Today my guest is neuroscience pioneer Dr Lisa Feldman Barrett.
Dr Feldman Barrett is a Distinguished Professor of Psychology at Northeastern University,with appointments at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital and she is the director of the Interdisciplinary Affective Science Laboratory.
The Access Pass unlocks all previous episode Show Notes and all episodes of March 2017, too.
• WHAT ARE SHOW NOTES?
Show Notes are minute-indicated details of the audio with resources for your reference, extra enjoyment, and use. They include important information and links to people, websites, books, articles mentioned, and other related episodes, information, and resources so you can “nerd-out”, dig deeper or learn more. Getting show notes support the hefty production costs of the show. It’s just $1 per month and you can cancel anytime.
If you like the show, please share it with one other person TODAY, OR write a review on iTunes. Don’t know how to write a review on iTunes, exactly?Here’s a short how-to video:
Reach out and let me know how you are doing and what you’ve enjoyed about an episode. I love to hear from YOU!
Spark My Muse releases two audio episodes per week.
WEDNESDAYS are SOUL SCHOOL episodes ( power-packed short episodes for everyday life. )
FRIDAYS are conversational interview style episodes with guests from a wide variety of backgrounds on interesting topics to get you thinking.
Today we are talking about control: Free will, luck (chance), and the power of nature versus nurture in how things in life turn out for us when it comes to these sorts of things. If you enjoy the show, share it with someone, or write a review on iTunes!
Today’s guest is Diana Hsieh, PhD in Philosophy, University of Colorado, Boulder
*my note: This line of inquiry poses something interesting about a common worldview (though largely an unconscious one) in American culture and it is a discourse quite popular in some circles also about “culturally relative morality” vs. morality sourced and referenced in a Creator who is objectively good and perfect. C.S. Lewis reflects on this in his book “Mere Christianity”. If you are interested in commenting about this in any way, you can do so at the FACEBOOK group PAGE here.
Can the science behind what makes us laugh teach us something about how to make better decisions, or how to getting along better with others?
Why do some people find things offensive that others find hilarious?
What factors influence humor and can they be altered for desirable outcomes?
Can the brain recover from major damage and how plastic is it?
All these questions and many more are studied using experiments and FMRI brain scans at the Goel Neuroscience Lab at Toronto’s York University to unlock the role of emotion in decision-making, mental systems, and human behavior.
Scroll down to click the LISTEN button.
Dr. Vinod Goel is my guest today. He is a neuroscientist of note, but he is currently on sabbatical in Zurich, so he will not likely be joining us for our LIVE discussion portion on humor on October 13.
Enjoy my recorded conversation with him for the podcast and scroll down for shownotes.
Caleb Warren, behavioral researcher from the Humor Research Lab, with Pete McGraw author of the Humor Code, is stepping in to answer your questions and discus the science of humor on October 13 HERE. (or click to watch the replay)
The Spark My Muse Project is little listener-supported endeavor with a mission to be a spark in the world. It’s not just a podcast, website, and resources, but a partnership AND a fellowship of kindred spirits. Thousands of people n 171 countries are listening and helping too.
• If each listener contributes just a bit per month, we can keep the Spark!
The way the brain understands a joke works the same way any mental set shifts work. By studying what the brain does with humor, we can understand how the brain understands and perceives the world in symbols, language, abstraction, and in social contexts. Using FMRI scans that study of the brain has revealed some interesting and surprising findings.
3:00
Basic jokes rely on non verbal set ups that become funny when the expectation is not met and advance jokes are semantical and often involve a shift in thinking about a social norm.
4:30
Why uneducated people get offended at jokes.
6:30
Physical humor and language-based humor. It depends on triggers.
7:20
Study show that tickling rats cause a kind of laughing response. Are they REALLY laughing?
8:20
How are humor develops, starting in childhood and moving toward abstract concepts. The social context and the semantic network of association develop to understand much more.
10:40
His study of the role of emotion in reason and decision-making.
The impetus was watching American politics.
12:30
The manipulation of emotion in advertisements to bring people to an illogical conclusion. Different portions of the brain are not used that would help make a good and logical decision.
14:00
Arguments laden with emotion don’t engage the reasoning part of the brain found in the left dorsal lethal prefrontal cortex. Instead brain activation happens in the medial ventral prefrontal cortex.
Studying war veterans with brain damage in the medial ventral prefrontal cortex could reason just fine but not if the medial ventral was damage. This part of the brain filters out the emotional content so we can make wise decisions.
17:00
His findings show the individuals with more education and with higher IQ, and better working memory capacity care better at compensating for the differences and detect if there is emotion playing into the decision at hand.
19:30
Brain plasticity and what can be healed.
22:00
The strange case of the normal woman they scanned who had the shockingly atrophied brain hemisphere. Her working hemisphere took over all the functions of the damaged hemisphere.
26:00
One of the surprises in his recent research that exploded the common perception in the field of neuroscience.
The visional perception parts of the brain that are not near the frontal lobe but help us in reasoning.
30:00
Dr Goel ideas about why humor is such an important part of the human experience.
Humor allows us to entertain ideas in a non threatening and safe environment or forum where we can positively interact.
34:00
The distinction between humor and pleasure and between laughter and humor.
35:00
Laughing disorders and occasions where laughter doesn’t include mirth. Laughing yoga and the “holy laughing” phenomenon.
Where in the brain laughter is sourced. Feigned laughter is shown to come from a different part of the brain than genuine laughter.
39:30
Laughing and yawning can both be phenomenon.
40:30
Laugh tracks used in comedy shows to make us perceive the show as more funny.
43:30
Often humor is relying on the violations of social norms. The science behind why Archie Bunker is no longer funny for most people.
45:30
On what makes something classically funny.
48:30
Dr Goel children don’t think he’s funny.
50:20
The brain chemistry of humor in the reward centers of the brain.
51:40
“Humor is a very sophisticated marker of intelligence.”
I used to think books with “daily affirmations” were goofy new-age baloney.
Why would reciting some sappy self-help mantra change anything?
I still don’t own a book of daily affirmations but I’ve learned a lot about transformation.
Plus, the recent empirical scientific data shows what many of us who’ve studied spiritual formation already knew from a long record of wisdom writings and human history:
“As a man thinks so he is.”
3D brain scans verify that our thoughts, habits, and patterns (physically) change our brains, down to the cellular level and even into our DNA!
Prayer works like focus. Meditation works like concentration. And yes, affirmations can truly transform attitudes.
All 6 can, and do, change us for the better. It comes down to effort.
With practice, bad habits get harder to break (not so great), but new thoughts and actions build new cortical pathways (hope for betterment!).
I have some firm beliefs that I’m bent on making a potent reality:
1. My perspective can determine my actions.
2. My attitude can improve my life.
3. Reminding myself of the truth about abundance can transform me.
4. Connecting to a positive version of reality can revitalize me.
5. Hope is my choice.
I decided to create a handy guide to make each day better.
If you ever struggle with being positive and hopeful, I hope this makes it easier.
It’s really helped me to see the path visually.
I’m hoping to improve how I determine and live out my outlook and actions each day. How about we do it together?
Sure, we’ll fail sometimes, but maybe some guidance will steer us right again, soon.
Skeptical? Give it a chance.
Seriously. Try it for a few days:
1. Use this visual guide to help you.
2. Remind yourself throughout the day about your choice of a scarcity or an abundance mindset.
3. At the end of each day, reviewand see if you lost track of your perspective–then recommit to keep at it.
3. Note your mood and attitude throughout the day to gauge your progress.
4. Share your progress and this guide with others, if you’ve been helped.
I made it for you to ebed at your website, or share on Facebook or pinterest.
Want to pass it along? I’d love that.
Want in on the upcoming goodies and posts? Whoot! Sign up in the right sidebar!
Interested in brain science?
I recommend this:
New 3D brain scan technology has changed even recently-held theories about how the brain works.
On the positive side, many brain injuries, learning disabilities, paralysis from strokes, mental disorders and addictions can now be treated with targeted exercises that cause brain re-mapping. The subsequent brain scans evidence the improvement.
Also proven: Things like prayer and meditation are verifiably shown to improve not only health and well-being but to alter brain mapping not just down to the cellular level but to the level of DNA itself.
The area of study is termed neuroplasticity.
Even into very old age, the brain now shows us its ability to continually adapt to the environment, and improve depending on how it’s utilized. Certain thoughts alter us. The proof is empirical.
On the negative side certain things the brain engages in make future change very difficult because chemical changes from events can permanently alter the brain’s structure. Nevertheless, the idea that the brain works like a computer or that it “hardens” like wet cement at around age 6 have been debunked.
Of course most of us already knew at some level. In spiritual formation we study this historically as well. The anecdotal evidence has always been there.
Proverbs 23:7a “For as a man thinketh in his heart [mind+will], so he is.”
In his book, Dr Norman Doidge gives us many case studies that appear simply miraculous at first blush. It’s worth the read.
• An eye surgeon paralyzed by a catastrophic stroke is give a rehabilitative treatment that allowed him to be a successful surgeon again.
• People born with congenital blindness are able to re-map their brains and perceive vision through through–of all things–their tongues!
• Wounded soldiers with phantom limb pain find relief for the first time.
(and much more)
Re-mapping is not science fiction nor is it fluffy positive thinking. Re-mapping just requires effort and specific therapy.
So if you could re-map your brain what would you like to change?
Don’t give up.
Did you like this post? Please share it.
More soon. Don’t miss the next one: Take just 4 seconds and sign up for a direct delivery in the sidebar.
