Full PreFrontal: Exposing the Mysteries of Executive Function

Send us Fan Mail This is a repeat of episode 101 brought back as one of my favorite episode. Uncertainly, unceasing demands, and all around unrest can provoke the feelings of restlessness, a state of irritability, and intense worrying and general dissatisfaction. But clinically speaking, these feelings of being on the edge are the signs of anxiety and often when they exceed the threshold of bearab...

Send us Fan Mail If you come across a Wall Street trader, an ER physician, a trial lawyer, a sky-diving instructor, a trapeze artist, or a stand-up comedian, more than likely there is a race-car brain that has been well channelled in spite of its high propensity for intense stimulation and a desire to live on the edge. Experts say that a perennially super-charged and “always on the go” ADHD mode m...

Send us Fan Mail Our body is a screen onto which our inner experiences are frequently projected. Authors, through their writings, vividly illustrate the imprint of the mind onto the body; for example, Caroline Hanson says “Nervousness made her feel nauseous, almost like she had two hearts frantically beating in her chest, instead of one.” The human interoception system processes the internal sensa...

Send us Fan Mail Nobel prize winner behavioral economist, Daniel Kahneman's remarkable work brought the concepts of System 1 and System 2 into the mainstream. Contrary to the conventional wisdom which associates human capacity with rational thought and logical thinking (features of system 2), our system 1 (the autopilot) has a much stronger hold on our psyche. It is only the slower and delibe...

Send us Fan Mail In her book Mirror: The History , author Sabine Melchoir-Bonnet tracks the curious journey of a tiny reflective glass once thought to be the most fascinating invention which over time eventually has gotten demoted to the status of an ordinary gimmick. The mirror that captures the presentation of self in everyday life comes through with its promise of unveiling fascinating yet terr...

Send us Fan Mail The most vital skills of making and keeping friends, figuring out COVID-19 social etiquette, and navigating the social world with adaptive flexibility is far from being innate or natural. While we have barricaded ourselves in our homes and in spite of 24/7 access to the internet that gives us the illusion of hyper-connectivity, many are struggling to artfully connect with others a...

Send us Fan Mail Japanese author Haruki Murakami said it well, “A person's life may be a lonely thing by nature, but it is not isolated. To that life other lives are linked.” A key ingredient in transforming lonely human nature into a well-linked life is the faculty of mature social skills which make it possible to show interest in others, know how to make friends, read social situations, rec...

Send us Fan Mail Legend has it that after forgetting the lyrics to one of her well rehearsed songs during a concert at New York’s Central Park, celebrated singer and actress, Barbra Streisand, lost her confidence. Petrified by the embarrassment and riddled with anxiety, Streisand withdrew from public performances for almost 36 years. Clearly, a bad experience can leave psychological scars includin...

Send us Fan Mail Imagine being more than 2,500 feet above the ground; with no harness, no ropes and no safety equipment. Alex Hannold scaled Yosemite’s El Capitan solo, seemingly effortlessly and with great command over the rock. The most remarkable aspect of the near impossible feat of accomplishment is Alex’s grit, a strength-based psychological skill that propels most humans to carve out a path...

Send us Fan Mail Every Halloween, when the late-night talk show host Jimmy Kimmel invites parents to video tape lying to their children having eaten all of their Halloween candy, it never fails to produce funny, hilarious, and some heart-wrenching videos of kids having officially lost their mind over the prank. However, it’s truly astonishing to find a kid or two who mange to stay calm and collect...

Send us Fan Mail “The builder said he was very sorry” writes Louis Sachar in the introduction to his children’s book, where instead of building a school one-story high with thirty classrooms, he ends up building a thirty stories high Wayside School with one classroom per floor. Readers discover that, none the less, the stories from such a strange and silly place are simply delightful. Similarly, h...

Send us Fan Mail Napoleon Hill once said, “strength and growth comes from continuous struggle and effort,” but what about those who struggle to know how best to direct their effort during the ongoing struggle? Children and adults with ADHD suffer from this exact problem which makes it hard for them to find their voice, fit in, and fully flourish with all the gifts they have. A true loss for everyo...

Send us Fan Mail Solving BIG problems requires big thinking. John Wooden once said, “Do not let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do.” Even though preparing children to take charge of their learning and their future happens in the classrooms, in actuality, it is set in motion through the mission and vision of personal and institutional leadership; without which, classrooms will simply...

Send us Fan Mail How to nurture a healthy relationship with life experiences, particularly undesirable, uncomfortable or unfavorable ones, is best captured in Pema Chodron’s quote “Nothing ever goes away until it teaches us what we need to know.” However, setbacks may lead to more setbacks for those with under-developed executive function including a lack of self-awareness, rigidity and a failure...

Send us Fan Mail None of us are fans of being bored; a state often marked by restlessness and mild forms of agitation. That’s why we all try and avoid the angst that seems to be associated with boredom. But surprisingly, scientists who study the brain, suggest that boredom isn’t too bad for us, but rather the brain’s nudge to get out of that state, take action, and bring about change. On this epis...

Send us Fan Mail Emotions are the heartbeat of human existence and the human drama that is full of anxiety, sadness, anger, fury, joy, or love feels like we are either riding a roller-coaster or floating gently in a boat that’s in a calm and placid lake. Emotions that disrupt our relationship with the world require regulation, but conventional wisdom approaches might get us off track as we might t...

Send us Fan Mail The parents’ job is to protect their children, offer safety and security, and above all, love them unconditionally. But there are visible and invisible barriers and everyone struggles. In order to raise children with strong executive function, parents need to help cultivate a strong foundation where the brain knows not to go into overdrive or over-react. By activating their own st...

Send us Fan Mail Popularized by the business community, the term "soft skills" might imply that these skills are neither nuanced nor hard to obtain. But scientists and researchers who study these skills refer to them as pragmatics, the way one uses language and communication to achieve social and interpersonal goals and believe that soft skills are critical to conveying intent, working h...

Send us Fan Mail We are often astonished to read or hear in the news about a kid who grabs a classmate’s hair, or snatches food from their tray, or even kicks their teacher. The average person might focus on the obvious disrespectful and unacceptable in-school behaviors. However, we will be missing point if we think that kids should come to school already fully knowing how to behave “properly”. In...

Send us Fan Mail There is no generation like Gen Z whose stressors have been quadrupled by the times they have grown up in - the economic dotcom burst, highly skilled stressed out parents always in-between jobs, anxiety of a flattening world, and a technology/social-media enabled personal life. Naturally, the question emerges as to how do we help this generation of kids master their executive func...

Send us Fan Mail Nothing is more invigorating than watching a young mind at work. Fascinated by curiosity and deeply enthralled in untangling its pieces, learning brings joy and satisfaction to both the teacher and the learner. But how does one make sure that the learner falls in love with learning? How much of that is the responsibility of an educator versus a parent versus a student himself? And...

Send us Fan Mail Do emotions mess up clear headed thinking? For centuries, culture and science has dismissed the value of emotions when it came to thinking about intelligence, learning, and critical thinking. This may have led to classrooms with a certain level of sterility and emotional reciprocity. Instead however, by focusing on how students feel, what emotional connections they make during the...

Send us Fan Mail When talking about independence and self-sufficiency in their students, educators often use the term “Personal Responsibility” which refers to the set of mental skills that neuroscience describes to be Executive Function. Teachers recognize that in order to develop a level of independence and agency, educators must have a plan to transfer the “process tools” from the teacher to th...

Send us Fan Mail Having difficulties can be discouraging and counterproductive. Children with ADHD experience far more defeats and discouragements compared to their counterparts. It’s no surprise that promote thriving in struggling learners depends on the right support, the right tools, but above all, the right environment that conveys a message of acceptance and hope. On this episode, our guest,...

Send us Fan Mail What do cooking, fishing, putting together a bookshelf, and a fixing a wall mount in the garage for your bike have in common? They are far easier to do by yourself than to teach it to someone. Those who teach recognize the challenge in going beyond learner engagement and external rewards or punishment; instead setting learners’ intrinsic motivation on fire by making them curious a...