Latest / King Dems Podcast | Growth Mindset, Leadership, AI and Business Insights / Neuroscience of Stress & Trauma: Prefrontal Cortex Secrets for Mental Resilience w/ Dr. Ben Rein

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Neuroscience of Stress & Trauma: Prefrontal Cortex Secrets for Mental Resilience w/ Dr. Ben Rein · King Dems Podcast | Growth Mindset, Leadership, AI and Business Insights

• 0:00
  Wow, that is not just mind blowing, that's brain blowing.
• 0:03
  Like that's NSR team and yeah, I am going to go into the
• 0:06
  prefrontal cortex. Our questions, shout out to Maya
• 0:11
  E Congo from Abu Dhabi. So number one is does the
• 0:16
  prefrontal cortex develop differently depending on gender?
• 0:23
  Oh man, that's a good question. You know, honestly, I can't say
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  for sure. I remember seeing some studies
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  on this like a couple of years ago, and I don't think I ever
• 0:32
  really got to the bottom of it. I'm sorry I can't give a
• 0:35
  definitive answer, but you know, hey, this is also one of those
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  things where you don't want to look stupid asking questions.
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  What kind of neuroscientist wants to come on a podcast and
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  say, I don't know the answer? The answer is an honest one, one
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  that will actually say, look, I don't you know, this is the you
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  have reached the limits of my knowledge.
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  And I think that's also, by the way, a good sign of who you
• 0:56
  should trust if you ask someone a question and they always have.
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  The absolutely, absolutely. I say something, you know, I'm a
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  professional, right? But I don't know all the
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  answers. But I pride myself, you know,
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  knowing we had to get the answers if I need to.
• 1:11
  Exactly, exactly. Yeah, I could find that answer.
• 1:14
  Maybe I'll check it out and I'll send.
• 1:15
  It out of course. So that means that automatically
• 1:19
  we should book a party for this so that you're going to come
• 1:24
  back. You can come back with advances.
• 1:25
  Cortex Edition. Yeah.
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  Prefrontal cortex addition. You said you're ready.
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  So #2 is a Does a stress or trauma inhibit its function,
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  particularly before it's fully developed?
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  Interesting. Yes, so I do know the answer to
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  this one. Stress does influence the
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  function of the prefrontal cortex.
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  It's quite interesting also based on some research done in
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  my PhD lab. So when in in short term stress,
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  couple days, couple hours, whatever the the prefrontal
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  cortex actually gets more effective, it becomes better,
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  like the cells are are interacting more efficiently.
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  Which makes sense because you have to deal with some
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  challenge. You need to be locked in, right?
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  You got to be capable of processing the challenge.
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  But with chronic stress over time goes for weeks or months,
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  the prefrontal cortex, the function goes way down and the
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  brain cells actually become less effective at interacting.
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  What what's really happening amazingly, is that the, the
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  receptors on the neurons where you know, brain cells are
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  sending messages to each other, the receptors start going away.
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  And so the brain cells actually have trouble communicating with
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  each other. And, and basically what that
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  amounts to is that you're processing power and your
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  computing power goes down South. Chronic stress is bad.
• 2:44
  As for the timing, I don't think it can, you know, impair I, you
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  know, I would say in the context of like normal ranges of stress
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  will not necessarily change the function of your prefrontal
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  cortex long term, but like traumatic stress, like PTSD, you
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  know, really traumatic experiences.
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  It could I've been. I believe there is evidence that
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  that it does alter the the function of the prefrontal
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  cortex. Interesting.
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  SO there's a third question, and that is how is the prefrontal
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  cortex different from other parts of the frontal lobe?
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  I mean, the prefrontal cortex is the most like evolved.
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  It's like the, it's the, it's the reason you have the frontal
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  cortex and then you have the prefrontal cortex.
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  The prefrontal cortex is even more for towards the front.
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  And there's this general idea that like the further away from
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  the brain stem you get and like this base level, the more
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  evolved and, and fancy the brain area is.
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  And so the prefrontal cortex, it just, it has a lot of amazing
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  functions that aren't necessarily seen in the, the
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  frontal cortex, like much more higher level cognition and being
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  able to understand people and do things that make us human
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  really. But, but The thing is the, the
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  prefrontal cortex is also like every brain area.
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  It's like very distributed. There's all these different
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  nuclei and brain and sections, you know, within the prefrontal
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  cortex there's the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and all these
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  different subsets of areas that are all involved in different
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  things. And you know, the brain is just
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  immensely complicated. But without a prefrontal cortex,
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  you know we would not be as high functioning animals.
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  I like that they say that human beings, we are animals, it's
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  just that we are higher animals, right?
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  And of course, we have the animals with the highest level
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  of IQ. That is why we are able to
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  dominate. So #4 is the prefrontal cortex
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  is sometimes called the CEO of the brain.
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  Why is that and do you agree with that?
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  Interesting You could say that you, I guess, I mean, there's a
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  couple different CE OS of the brain and actually the nucleus
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  accumbens that I mentioned earlier in the context of MDMA
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  is also one of those. But I would say, yeah, I guess
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  the way I kind of think about the prefrontal cortex is it's
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  like the babysitter of the brain.
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  You have all these brain areas that are just like impulsive and
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  they're doing their job. And your prefrontal cortex is,
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  is often like shutting off those impulses and being like, wait, a
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  wait. But you know, before we slap
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  this person in the face, let's think about this for a minute,
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  you know, and it's kind of babysitting and keeping those
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  brain areas in check. So, yeah.
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  And many, many, it is the CEO. But I like to think of the the
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  CEO of the brain sort of as the nucleus accumbens, because the
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  nucleus accumbens is really in charge of like decision making
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  or not in charge of it. But it has a major role in like
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  deciding what things we pursue and what actions we do based on
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  how much they benefit us. And you know, I think that's
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  kind of like the role of the CEO really.
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  So is it the CEO or the COO? I feel like the, the, the, the
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  nucleus accumbens is the CEO and the prefrontal cortex is like
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  the executive board, like the, you know, you have a board of
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  direct or a board that's like steering the company in the
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  right direction. I feel like that's sort of those
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  two are combining to to make things work properly.
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  OK, interested stuff. So this particular friend of
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  mine, Maya, she she's very obsessed with the prefrontal
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  cortex. And anytime she sees a person
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  acting, you know, in an abnormal way, she just says, oh, that
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  person's prefrontal cortex is not properly developed.
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  And she is told me before that the prefrontal cortex actually
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  fully develops at the age of 25. Is is is that true?
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  Yeah, the prefrontal cortex, whether it's there's definitely
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  not like a you, you're 25, it's done.
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  It's not really like that. It's more of that, you know, as
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  you're getting older, your prefrontal cortex is continuing
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  to be shaped by your experiences.
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  That's really what that whole like your prefrontal cortex
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  isn't done until 25 means. It means that unlike other brain
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  areas, your Pfc remains flexible as you get older.
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  And so, you know, it may not, it may be 25 that you kind of get
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  to that point or maybe a little bit later.
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  You know, it doesn't really it, it's not like a firm thing that
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  it's like boom, 25, you're done.