Sense of Mind

This episode delves into the fascinating overlap of neuroscience, visualization, and mental imagery, empowering us to understand and harness our mind's power to transform our lives. We uncover how short, repeated visualization sessions can aid skill acquisition, how goal-setting can be enhanced with neuroscience-backed approaches, and how visualization can even ameliorate mental health. Suppor...

Dive into the fascinating world of cybernetics and discover how our bodies function as a complex control hierarchy, with the mind serving as the governor. Learn about cellular communication, the evolution of the nervous system, and the parallels between our bodies and societal structures. This discussion will redefine your understanding of your body and mind, inviting you to consider what kind of...

You asked, we're here to answer! On this episode of The Social Brain, we will be addressing questions about all things neuroscience sent to us by viewers like you. Be sure to join in and leave any questions you have for future AMA episodes in the comments or the live chat! Support The Social Brain on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thesocialbrain Prefer to listen? Check out the podcast versio...

In this episode of The Social Brain, we will dive into the neuroscience of the self, exploring how the brain processes self-referent information, the role of identity in our evolution and development, and how identity can be used to make significant changes. Join us on this journey to uncover the neuroscience of the self, and its relationship with identity and identity development. Support The Soc...

In this video, I explore the neuroscience of positive emotions, the roles of the prefrontal cortex and anterior cingulate cortex, and science-based tools to enhance positivity, focus, and mindfulness. Discover how the left forebrain is associated with positive feelings and how the left prefrontal cortex (PFC), especially the left dorsolateral PFC (dlPFC), springs into action during periods of happ...

In this episode, we will explore the psychology and neuroscience of hope, starting in an unlikely place: the science of learned helplessness and depression. Support The Social Brain on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thesocialbrain Topics: - The Concept of Hope and Its Significance - Overview of Learned Helplessness, Depression, and the "hope circuit" (especially the work of Drs. Martin...

How does the brain produce emotions? Dive into the fascinating world of emotions in this exclusive Sense of Mind Patreon-Only livestream! We will unravel the complex history, psychology, and neuroscience of emotions, exploring theories and perspectives from the likes of Charles Darwin, Panskepp, Ekman, and Lisa Feldman Barrett. Note: The live recording of this video was available only to Patreon s...

Discover true happiness through the lens of neuroscience. Dive into the fascinating world of hedonic hotspots, the pleasure cycle, and the neurological underpinnings of eudaimonia. Learn how the brain's default mode network may connect eudaimonic and hedonic happiness to the self and explore Drs. Morten Kringelbach and Kent Berridge's hypothesis on the role of optimal metastability in achi...

Probably the most important question we can ask is “how can I be happier?” Some people might find this question overly self-centered, but becoming happier is not only good for us, but everyone we come into contact with as well. Others, while agreeing that individual happiness is important, may nevertheless think it is impossible to be any happier than one’s genes or childhood determine. That is a...

Ever wondered how caffeine keeps you awake, alert, and motivated? Discover the science behind this amazing molecule and how it affects your brain! In this video, I dive into the world of dopamine and uncover the unique way caffeine enhances dopamine signaling. Learn the surprising link between caffeine and other addictive substances, and how this mind-boosting compound can be both a friend and foe...

In this episode of "The Social Brain," we delve into the fascinating world of how our brains create and track long-term goals and how we can harness these mechanisms to regulate our impulses, bad habits, and behavior. Support The Social Brain" on Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/thesocialbrain Follow the podcast: https://rss.com/podcasts/thesocialbrain/ Join us as we explore the bra...

What causes depression? A chemical imbalance? Nope. A moral failing? Definitely not. What about deficits in the brain's ability to change itself? Maybe. In this Patreon-only livestream, we will explore the connections between depression and neuroplasticity. Based on the Integrative Model proposed by Rebecca Price and the late neuroscientist Ronald Duman (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articl...

In this episode, we will explain how neuroplasticity works and how you can use it to improve your life. --Support The Social Brain on Patreon! www. Patreon.com/thesocialbrain-- Throughout life, you are continually changing, shifting, adapting, learning, and becoming who you are. Another way of saying that is that your mind is continually changing, because you are your mind. Of course, your brain i...

In this episode, we'll delve into the fascinating science of emotions and explore the seven basic emotions that are hypothesized by neuroscientist Jaak Panksepp to be produced by separate neural circuits in the brain. According to the Panksepp, each of these emotions has a dedicated system in the subcortical regions of the brains of mammals. By activating these particular regions, a specific a...

We’ve all experienced it at one point or another: that feeling of effortless, almost magical engagement with a task, where time seems to stand still and the world around us fades away. It’s the state of flow, and it’s been described as the ultimate form of happiness and productivity . Flow is a state that can be experienced in many different activities, from sports to art to work. It’s a feeling o...

What truly sets humans apart from other animals? In this episode, we'll explore the human brain and the unique characteristics that define our species. From our extraordinary language abilities and unmatched cognitive control to our intricate social networks and emotional experiences, we'll uncover the neurological basis for these traits and discuss their profound implications on human culture and...

What is the relationship between the brain and the mind? Does the brain produce consciousness? What is the "hard problem" of consciousness and does neuroscience have anything to say about it? In this Patreon-only livestream, I discussed my answers to all of these questions and dove into some of the neuroscientific evidence that backs up my answers.    -- Sense of Mind needs your help! Th...

Explore the fascinating evolution of the cerebral cortex, the most sophisticated brain region, which is crucial for complex cognition and perception. In this episode, you'll learn how the cortex evolved from a simple network of nerves in giant worms to the highly specialized and intricately wired cortex of haplorrhines, the primate group that includes humans. Discover the selection pressures that...

Do you feel exhausted by work or life in general? More specifically, do you lack a feeling of motivation and drive that you used to have? If so, you might be experiencing burnout. Burnout is incredibly common, with a 2018 Gallup poll reporting that 23% of employees in the US say they feel burned out at work all or most of the time (and I would guess this is higher post-Covid).    While m...

These days, it's easy to take for granted the incredible complexity of motion, the way we are able to move through the world with such ease. We don't often think about the countless hours of practice, the countless micro-adjustments, and the countless neurons firing in our brain to make it all happen.   Yet, motion is a form of intelligence, and understanding the neuroscience of motor le...

How does the brain control sleep? Why do our brains need sleep in the first place? What are the health benefits of sleep? Why do some animals sleep more than others? What are dreams and why do our brains generate them? Why is it so hard to fall asleep when you’re stressed or hungry? How did sleep evolve?   In this video, we will explore the amazing science of sleep. We’ll see how specific bra...

Take a moment to feel what’s going on inside your body. Maybe your stomach is starting to feel hungry, or maybe it feels pleasantly full and satisfied. Maybe you don’t feel any specific area, but instead you sense a hum of life within you–your breath gently moving in and out and subtle tingles throughout your body. What’s amazing is that, while those feelings seem like they’re happening in your bo...

These days, it's easy to feel overwhelmed and distracted by the barrage of notifications, emails, and tasks that vie for our attention. It can be hard to stay focused and give our undivided attention to the things that truly matter. Rather than reflexively reacting to the chaos, we must take the time to pause, reflect, and make intentional decisions about how to use the power of our attention. We...

We spend a lot of time thinking about the future or the past, often at the expense of living in the present. As we talked about in the last episode, this kind of cognition is completely natural: it’s built into the brain’s default mode network. And while planning for the future, reviewing the past, and mind wandering are all important and healthy aspects of being human, they can also make us unhap...

What makes human cognition so much different from that of other animals? The short answer has to do with a single brain network: the default mode network (DMN). Humans are deliberative, able to flexibly combine the current moment with the past so that we can simulate and predict the future. We can remember things that occurred years and even decades ago and we can plan for life events that won't h...