoviak – Website, GitHub, LinkedIn, Mastodon, X

Show Notes:

We’re designed to be attached to others. Mammalian brains care about their connections.

What’s the difference between a lizard or a turtle and a dog or a bat? Dogs and bats feed their young with milk and invest in their oversight until they’re mature and capable enough to manage their own lives.

We often think of ourselves as individuals, but our lives are spent embedded within the context of social relationships. These relationships influence and shape our brains, which deeply influences who we are. Research shows that relationships can reactivate neuroplastic processes and actually alter the structures and biochemistry of the brain (Neuroscience of human relationships). Individual brains do not exist in nature. Without mutually stimulating interactions, people and neurons wither and die.

Early nurturing of the prefrontal cortex through relationships has us to think well of ourselves, trust others, regulate emotions, maintain positive expectations, and utilize emotional intelligence in a moment-to-moment problem solving (Cozolino). Research shows that right brains tend to develop more in the first years of life. This helps us be more flexible and learn how to adapt — it really is survival of the fittest.

• Mind Field from Vsauce

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In this inaugural episode, Mireille and Adam explore what it means to be human at the most basic level. Our goal is to explore the inner-workings of the human brain to better understand our humanity. What are we capable of? What are the common experiences of life we all share? We start by asking the question, “what are the fundamentals of being human?”

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Featuring:

• Mireille Reece, PsyD – LinkedIn
• Adam Stacoviak – Website, GitHub, LinkedIn, Mastodon, X

Show Notes:

Designed to feel

As humans, we are fundamentally designed to feel. Feelings aren’t facts but they are feedback. When we can consider our feelings in conjunction with other data, we’re apt to make wiser decisions. Whether our feelings or they don’t, they’re still feedback.

1. We have a complex brain, a mind, and relationships (brainstem: the Reptile brain + limbic system: the mammalian brain and the neocortex: the Human brain.
2. We have emotions.
3. We are energy-based beings (electrical current makes us tick). Neurons that fire together, wire together.
   a. Where attention, energy flows—we feed whatever it is we focus on. Happiness/changes in how feel can be modified in part by what we choose to focus on. Example - getting a job.
   b. Dan Siegel says it like this “Where attention goes, neuro firing flows, and neuro connections grow.”

Designed to connect

As humans, we are fundamentally designed to connect and be connected with others. When we don’t have a community wherein we can be our authentic selves, we’re apt to struggle more than we would without them.

1. Is connection or touch with other humans required?
2. Attachment is 100% learned - it is not genetically determined. That brings hope because we can modify our relationship as we, too, change.

We all struggle

As humans, we do not get the option to opt out the struggle. We may not be able to pick our struggles, but, nonetheless we all struggle.

Adam says “Admit the struggle. Identify the lie. Seek the truth.”

As it relates to coping, the value of naming our struggles is so important. It involves more aspects of the brain when we put words to our struggles so that we’re better able to cope.

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