Brains On Purpose™

New (to me) book on the brain, conflict resolution, and dance

Click to learn about a book published in September titled The Choreography of Resolution: Conflict, Movement, and Neuroscience. You may read at that link the book's Table of Contents, Acknowledgments, Foreword, and Introduction. From the American Bar Association Web site:

This work invigorates connections between somatic knowledge and conflict transformation. Taken together, the chapters address this question: How does the nexus of movement and conflict inform and deepen understandings and generate new questions and insights about conflict geography and the choreography of resolution? Juxtaposing autobiographical and practice experiences with diverse cultural, historical and social realities highlights both challenges and breakthroughs in this burgeoning area.

The chapters also reveal the importance of symbolic and non-literal language in expressing and addressing the true toll of trauma on an individual or community. The contributors describe how physical movement enables more holistic access to decoding emotions that are invariably physiological, containing both mental and embodied nuances. As the body and mind are in constant conversation, it is understood then that emotions begin with physical sensations. When the emotions and energy are blocked by conflict, it then attributes to physical changes. This book illuminates the physical, emotional, and relational intelligence that relate to conflict resolution and takes you on a journey toward reshaping and developing your own mind, as well as your approach to conflict resolution.

I have not read the book and, in fact, only learned of it today (thanks, Merrilyn Astin Tarlton). Have you read it? If so, what were your thoughts? Did it inspire you to try something new?

How do you "get" another culture? It takes time, but then what's time? Some tips for deftly navigating the rabbit hole

The lens of culture is very subtle and tricky. To navigate and communicate effectively in another culture takes experience, knowledge, time, and wisdom. Unfortunately, today the topic of cross-cultural communication has reached the level of pop psychology. If you listen, the purveyors of this simplistic version of culture awareness are still stuck in seeing the world through their own very Western lens.

To avoid being repetitive, I will link to my earlier posts on culture below. To understand how careful one needs to be when trying to understand other cultures, read them or better yet get a copy of the latest edition of the Samovar text and read it through. Then follow your reading up with any book by Paul Pedersen, such as this one.

And then you are ready to begin learning by going to other cultures and listening, watching, respecting.

I said that learning the art of cross-cultural communication takes time. What is time? Today I am posting a captivating story about how much cultures can vary, in this instance on the concept of numbers, counting—and time. Here's "Study Finds Twist to the Story of the Number Line," a news release from UCSD.

Tape measures. Rulers. Graphs. The gas gauge in your car, and the icon on your favorite digital device showing battery power. The number line and its cousins – notations that map numbers onto space and often represent magnitude – are everywhere. Most adults in industrialized societies are so fluent at using the concept, we hardly think about it. We don’t stop to wonder: Is it “natural”? Is it cultural?

Now, challenging a mainstream scholarly position that the number-line concept is innate, a study suggests it is learned.

The study, published in PLoS ONE April 25, is based on experiments with an indigenous group in Papua New Guinea. It was led by Rafael Núñez, director of the Embodied Cognition Lab and associate professor of cognitive science in the UC San Diego Division of Social Sciences.

“Influential scholars have advanced the thesis that many of the building blocks of mathematics are ‘hard-wired’ in the human mind through millions of years of evolution. And a number of different sources of evidence do suggest that humans naturally associate numbers with space,” said Núñez, coauthor of “Where Mathematics Comes From“ and co-director of the newly established Fields Cognitive Science Network at the Fields Institute for Research in Mathematical Sciences.

“Our study shows, for the first time, that the number-line concept is not a ‘universal intuition’ but a particular cultural tool that requires training and education to master,” Núñez said. “Also, we document that precise number concepts can exist independently of linear or other metric-driven spatial representations.”

Núñez and the research team, which includes UC San Diego cognitive science doctoral alumnus Kensy Cooperrider, now at Case Western Reserve University, and Jürg Wassmann, an anthropologist at the University of Heidelberg who has studied the indigenous group for 25 years, traveled to a remote area of the Finisterre Range of Papua New Guinea to conduct the study.

The upper Yupno valley, like much of Papua New Guinea, has no roads. The research team flew in on a four-seat plane and hiked in the rest of the way, armed with solar-powered equipment, since the valley has no electricity.

The indigenous Yupno in this area number some 5,000, spread over many small villages. They are subsistence farmers. Most have little formal schooling, if any at all. While there is no native writing system, there is a native counting system, with precise number concepts and specific words for numbers greater than 20. But there doesn’t seem to be any evidence of measurement of any sort, Núñez said, “not with numbers, or feet or elbows.”

Neither Hard-Wired nor “Out There”

Núñez and colleagues asked Yupno adults of the village of Gua to complete a task that has been used widely by

NEW KINDS OF SMART: Free resource on brain science and learning

Click to read New Kinds of Smart: How the Science of Learnable Intelligence is Changing Education online and at no charge. Although the book is written for educators, it has much that is informative to conflict professionals, too. As I have often said, moving towards the resolution of a dispute must involve learning, by both mediator and parties.

Excerpt from the book:

The book works like this. It has eight core chapters, each of which follows a similar format:

A specific piece of research which illustrates the theme of the chapter.

Getting to grips with. An overview of scientific and educational research relevant to the chapter.

Starting out. Examples of what schools that are just beginning to work with the ideas in the chapter are doing.

Going deeper. More advanced examples of the ways in which schools are working with the ideas in the chapter.

Ideas into practice. Questions to prompt thinking, reflection,discussion, action and further reading.

At an appropriate moment in each chapter we have also included auseful tool to enable you immediately to see how you could  move from thinking into action.

Read more about the book here at Amazon. Or quickly scan through New Kinds of Smart here, reading just the sidebars to see if the book is a fit with your interests.

Neural reuse: Yay, team brain

I have talked before about brain areas, pieces of brain real estate, restructuring as new teams, but I was mainly referring to situations where one part is damaged and another part of the brain is recruited to help. The theory of neural reuse tells us that team efforts may occur in the healthy brain, too. From "Exploring the Underpinnings of Cognition" ( a news release from Franklin & Marshall College):

Several years ago, [Michael] Anderson’s research was often rejected for publication in part, the professor says, because of its nonstandard approach. His work centered on neural reuse, a theory that explains cognitive function as the result of regions of the brain interacting in “multiple coalitions.” The idea runs against traditional thinking that regions of the brain are specialized for specific tasks.

“Individual regions of the brain are part of different teams,” said Anderson, who also authors a blog on Psychology Today. “Neural reuse is a different way of looking at cognitive function. I can have different roles, like being a father, husband, teacher and researcher. I think the brain is also like that. The regions of the brain aren’t specialized the way we think.”

In 2010, Anderson succeeded in publishing his research in the high-impact venue Behavioral and Brain Sciences. His paper argued that neural reuse offers a distinct take on the evolution and development of the brain, the degree of modularity of brain organization, and the degree of localization of cognitive function.

He believes neural reuse and embodied cognition—the realization that the brain is not the sole organ of cognition—are poised to become the dominant lenses through which we explore human cognition and behavior. ...

More on neural reuse:

• "Neural reuse: A fundamental organizational principle of the brain" (article by Anderson in Behavioral and Brain Sciences)
• Peer commentary on the article: "Neural Re-Use in the Social and Emotional Brain" (Behavioral and Brain Sciences)

Respect mediation? Love it? Prove it, shove it, move it: Mix things up, break the patterns

If someone were to take video tapes (with no audio) of your mediations, how different would one look from the other? We all tend to get into both personal and professional patterns. For example, we typically drive to errands on the same routes over time. Do we drive the same routes in mediations?

This study linked to below, another one about how our bodies may affect our cognition, reminds us that much more is going on in any session than we might guess. To circumvent or drive through roadblocks to resolution, change the routes, change the roads, change the physical positions and environment.

In previous posts, I have suggested ways to get out of ruts and to see the conflict resolution process with fresh eyes, artistic eyes, sometimes even jester eyes. Those new eyes are the hallmark of a 21st-century mediator. Re-spect means look again. Re-spect your methods of mediation.

Try this: Think of a mediation as a game of jacks; they never fall the same way and you and the parties can use lots of ways to pick them up. Positions in the circle around the game can and probably should change; the bodies of the players are just as important as the minds.

And don't forget to change the ball to get a new bounce!

Here's that reminder of how much is going on in the room beyond what's in our skulls: "Leaning to the Left Makes the Eiffel Tower Seem Smaller: Posture-Modulated Estimation" (Psychological Science). Abstract:

Conflict: A reminder that it's not all in your head—Need to brush up on embodied cognition before the new year begins?

By now, readers of this blog, and also people who follow neuroscience even in a cursory manner, know that we don't just process information with our minds and brains. Our bodies get in the act and know a thing or two our brains do not.

The part played by the body is called "embodied cognition", a topic that must be understood by the conflict professional of the 21st century. Do you need to review the body's role in conflict? If so, here's a gift.

Stanford University has made embodied cognition accessible for all of us. Click to read the entry on its Web site; the article is aptly titled "Embodied Cognition. Excerpt:

Cognition is embodied when it is deeply dependent upon features of the physical body of an agent, that is, when aspects of the agent's body beyond the brain play a significant causal or physically constitutive role in cognitive processing.

In general, dominant views in the philosophy of mind and cognitive science have considered the body as peripheral to understanding the nature of mind and cognition. Proponents of embodied cognitive science view this as a serious

Embodied and grounded cognition: A short introduction

In the past, I have posted several times about the intriguing topic of embodied cognition. Basically it looks at how we think with more than just our brains and minds, and what our bodies knows that our brains and minds do not.

From Frontiers in Cognition, we have been given a short overview of some aspects of embodied and grounded cognition. Excerpt:

1. Introduction

In the last 10-15 years, the embodied and grounded (E&G) cognition approach has become widespread in all fields related to cognitive (neuro) science, and a lot of evidence has been collected. The approach proposes that cognitive activity is grounded in sensory-motor processes and situated in specific contexts and situations.

This special topic had two aims: First, give an idea of the field in its broadness. Second, focus on some challenges for E&G theories. The first important challenge is to account for understanding abstract concepts and words. Evidence on the representation of concrete concepts is compelling, whereas evidence on abstract concepts is still scarce and limited to

Will the topic of neuroscience of conflict resolution soon be outdated?

A blog post from The Saybrook Forum reminds us that we almost certainly think with more than just our brains. We also think with our minds, wherever you think the mind is located. And, of course, that location is hotly debated, as we have discussed here before.

Leaving out the location (or non-location) of the mind for now, perhaps most factions in the debate can agree that cognitive processes occur not only in our brains but also our body.

From You are not your brain (Saybrook Forum):

Where is your brain?

Well, of course it’s in your head.

Your mind is in the same place, right? Well, not so fast…

As a recent article in the New York Times asks, “Is it possible that, sometimes at least, some of the activity that enables us to be the thinking, knowing, agents that we are occurs outside the brain?”

I think so, and believe the study of embodied cognition is showing us that thinking is a full-body process. (Links to past posts about embodied cognition below.) I also think that, in the not-too-distant future, people who follow the research will look askance if you say that you focus on the neuroscience of conflict resolution. Soon the the complete picture will be something like the psychoneurosomatics of conflict resolution.

I am not changing the description of my courses and blog yet, but foresee that I will soon incorporate brain, mind—and body—in my approach to the resolution of disputes and conflicts. Although I follow the research on embodied cognition, I have only recently begun to develop and apply techniques and approaches of brain-mind-body conflict resolution. Do you use embodied cognition in your conflict resolution? If so, how?

Some of my past posts about embodied cognition:

Remember what embodied cognition is? Let Charles Manson refresh your memory

The phenomenon of embodied cognition, about which I have blogged before (links below), is a good reminder that much more is happening in a conflict than is readily apparent. Conditions such as temperature, weight of objects, and even cleanliness can effect how people respond to each other and to ideas.

Here is a very, very clever way to consider again some of the results of embodied cognition. Take a look at the Neuro-Art Gallery of Embodied Cognition (MindBluff_DOT_com). One of the examples:

Charles Manson, Mugshot

Needed is a bucket of cold water. Dip your hands in cold water to create a frigid zone of contempt. Cold sensations in the brain's sensory sphere influence our emotions accordingly. Chill out to Manson -- he's creepier when you're feeling cold.

Click to see the rest of the Gallery.

A couple of past posts on embodied cognition:

• "Mind over matter? How your body does your thinking": Another article about embodied cognition research
• We think with more than just our minds: Conflict reaches clear down to our toes
• Conflict: Is it all in your head?

On a related note, click to read this post Looking for a massage? by Dan Ariely. Excerpt:

Recent research shows how physical contact can promote trust, even among complete strangers.

"Mind over matter? How your body does your thinking": Another article about embodied cognition research

As those of you who read this blog may recall, I sometimes post reminders that we "know" with more than just our minds and brains. Conflict does not just happen between brains. (See my post We think with more than just our minds: Conflict reaches clear down to our toes.)

Here's another article with that reminder from New Scientist. From "Mind over matter? How your body does your thinking":

"I THINK therefore I am," said Descartes. Perhaps he should have added: "I act, therefore I think."

Our ability to think has long been considered central to what makes us human. Now research suggests that our bodies and their relationship with the environment govern even our most 

We think with more than just our minds: Conflict reaches clear down to our toes

A negotiation is so much more than minds and brains interacting with each other. Our bodies are an integral part of any conflict resolution, and not just to hold up our heads that house our brains. Whole people are in the room, and the conflict goes from head to toe. Our cognition is embodied.

I have posted about embodied cognition before, but it is good to remember often that we are more than what is above our neck. A new article was a good reminder for me today of the whole-body person that we each are. I am passing it along as a reminder for you. From "The Body of Knowledge: Understanding Embodied Cognition" (Association for Psychological Science's Observer):

The cold shoulder. A heavy topic. A heroic white knight. We regularly use concrete, sensory-rich metaphors like these to express abstract ideas and complicated emotions. But a growing body of research is suggesting that these metaphors are more than just colorful literary devices — there may be an underlying neural basis that literally embodies these metaphors. Psychological scientists are giving us more insight into embodied cognition — the notion that the brain circuits responsible for abstract thinking are closely tied to those circuits that analyze and process sensory experiences— and its role in how we think and feel about our world.

[Author] APS Fellow and Charter Member Art Glenberg (Arizona State University) says embodiment “provides a counterweight to the prevailing view that cognition is something in the head that is pretty much separate from behavior. ...

(He goes on to say we are animals and that all of our cognition is directed towards survival and reproduction. I don't happen to agree that those are our only goals but that opinion of his does not detract from the article.)

The authors take a look at several research studies on various effects of embodied cognition. The studies are not in the least boring. I invite you to read the article, and bet many of you will find the studies intriguing.

The brain dancer: How about a little movement in your mediation? Just a little?

I watched a wonderful video. It is of a scientist dancing some information about the brain. Be sure to take a look at Scientists explain their work through the medium of dance (BPS Research Digest blog). Beautiful. So much conveyed with no words.

I have posted before about embodied cognition and about the brain's language of images. Relying only on words when resolving a dispute leaves out so much potential wisdom and creativity. Although not in a conflict process, I was reminded of the power of body expression in a recent Brains on Purpose™ class.

The students in groups were reviewing seven points about the brain by drawing images. One group included a professional dancer; they chose to choreograph for her a dance presenting the seven points. After watching the dance, the class was silent. I think we were all surprised that so much could be communicated through that medium. From the Scientists explain . . . post that I linked to above: "the human body is an excellent medium for communicating science--perhaps not as data-rich as a peer-reviewed article, but far more exciting."

Am I suggesting that disputants dance? Perhaps, in a minority of arenas where it would not be too far outside the mold of