Brains On Purpose™

Being strong and silent, or meek and mild, may turn you weak and wild

Is it good to suppress or hide your feelings? Perhaps sometimes, but certainly not always, because voicing them seems to activate the brain's braking system and calm down the emotional response. I have blogged about labeling the affect in the past, but was reminded of that process's value when reading the article "The Brain’s Braking System (and how to ‘use your words’ to tap into it)" [pdf].

In the article, neuroscientist Matt Lieberman takes a look at self-control of several kinds: emotional, motor, perspective-taking, cognitive, and financial. He says all these kinds of self-control involve the same part of the brain, the right ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (RVLPFC), which he calls the "brain's braking system." An interesting point: Because of the RVLPFC commonality, when we engage in one kind of self-control, that braking system may cause other kinds of self-control to kick in, too.

Lieberman then writes that naming your feelings (labeling your affect) can regulate your emotions.

The affect labeling data suggests that putting feelings into words is a form of emotion regulation. The problem with this account is that affect labeling does not feel like emotion regulation. When you try to suppress your emotions you know you are doing it – it is quite conscious. Although people sometimes put their feelings into words in order to generate new insights and improve their emotional well-being, we often put our feelings into words without any expectation that mere affect labeling will have an emotional benefit.

Can you improve your ability to put feelings into words in order to regulate them? Although more research is being done by Lieberman, results so far seem to indicate that practicing mindfulness meditation can make that ability sharper. Another good addition to the growing list of benefits of mindfulness

He concludes:

We have ... demonstrated evidence suggesting that putting feelings into words serves as an unexpected

Upcoming conference has several workshops that will likely be of interest to mediators

Looks like an excellent conference next July in Vancouver. Some of the presentations being given at Brain Development & Learning: Making Sense of the Science:

• “The Human Mind and the Social World: Implicit Biases are Learned and can be Unlearned” - Mahzarin Banaji, PhD
• “Thinking Across Cultures: What’s Variable, What’s Universal, and Implications for a Culturally Diverse World” - Ara Norenzayan, PhD
• “Optimizing instruction: How we learn versus how we think we learn” - Robert Bjork, PhD
• “Oxytocin, Vasopressin, and Love: Implications for Mental Health and Mental Illness” - Sue Carter, PhD
• “Creativity and Flow: Making Life and Learning more Enjoyable” - Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, PhD
• “The Challenges of Intergroup Interaction: Enhancing Trust for Better Intergroup Relations” - John (Jack) Dovidio, PhD
• “Mindfulness-based Stress and Pain Reduction (MBSR)” - Jon Kabat-Zinn, PhD

Watch the videos from the U of Chicago conference on how the social brain experiences empathy

The videos from the "How the social brain experiences empathy" conference are available online. Click to watch them. Talk titles and presenters:

• The Empathy-Altruism Hypothesis: Issues and Implications - Daniel Batson (University of Kansas)
• Oxytocin and the Neurobiology of Empathy - Sue Carter (University of Illinois at Chicago)
• The Benefits and the Costs of Empathy: the Price of Being Human - Jean Decety (University of Chicago)
• Relations of Children’s Empathy-related Responding to Their Regulation and Social Functioning - Nancy Eisenberg (Arizona State University)
• Challenges to Clinical Empathy - Jodi Halpern (University of California at Berkeley)
• The Strange (Recent) History of Empathic Cruelty - Allan Young (McGill University)

The brain for non-scientists: A 75-minute lesson in 12 short segments

Want to learn about

• Plasticity
• Imaging/Development
• Vision
• Hearing
• Motor System
• Language
• Music
• And more?

Then take a look at Changing Brains, a Web site created by University of Oregon. Click on "Watch Online" to see the videos that will give you information about your brain. Click on "References" for a list of readings. Clicking on "Resources" will take you to a long list of links. Thanks, U of Oregon.

Read more about the videos in "All About the Brain, in Just 75 Minutes" (Newswise):

It is the consistency of room-temperature butter, fits easily into two outstretched hands and contains a galaxy's worth of neurons. It is the human brain and the focus of a DVD -- "Changing Brains: Effects of Experience on Human Development" -- produced at the University of Oregon.
Did you ever wonder how everything we know, feel, and think is wired in this delicate organ? Did you ever wonder how children’s experiences shape their brain? Answers to these questions and more can be found the 75-minute program created for parents, teachers, caregivers, policymakers and anyone else interested in the mysteries of the brain.

Students, faculty and staff in the UO's Brain Development Lab produced the content for DVD, which is geared for non-scientists. There are 12 segments, including nine specific topics, all presented in mostly everyday language. ...

"The central theme of our production is that virtually every aspect of the development of the human brain and the sensory, cognitive, social and emotional skills that it supports is dependent on and shaped by experience -- input from our environment," said Helen Neville, a professor of psychology and neuroscience and holder of the Robert and Beverly Lewis Endowed Chair at the UO. "Every statement that is made in this DVD is supported by evidence from scientific studies."

The program begins with an introduction that describes the human brain, the central role it plays in human functioning, its fragility and the methods used to study its structure and function. Also detailed are mechanisms that allow experience to shape the brain's development. Its architecture is likened to a house: structurally sound if built appropriately or weak and subject to collapse if not.

Are you promoting yawning in your mediations? If not, you may want to rethink that

Yawning can affect the way we interact with each other. Read what neuroscientist Dr. Andrew Newberg has to say about that mouth-opened-wide action. From "Yawn: It’s one of the best things you can do for your brain" (Penn Gazette):

Several recent brain-scan studies have shown that yawning evokes a unique neural activity in the areas of the brain that are directly involved in generating social awareness and creating feelings of empathy. One of those areas is the precuneus, a tiny structure hidden within the folds of the parietal lobe. According to researchers at the Institute of Neurology in London, the precuneus appears to play a central role in consciousness, self-reflection, and memory retrieval. The precuneus is also stimulated by yogic breathing, which helps explain why different forms of meditation contribute to an increased sense of self-awareness. It is also one of the areas hardest hit by age-related diseases and attention deficit problems, so it’s possible that deliberate yawning may actually strengthen this important part of the brain.

For these reasons I believe that yawning should be integrated into exercise and stress reduction programs, cognitive and memory enhancement training, psychotherapy, and contemplative spiritual practice. And, because the precuneus has recently been associated with the mirror-neuron system in the brain (which allows us to resonate to the feelings and behaviors of others), yawning may even help us to enhance social awareness, compassion, and effective communication with others.

Now are you going to invite yawns to your next conflict resolution event?

There's a new blog on the neuroscience of social interactions

For those of you not reading idealawg, here's information about a new blog being written by a grad student in social cognitive neuroscientist Kevin Ochsner's lab.

Now you see my frown, now you don't: What you get is not always what you see

Not a day goes by that I am not reminded several times of the importance of being self-aware, as a mediator, as a party, as a citizen. Much goes on out of our awareness and the more we can expand our awareness, the less we will be influenced by the subliminal. Fewer influences will be subliminal because they will instead be in our conscious awareness.

A mediation with self-aware people in the room operating from their reflective minds will look and sound very different from one with reactive brains in participants' skulls. One reason is emotional contagion (about which I have blogged here before). A new study is a reminder of just how powerful emotional contagion can be.

Two people, because of damage to one side of their brains, were unable to process what they saw with one of their eyes. Nevertheless when their blind side was shown pictures of people looking happy or fearful, they still responded to the emotion. When shown fearful people, a frown muscle twitched and when shown a happy people, a twitch occurred in a smile muscle. Neuroscientist Christian Keysers, quoted in "Not blind to emotion" (Nature News), said, "This is interesting evidence that we can recognize the emotions

"4 ways to keep your brain limber": People with rigid brains don't make good mediators

Of course, keeping the brain limber is very important for anyone who facilitates conflict resolution. Here's an article with some tips on how to attend to your brain so it does not get rigid. The four methods: insight, behavior, emotion, and focus. (The article includes a relaxation exercise I have tried in the past and appreciated.)

You will see that the article quotes Jeff. From "4 ways to keep your brain limber" (cnn.com):

Behavior: If a night out usually means dinner and a movie, buy tickets for a flamenco performance instead. Drive the slow, scenic road to work versus the highway. Take a class in a subject that interests you but has nothing to do with your job.

When you follow a routine, your brain can operate in low-energy mode, via relatively primitive structures known as the basal ganglia, says Jeffrey Schwartz, M.D., co-author of "The Mind and the Brain: Neuroplasticity and the Power of Mental Force."

In contrast, new activities engage the prefrontal cortex, an evolutionarily younger area that needs more energy to function. That's why breaking a routine may feel hard -- but if you push past that effort, Schwartz says, new experiences can help stimulate fresh states of mind that leave you feeling both more focused and energized.

Now go do something new.

Why it's brain-friendly to clarify ideas through images

I have before urged you to make images a part of the conflict resolution process. Here's a TED video on why images assist in good communication. From the Web page of this video of Tom Wujec:

Information designer Tom Wujec talks through three areas of the brain that help us understand words, images, feelings, connections. In this short talk from TEDU, he asks: How can we best engage our brains to help us better understand big ideas?

The video is only 6 and 1/2 minutes long. And the presenter is a good speaker. Watching will be a good—and short—break for you.

On another note: Click to see the interview I posted today at idealawg of Sue Smalley, founder of UCLA's Mindful Awareness Research Center.

Your Brain at Work: Web site with lots of neuroscience resources and information

Click on over to http://yourbrainatwork.org/ to explore this resource-rich Web site brought to us by the Dana Foundation. Plan to spend a while; there's much to be found at the site.

Don't worry, be happy, see more: Another reason to monitor the conflict moodscape

Some research out of University of Toronto adds to the list of benefits of having a positive mood. From "Seeing More With Rose-Coloured Glasses" (Medical News Today):

A University of Toronto study provides the first direct evidence that our mood literally changes the way our visual system filters our perceptual experience suggesting that seeing the world through rose-coloured glasses is more biological reality than metaphor.

"Good and bad moods literally change the way our visual cortex operates and how we see," says Adam Anderson, a U of T professor of psychology. "Specifically our study shows that when in a positive mood, our visual cortex takes in more information, while negative moods result in tunnel vision. The study appears in the Journal of Neuroscience.

What are some of the advantages of seeing more when in a conflict? To name one: Improved communication can result from paying close attention to people's demeanor, posture, gestures, expressions, and other non-verbal cues. What are other advantages?

In the past, I have posted about ways to regulate moods and emotions. Examples:

• Regulating in-the-way emotions in conflict resolution: Is the difference between a roar and a purr found in the eye of the beholder (or ear of the listener)?
• What's the quickest route from reactive brain to reflective mind (and a new kind of dispute)? Climb a tree
• "What are you feeling?" "What am I feeling?" These questions are tools for brain taming
• From scaredy cat to serene lion: The alchemy of cognitive reappraisal
  

Emotions can save the day or torpedo the agreement in conflict resolution: More about regulating them

Emotion regulation was the topic of my last post. Why? Because regulating emotions can be critical in conflict resolution, both in designing solutions and reducing stress. Cognitive reframing or cognitive reappraisal is one very  effective method of regulating emotions as I described in From scaredy cat to serene lion: The alchemy of cognitive reappraisal.

About a week after writing that cat-to-lion post, I added a link to a post at The Big Idea Blog written by neuroscientist Kevin Ochsner. In case some of you missed that addition, I now call your attention to Ochsner's post  The Science of Managing Fears because he gives a good review of three types of emotion regulation: change the situation, get perspective, and, of course, reappraise. (He also briefly describes the neuroanatomy of fear.) Take a look what this neuroscientist has to say about emotion regulation.

Note (added November 10, 2008, 9:55 AM Mountain): Podcast of Ocshner entitled "Staying Cool Under Pressure."