I often experience what my dad refers to as “monkey mind.” When I try to focus on one thing, I become distracted by my thoughts or by something else that catches my eye. My thoughts shift around like a monkey swinging through a forest. While it would be easy to resign myself to poor attention skills forever, there are ways that people can change their behavior and habits, including their attention. According to research in the field of neuroscience, behavioral interventions can cause lasting changes within the brain.
Neuroscientist Richard Davidson suggests that behavioral interventions can change brain circuitry more effectively than some medicines. He has shown that anxiety can cause changes in the prefrontal cortex, a brain region involved in working memory tasks. He suggests that through reducing anxiety, students will experience improved cognition during these tasks. So reducing your anxiety may improve your study skills and test performance!
Meditation and mindfulness practice, which both help in reducing my “monkey mind,” have been shown to change the brain as well. An eight-week mindfulness program made noticeable changes in the brain regions associated with “memory, sense of self, empathy and stress.” Other studies have shown the effectiveness of psychotherapy in treating anxiety disorders through changes in brain activity.
One of the world’s leading neuroscientists, V.S. Ramachandran, has studied this concept of neuroplasticity, or physical changes within the brain. For anyone interested in neuroscience or in the study of human nature, this is a shout out to you! Ramachandran will be visiting the University of Florida on Tuesday night in the Reitz Union Ballroom. Doors open at 7 p.m., and the event will last from 8 p.m. to 10 p.m. The title of his talk is “Emergence of Human Nature: A Neurological Perspective.” Come out and discover the mystery of human nature by learning about mechanisms within the brain!
