Full PreFrontal: Exposing the Mysteries of Executive Function

Send us Fan Mail If you are taking a stroll on the beach while you have parked your car at a meter, you have to set aside some mental resources to think about the time and to make decisions to either return to your car to add money to the meter or take a chance or bear the pain of having to pay a fine later. But the human struggle of balancing the desire to be in the moment while also considering...

Send us Fan Mail If an athlete on the high school varsity football, lacrosse, or soccer team happens to be more than typically distracted, taking too long, has become inconsistent with routines or happens to frequently doze off in history class, the teacher’s first assumption might be to question the student’s motivation and him hitting his head three weeks ago might be long forgotten. But the dat...

Send us Fan Mail The greatest philosophical writings over the centuries have often examined the idea of the meaning of life. After the World War II, Viktor Frankl’s writing often explored the idea of the existential vacuum, which plagued those who entered the concentration camps giving them no reason to fight for life. What we realize now is that a sense of purpose and meaning plays a vital role a...

Send us Fan Mail Traveling through time, visiting imaginary places, witnessing wars and famines, and reliving crusades, is all made possible by reading. It engages visual imagination, invokes emotions, and challenges our preconceived notions and it single-handedly helps us change our mind.  The reading journey begins from making sense of a written word to gathering new information from English, sc...

Send us Fan Mail Our lives have become so complex that surviving without shopping lists, calendars, scheduling apps, timers and alarms is nearly impossible. On top of that, sometimes, the information overload gets so out of hand that there’s no time left to pick our scattered selves up to set helpful systems up in the first place. In order to help raise organized and independent school-ready child...

Send us Fan Mail Rarely in a curriculum while learning, we ask children where they feel their emotions in their own bodies and whether those feeling change as their emotions change. Children who feel safe to tackle challenges, assured that they have the skills they need and are comfortable to seek help when needed, do well in school and life. Though in its early stage, research in contemplative st...

Send us Fan Mail Other than air, what is invisible, omnipresent, affects every single human being and yet is taken for granted? The answer is the cultural norms. They are the unspoken rules of social behaviors and shared conventions that everyone is expected follow, but may be doing so without really connecting it to the WHY. On this episode, our guest, distinguished university professor and profe...

Send us Fan Mail One shouldn’t be discouraged by the fact that learning is full of struggles as these struggles are inherent to the process of gathering facts, acquiring new knowledge, and gaining vivid insights. However, the struggles that go beyond a certain threshold built into learning should be examined and responded to. On this episode, author, life-long learner, and experienced educator, Ka...

Send us Fan Mail Life is complicated and we all are doing the best we can to manage its inherently challenging nature and predictably unpredictable flow. Developmental disorders like ADHD, and mental disorders like anxiety and depression, further exaggerate this uncertainty and creates a permanent state of flux. On this episode, our guest, Dr. Mark Bertin, a developmental pediatrician and an autho...

Send us Fan Mail You might be great at problem solving but the true test of executive function proficiency is not just helping someone get their car out of a ditch, but applying those same skills and principles to help yourself and get your own car out of a ditch. The process of self-directed learning is gradual and insidious where the individual gathers knowledge through experiential learning and...

Send us Fan Mail Learning is magical but not every teacher is a magician! Astronaut Scott Kelly celebrated for his curiosity for space missions, struggled to find his footing in the midst of “dull and boring” high school years. More than ever before, distracted, disengaged, and disillusioned kids finding themselves stuck in the ever widening gap between a ”ready to learn” mindset and a “ready to b...

Send us Fan Mail When learning, why is it that people often use the most exactly ill-fitted strategies or fail to appreciate the ones that do work? An educator who assumes the role of parting knowledge without much attention to imparting the wisdom of learning HOW to learn is churning our unenlightened students who could never take charge of their learning and self-knowledge. On this episode, Prof...

Send us Fan Mail The charm of entering college camouflages the real invitation to become responsible for yourself by figuring out what you want while taking care of the mundane, yet obligatory tasks of daily student life. The dread of “adulting” is further muddled by having to navigate the world with the unseen layers of executive function challenges that compromise attention, new learning, slower...

Send us Fan Mail We have all done it; followed the GPS blindly and reached the international terminal instead of the domestic one or forgotten to turn off the car lights, leaving them on overnight. The only solution is to pay attention to attention and see how to get it under our conscious control. On this episode, Courtney Stevens, PhD, a developmental cognitive neuroscientist and Associate Profe...

Send us Fan Mail Well-built Executive Function lends itself to thoughtful decision making and on-point problem solving, advantageous to meeting personal goals. However, the shifting nature of cognitive resources warrants keen attention to making crafty adjustments to our daily schedules to actualize the best results. William James was onto something when he wrote, “The great thing, then, in all ed...

Send us Fan Mail Goals may not change but circumstances do. Executive Function means to accomplish the goals by changing gears, repurposing solutions, and shifting perspectives by successfully adapting to the changed conditions And doing it without losing focus, waning interest or destabilizing emotions. Tune in to this Big Picture episode as I discuss the brain finest ability to orchestrate actio...

Send us Fan Mail In 2018, John Legend became the 13th and the youngest winner of "EGOT" which stands for the big-four possible outstanding awards in the entertainment industry: Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony. An awe worthy accomplishment certainly points out the talent in John Legend, but is it cultivated? There are those who do things, those who do it well, and those who do it exceptiona...

Send us Fan Mail What do Supreme Court Justice Sotomayor, academy award winning actor Leonardo de Caprio, designer Ralph Lauren, and entertainment mogul Jay Z have in common? They all grew up poor. Their success is enviable, but breaking the cycle of poverty is a mammoth task; one that requires educational opportunities that compensate for the disadvantages created by the socio-economic gap, appro...

Send us Fan Mail The name Shepherd Ivory Franz won’t ring a bell for many, but he is a notable individual in the arena that is now known as neuropsychiatry and neuropsychology. Close to 100 years ago, he was testing the ability to relearn after performing an ablative brain surgery on cats that he had initially “taught”. This type of work and eventual application to the veterans who survived brain...

Send us Fan Mail “Executive Function refers to your choreographed ability to make yourself DO and take actions using the capacity and vision for self to yield outcomes that are socially-emotionally desirable, future centered and appropriate for personal advancement.” - Sucheta Kamath After a year and half interviewing the world’s leading authorities, researchers and educators Sucheta brings her ow...

Send us Fan Mail Over the last several decades, the public’s understanding of a Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) and the cognitive, behavioral, and emotional sequelae of the same has undergone radical transformation. There is ample evidence that supports the fact that rehabilitation is a critical part of the road to recovery and making treatment functional can be done successfully by a bridge into the...

Send us Fan Mail What hazard could really be posed by daily activities like driving, biking, climbing, or walking?  They don’t, until they do. An awkward step, a sudden turn, an unanticipated slip or a fall can alter the direction in which one’s life is going. The Brain Injury Association of America reports that at least 2.5 million people encounter a traumatic brain injury each year. For some, th...

Send us Fan Mail Ability, inability, and disability rest on a continuum where the human story comes to life. Living with a disability; whether it is a physical, mental, or a learning disability is life-long work and having able partners can make the journey pleasant. But, the able partner is not just someone without a disability, but one who is willing to embrace the unique human experience with a...

Send us Fan Mail Gerald Belcher once said, “The best education is not given to students; it is drawn out of them.” It captures the notion that learning and teaching are intertwined and this relationship deepens when educators keep inventing new ways to inspire kids, help make creative connections, and allow their passion to come through. In these moments, there’s nothing higher than the human spir...

Send us Fan Mail Rajveer Meena from India successfully recalled 70,000 decimal places of pi (π) and broke the previous Guinness World Record of reciting 67,890 digits of pi held by Lu Chao of China since 2005. By reading about such a feat of accomplishment, you can easily see the giant rift between "memory athletes" and ordinary citizens. However, memory is more of a skill than a gift wh...