WEBVTT - Your brain is unique... here's how to maximise it's potential 🧠 0:00:04.000 --> 0:00:05.840 Get everyone Sam here. 0:00:06.320 --> 0:00:10.880 Today is a really interesting episode because it's one of 0:00:10.920 --> 0:00:14.840 those things where we're talking with one of the world's 0:00:14.840 --> 0:00:22.000 best neuroscientists, and sometimes I feel like understanding the brain 0:00:22.680 --> 0:00:27.720 is just too complicated for a simpleton like myself that 0:00:27.880 --> 0:00:30.400 I don't delve into it because I don't think i'll 0:00:30.480 --> 0:00:35.000 understand it. And the refreshing thing about today's episode is 0:00:35.040 --> 0:00:37.560 it was exactly the opposite. It was explained by someone 0:00:37.600 --> 0:00:42.479 who's highly, highly intelligent but speaks in a way that 0:00:43.560 --> 0:00:47.199 hopefully you'll understand, and I understood, so I think you're 0:00:47.200 --> 0:00:49.080 really going to enjoy it. And then I'm going to 0:00:49.080 --> 0:00:51.159 answer some of your fitness questions to help kick off 0:00:51.159 --> 0:00:53.800 twenty twenty three in the best way possible. So we'll 0:00:53.800 --> 0:00:56.880 get to those questions later on. But now our incredible 0:00:56.920 --> 0:01:21.880 neuroscientist Chantell Pratt. I am joined from the West Coast 0:01:22.040 --> 0:01:26.240 of America up in Seattle by the incredible Chantell Pratt, 0:01:26.240 --> 0:01:29.800 who is a neuroscientist and author of her new book 0:01:29.800 --> 0:01:34.040 which is called The Neuroscience of You. Chantell, Welcome to 0:01:34.080 --> 0:01:34.600 the WOODLFE. 0:01:34.959 --> 0:01:36.920 Thank you so much for having me so. 0:01:37.000 --> 0:01:40.759 Chanteau, You've done a lot of work studying the individuality 0:01:40.800 --> 0:01:43.560 of our brains and how they are all unique and differ, 0:01:43.600 --> 0:01:46.920 which I have to admit is very different to what 0:01:47.200 --> 0:01:49.880 most of us will definitely what I have been taught 0:01:49.880 --> 0:01:51.480 when it comes to the brain. I kind of thought, 0:01:51.560 --> 0:01:54.000 we're all in the same boat a little bit. So 0:01:54.040 --> 0:01:57.080 what led you down this path of finding I guess, 0:01:57.120 --> 0:02:00.600 the passion for the brain and challenging what has been 0:02:00.640 --> 0:02:02.480 so widely except for decades. 0:02:02.920 --> 0:02:06.040 I started out wanting to be a medical doctor, a 0:02:06.080 --> 0:02:10.440 physician anyway. I was deep into this accelerated pre med 0:02:10.560 --> 0:02:14.440 program and I needed to take one social science class. 0:02:15.480 --> 0:02:17.960 Took a class purely because it fit into my schedule. 0:02:18.040 --> 0:02:22.560 Is a night class introduction to psychology, and the first 0:02:22.639 --> 0:02:27.320 day of this class, our instructor started to outline the 0:02:27.360 --> 0:02:32.080 fact that the psychological principles were also biological by telling 0:02:32.120 --> 0:02:35.959 the story of Phineas Gauge. Phineas Gauge was a railway 0:02:36.000 --> 0:02:40.760 worker who suffered an accident that resulted in a railway 0:02:40.800 --> 0:02:44.080 spike being blown out through the top of his head, 0:02:44.200 --> 0:02:47.440 right through his frontal lobe, and the fact that he 0:02:47.560 --> 0:02:51.720 walked away from this would be phenomenal even today, But 0:02:52.480 --> 0:02:57.520 he walked away being fundamentally changed his personality changed, just 0:02:57.560 --> 0:02:59.960 the idea that you change this organ and you change 0:03:00.160 --> 0:03:02.440 the person and it was just game over for me. 0:03:02.520 --> 0:03:05.840 I'm like, how is that possible? There's a physical entity 0:03:06.240 --> 0:03:11.960 between your ears that makes you you? So when I 0:03:12.040 --> 0:03:16.440 went to study neuroscience, the fact that the normal that 0:03:16.520 --> 0:03:20.600 the typical paradigm for studying how the brain gives rise 0:03:20.639 --> 0:03:22.480 to the mind or how the brain gives rise to 0:03:22.560 --> 0:03:29.800 feelings completely ignores individual variation and averages across to people. 0:03:30.400 --> 0:03:34.040 Takes a mean or a sort of characterization or a 0:03:34.120 --> 0:03:37.400 sketch of a group of people to describe how the 0:03:37.400 --> 0:03:40.160 brain gives rights to the mind and the feelings and 0:03:40.200 --> 0:03:45.240 the mental life. I found this like utterly not only surprising, 0:03:45.360 --> 0:03:49.200 but unsatisfying, Like, Yeah, why do we care how groups 0:03:49.240 --> 0:03:53.240 of people's brains look in different contexts? And why do 0:03:53.280 --> 0:03:56.280 we form theories on how the group average changes when 0:03:56.320 --> 0:03:59.840 you have a group of people do different things and 0:04:00.080 --> 0:04:02.640 the theories can't account for why two people doing the 0:04:02.680 --> 0:04:06.360 same task are using dramatically different parts of their brain 0:04:06.440 --> 0:04:07.280 to accomplish it. 0:04:08.240 --> 0:04:10.200 I love how it sort of lit that spark in 0:04:10.240 --> 0:04:13.880 you and you've just you know, followed it intently. 0:04:14.120 --> 0:04:16.240 And so passionately for so long. 0:04:17.160 --> 0:04:21.120 Why still, then, do we have these sort of very 0:04:21.560 --> 0:04:25.040 not archaic, but very basic sort of stereotypes of I'm 0:04:25.040 --> 0:04:28.000 a left brain person or brain person. I'm either this 0:04:28.120 --> 0:04:31.040 sort of analytical think or this creative think. Here, it's 0:04:31.760 --> 0:04:35.960 are we just simplifying it down, way, way, way too much. 0:04:37.400 --> 0:04:41.360 Yes, I love to ride, you know, right off into 0:04:41.360 --> 0:04:45.600 the sunset on my individual differences matter, shy horse. Yeah, 0:04:45.640 --> 0:04:49.200 but the brain is really freaking complicated. Sure, on the 0:04:49.240 --> 0:04:52.040 one hand, we have to pick some dimensions to simplify 0:04:52.080 --> 0:04:56.040 to understand anything. Sure, and starting with a characterization of 0:04:56.080 --> 0:05:00.240 how most people work or you know, how the average 0:05:00.240 --> 0:05:04.480 brain works, is a good place to start. What I 0:05:04.600 --> 0:05:07.320 like about the right brain left brain thing, there are 0:05:07.320 --> 0:05:10.040 two things I like about it. One is it is 0:05:10.279 --> 0:05:12.560 people use it, and I think it's one of the 0:05:12.560 --> 0:05:17.039 only kinds of labels we have to understand or to 0:05:17.120 --> 0:05:19.359 describe what we all know intuitively, And that's that we 0:05:19.400 --> 0:05:21.640 don't all work the same, right Like the one size 0:05:21.640 --> 0:05:26.800 fits all approach to neuroscience doesn't fit anyone very well. Right, 0:05:26.960 --> 0:05:29.080 just like one size fits all T shirts don't fit 0:05:29.120 --> 0:05:32.640 anybody very well. So we have this intuition that not 0:05:32.680 --> 0:05:35.800 everyone works the same and the right brain the left 0:05:35.800 --> 0:05:39.960 brain analytical versus right brain creative thinker is something that 0:05:40.000 --> 0:05:43.719 we can grab onto as a way of describing sort 0:05:43.720 --> 0:05:47.599 of characteristic differences between people. What's cool about that story 0:05:47.720 --> 0:05:51.080 is the science that it's actually based on, So it's 0:05:51.080 --> 0:05:55.839 not garbage, it's not myth, it's based on an actual 0:05:55.880 --> 0:05:59.040 scientific fact about how the two hemispheres of the brain work, 0:05:59.720 --> 0:06:05.159 and these differences between people. One of the fundamental differences 0:06:05.200 --> 0:06:08.280 between people in terms of how our brains work is 0:06:08.320 --> 0:06:12.880 actually a difference within us, and that is that everybody 0:06:13.839 --> 0:06:18.520 has two hemispheres. Well not everybody, but most typically developing 0:06:18.560 --> 0:06:23.520 people have two cerebral hemispheres in their brain, and these 0:06:23.560 --> 0:06:27.520 two hemispheres are halfs of your brain process the world 0:06:27.680 --> 0:06:33.599 largely independently. They get input and they create computations or 0:06:33.680 --> 0:06:36.440 understandings of the world. They vote about how you can 0:06:36.480 --> 0:06:40.280 behave and then they share information with one another. And 0:06:40.320 --> 0:06:45.279 this kind of symbiosis or collaboration between brains is what 0:06:45.480 --> 0:06:49.799 drives most of our behavior. And because of that sharing, 0:06:50.160 --> 0:06:55.680 we don't necessarily feel divided. But there are two perspectives 0:06:55.720 --> 0:07:01.159 happening within our own minds, and one of the most 0:07:01.160 --> 0:07:06.840 interesting differences is how distinct those two perspectives are. So 0:07:07.000 --> 0:07:14.960 in a typical strongly right handed individual, the left hemisphere 0:07:15.440 --> 0:07:19.280 is processing the world by dividing it into very skilled 0:07:19.760 --> 0:07:25.560 small problem sets, like processing the trees in a forest. 0:07:26.320 --> 0:07:30.960 It is larger in some areas, faster to do a 0:07:30.960 --> 0:07:36.120 lot of computations, and this kind of lopsidednes This larger 0:07:36.200 --> 0:07:41.280 left hemisphere allows us to become specialized for things like 0:07:41.480 --> 0:07:49.000 language calculations, et cetera, newer kinds of human thinking tasks. 0:07:49.480 --> 0:07:52.080 But what's interesting about this, and one of the main 0:07:52.120 --> 0:07:55.360 points of my book, is how different doesn't necessarily mean 0:07:55.400 --> 0:07:58.760 better or worse. It's just a continuum of trade offs. 0:07:59.160 --> 0:08:01.720 What's interesting about this is that the way the brain 0:08:01.880 --> 0:08:08.000 becomes lopsided, which allows this left hemisphere specialization, is actually 0:08:08.040 --> 0:08:12.040 by shrinking parts of the rate hemisphere, so it actually 0:08:12.240 --> 0:08:16.320 sort of handicaps the area of the brain that does 0:08:16.480 --> 0:08:22.280 spatial navigation and three dimensional processing of the world. I 0:08:22.440 --> 0:08:26.520 just read a book called The Dyslexic Advantage that talks 0:08:26.560 --> 0:08:30.880 about how people with dyslexia tend to be better at 0:08:30.920 --> 0:08:34.800 like mechanistic or world building things that require this three 0:08:34.840 --> 0:08:39.160 dimensional view that takes place in the rate hemisphere. 0:08:39.520 --> 0:08:43.080 So my wife and my seventeen year old daughter are 0:08:43.080 --> 0:08:48.520 both dyslexic and have ADHD, and at first in our 0:08:48.559 --> 0:08:53.040 relationship I used to get frustrated because I'm quite the opposite. 0:08:53.800 --> 0:08:55.880 You know, I can sort of see words and numbers 0:08:55.920 --> 0:09:01.280 really really easily. But if we were together, I would 0:09:01.320 --> 0:09:04.240 be the one that gets lost. Or if a pram 0:09:04.360 --> 0:09:06.960 arrives to put together for our kids, all stare at 0:09:06.960 --> 0:09:09.640 the instructions for about three days and still not to 0:09:09.640 --> 0:09:11.240 be able to do it. In my seventeen year old 0:09:11.240 --> 0:09:12.559 to be able to put it together in about eight 0:09:12.600 --> 0:09:16.920 seconds without the instructions. It's like, it's fascinating. How do 0:09:17.000 --> 0:09:21.680 we identify what type we are? Or at least you know, 0:09:22.040 --> 0:09:25.160 as you know, narrow it down as much as possible. 0:09:25.280 --> 0:09:27.360 Well without being able to come into a lab and 0:09:27.400 --> 0:09:29.240 get a picture of your brain, which I assume the 0:09:29.240 --> 0:09:32.680 people who read my book won't do. Yes, the most 0:09:32.720 --> 0:09:38.119 straightforward instinct or insight you can get about how lopsided 0:09:38.120 --> 0:09:41.320 your brain is is by thinking about the relative skill 0:09:41.440 --> 0:09:42.679 of your two hands. 0:09:42.880 --> 0:09:47.040 Right, So hold on really quick, you got dogs playing 0:09:47.559 --> 0:09:49.439 here that this. 0:09:49.520 --> 0:09:54.160 Is about the left hemisphere's ability to stay goal oriented 0:09:54.200 --> 0:09:58.000 and focused versus the right hemispheres noticing ability to be 0:09:58.080 --> 0:10:01.000 reflexively wondering wh the dogs is summery. 0:10:01.080 --> 0:10:05.280 We cave it real in the chel dog's backing. It's oh, 0:10:05.400 --> 0:10:07.000 part of the shot. I love it. 0:10:08.840 --> 0:10:14.160 Well, Okay, So number one, Handedness is a continuum. You know, 0:10:14.240 --> 0:10:17.440 most of us identify as right or left handed, but 0:10:17.600 --> 0:10:21.800 in fact the degree of handed the sort of degree 0:10:21.840 --> 0:10:25.040 of skill between your hands, varies on a continuum. And 0:10:25.120 --> 0:10:30.200 what's interesting is that it's actually the we can, the 0:10:30.240 --> 0:10:33.320 strength of the we can that determines how balanced you 0:10:33.360 --> 0:10:35.760 will be. So so one way to do this if 0:10:35.800 --> 0:10:39.560 you go to my website, which is Chantelpratt dot com. 0:10:39.600 --> 0:10:43.120 There's a research tab and I've linked to other people's research. 0:10:43.120 --> 0:10:45.080 So one thing you can do is check the boxes 0:10:45.200 --> 0:10:47.559 exercise where you actually take a mouse with your right 0:10:47.559 --> 0:10:50.120 hand and left hand and see how many bubbles you 0:10:50.120 --> 0:10:52.880 can check in sixty seconds, and just compare the relative 0:10:52.920 --> 0:10:56.040 strength of your two hands. Most people cannot, like not 0:10:56.160 --> 0:10:59.680 do anything with their non dominant hand, but some people can, 0:10:59.800 --> 0:11:02.600 you know, would never open a doorknob with their non 0:11:02.720 --> 0:11:05.840 dominant hand, where others can do it. No problem. And 0:11:05.880 --> 0:11:07.720 there are other things you can do too, like if 0:11:07.760 --> 0:11:10.800 you're strongly you know, right hand dominant, and also like 0:11:10.960 --> 0:11:13.880 always go up the stairs with your right foot, or 0:11:14.200 --> 0:11:17.079 would sit like would also like look into a microscope 0:11:17.120 --> 0:11:19.280 with your right eye. These are all hints that you're 0:11:19.480 --> 0:11:22.960 strongly right side dominant, which means that you have this 0:11:23.160 --> 0:11:26.320 left lop sided brain because control of the body and 0:11:26.360 --> 0:11:28.520 the brain are switched to the left side of the 0:11:28.559 --> 0:11:30.240 brain controls the right side of the body. 0:11:30.520 --> 0:11:33.600 This is so powerful because you need to understand what 0:11:33.679 --> 0:11:37.080 you are naturally and then you need to embrace that 0:11:37.720 --> 0:11:41.720 to reach your potential by working out this is who 0:11:41.760 --> 0:11:45.280 I am, and this is if I do something from 0:11:45.280 --> 0:11:50.000 a career perspective that utilizes my natural kind of way 0:11:50.040 --> 0:11:52.400 of thinking and skill set, then I'm just going to 0:11:52.480 --> 0:11:55.600 be more successful because I'm working. I'm working in the 0:11:55.600 --> 0:11:58.600 space that I'm stronger. But you're saying if you take 0:11:58.600 --> 0:12:03.000 that too far and you neglect to the other side completely, 0:12:03.760 --> 0:12:08.199 that actually causes a lop sidedness, and you better off 0:12:08.240 --> 0:12:12.120 having a balanced approach where you sure utilize your strengths 0:12:12.160 --> 0:12:13.640 but don't neglect your weaknesses. 0:12:13.880 --> 0:12:15.400 Is that sort of what you're saying. 0:12:15.320 --> 0:12:19.199 That's a very interesting take. I think there are advantages 0:12:19.240 --> 0:12:22.120 to being everywhere on the spectrum, right, Like, just like 0:12:22.200 --> 0:12:25.560 you said, like you know, verbal instructions come quite easily 0:12:25.600 --> 0:12:27.960 to you, but you would like get lost in a 0:12:28.000 --> 0:12:31.360 new building or whatever. You know, there's a cost to 0:12:31.480 --> 0:12:34.920 this linguistic advantage that's pretty new in our brain's evolution. 0:12:35.960 --> 0:12:40.439 And right now we live in a society that highly 0:12:40.559 --> 0:12:45.640 prizes being able to read. Right, So all of education 0:12:45.960 --> 0:12:47.680 for better or for worse, and I think it's for 0:12:47.840 --> 0:12:53.959 worse because language is really new in terms of skills 0:12:53.960 --> 0:12:57.800 that our human brain is able to do. And I 0:12:57.840 --> 0:13:00.440 think what has happened is that we take for grited 0:13:01.400 --> 0:13:07.240 some really computationally hard but older things that our brain does, 0:13:07.320 --> 0:13:12.640 like navigation or just basic like memory organization or spatial 0:13:12.960 --> 0:13:17.680 rotation or motor function. So like, think about the fact 0:13:17.920 --> 0:13:22.800 that we have all these computer algorithms that can beat 0:13:22.800 --> 0:13:25.240 the world's expert in chess, and we think, oh, that's 0:13:25.320 --> 0:13:27.920 like chess or go or whatever is you know, really 0:13:28.360 --> 0:13:31.600 that's a smart quote unquote way of behaving. But a 0:13:31.640 --> 0:13:36.800 computer these ais can beat us. But yet we don't 0:13:36.840 --> 0:13:40.960 have a robot that can move a chess piece. With 0:13:41.120 --> 0:13:45.800 the acuity of a five year old. So we have 0:13:45.880 --> 0:13:48.760 an idea of the way, the optimal way of being 0:13:49.640 --> 0:13:54.040 that's defined based on a cultural norm of right now, 0:13:54.640 --> 0:13:58.439 but really doesn't appreciate the sophistication and the importance of 0:13:59.360 --> 0:14:01.720 all the computetions of our brain, be they motor, be 0:14:01.800 --> 0:14:05.240 they navigation. You know, we have this like idea of 0:14:05.400 --> 0:14:09.600 how to focus, how to communicate that really involves like 0:14:10.400 --> 0:14:15.240 Western educational systems and working in an office nine to five, 0:14:15.640 --> 0:14:20.840 and really largely ignore what our brains evolve for the 0:14:20.880 --> 0:14:25.040 broader range of things that are defined us success in 0:14:25.080 --> 0:14:28.360 the human brain. And so what I you know, sort 0:14:28.400 --> 0:14:30.920 of went into this thinking is like why do I 0:14:30.960 --> 0:14:33.640 have eighty six billion neurons and I can't do two 0:14:33.640 --> 0:14:35.520 things well at the same time? Like what is the 0:14:35.520 --> 0:14:40.000 point of this brain design? Why are we so bad 0:14:40.040 --> 0:14:45.440 at multitasking? Are like changing our behavior in goal oriented ways? 0:14:45.640 --> 0:14:48.440 And what I've come to realize is that a lot 0:14:48.480 --> 0:14:53.600 of things that feel frustrating or feel like sticking points 0:14:53.640 --> 0:14:57.360 for us are precisely the thing that allows us to 0:14:57.400 --> 0:15:02.440 do something else phenomenal. Right, And so like, for instance, 0:15:02.920 --> 0:15:06.760 I think that attention and the fact that we are 0:15:06.800 --> 0:15:12.280 actually not. I think I know that the reason we 0:15:12.400 --> 0:15:15.760 can't focus on multiple things at once, or we can't 0:15:15.840 --> 0:15:20.040 operate based on multiple goals at one time, is because 0:15:20.080 --> 0:15:25.400 this remarkable flexibility of human behavior. Humans can like I 0:15:25.440 --> 0:15:27.680 could say something to you right now. I could say, please, 0:15:27.760 --> 0:15:31.000 every time my dogs bark, stand up and do a 0:15:31.040 --> 0:15:35.360 jumping jack. You know, I could tell your listeners that, 0:15:36.480 --> 0:15:41.680 and they could do it immediately instantly, despite the fact 0:15:41.720 --> 0:15:44.600 that there was no reward system in your life. I 0:15:44.680 --> 0:15:46.960 think I would be willing to bet that there's no 0:15:47.120 --> 0:15:49.400 situation in your life in which doing a jumping jack 0:15:49.440 --> 0:15:52.560 when you hear a dog bark was rewarding or important 0:15:52.600 --> 0:15:56.200 where you ever practice that. But I can use language 0:15:56.880 --> 0:16:01.680 to reprogram your brain instantly, or reconfigure the networks of 0:16:01.680 --> 0:16:03.880 your brain to have them do something that they've never 0:16:03.920 --> 0:16:08.440 done before. But that takes up about a third of 0:16:08.480 --> 0:16:10.360 the neurons in your frontal lobe. And we could play, 0:16:10.520 --> 0:16:12.200 you know, for two hours. I could say, well, okay, 0:16:12.280 --> 0:16:14.120 jumping jacks for dogs or this or that, and there 0:16:14.120 --> 0:16:17.280 are almost infinite number of things that you can do. 0:16:18.560 --> 0:16:23.000 The flexibility of this system requires a whole lot of 0:16:23.040 --> 0:16:27.120 brain power, and because it's taking up about a third 0:16:27.200 --> 0:16:29.960 of the frontal lobe. These networks in the brain that 0:16:30.080 --> 0:16:33.200 don't have specialized jobs, they're flexible. They can be recombined 0:16:33.240 --> 0:16:36.000 in different ways to do different things. I can't do 0:16:36.120 --> 0:16:39.000 more than one effortful thing at a time. If I 0:16:39.360 --> 0:16:42.040 maybe if I get really lucky and find two things 0:16:42.040 --> 0:16:44.920 that don't overlap and need the same neurons, maybe I 0:16:44.920 --> 0:16:48.640 can kind of juggle between those two things. But most 0:16:48.680 --> 0:16:51.280 animals don't do that. Most animals move through the world 0:16:51.280 --> 0:16:57.360 in stimulus response ways and sort of practiced behaviors. It's 0:16:57.400 --> 0:17:02.720 precisely the human flexibility, the nature of our flexible information 0:17:02.880 --> 0:17:08.439 processing that creates this information bottleneck. So that you know, 0:17:08.520 --> 0:17:10.959 I guess what I would say to your listeners is 0:17:12.520 --> 0:17:15.160 be careful what you wish for a lot of things, 0:17:15.200 --> 0:17:19.760 like forgetting is really important to generalizing and learning categories 0:17:19.800 --> 0:17:22.879 of things. You know, people who can't forget have a 0:17:22.920 --> 0:17:26.679 real hard time learning any kind of abstract principle. So 0:17:26.720 --> 0:17:29.040 a lot of the things that we want to be 0:17:29.040 --> 0:17:33.840 better or different about our brands are actually really optimally 0:17:33.920 --> 0:17:35.000 working for us. 0:17:35.480 --> 0:17:39.760 The education thing I find fascinating because I was only 0:17:39.800 --> 0:17:42.760 talking with my teenage daughter because she's just she's doing 0:17:42.800 --> 0:17:45.879 her year eleven exams, she's just finished them. Who's not 0:17:46.480 --> 0:17:49.639 wonderfully academically. You know, she's dyslexic, so she struggles to 0:17:49.960 --> 0:17:52.480 finish her exams in the allocated time and all this 0:17:52.640 --> 0:17:55.840 kind of stuff. She gets very distracted when she's trying 0:17:55.880 --> 0:18:01.800 to study in focus. But she's creatively brilliant, and she 0:18:02.119 --> 0:18:04.280 knows that she wants to study fashion. She wants to 0:18:04.280 --> 0:18:05.879 go to New York and study fashion. 0:18:05.960 --> 0:18:07.840 And part of. 0:18:07.800 --> 0:18:11.720 Me is like responsible dad saying it's really important you 0:18:11.760 --> 0:18:13.760 finish your schooling and you take it seriously, and the 0:18:13.760 --> 0:18:15.760 other parties, I'm not worried about you at all because 0:18:15.800 --> 0:18:18.600 I actually think you what you want to do is 0:18:18.600 --> 0:18:21.280 what you should do, and you're just going to flourish. 0:18:21.320 --> 0:18:24.119 What would your advice be to parents who are looking 0:18:25.320 --> 0:18:29.879 to help their kids through schooling, and not not necessarily 0:18:29.880 --> 0:18:32.280 my age children, but as they get older and they're 0:18:32.359 --> 0:18:37.760 kind of understanding how their brain works and embracing that individuality. 0:18:38.480 --> 0:18:41.800 You know, I study predictors of learning success. So we've 0:18:41.840 --> 0:18:44.919 shown that if you close your eyes and do nothing 0:18:45.000 --> 0:18:47.720 for five minutes, you can tell by the patterns of 0:18:47.720 --> 0:18:51.040 connectivity in the brain how easily someone will learn a 0:18:51.160 --> 0:18:55.879 natural language like French or even a programming language like 0:18:56.040 --> 0:18:59.520 our Python or Java. So there's something in the way 0:18:59.560 --> 0:19:03.360 your brain is connected that can determine how successful you'll 0:19:03.359 --> 0:19:06.399 be in a particular environment. Does this mean that if 0:19:06.440 --> 0:19:08.359 your brain isn't working like that, like give it up, 0:19:08.400 --> 0:19:11.959 don't even try and learn a language. No, Because the 0:19:12.119 --> 0:19:16.160 number one predictor of success of most of the hard 0:19:16.160 --> 0:19:18.560 things in life. I think as soon as I say this, 0:19:18.600 --> 0:19:23.040 you're going to say, duh, like this is obvious is motivation, right, 0:19:23.920 --> 0:19:28.920 And so what I think happens in schools is that 0:19:29.160 --> 0:19:33.320 you learn that you're not good at something, yeah, and 0:19:34.520 --> 0:19:38.000 you have to work harder to do that thing. And 0:19:38.080 --> 0:19:42.600 that can be very non motivating. If you're not inherently 0:19:42.760 --> 0:19:47.480 driven to learn algebra and you don't know why you're 0:19:47.480 --> 0:19:50.560 going to need algebra in your life and you struggle, 0:19:51.720 --> 0:19:54.480 it can be this sort of self fulfilling prophecy, right, 0:19:54.520 --> 0:19:57.080 because you have to be more motivated, you have to 0:19:57.119 --> 0:20:02.120 work harder to learn this thing for whatever reason, and 0:20:02.359 --> 0:20:03.879 you don't think you're going to be good at it. 0:20:04.160 --> 0:20:07.399 There are a couple hidden layers here. One is it 0:20:07.440 --> 0:20:09.600 doesn't mean you're not good at algebra, or it doesn't 0:20:09.600 --> 0:20:11.480 mean you're not good at a foreign language. It means 0:20:11.480 --> 0:20:13.600 that in the way that that is being taught to 0:20:13.600 --> 0:20:16.960 you right now is not the natural way that your 0:20:17.000 --> 0:20:20.280 brain thrives. So I think, like the messaging you send 0:20:20.359 --> 0:20:24.280 your kids is not you're bad at this. Yeah, but 0:20:24.800 --> 0:20:28.960 how is the best way to expose you to this information? 0:20:29.680 --> 0:20:33.440 This is hard for everybody, and it's you know, easier 0:20:33.480 --> 0:20:36.479 when it's matched to the way that your brain learns, 0:20:36.560 --> 0:20:39.119 because I can give you you know, for every person 0:20:39.160 --> 0:20:42.320 I've ever talked to about learning, there's a story about 0:20:42.359 --> 0:20:46.840 someone telling them they were no good at something. You're 0:20:46.880 --> 0:20:49.760 not bad at math. You're having a hard time learning 0:20:49.800 --> 0:20:51.399 the way this is being taught to you. 0:20:52.200 --> 0:20:55.080 Yeah, I mean just just reframing it like that. I 0:20:55.119 --> 0:20:57.240 mean that that. 0:20:57.240 --> 0:21:01.040 Simple sentence that you just said is every child needs 0:21:01.080 --> 0:21:01.320 to hear. 0:21:01.400 --> 0:21:04.720 I think that's right. And how crappy would the world 0:21:04.760 --> 0:21:07.200 be if everybody was smart in the same way. There's 0:21:07.240 --> 0:21:11.840 a reason that our brains work differently because in a team, 0:21:12.000 --> 0:21:15.080 you know, you were talking about like ADHD also right, 0:21:15.200 --> 0:21:19.240 like imagine that there are our ancestors were like hunting 0:21:19.280 --> 0:21:22.280 and gathering and you've got a team of people. You 0:21:22.359 --> 0:21:24.800 need somebody to keep you on track. You need somebody 0:21:24.800 --> 0:21:27.040 to tell you, hey, we've already been in this neighborhood. 0:21:27.200 --> 0:21:29.399 But you also need somebody to notice the thing that 0:21:29.440 --> 0:21:30.400 nobody's expected. 0:21:30.640 --> 0:21:32.840 Yeah, save everybody's life. 0:21:33.680 --> 0:21:37.440 I knew today would be we scratch the surface our listeners. 0:21:37.480 --> 0:21:39.639 That which there will be a lot of them that 0:21:40.040 --> 0:21:44.560 are really interested in this and would like to buy 0:21:44.640 --> 0:21:48.720 your book. It is called The Neuroscience of You. And 0:21:48.760 --> 0:21:50.840 then if people wanted to find out a little bit 0:21:50.880 --> 0:21:53.480 more and do some of your tests that that mouse test, 0:21:53.560 --> 0:21:55.680 the right side, left side one, I'm going to absolutely 0:21:55.640 --> 0:21:59.440 go away and do that. They go to Chantelpratt dot com. 0:21:59.480 --> 0:21:59.960 Is that correct? 0:22:00.600 --> 0:22:02.679 That's correct, that's correct, And there are a bunch of 0:22:02.720 --> 0:22:05.239 other games you can play there. You get it for 0:22:05.280 --> 0:22:07.400 each one. You can click. If you want to actually 0:22:07.440 --> 0:22:10.200 do research, do a little bit longer, maybe fifteen minute 0:22:10.240 --> 0:22:13.080 tests and okay, that will then contribute to the research. 0:22:13.119 --> 0:22:15.920 If you don't feel like you want your brain being researched, 0:22:15.920 --> 0:22:17.639 you can just click just for me and they'll get 0:22:17.680 --> 0:22:20.960 a short and sweet version that also gives you feedback 0:22:20.960 --> 0:22:23.439 on how you did and what it means, and I 0:22:23.480 --> 0:22:25.040 think that's a great way to get started. 0:22:25.359 --> 0:22:26.359 Beautiful. I love it. 0:22:26.440 --> 0:22:28.000 Thank you so much for joining us here on the 0:22:28.000 --> 0:22:28.440 wood Life. 0:22:28.680 --> 0:22:29.360 Have a great day. 0:22:29.440 --> 0:22:30.320 Thank you so much. 0:22:37.600 --> 0:22:39.720 So I definitely think that chat would have got our 0:22:39.880 --> 0:22:40.600 brain's ticking. 0:22:40.640 --> 0:22:41.520 Excuse the pattern. 0:22:41.520 --> 0:22:44.880 There's a link in the show notes to Chantel's website 0:22:44.880 --> 0:22:46.719 where you can do one of her little brain tests. 0:22:46.800 --> 0:22:49.080 I say it little, maybe it's not little, but I'm 0:22:49.080 --> 0:22:50.520 going to go and do it. I think it's really 0:22:50.560 --> 0:22:54.000 interesting to find the uniqueness of our brains. Now we'll 0:22:54.040 --> 0:22:56.359 move away from brains to bodies as it is time 0:22:56.440 --> 0:23:08.720 for me to answer some of your exercise questions. All right, 0:23:08.800 --> 0:23:12.480 our first exercise questions for twenty twenty three, Which is 0:23:12.560 --> 0:23:16.879 good because I if nothing else comes of listening to 0:23:17.080 --> 0:23:19.639 the Woodlife this year, but it gets you moving more. 0:23:20.040 --> 0:23:21.720 That puts a huge smile on my face and is 0:23:21.760 --> 0:23:22.360 a massive win. 0:23:22.520 --> 0:23:26.040 So let's get into some of these questions that perhaps 0:23:26.040 --> 0:23:27.880 are holding you back, or you feel like when you're 0:23:27.920 --> 0:23:30.680 training you're not getting the most out of your training. 0:23:30.320 --> 0:23:31.600 You're still a little bit confused. 0:23:32.400 --> 0:23:34.760 I'm a big fan in training smarter, not harder, So 0:23:34.800 --> 0:23:37.280 if I can help you in any way that you 0:23:37.400 --> 0:23:41.400 modify your training and you get better results because of it, 0:23:41.800 --> 0:23:44.600 then that that's what I'm all about. So our first 0:23:44.720 --> 0:23:48.320 question has come through from an. 0:23:49.040 --> 0:23:55.560 Hey, Sam. I often hear about resistance training and how 0:23:55.600 --> 0:23:59.440 important it is to include two to three times per 0:23:59.480 --> 0:24:03.480 week as well as our cardio type of training, whether 0:24:03.520 --> 0:24:07.080 that's walking, running, swimming, But in terms of the resistance training, 0:24:07.640 --> 0:24:11.000 you very seldom hear people give detail of what that 0:24:11.080 --> 0:24:15.920 should include. How long should each session be, what should 0:24:16.000 --> 0:24:19.399 we be doing, should we be doing half upper body, 0:24:19.480 --> 0:24:24.920