by Sarah-Jayne Blakemore
Why do teenagers seem so much more impulsive, so much less self-aware than grown-ups? Cognitive neuroscientist Sarah-Jayne Blakemore compares the prefrontal cortex in adolescents to that of adults, to show us how typically “teenage” behavior is caused by the growing and developing brain.
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Scientists have located a specific set of neurons that indicate how time passes, confirming that the brain plays an essential role in how we experience the passage of time. By recording brain activity across 100 neurons in the lateral intraparietal cortex of two rhesus macaques, University of Minnesota researchers were able to examine how brain biology corresponds to an objective measurement of time. Then, by examining the rate of decay of the neural signals, scientists could estimate how much time had objectively past with simple reference to the brain’s biology. Leer más “How Your Brain Experiences the Passage of Time”
How different would your life be, after all, if you could get yourself to sleep 8 hours at night, exercise every day, eat healthy foods in the right portions, take time for reflection and renewal, remain calm and positive under stress, focus without interruption for sustained periods of time, and prioritize the work that matters most?
Right now, the vast majority of what we do each day occurs automatically. We’re often triggered, as these authors make vividly clear, by subtle cues we’re not even aware of — a smell, a visual image, a familiar sight. These cues prompt us to move away from any potential pain and discomfort, no matter how minimal, and toward immediate reward and gratification, no matter how fleeting.
The primary role of our prefrontal cortex is to bias the brain towards doing the “harder” thing. Unfortunately, our rational capacity is often overwhelmed by the power of our own most visceral and primitive desires.
We’re often captive to our biochemistry. When the neurotransmitter dopamine is triggered, for example, what we feel is craving, not pleasure. This explains not just why we fall into a range of self-destructive addictions, but also why we don’t take better care of ourselves and make wiser choices day in and day out.
The solution is to learn how to co-opt the more primitive habit-forming regions of our brains, so that rather than reinforcing our negative impulses, they become the soil in which we build positive rituals that serve our long term interests.
TONY SCHWARTZ
http://blogs.hbr.org/
Tony Schwartz is the president and CEO of The Energy Project and the author of Be Excellent at Anything. Become a fan of The Energy Project on Facebook and connect with Tony at Twitter.com/TonySchwartz and Twitter.com/Energy_Project.
Why is it that three prominent books published just during the past several months focused on the subject of willpower?
The first answer is that neuroscience has finally begun to open a window into the complex way our brains respond to temptation and what it takes to successfully exercise choice.
Second, a raft of recent studies have shown that the capacity for self-control — even more than genetic endowment or material advantage — fuels a range of positive outcomes in life, including more stable relationships, higher paying and more satisfying work, more resilience in the face of setbacks, better health, and greater happiness.
Finally, these books — Willpower, The Willpower Instinct, andThe Power of Habit — are a response to an increasingly evident need. Demand in our lives is truly outpacing our capacity.
The sheer number of choices we must make each day — what foods to eat, what products to buy, what information merits our attention, what tasks to prioritize — can be overwhelming. As Roy Baumeister puts it in Willpower, “Self-regulation failure is the major social pathology of our time.” Leer más “Why You Need to Make Your Life More Automatic”
The idea of a simple, cheap and widely available device that could boost brain function sounds too good to be true.
Yet promising results in the lab with emerging ‘brain stimulation’ techniques, though still very preliminary, have prompted Oxford neuroscientists to team up with leading ethicists at the University to consider the issues the new technology could raise. They spoke to Radio 4’s Today programme this morning.
Recent research in Oxford and elsewhere has shown that one type of brain stimulation in particular, called transcranial direct current stimulation or TDCS, can be used to improve language and maths abilities, memory, problem solving, attention, even movement.
The idea of a simple, cheap and widely available device that could boost brain function sounds too good to be true.
Yet promising results in the lab with emerging ‘brain stimulation’ techniques, though still very preliminary, have prompted Oxford neuroscientists to team up with leading ethicists at the University to consider the issues the new technology could raise. They spoke to Radio 4’s Today programme this morning.
Recent research in Oxford and elsewhere has shown that one type of brain stimulation in particular, called transcranial direct current stimulation or TDCS, can be used to improve language and maths abilities, memory, problem solving, attention, even movement. Leer más “The ethics of brain boosting”
Feeling burnt out or lacking creative ideas?
This article is especially for all you writers, artists, business owners or anyone looking for some new ways to get their creativity flowing.
Here are 15 ways to give your creativity a jump start:
Write Your Ideas Down
Get into the habit of writing your ideas down as soon as you get them. This way you train your brain to keep coming up with ideas, and as soon as you get them you write them down.
When they are written down you don’t have to worry about remembering them and this allows more room for new ideas to form in your mind.
Relax
Good ideas and creativity usually do not appear under stress. When you are relaxed and rejuvenated, creative ideas usually come rather naturally.
Take a walk on the beach, take a nap, go and play some sport or do whatever it is that relaxes you so that your brain can be more creative when you get back to work.
Have No Expectations
Similar to living with no stress, but specifically no stress from the outcome.
When you create with love and passion and no expectation of the outcome, the chances are much greater that you will create something remarkable!
Feeling burnt out or lacking creative ideas?
This article is especially for all you writers, artists, business owners or anyone looking for some new ways to get their creativity flowing.
Here are 15 ways to give your creativity a jump start:
Write Your Ideas Down
Get into the habit of writing your ideas down as soon as you get them. This way you train your brain to keep coming up with ideas, and as soon as you get them you write them down.
When they are written down you don’t have to worry about remembering them and this allows more room for new ideas to form in your mind.
Relax
Good ideas and creativity usually do not appear under stress. When you are relaxed and rejuvenated, creative ideas usually come rather naturally.
Take a walk on the beach, take a nap, go and play some sport or do whatever it is that relaxes you so that your brain can be more creative when you get back to work.
Have No Expectations
Similar to living with no stress, but specifically no stress from the outcome.
When you create with love and passion and no expectation of the outcome, the chances are much greater that you will create something remarkable! Leer más “15 Cool Ways To Boost Your Creativity”
Every day is a new day, we never know what it holds in store for us. Just like Forrest Gump’s Mother so eloquently puts it “Life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you might get.” and she is so right.
Some days though, it can be hard to muster the enthusiasm, we wake on the wrong side. We just can’t find motivation, were surly and cannot help but get annoyed about every little irritating detail.
As you have probably read and heard before, your mood is completely your decision.
Sometimes though it can be very difficult to turn one of these days around.
Every day is a new day, we never know what it holds in store for us. Just like Forrest Gump’s Mother so eloquently puts it “Life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you might get.” and she is so right.
Some days though, it can be hard to muster the enthusiasm, we wake on the wrong side. We just can’t find motivation, were surly and cannot help but get annoyed about every little irritating detail.
As you have probably read and heard before, your mood is completely your decision.
Sometimes though it can be very difficult to turn one of these days around.
Here are 4 tips that always help me get back on my feet…: Leer más “4 Ways to Turn Your Day Around”
Most people think that creativity is a mystical state available only to the chosen few — a state that has to be induced, conjured, and maintained.
The effort, they imagine, takes a lot of time and hard work. And since they usually don’t have the time and don’t like hard work, they reason that higher states of creativity are just not in the cards for them. And so it isn’t.
But creativity isn’t a mystical state. It’s a natural state — a human birthright. The people in your organization, in fact, are already creative. The only thing is: their natural creativity is being obscured by their own habits of mind and a variety of bothersome organizational constraints.
logo-fedex.jpg
Their challenge is the same one as seeing the “hidden” arrow in the FedEx logo (look between the “E” and the “X”).
The arrow has always been there, but most people never notice it.
Try this experiment: Walk into a dark room from a well-lit place. Upon entering, you will not be able to see very much. Indeed, if someone asks you what’s in the room, you will either say “nothing” or “I don’t know.”
But if you linger in the room, your eyes will adjust to the available light. You’ll begin seeing the edges of things — and then the things themselves. Or at least some of the things.
Most people think that creativity is a mystical state available only to the chosen few — a state that has to be induced, conjured, and maintained.
The effort, they imagine, takes a lot of time and hard work. And since they usually don’t have the time and don’t like hard work, they reason that higher states of creativity are just not in the cards for them. And so it isn’t.
But creativity isn’t a mystical state. It’s a natural state — a human birthright. The people in your organization, in fact, are already creative. The only thing is: their natural creativity is being obscured by their own habits of mind and a variety of bothersome organizational constraints.
Their challenge is the same one as seeing the “hidden” arrow in the FedEx logo (look between the “E” and the “X”).
The arrow has always been there, but most people never notice it.
Try this experiment: Walk into a dark room from a well-lit place. Upon entering, you will not be able to see very much. Indeed, if someone asks you what’s in the room, you will either say “nothing” or “I don’t know.”
But if you linger in the room, your eyes will adjust to the available light. You’ll begin seeing the edges of things — and then the things themselves. Or at least some of the things. Leer más “Idea Champions’ Secret Sauce Revealed”
A more strategic way of generating ideas is to focus on building ideas on top of insights. Don’t get me wrong, thinking stuff up is fun. You let your imagination run wild, think of the impossible and think all kinds of stuff only you can imagine. It’s your own dream world! Mostly all these ideas will be way ahead of their time or not even doable. That’s why we need to combine our imagination with our intellect. Our intellect drives our capability to discover insights and our imagination helps put the pieces together in a new way.
So how do you discover new insights?
(…)Abstract By Jorge Barba, an Innovation Insurgent | http://www.game-changer.netInsights, they’re the seeds of new groundbreaking ideas.
A more strategic way of generating ideas is to focus on building ideas on top of insights. Don’t get me wrong, thinking stuff up is fun. You let your imagination run wild, think of the impossible and think all kinds of stuff only you can imagine. It’s your own dream world! Mostly all these ideas will be way ahead of their time or not even doable. That’s why we need to combine our imagination with our intellect. Our intellect drives our capability to discover insights and our imagination helps put the pieces together in a new way.
So how do you discover new insights? Leer más “Insights first, ideas second”
Your current thought patterns are likely what keep you trapped in the prison of social anxiety. To unlock yourself from this prison, you will likely need to have to rewire your brain with new thoughts that take time to cement in the brain, but if you try this as a start, it will lead you up the correct path.
is the author of the book: Life Unlocked:
7 Revolutionary Lessons to Overcome Fear.
He is also an Assistant Clinical Professor at Harvard Medical School.
Your current thought patterns are likely what keep you trapped in the prison of social anxiety. To unlock yourself from this prison, you will likely need to have to rewire your brain with new thoughts that take time to cement in the brain, but if you try this as a start, it will lead you up the correct path. Leer más “Understanding The Discomfort of Social Anxiety”
By monitoring brainwave activity across the full brain as subjects viewed the covers, and using eye-tracking technology to identify which specific parts of the cover they were looking at, NeuroFocus was able to measure their immediate, subconscious reaction to the designs.
While all three tested cover designs performed well in the research, the specific design that ranked highest in terms of overall neurological effectiveness scored exceptionally well in emotional engagement—one of NeuroFocus’ primary NeuroMetrics, the others being attention and memory retention (cover design 1 below was the winner). From those primary NeuroMetrics, NeuroFocus derives measures of purchase intent, novelty, and awareness.
Dr. A. K. Pradeep, Chief Executive Officer of NeuroFocus
Every new product launch, ad campaign or package design takes significant research, time and resources to ensure success, but not every launch is successful. Suffice it to say that guess work plays a part to determine: Will it grab attention? Will it be memorable? Will it engage emotionally? And most importantly, will it drive purchase intent?
Taking the guess work out of the equation prior to launch is a marketer’s dream, which is now a definable reality with quantifiable results. Just recently the notion was put to the test to see if neuroscience could be used to help a magazine sell more copies. And the results were enlightening. Leer más “Can Neuromarketing Research Increase Sales?”
by Mike Brown
Mark Beeman is one of the eminent neuroscientists studying the ‘aha’ moment. As he said in a paper in the first NeuroLeadership Journal, “…variables that improve the ability to detect weak associations may improve insight solving.” In short, insights tend to involve connections between small numbers of neurons. An insight is often a long forgotten memory or a combination of memories. These memories don’t have a lot of neurons involved in holding them together. The trouble is, we only notice signals above whatever our base line of noise is. Everyday thought, like wondering what to have for lunch, might involve millions of neurons speaking to each other. An insight might involve only a few tens of thousands of neurons speaking to each other. Just as it’s hard to hear a quiet cell phone at a loud party, it’s hard to notice signals that have less energy than the general energy level already present in the brain. Hence, we tend to notice insights when our overall activity level in the brain is low. This happens when we’re not putting in a lot of mental effort, when we’re focusing on something repetitive, or just generally more relaxed like as we wake up. Insights require a quiet mind, because they themselves are quiet.
Our working memory turns out to be much more limited than people generally acknowledge. What do you get when you add ten plus ten? That’s easy. Twenty. Yet you don’t really need working memory for that, the answer is stored in long term memory. What about adding 128 with 287? You can do it, but it takes working memory. Adding up just six digits is quite an effort. What about mutiplying 23 and 56, without paper or a calculator? For most people it’s too much. Your working memory maxes out.
Leer más “How to have more insights”
- A goal without a plan is just a wish. ~Antoine de Saint-Exupery
You might have noticed it already, but I really enjoy living the freelance life. The freedom and the flexibility that I now have allows me to look at things differently. I may not have the security that comes from a steady paycheck, but as one commenter noted a while back, it’s unlikely that all of my clients are going to disappear at the same time, and I will always have the ability to go out and find new clients.
As much as I enjoy this lifestyle, it’s not something I see myself doing for the rest of my life. No, I don’t think I will ever be comfortable working directly for someone else, but I do anticipate graduating from virtual assistants and working from my home office. I can see an office environment, with a small team, where we can help small and medium sized businesses achieve their goals.
- “Start small and dream big.” ~Robert T. Kiyosaki Leer más “Goal Planning: Is There Life After Freelance?”
If you’re a creative person it’s easy to believe you will be at your most creative without any constraints. In reality however, this isn’t the case. Your creativity needs a focus, which is found by setting limits. If you can do anything your creativity stalls – there are too many decisions and you get confused. Restrict yourself to just a few design elements and a set a deadline to give your creative brain a goal to focus on. This article looks at how designers can turn constraints into opportunities.
Embrace Constraints: How Limiting Yourself Won’t Limit Your Designs
The Myth of Creative Freedom
A man’s worst difficulties begin when he is able to do as he likes. – Thomas Huxley
There’s nothing better for a designer than being given creative freedom by your client. Equally, there’s probably nothing worse than a designer giving themselves creative freedom.
If you’re a creative person it’s easy to believe you will be at your most creative without any constraints. In reality however, this isn’t the case. Your creativity needs a focus, which is found by setting limits. If you can do anything your creativity stalls – there are too many decisions and you get confused. Restrict yourself to just a few design elements and a set a deadline to give your creative brain a goal to focus on. This article looks at how designers can turn constraints into opportunities.
A man’s worst difficulties begin when he is able to do as he likes. – Thomas Huxley
There’s nothing better for a designer than being given creative freedom by your client. Equally, there’s probably nothing worse than a designer giving themselves creative freedom. Leer más “Embrace Constraints: How Limiting Yourself Won’t Limit Your Designs”
Given our fields of interest and chosen professions, most of us have at least once in our lives had to brainstorm for one reason or another. But for those of us who apply this mental tool in our creative pursuits much more regularly, learning to do so effectively is crucial.
Brainstorming could prove an invaluable addition to your creative arsenal, but only if you take the time and put forth enough effort to follow through on the process. This is an unfortunate truth for many, who believe that this “storm” is short-lived. But there is more to it than that.
Brainstorming is more than about just having ideas: it is about having ideas and the means to implement them. You can come up with ideas all day long that sound great on paper and even out loud when you share them with others, but if you have no means to follow through on them, then they will simply fall flat. Just because you have a spark, doesn’t mean you have enough fuel to keep the fire burning brightly. An idea isn’t so much a storm as a drizzle.
Storm in The Perfect Brainstorm: A How To
If you look up the word brainstorm, it is generally defined as a “discussion to produce ideas and ways of solving problems.” The key part here is the discussion. When a lot of us are ’storming, we do so on our own or with few participants, and we end up just sharing our idea rather than discussing it. There is no weighing of pros and cons, no comparison with competing or existing models, no contemplation of the concept’s audience. We must take extra steps to ensure that when we brainstorm, we do so as though we were having this discussion, covering all of these bases and fully examining the idea, not just marvelling at our conception of it.
Consider some of our previous articles:
* How Many Ideas Do You Show Your Clients?
A great discussion post that can help you decide how many ideas should make the cut.
* Where Do You Draw Inspiration From?
Another great post from the Smashing vaults to get you looking in the right places for inspiration.
By Robert Bowen
http://www.noupe.com
Given our fields of interest and chosen professions, most of us have at least once in our lives had to brainstorm for one reason or another. But for those of us who apply this mental tool in our creative pursuits much more regularly, learning to do so effectively is crucial.
Brainstorming could prove an invaluable addition to your creative arsenal, but only if you take the time and put forth enough effort to follow through on the process. This is an unfortunate truth for many, who believe that this “storm” is short-lived. But there is more to it than that.
Brainstorming is more than about just having ideas: it is about having ideas and the means to implement them. You can come up with ideas all day long that sound great on paper and even out loud when you share them with others, but if you have no means to follow through on them, then they will simply fall flat. Just because you have a spark, doesn’t mean you have enough fuel to keep the fire burning brightly. An idea isn’t so much a storm as a drizzle.
If you look up the word brainstorm, it is generally defined as a “discussion to produce ideas and ways of solving problems.” The key part here is the discussion. When a lot of us are ’storming, we do so on our own or with few participants, and we end up just sharing our idea rather than discussing it. There is no weighing of pros and cons, no comparison with competing or existing models, no contemplation of the concept’s audience. We must take extra steps to ensure that when we brainstorm, we do so as though we were having this discussion, covering all of these bases and fully examining the idea, not just marvelling at our conception of it.
Consider some of our previous articles:
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imagination is the key
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Compartir conocimientos 2.0 y Marketing Online
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Poesías, relatos, diario de sueños
Taking unsubstantiation to new levels
Un Pont entre la Psique i les Emocions
AUTISMO.TEA..PTLS
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Dirección estratégica para la vida
Founding Partner, StellarHire Partners - Executive Search Consultants. Recent engagements include Eloqua, SFDC, Tibco and Veeam.
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Noticias de Tecnologia.
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