Steve Fleming, whose blog is The Elusive Self, offers a review/overview of a new theory of consciousness, as outlined by Michael Graziano in his 2013 book, Consciousness and the Social Brain. I happen to have this book, but I have not gotten around to reading it. In the front matter of the book there is … Read more
In this new mini review from Frontiers in Cognition, Lippelt, Hommel, and Colzato compare three meditation types (focused attention, open monitoring and loving kindness) in terms of their effects on attention, conflict monitoring, and creativity. The three research areas the authors covered in this review (attentional control, performance monitoring, and creativity or thinking style) seem … Read more
Zen teacher and integral darling Diane Hamilton has been vigorously promoting her new book, Everything Is Workable: A Zen Approach to Conflict Resolution (Shambhala, 2013). Here is the publisher’s ad copy for the book: Using mindfulness to work with and resolve the inevitable interpersonal conflicts that arise in all areas of life.Conflict is going to … Read more
New research has identified a brain circuit that is key to shifting attention from one object to another. The researchers found that there is object-based attention and spatial attention, each of which is centered in different parts of the brain. The prefrontal cortex (“inferior frontal junction (IFJ), which controls visual processing areas that are tuned … Read more
In 2009 researchers at Simon Fraser University discovered a system in the brain that helps us ignore irrelevant information – “the specific neural index of suppression“. Now their research suggests that the problem in disorders such as ADHD is that the “filter” or “anti-distraction system” is not functioning optimally due to either environmental factors (my … Read more