Hack Your Brain's Default Mode with Meditation Watch the newest video from Big Think: https://bigth.ink/NewVideo Join Big Think+ for exclusive videos: https://bigthink.com/plus/ ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Dan Harris was named co-anchor of ABC News' weekend edition of "Good Morning America" in October 2010. He is also a correspondent for ABC News' broadcasts and platforms including "World News with Diane Sawyer," "Good Morning America," "Nightline," ABC News Digital and ABC News Radio, and for four years anchored "World News Sunday." Harris joined ABC News in March 2000 and has covered many of the biggest stories in recent years. He has reported on the mass shootings in Newtown, Connecticut, Aurora, Colorado and Tucson, Arizona, and has covered natural disasters from Haiti to Myanmar to New Orleans. He has also reported on combat in Afghanistan, Israel, Gaza and the West Bank, and has made six visits to Iraq. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- TRANSCRIPT: There’s no way a fidgety and skeptical news anchor would ever have started meditating were it not for the science. The science is really compelling. It shows that meditation can boost your immune system, lower your blood pressure, help you deal with problems ranging from irritable bowel syndrome to psoriasis. And the neuroscience is where it really gets sci-fi. There was a study out of Harvard that shows that short daily doses of meditation can literally grow the gray matter in key areas of your brain having to do with self-awareness and compassion and shrink the gray matter in the area associated with stress. There was also a study out of Yale that looked at what’s called the default mode network of the brain. It’s a connected series of brain regions that are active during most of our waking hours when we’re doing that thing that human beings do all the time which is obsessing about ourselves, thinking about the past, thinking about the future, doing anything but being focused on what’s happening right now. Meditators not only turn off the default mode network of their brain while they’re meditating but even when they’re not meditating. In other words, meditators are setting a new default mode. And what’s that default mode? They’re focused on what’s happening right now. In sports this is called being in the zone. It’s nothing mystical. It’s not magical. You’re not floating off into cosmic ooze. You are just being where you are – big cliché in self-help circles is being in the now. You can use that term if you want but because it’s accurate. It’s slightly annoying but it’s accurate. It’s more just being focused on what you’re doing. And the benefits of that are enormous. And this is why you’re seeing these unlikely meditators now, why you’re seeing the U.S. Marines adopting it, the U.S. Army, corporate executives from the head of Ford to the founders of Twitter. Athletes from Phil Jackson to many, many Olympians. Scientists, doctors, lawyers, school children. There’s this sort of elite subculture of high achievers who are adopting this because they know it can help you be more focused on what you’re doing and it can stop you from being yanked around by the voice in your head. My powers of prognostication are not great. I bought a lot of stock in a company that made Palm Pilot back in 2000 and that didn’t go so well for me. But having said that I’m going to make a prediction. I think we’re looking at meditation as the next big public health revolution. In the 1940s if you told people that you went running they would say, who’s chasing you. Right now if you tell people you meditate – and I have a lot of experience with telling people this, they’re going to look at you like you’re a little weird most of the time. That’s going to change. Meditation is going to join the pantheon of no brainers like exercise, brushing your teeth and taking the meds that your doctor prescribes to you. These are all things that if you don’t do you feel guilty about. And that is where I think we’re heading with meditation because the science is so strongly suggestive that meditation can do really, really great things for your brain and for your body. Read the full transcript https://bigthink.com/videos/dan-harris-hack-your-brains-default-mode-with-meditation/

HOW DID JIMMY'S DEFAULT MODE NETWORK FAIL HIM? Part 2 of 2 Alan Alda, host of the PBS Special "Brains on Trial," went to Washington University in St. Louis to interview Dr. Marcus Raichle (http://www.nil.wustl.edu/labs/raichle/). Dr. Raichle is a world-renowned neuroscientist who pioneered research that led to the development of the positron emission tomography (PET) in the 1970s (http://www.academyofsciencestl.org/initiatives/fellows/r/marcus_raichle.php). Here, Dr. Raichle considers how the Default Mode Network contributed to the Jimmy's actions on the night of the crime. A pioneer of the Default Mode Network findings, Dr. Raichle's contributions continue to further research about these brain regions and how they function. For more on the Default Mode Network, check this out: (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uZgOUAtwUA8) For more videos and other content, go to: http://brainsontrial.com/

WHAT IS THE DEFAULT MODE NETWORK? While filming at Washington University for the broadcast "Brains on Trial" (http://bit.ly/WjdrI6), Alan met with Dr. Raichle (http://www.nil.wustl.edu/labs/raichle/). Dr. Raichle is a world-renowned neuroscientist who pioneered research that led to the development of the positron emission tomography (PET) in the 1970s (http://www.academyofsciencestl.org/initiatives/fellows/r/marcus_raichle.php). In this two-part piece, Dr. Raichle explains what the Default Mode Network is and how it contributed to the Jimmy's actions on the night of the crime. A pioneer of the Default Mode Network findings, Dr. Raichle's contributions continue to further research about these brain regions and how they function. For more on the Default Mode Network, check this out: (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uZgOUAtwUA8). For more videos and other content, go to: http://brainsontrial.com/

Samuel Sperl explains how he discovered his autopilot mode is and how it changed his life - by turning it off. Samuel is an Assist Scholar at Saint Andrew’s School doing an exchange abroad from Germany. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx

In this video I look at autopilot mode and the brain. I also explore the pros and cons of autopilot and how to interrupt it. We spend a lot of our lives in autopilot mode, if you drove your car today do you remember every gear change, every turn, every time you slowed down or sped up? The drive itself was probably a bit of a blur but somehow you got to your destination. That’s because your brain was in autopilot mode. I moved house recently and on more than one occasion, when driving home, I actually drove to my old house. Thats because I was in autopilot and my mind was on other things such as planning my week ahead and thinking about what food I was going to prepare. Autopilot mode doesn’t just apply to driving it applies to almost every single thing you do on a regular basis. Autopilot mode has many advantages, for example you can engage in a large range of activities without having to really think about it. By slipping into autopilot mode for routine tasks, you are able to function quickly and efficiently without having to focus on every little detail. Just think about how laborious your day would be if you had to think about how to drive to work, how to catch a train, how to shop for food and how to make a phone call. As you carry out these everyday tasks your brain is able to think about other things, problem solve, reflecting on past experiences and planning for the future. Being in autopilot mode is little bit like being passenger on a train and not knowing where it is going. When you get off the train the emotional landscape can look very different. That’s because when in autopilot mode you become engaged in constant internal dialogue. Due to this excessive rumination you you can easily slip from one emotional state to another and end up anxious or depressed without actually knowing how you got there. Functional MRI studies of the brain show that when you are in autopilot your brain shows consistent activity in regions that are involved with internal thoughts such as daydreaming, planning future actions, reliving memories, thinking about others and thinking about yourself. Science calls this autopilot mode the Default Mode Network or DMN. Studies have shown that depression and anxiety are associated with hyper-connectivity in the default mode network. Since this discovery researchers started looking for how to calm down or deactivate the Default Mode Network. What they found is that mindfulness meditation is associated with reduced activation in theDefault Mode Network as it brings you to the present moment. With mindfulness you are letting go of past and future thinking and just being present. Researchers found that when people took part in an 8 week mindfulness meditation course areas of the brain that are associated with awareness, stress, and empathy change.The participants grew new grey matter in their cerebral cortex, which connects to attention and emotional integration. They gained more control over their emotions. They also also calmed their inner voice - so basically shutting down their Default Mode Network. 🔵 MINDFULNESS MEDITATIONS If your interested in practicing some mindfulness exercises you might want to visit my YouTube channel. There are a large range of mindfulness practices including: ☐ The Body Scan: https://youtu.be/-R-cKdxE1Y8 ☐ Mindfulness of Breathing: https://youtu.be/ZdrpeuAAvAE ☐ The Three Minute Breathing Space: https://youtu.be/GdbFUqzfS2I 🔵 ABOUT TERESA LEWIS Teresa Lewis is the founder and Director of Lewis Psychology and a Senior Accredited psychotherapist with the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (MBACP Snr. Accred). Qualified in 1995, Teresa has been providing counselling and psychotherapy treatment for nearly 30 years. Teresa holds a masters degree in counselling and psychotherapy and is a qualified EMDR Practitioner having completed training accredited with EMDR Europe. Teresa is also a qualified adult educator and an accredited Mindfulness teacher As a recognised expert in her field Teresa is frequently asked to conduct editorial reviews and endorse counselling and psychotherapy books for international publishing houses. ☐ Email: teresa.lewispsy@gmail.com ☐ Buy Me A Coffee: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/lewispsychology 🔵 WORK WITH ME If you'd like to work with me, or a member of the Lewis Psychology team, please click on the links below: ☐ Lewis Psychology CIC (for face to face therapy): https://www.lewispsy.org.uk ☐ Lewis Psychology Online (for online therapy): https://lewispsyonline.co.uk

Similar in molecular structure to insulin, IGF-1 (insulin-like growth factor 1) has been implicated in the aging process. Protein intake increases IGF-1 levels in humans, independent of total caloric consumption. IGF-1 participates in a complex pathway known as the growth hormone/IGF-1 axis, where it exerts its role to accelerate aging. In this clip, Dr. Valter Longo explains how certain macronutrients influence the insulin/IGF-1/growth hormone axis to modulate aging in many cell types. This clip was taken from the FoundMyFitness interview with Dr. Roland Griffiths found at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rkBq33KWFmY Original episode published on Jan 19, 2017 🧠 #brain #psychedelics #depression 😞 About FoundMyFitness: Rhonda Patrick has a Ph.D. in biomedical science from the University of Tennessee Health Science Center, and St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. She also has a Bachelor’s of Science degree in biochemistry/chemistry from the University of California. She has done extensive research on aging, cancer, and nutrition. It is Dr. Patrick’s goal to challenge the status quo and encourage the wider public to think about health and longevity using a proactive, preventative approach. Learn more about Dr. Rhonda Patrick and her mission for FoundMyFitness at www.foundmyfitness.com

Childhood trauma causes the neurocircuitry of our brain to go awry. The core of who I am, which is located in our Default Mode Network (DMN) gets warped.

Daydreaming has a bad reputation, but neuroscientists are beginning to realise that a wandering mind is not only typical – it might be beneficial.

Why does the mind wander? What do you think about when you're not focussed on a task? The answers lie in your Default Mode Network (DMN).

The default mode network is one of the 7 core brain networks. It’s involved with rumination, introspection, & interpreting self from other.

The default mode network (DMN) is believed to subserve the baseline mental activity in humans. Its higher energy consumption compared to other brain networks and its intimate coupling with conscious awareness are both pointing to an unknown overarching ...

The intrinsic functional network architecture accounts for task-evoked brain activity changes and variabilities in cognitive performance. Relationships between the intrinsic functional network architecture and task performance or learning ability have been previously reported. However, the relations …

The Default mode network (DMN) is a set of interacting brain structures that is most active when the brain is in a resting state.

The Default Mode Network (DMN) has been found to be involved in various domains of cognitive and social processing. The present article will review brain connectivity results related to the DMN in the fields of social understanding of others: emotion perception, empathy, theory of mind, and morality. Most of the reviewed studies focused on healthy subjects with no neurological and psychiatric disease, but some studies on patients with autism and psychopathy will also be discussed. Common results show that the medial prefrontal cortex (MPFC) plays a key role in the social understanding of others, and the subregions of the MPFC contribute differently to this function according to their roles in different subsystems of the DMN. At the bottom, the ventral MPFC in the medial temporal lobe (MTL) subsystem and its connections with emotion regions are mainly associated with emotion engagement during social interactions. Above, the anterior MPFC (aMPFC) in the cortical midline structures (CMS) and its connections with posterior and anterior cingulate cortex contribute mostly to making self-other distinctions. At the top, the dorsal MPFC (dMPFC) in the dMPFC subsystem and its connection with the temporo-parietal junction (TPJ) are primarily related to the understanding of other's mental states. As behaviors become more complex, the related regions in frontal cortex are located higher. This reflects the transfer of information processing from automatic to cognitive processes with the...

Investigations using noninvasive functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) have provided significant insights into the unique functional organizati…

The default mode network (DMN) has been largely studied by imaging, but not yet by neurodynamics, using electroencephalography (EEG) functional connectivity (FC). mindfulness meditation (MM), a receptive, non-elaborative training is theorized to lower ...

A set of brain regions known as the default network increases its activity when focus on the external world is relaxed. During such moments, participants change their focus of external attention and engage in spontaneous cognitive processes including remembering the past and imagining the future. However, the functional contributions of the default network to shifts in external attention versus internal mentation have been difficult to disentangle because the two processes are correlated under typical circumstances. To address this issue, the present study manipulated factors that promote spontaneous cognition separately from those that change the scope of external attention. Results revealed that the default network increased its activity when spontaneous cognition was maximized but not when participants increased their attention to unpredictable foveal or peripheral stimuli. To examine the nature of participants' spontaneous thoughts, a second experiment used self-report questionnaires to quantify spontaneous thoughts during extended fixation epochs. Thoughts about one's personal past and future comprised a major focus of spontaneous cognition with considerable variability. Activity correlations between the medial temporal lobe and distributed cortical regions within the default network predicted a small, but significant, portion of the observed variability. Collectively, these results suggest that during passive states, activity within the default network reflects spontaneous, internally directed cognitive processes.