An opiate is a drug naturally derived from the flowering opium poppy plant. Opioid is the broader term that includes opiates.
When I say opioid, I refer to natural brain opioids. When I say opiate, I mean the drug derived from the poppy plant. Continue reading
Jaak Panksepp coined the term affective neuroscience or the neuroscience of emotions. Culminating a lifetime of animal lab research, he identified seven primary-process emotions built into the brain by evolution, hardwired into the subcortical networks of all mammalian brains: Continue reading
LUST is fourth on the list of Jaak Panksepp’s seven primary affect systems. These primary affects all originate in the subcortical brain. They are like the prime numbers of the emotional system. They can’t be divided by any other number. Continue reading
Why can’t we realize if we don’t make immediate changes, climate change is on course to destroy our planet? The answer is straight forward. We are mammals. Our higher executive cortex is slave to our lower subcortical emotional systems, just as all the other mammals. Continue reading
Universal Studios [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
Direct electrical stimulation of lateral orbitofrontal cortex acutely improves mood in individuals with symptoms of depression. Current Biology
Mood variations decoded from multi-site intracranial human brain activity. Nature Biotechnology
An amygdala-hippocampus subnetwork that encodes variation in human mood. Cell
Zaps to a certain spot in the brain may ease depression. Science New
Understanding past trauma does little to help in dealing with PTSD. No matter how much insight and planning, the emotional brain has a reality of its own and it is the emotional brain that reigns. Continue reading
Jaak Panksepp researched primary emotional processes and their neural components. He mapped the brains of rats by connecting electrodes to parts of their brain to see if stimulating an area caused the rats to seek or avoid the stimulation.
Then he removed their cortex to see if they reacted to brain stimulation in the same way. From these experiments, Panksepp learned that primary emotional processes are subcortical since the rats without a cortex still responded exactly the same to deep brain stimulation. Panksepp documented the research in “The Archeology of Mind: Neuroevolutionary Origins of Human Emotions.” He called his field of research “affective neuroscience.”
At birth, higher cognitive processes are absent. It is primary emotional processes that guide what infants do and feel. We are born with a clean higher-brain cortical slate. Pankseep says that our executive cognitive processes are totally learned. Continue reading
Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT) proves effective if what has gone wrong is within recent and specific sets of life problems with clear cognitive underpinnings. In other words, CBT works well for everyday life problems, ie marital problems.
The focus of Albert Ellis’s REBT is on what you are telling yourself now. It focuses on rational beliefs (rBs) that serve self-interests and goals versus irrational beliefs (iBs) that work against self-interests and goals. Each time iBs surface, you actively challenge and dispute them. At the same time, you acknowledge life does not have to be free of hassles and mental conflicts. Continue reading
Though you might think of laughter as a human phenomenon always associated with humor, such as the punchline of a joke, laughter does not require much in the way of cognitive complexity. Human laughter is rooted in the ancient PLAY system that generates pure joyful social engagement. Jaak Panksepp discovered that rats, too, play and emit sounds of laughter. Continue reading
“Total Self-Renewal through Attention Therapies and Open Focus” (Sample chapters on Amazon.)
Alternate Title: “Attention Therapies for Total Self-Renewal with 50 Bits–All We Have– Attention”