1 00:00:09,440 --> 00:00:13,119 Speaker 1: Hey, everybody, welcome to another edition of Wisdom Wednesdays. Today 2 00:00:13,160 --> 00:00:16,639 Speaker 1: we're going to dive into the neuroscience of burnout, and 3 00:00:16,680 --> 00:00:20,080 Speaker 1: I think it's pretty topical because recent research shows that 4 00:00:20,680 --> 00:00:25,840 Speaker 1: around half of all people in Australia, New Zealand, Singapore 5 00:00:25,920 --> 00:00:29,520 Speaker 1: and countries like that are experiencing some feelings of burnout. 6 00:00:29,840 --> 00:00:32,120 Speaker 1: And so we're going to explain what it does to 7 00:00:32,159 --> 00:00:36,360 Speaker 1: your brain, why it's more than just feeling tired, and 8 00:00:36,400 --> 00:00:39,120 Speaker 1: most importantly, what we can do about it. So I 9 00:00:39,159 --> 00:00:42,760 Speaker 1: actually did a pretty deep dive into burnout in my PhD. 10 00:00:42,920 --> 00:00:47,320 Speaker 1: And it's known as a psychological syndrome that emerges in 11 00:00:47,360 --> 00:00:51,199 Speaker 1: response to chronic job stress. And it's actually recognized as 12 00:00:51,240 --> 00:00:55,240 Speaker 1: an occupational hazard in a wide range of workplace settings 13 00:00:55,320 --> 00:01:01,800 Speaker 1: including first responders, police, military, and also corporations as well. 14 00:01:02,120 --> 00:01:06,520 Speaker 1: And it's associated with mood disturbances, and it's associated with 15 00:01:06,680 --> 00:01:12,440 Speaker 1: mood disturbances and also significant deficits in cognitive function including 16 00:01:12,520 --> 00:01:17,240 Speaker 1: memory and attention, which ends up in impowered work performance 17 00:01:17,480 --> 00:01:20,480 Speaker 1: and obviously sustainability in terms of work and has a 18 00:01:20,520 --> 00:01:25,520 Speaker 1: significant impact on individuals. And it's actually recognized now by 19 00:01:25,520 --> 00:01:30,160 Speaker 1: the World Health Organization as a syndrome, and researchers talk 20 00:01:30,240 --> 00:01:35,160 Speaker 1: about both clinical and non clinical burnout. So non clinical 21 00:01:35,200 --> 00:01:38,640 Speaker 1: burnout tends to be measured by things like the mas 22 00:01:38,720 --> 00:01:42,640 Speaker 1: LAC Burnout Inventory, which looks at three different elements. It 23 00:01:42,720 --> 00:01:46,399 Speaker 1: looks at the first one it looks at is emotional exhaustion, 24 00:01:47,080 --> 00:01:50,600 Speaker 1: then it's professional efficacy. So if you're high on exhaustion, 25 00:01:51,160 --> 00:01:54,400 Speaker 1: low on efficacy, and high on the third one, which 26 00:01:54,440 --> 00:01:58,840 Speaker 1: is cynicism, you're said to have burnout. But also there 27 00:01:58,880 --> 00:02:02,160 Speaker 1: are other researchers who look at what's called clinical burnout, 28 00:02:02,520 --> 00:02:06,360 Speaker 1: and this is where they can actually measure things in 29 00:02:06,400 --> 00:02:10,639 Speaker 1: the brain and measure brain changes. And I have read 30 00:02:10,680 --> 00:02:13,400 Speaker 1: a number of research papers that show that people with 31 00:02:13,639 --> 00:02:19,640 Speaker 1: clinical burnout have significant functional and structural changes in their brain. 32 00:02:20,320 --> 00:02:22,840 Speaker 1: And today I want to talk about a new research 33 00:02:22,880 --> 00:02:26,720 Speaker 1: paper that has just been released that was published in 34 00:02:26,760 --> 00:02:31,840 Speaker 1: the Frontiers and Human Neuroscience, and it looked at EG 35 00:02:32,120 --> 00:02:35,760 Speaker 1: resting states. So just when you're still EG so EG 36 00:02:35,919 --> 00:02:38,240 Speaker 1: for those who don't know, they put little electrodes on 37 00:02:38,280 --> 00:02:41,880 Speaker 1: your head and they're able to measure the electrical signals 38 00:02:41,919 --> 00:02:44,840 Speaker 1: created by your neurons and they can tell what parts 39 00:02:44,840 --> 00:02:46,720 Speaker 1: of the brain they're coming from so we get a 40 00:02:46,760 --> 00:02:50,880 Speaker 1: lot of information about the function of the brain from EEG. 41 00:02:51,360 --> 00:02:54,919 Speaker 1: And what they did was they comper data from forty 42 00:02:55,000 --> 00:02:59,600 Speaker 1: nine people with burnout compared to forty nine control healthy controls. 43 00:03:00,080 --> 00:03:04,040 Speaker 1: They were matched in age, gender, and occupation. And what 44 00:03:04,080 --> 00:03:07,040 Speaker 1: these guys find is that Bernard doesn't just impact how 45 00:03:07,040 --> 00:03:11,880 Speaker 1: we feel, it also alters how our brain communicates with itself. 46 00:03:12,520 --> 00:03:15,600 Speaker 1: And specifically, what they found was that the Bernard group 47 00:03:15,760 --> 00:03:21,960 Speaker 1: showed decreased functional connectivity in the frontal and midline areas 48 00:03:22,000 --> 00:03:25,880 Speaker 1: of the brain, and particularly in what was called the 49 00:03:26,000 --> 00:03:30,400 Speaker 1: Alpha three band, which is strongly linked to attention, emotion 50 00:03:30,800 --> 00:03:36,320 Speaker 1: regulation and also cognitive control. And this drop in connectivity 51 00:03:36,920 --> 00:03:40,480 Speaker 1: was most prominent in the right frontal region, the right 52 00:03:40,480 --> 00:03:44,760 Speaker 1: frontal lobes, when subjects were in an eyes open, resting state, 53 00:03:45,160 --> 00:03:49,280 Speaker 1: basically they're just sitting there quietly, not even doing a task, 54 00:03:49,840 --> 00:03:53,800 Speaker 1: and their brain signature was different to people who didn't 55 00:03:53,840 --> 00:03:57,400 Speaker 1: have Bernard. Now why is this important, Well, the frontal lobes, 56 00:03:57,960 --> 00:04:01,280 Speaker 1: especially area called this it's just described where it is, 57 00:04:01,320 --> 00:04:05,840 Speaker 1: the dorso lateral prefrontal cortex, and also an area called 58 00:04:05,880 --> 00:04:11,520 Speaker 1: the anterior singular cortex. They're really your executive control centers. 59 00:04:12,000 --> 00:04:17,000 Speaker 1: They're really important for managing your emotions, making decisions, forecasting 60 00:04:17,040 --> 00:04:22,200 Speaker 1: into the future, exercising judgment, and also staying focused. So 61 00:04:22,240 --> 00:04:25,200 Speaker 1: the really important in attention as well. And when the 62 00:04:25,240 --> 00:04:30,360 Speaker 1: connections in these areas weaken, as they do from this paper, 63 00:04:30,400 --> 00:04:35,440 Speaker 1: in burnout, your ability to self regulate drops, your emotional 64 00:04:35,520 --> 00:04:41,360 Speaker 1: resilience takes a hammering, and your risk for depression increases. 65 00:04:41,800 --> 00:04:45,800 Speaker 1: In fact, what they find were that these neural signatures 66 00:04:45,920 --> 00:04:49,360 Speaker 1: look a lot like what we see in depression. And 67 00:04:49,839 --> 00:04:52,320 Speaker 1: now I finally we're actually starting to look in the 68 00:04:52,360 --> 00:04:55,279 Speaker 1: brains of people with depression and seeing as they're a 69 00:04:55,320 --> 00:04:57,440 Speaker 1: biological signature. And this is one of the things I've 70 00:04:57,440 --> 00:05:01,400 Speaker 1: been critical about about a lot of mood disorders. A 71 00:05:01,480 --> 00:05:05,240 Speaker 1: lot of them don't have a clear, consistent biological signature. 72 00:05:05,760 --> 00:05:07,960 Speaker 1: But we're starting to see this in depression. And it's 73 00:05:08,000 --> 00:05:12,480 Speaker 1: not surprising given that there is a significant overlap between 74 00:05:12,480 --> 00:05:16,440 Speaker 1: burnout and depressive symptoms in the research. But here's the clincher. 75 00:05:17,279 --> 00:05:22,440 Speaker 1: Burnout in this study showed unique connectivity patterns, meaning that 76 00:05:22,480 --> 00:05:26,160 Speaker 1: it's not just a mild form of depression, it's actually 77 00:05:26,160 --> 00:05:30,279 Speaker 1: a distinct syndrome with its own brand based markers that 78 00:05:30,640 --> 00:05:34,560 Speaker 1: some of them happen to overlap with depression. So what 79 00:05:34,600 --> 00:05:36,480 Speaker 1: do we do with this? Well, this is where we 80 00:05:36,520 --> 00:05:39,880 Speaker 1: need to get practical. I have actually delivered as part 81 00:05:39,880 --> 00:05:44,320 Speaker 1: of my PhD to what's called multimodal intervensions. I did 82 00:05:44,360 --> 00:05:48,039 Speaker 1: one in a bunch of military aviators and another in 83 00:05:48,279 --> 00:05:52,760 Speaker 1: a couple of corporate environments. And these multimodal interventions were 84 00:05:52,800 --> 00:05:57,120 Speaker 1: designed specifically to counteract the effects of chronic stress and 85 00:05:57,160 --> 00:06:01,320 Speaker 1: burnout and help people with performs under pressure in a 86 00:06:01,400 --> 00:06:06,800 Speaker 1: sustainable manner. And it's part of my PhD supervisor Eugeneedman's 87 00:06:06,800 --> 00:06:11,360 Speaker 1: Overall Wider Cognitive Fitness Project, and this is really about 88 00:06:11,680 --> 00:06:15,000 Speaker 1: how do we help people perform under pressure in a 89 00:06:15,040 --> 00:06:19,480 Speaker 1: sustainable manner so that they don't burn themselves out. Now, 90 00:06:19,480 --> 00:06:22,560 Speaker 1: the interventions that we did were multi modal in nature, 91 00:06:22,920 --> 00:06:25,440 Speaker 1: so this just wasn't a couple of breathing exercises, are a 92 00:06:25,440 --> 00:06:28,440 Speaker 1: bit of meditation or a power point on well being. 93 00:06:28,920 --> 00:06:33,680 Speaker 1: There were pretty deep structured programs that targeted physical, cognitive, 94 00:06:34,320 --> 00:06:39,400 Speaker 1: and emotional resilience and hardiness. And the first study that 95 00:06:39,680 --> 00:06:44,840 Speaker 1: involved serving military aviators, we did a four week combined 96 00:06:44,960 --> 00:06:49,320 Speaker 1: cognitive and physical training program, So it was all about 97 00:06:49,360 --> 00:06:52,960 Speaker 1: doing lots of physical exercise, getting good sleep hygiene, and 98 00:06:53,000 --> 00:06:57,880 Speaker 1: we did psycho education around dealing with stress and their emotions. 99 00:06:58,839 --> 00:07:01,720 Speaker 1: Also talked about neutral as well. And there was also 100 00:07:01,800 --> 00:07:05,360 Speaker 1: that paper that they had all across the board statistical 101 00:07:05,440 --> 00:07:10,040 Speaker 1: significant improvements in resilience, They had improvements in mood, and 102 00:07:10,360 --> 00:07:13,600 Speaker 1: they improved in all of the three core markers of 103 00:07:13,640 --> 00:07:17,240 Speaker 1: burnout that referred to earlier, the emotional exhaustion, the job cynicism, 104 00:07:17,840 --> 00:07:23,240 Speaker 1: and the professional efficacy. And then we took that same 105 00:07:23,520 --> 00:07:27,760 Speaker 1: approach and actually adapted it for high pressure corporate workplaces. 106 00:07:28,080 --> 00:07:30,800 Speaker 1: Did a randomized control trial this time, and it was 107 00:07:30,840 --> 00:07:33,640 Speaker 1: a longer intervention, it was eight weeks. Not only do 108 00:07:33,720 --> 00:07:36,120 Speaker 1: we look at mood and resilience, but we really zeroed 109 00:07:36,160 --> 00:07:38,960 Speaker 1: in on hardiness. And you've heard me talk about that before. 110 00:07:39,560 --> 00:07:43,440 Speaker 1: That's the three things of commitment orientation, control orientation, and 111 00:07:43,520 --> 00:07:47,480 Speaker 1: challenge orientation. So these are a group of psychological orientations 112 00:07:47,480 --> 00:07:50,840 Speaker 1: that help people to thrive under pressure and to grow 113 00:07:50,920 --> 00:07:54,720 Speaker 1: from stress. And what we find again with this multi 114 00:07:54,800 --> 00:07:59,920 Speaker 1: mode intervention was that people's resilience improved, their mood improved, 115 00:08:00,080 --> 00:08:03,200 Speaker 1: to their perceptions of stress in their life improved, their 116 00:08:03,200 --> 00:08:08,720 Speaker 1: gratitude improved, all three components of hardiness improved, and we 117 00:08:08,840 --> 00:08:14,640 Speaker 1: also improved what was called cognitive control. We improved and 118 00:08:14,720 --> 00:08:21,240 Speaker 1: their ability to sustain attention and the inhibition. And this 119 00:08:21,320 --> 00:08:24,000 Speaker 1: is one of the important things for cognitive control, which 120 00:08:24,080 --> 00:08:27,400 Speaker 1: was an area that in the people with burnout in 121 00:08:27,440 --> 00:08:30,800 Speaker 1: that study that I mentioned that that was starting to 122 00:08:30,960 --> 00:08:33,480 Speaker 1: drop off with them. And it's probably a good time 123 00:08:33,520 --> 00:08:36,920 Speaker 1: to do a shameless plug for my book The Hardiness Effect, 124 00:08:37,360 --> 00:08:41,920 Speaker 1: because it really goes in deep detail into the multimodal 125 00:08:41,920 --> 00:08:45,560 Speaker 1: interventions that we were doing with these corporates and these 126 00:08:45,640 --> 00:08:49,400 Speaker 1: naval aviators, so to kind of summarizing and connect the dots, 127 00:08:49,840 --> 00:08:54,920 Speaker 1: and burnout is clearly associated now with weakened connectivity in 128 00:08:54,960 --> 00:08:58,920 Speaker 1: the very brillin regions that are responsible for regulating stress, 129 00:08:59,000 --> 00:09:04,600 Speaker 1: regulating our emotions, and performing executive functions. And our intervention 130 00:09:04,679 --> 00:09:09,559 Speaker 1: is the multi modal ones combining all of the physical 131 00:09:10,160 --> 00:09:14,000 Speaker 1: lifestyle stuff that we talk about with psycho education and 132 00:09:14,720 --> 00:09:20,600 Speaker 1: particularly focused around hardiness and psychological flexibility. They appear to 133 00:09:21,520 --> 00:09:24,840 Speaker 1: reverse or at least buffer some of these in facts 134 00:09:24,840 --> 00:09:28,920 Speaker 1: by proving cognitive fitness, resilience, and hardiness which are qualities 135 00:09:28,920 --> 00:09:33,680 Speaker 1: that depend heavily on those same frontal systems. And although 136 00:09:33,920 --> 00:09:37,160 Speaker 1: we didn't directly measure that connectivity, there is such an 137 00:09:37,200 --> 00:09:40,080 Speaker 1: overlap in the stuff that we did and with the 138 00:09:40,120 --> 00:09:44,559 Speaker 1: burnout surveys that I think we could draw reasonable conclusions 139 00:09:44,600 --> 00:09:47,719 Speaker 1: around that. And the main thing here, I think the 140 00:09:47,920 --> 00:09:52,720 Speaker 1: big TAKEO for people like working long hours should not 141 00:09:52,920 --> 00:09:56,120 Speaker 1: be a badge of honor. Burnard is not a badge 142 00:09:56,120 --> 00:09:58,880 Speaker 1: of honor. Being highly stressed is not a badge of honor. 143 00:09:59,360 --> 00:10:04,160 Speaker 1: It is a sad that your brain's communication systems are faltering, 144 00:10:04,520 --> 00:10:07,280 Speaker 1: and if you don't do something about it, you can 145 00:10:07,480 --> 00:10:11,600 Speaker 1: end up with significant structural and functional changes in the 146 00:10:11,679 --> 00:10:15,640 Speaker 1: brain that seem to be longer lasting with people with 147 00:10:15,720 --> 00:10:18,640 Speaker 1: this clinical burnout that I talked about at the start. 148 00:10:19,000 --> 00:10:22,360 Speaker 1: But the good news is there are tools and training 149 00:10:22,440 --> 00:10:25,040 Speaker 1: programs that you can do about it. And it really 150 00:10:25,160 --> 00:10:29,920 Speaker 1: is this cognitive fitness framework where there's a multimodal intervention 151 00:10:30,520 --> 00:10:33,600 Speaker 1: of all the good physical stuff that we know that 152 00:10:33,679 --> 00:10:38,240 Speaker 1: we need to do plus training in heartiness. For me, 153 00:10:38,720 --> 00:10:41,920 Speaker 1: that is the perfect combination. That's it for this week's folks. 154 00:10:42,000 --> 00:10:42,760 Speaker 1: Catch you next time.