The ten neuroscience findings offered in the Survey:
1.The Gut and Brain: there is extensive wiring between the Gut and the brain. As the Gut is “feeling”, so is the Brain. We now know that our Gut has an extensive number of neurons that connect to many other parts of our body—including our brain. In reflecting on these findings, please check no more than three of the following suggestions. You might also add an additional suggestion if you would like in the “Other” box.
2.Fight/flight/freeze and stress imagining lions. Having evolved on the African savannah and having learned to survive as one of the slowest and weakest animals on the savannah, humans learned not to fight or flight, but rather (like many other slow and weak animals) to Freeze in place, hoping that the threatening predator will either not see us or leave us out of disinterest. Freeze is a damaging condition (large amounts of chemical meant for fight and flight, not freeze). Other animals shake off these chemicals, but not humans. Furthermore, humans have the capacity to imagine predators (lions), leaving them often in the state of damaging stress. In reflecting on these findings, please check no more than three of the following suggestions. You might also add an additional suggestion if you would like in the “Other” box.
3.Reward and risk: As humans, we are often addicted to our own adrenaline and therefore are looking for crisis/action that elevate levels of adrenaline. Furthermore, we are likely to find elevated levels of pleasure-activated hormones when we are anticipating a reward (e.g. slot machine payoff) than when we actually receive the reward. We are also more highly motivated by a desire to avoid regret (not having done something) then by a desire to not fail or a desire to succeed. All of this leads to inappropriate risk-taking behavior. In reflecting on these findings, please check no more than three of the following suggestions. You might also add an additional suggestion if you would like in the “Other” box.
4.Advice giving: As socially active human beings we actually get a “squirt” of pleasure-releasing drugs when we offer ADVICE to other people. We get “high” from our role as “wise” counselors to other people. In reflecting on these findings, please check no more than three of the following suggestions. You might also add an additional suggestion if you would like in the “Other” box.
5. Coaching as “friendship”: We have found that people conducting intensive psychotherapy will experience (as do their client/patient) an activation of areas of their brain that closely resemble that pattern of activation found when two people are in “love” (or at least sexually attracted to one another). Conversely, people who do counselling (or probably executive coaching) tend (like their client) to activate areas of their brain that closely resemble that of friends (rather than lovers). In reflecting on these findings, please check no more than three of the following suggestions. You might also add an additional suggestion if you would like in the “Other” box.
6.Mirror neurons and empathy: Human beings apparently have neurons that specifically activate in a manner that replicates the activation that would occur if actual action was taking place (e.g. in watching a tennis match, the observer has neurons that activate as if they themselves were swinging the tennis racket). Some “mirror” neurons might also be activated that replicate the feelings of pain experienced by someone being observed who is in a state of pain (or feeling bad). This might be one of the sources of “empathy” in human beings. In reflecting on these findings, please check no more than three of the following suggestions. You might also add an additional suggestion if you would like in the “Other” box.
7.Neuroplasticity: Humans have the remarkable capacity to transfer neural functioning from one area of the brain to another area if the original (first) area is not being used extensively or not used at all. For example, a person who is blind can expand their capacity to process aural (hearing) information by reassigning unused areas of the visual cortex to process aural information. In reflecting on these findings, please check no more than three of the following suggestions. You might also add an additional suggestion if you would like in the “Other” box.
8. ”End-of-the-line” integration of sensory data: Apparently, our sensory input (sight, sound, touch, smell, etc.) remain independent until very late in the process of forming an integrated portrait in our brain of immediate “reality”. There is plenty of opportunity during the independent neural processing of sensory input to modify this neural information. Furthermore, there is ample opportunity when the integration of the sensory input occurs to do further modifications and to fill in missing or incongruent sensory data. In reflecting on these findings, please check no more than three of the following suggestions. You might also add an additional suggestion if you would like in the “Other” box.
9.Oxytocin as bonding/nurturing: Humans activate higher levels of a specific hormone than most other animals. This chemical is oxytocin—which is often associated with bonding and nurturing. High levels of oxytocin in humans are probably important in terms of the survival of humans on the African savannah since humans were weak and slow—thus having to rely on their ability to work (and defend) together with other humans. Humans are also quite sensitive to the loss of a bond or relationship with other people. When we experience “shame” (the sense of being isolated from other people), our bodies react as if we have actually been stabbed in our stomach. In reflecting on these findings, please check no more than three of the following suggestions. You might also add an additional suggestion if you would like in the “Other” box.
10.Preserving sense of self: Recent research has revealed that there is a sector of our brain that knits together memories of the present and future self. Apparently, our identity is a fusion of present and future—which is essential to maintaining a mental construct of ourselves. We also find continuity in the ongoing assessment of our own physical wellbeing that provides a somatic template. This template enables us to determine if we are feeling “good” or “bad” at any moment in time and provides us with a major part of our present sense of self. In reflecting on these findings, please check no more than three of the following suggestions. You might also add an additional suggestion if you would like in the “Other” box.
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