Brains On Purpose™

The noisy coffin does not tell all: When we are in conflict, our brain interacts with other brains so to study the single brain can be a misleading abstraction

We are not alone and yet much of the neuroscience research looks at just one brain at a time. As Jonah Lehrer says in a recent interview (Edge):

"Neuroscience has contributed so much in just a few decades to how we think about human nature and how we know ourselves," he says. "But how can we take that same rigor, which has made this research so valuable and, at the same time, make it a more realistic representation of what it's actually like to be a human. After all, we're a brain embedded in this larger set of structures."

"You can call it culture, call it society, call it your family, call it your friend, call it whatever it is. ... It's the reason Twitter exists. We have got all these systems now that really make us fully aware of just how important social interactions are to what it is to be human. The question is, how can we study that? Because that, in essence, is a huge part of what's actually driving these enzymatic pathways in your brain. What's triggering these synaptic transmissions and these squirts of neurotransmitter back and forth is thoughts of other people, what other people say to us, interacting with the world at large."

It can be confining and confusing to look at brains individually; this is why the last letter of my CARVE Disputes Model™ of conflict resolution stands for "Ensemble." Lehrer further says:

And the quest goes on: Still looking for mediation music

I am going to figure out how to use music in mediation. (Past posts on music and conflict resolution.) Why am I tenaciously hunting down the right music to use with people in disputes?

Take a look at this documentary "The Musical Brain." You will see how music affects us and our brains in so many dynamic and often moving ways. (And you will get to learn what music does to Sting's brain.)

For those of you interested in this topic, here's some research somewhat related to my quest. (All are PDF.)

"The Influence of Group Singing on Trust and Cooperation" (Listening to music increased trust and cooperation.)

"Music Hath Charms . . . And Can Influence Helpfulness" (US students agreed to take over another person’s work more readily, if they listened to “soothing” music.)

"The Effects of Music on Helping Behavior: A Field Study" (Users of a US university gym agreed to distribute leaflets for a sporting charity more readily if they listened to uplifting music during work-out.)

"Synchrony and Cooperation" (Suggests that "cultural practices involving synchrony (e.g., music, dance, and marching)" increases the willingness to cooperate in social dilemma games.)

Note (added June 1, 2009): On a related use, I see that physicians are employing music as medicine. From "Music as medicine: Docs use tunes as treatment" (msnbc.com):

From Massachusetts General to the Mayo Clinic, patients are hearing the first strains of a harmonious movement — the infusion and inclusion of music in the treatment of ailments, from brain disorders to cancer. This goes beyond the psychological smile favorite songs can induce.

Doctors are increasingly studying — and employing — the physiological dance music does with the body's neurons

Fun overview of how the brain works

Let Dr. Steven Schlozman tell you about the brain here. Don't worry about the zombies. The information is about real, living people's brains, too.

Image credit: JTR.

That fashionable and popular brain! Are neuromyths increasing in dispute resolution? Who creates them?

I am happy to see that neuroscience is being mentioned more frequently by many who are talking and teaching about dispute resolution. On the other hand, I am a little concerned about what is being said about the brain; I'm hearing some neuromyths and assertions that go beyond what the research has proven. Let us be careful not to introduce neuromyths into the dispute resolution arena. Once they get in, repeated and accepted, it will be very hard to weed them out.

What's a neuromyth? From Understanding the Brain: The Birth of a Learning Science:

The brain is fashionable. The media constantly draws in one way or another on the mysteries of this "black box." Such popularity is partly explained by the inherent interest of the subject for most people ("if you are talking about my brain, you're talking about me"), as well as by the richness of new discoveries by neuroscientific research that lend themselves to media coverage. Popular appeal can bring pitfalls. Over the past few years, there has been a growing number of misconceptions circulating about the brain, which have come to be labeled "neuromyths." They have some characteristics in common ... .

Most neuromyths ... share similar origins. They are almost always based on some element of sound science, which

More about the brain and decision making: Another interview with Jonah Lehrer

A number of people have told me that my recent posting of a Jonah Lehrer interview on how we make decisions was appreciated. Obviously the process of deciding is a foundation of conflict resolution so I am linking you to another interview of Lehrer about the brain and decisions, this one from the Watson Institute for International Studies at Brown University. From the Web page of the interview "Jonah Lehrer: Brain Science for the Rest of Us":

[Lehrer's] new book How We Decide ... is a set of cautionary tales about the limits of the rational brain, that peculiarly human pre-frontal cortex, and by implication the limits of rational science. It is not reason — certainly not reason alone — that tells quarterback Tom Brady which receiver should get the pass, or that tells the pilot of a disabled plane how to land it. It’s not even reason that brings the best of our human gifts into balance. Lehrer quotes G. K. Chesterton: “The madman is not the man who has lost his reason. The madman is the man who has lost everything except his reason.”

Jonah Lehrer identifies himself with the modern doctor who tells you not to choose the MRI for your lower back pain but to study patience, or perhaps Yoga, instead. Not only have MRIs not solved the problem of back pain. “In fact, the new technology has probably made the problem worse. The machine simply sees too much. Doctors are overwhelmed with information and struggle to distinguish the significant from the irrelevant… This is the danger of too much information: it can actually interfere with understanding.”

In the interview, he talks about why neuroscience is becoming so popular and says it's because the science is becoming practical. He also says the way to avoid the consequences of the flaws in our

I'm borrowing a computer to write this

A long story but, in short, I cannot get online. The tech guy at the hotel where I was staying had me change some settings on my computer and now I am unable to access the Internet so no e-mail, blogging, googling, etc. I will be making a trip to the Apple store to get this fixed. A bit frustrating.