Neuroscience of Focus with Heather Berlin

About This Episode

What makes some people better at focusing? Neil deGrasse Tyson and co-hosts Chuck Nice and Gary O’Reilly learn about the neuroscience behind concentration and performance with neuroscientist Heather Berlin, PhD. 

WARNING: This episode contains strong language, discussions of suicide and mental health, and other adult topics.

Can you train to get better at concentration? We dive into cognitive control and the role of the frontal lobe. What causes people to “snap”? Unravel differences in people’s tolerance of stress with us and how music helps us access different parts of our brains. Why can some people tune out outside noise and why others are so distracted? Learn about ADHD and the role of the prefrontal cortex in impulse control.

What part of the brain is the ego in? We discuss if the ego is good or bad and what a vulnerable narcissist is. How do you stop the brain from getting in its own way? Is trash talking actually motivating? Neil talks about his father running track and what motivated him to run faster.

Is there such a thing as a sports IQ? Find out about pattern recognitions and neuropsych tests in athletes. How can you sharpen intuition and game intelligence?  How do you become “a natural” at something? When does the subconscious take over certain tasks? All that, plus, discover what motivates cockroaches.

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