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  • What Makes our Brains Special

    Scientific AmericanNeurOptimal® Neurofeedback for PTSD recently published an interesting article that’s relevant to neurofeedback: What Makes Our Brains Special?

    The article talks about recent research highlighting the way human brains differ from other animals’ brains. It also debunks some long held beliefs that our brains are different because they are larger compared to our body size or that parts of our brain take up more space than in other primates.

    Research with other animals also shows that many have traits previously thought to belong only to humans – a sense of fair play, empathy, waging war. So…

    What makes our brains special?

    What is unique about the human brain? The article suggests that it may be that our brains have more capacity to be plastic. In this context, plastic means having the ability to change. That capacity would enhance our adaptability. Perhaps that has a role in explainNeurOptimal Neurofeedback for PTSDing why our species has spread around the world, adapting to a great variety of climates, availability of food, varieties of risk and so on.

    Here’s another interesting point:

    [The researchers] found that although brain size was highly heritable in both species, the organization of the cerebral cortex—especially in areas involved in higher-order cognition functions—was much less genetically controlled in humans than in chimps. One potential explanation for this difference, according to the researchers, is that because our brains are less developed than those of our primate cousins at birth, it creates a longer period during which we can be molded by NeurOptimal® Neurofeedback for Insomniaour surroundings.

    An advantage to being born less able to survive on our own?

    We’re learning, and we still have a very long way to go to understanding our brains, the most complex system on earth.

    If you want to take good care of your own very interesting brain, think of nutrition and, of course, exercise. Also consider NeurOptimal®Dynamical Neurofeedback, which can have your brain be at its very best.

    Catherine Boyer, MA, LCSW-R
    New York Neurofeedback

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