How to use your brain for business success

I was interviewed last week by  Conn Ó Muíneacháin of Edgcast Media for the  Small Business Show on the topic of using your brain to maximum effect in business.

Brain science is playing an increasing role in business and we talked about what the specific characteristics associated with entrepreneurship are and I outlined what makes the brain of an entrepreneur different.

You can catch up on our chat online and listen to a podcast of the show by clicking on the link below.

http://www.focusmeireland.com/business-and-the-brain-an-interview-with-professor-billy-oconnor

Related Post

What can neuroscience teach marketers? 

Your brain on cannabis

A recent article in the Irish Times exploring how a new, highly potent strain of cannabis now being grown in Ireland is more harmful than the drug’s benign image would suggest, prompted me to write about the topic this week.

Marijuana can hurt you

The marijuana problem is much bigger than previously recognized. It is the most widely used illicit drug in the world. Of the 5.6 million people suffering in the US, 62% are using marijuana and young people – some now as young as 12 years of age – represent 23% of the suffering population. The average age of initiation is decreasing while marijuana’s potency is increasing. With increasing potency and earlier use, marijuana poses a significant threat. It is no surprise then that of all teens in drug treatment, 62% have primary marijuana diagnosis. That number represents more young people in treatment than for alcohol and almost equal to the numbers from criminal justice and other sources

Route of administration

Marijuana (from the Mexican Spanish marihuana) also known as cannabis, is much more powerful today than it was 30 years ago. Marijuana is the herbal form of cannabis, and comprises the flowers, leaves and stalks of the mature female plant while hashish is the resinous, concentrated form of cannabis. Chemically, the major psychoactive compound in marijuana is Delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (Δ9-THC); it is one of 400 compounds in the plant The smoke also contains more than 150 other types of these cannabinoids such as cannabidiol (CBD), cannabinol (CBN), and tetrhydrocannabivarin (THCV), which can produce sensory effects unlike the psychoactive effects of THC. The pharmacology of marijuana is complex. The cannabinoids are vaporized (smoke) and then deeply inhaled. They are fatty compounds which rapidly cross from the lungs into the blood and tend to accumulate in specific regions of brain.

The psychological effects of marijuana – a Pandora’s Box

The immediate (acute) effects of marijuana include changes in time-sense, a loss of recent memory and impairment in attention. There is also a general difficulty expressing simple thoughts in words. Other effects include impaired motor skills, increase in hunger, nausea, dizziness, and  – depending on the personality of the person and the context in which it is taken – altered moods such as euphoria, a state of relaxation, panic, anxiety, tension, anger, confusion and – especially when eaten – an unpleasant sensation called depersonalization.

The effects on your body are not good either

Marijuana smoke contains more than 150 compounds many of which are cancer–causing so the respiratory system including the lungs suffer the most. Common symptoms include air obstruction, chronic cough, bronchitis, decreased tolerance to exercise and cancer. An increase in heart rate can aggravate existing cardiac conditions or high blood pressure (hypertension) – so don’t take this drug if you have a weak heart.

Definitely not good for your MOJO

Marijuana decreases blood testosterone levels, sperm count and motility. It also decreases sex-drive (libido) and impairs fertility as well as disrupting the female reproductive system which can impact pregnancy in adverse ways. The effect of the drug on the immune system is still unclear but recent studies in animals demonstrate that it impairs T helper cells – key cells in the immune system – which may increase the risk of cancer (by disrupting the cancer surveillance system).

In Part Two of Your Brain On Cannabis, we will take a closer look at the effects of marijuana on your brain, how the drug affects how you learn, how to counter the argument that it is a harmless drug, and if there is any scientific basis for using marijuana as medicine.

Weekly Brain Research Update

Even for healthy people, stressful moments can take a toll on the brain, a new study from Yale University suggests.

Neuroscientists at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine have discovered how the sense of touch is wired in the skin and nervous system.

A new study of how the brain processes unexpected events found that neurons in two important structures handle both positive and negative surprises.

New research finds that brain activity increases during delusional thinking, a finding that may allow new interventions and retraining for people with the disorder.

A new UC Davis study shows how the brain reconfigures its connections to minimize distractions and take best advantage of our knowledge of situations.

Researchers from the Medical Research Council (MRC) in the UK have found a protein made by blood vessels in the brain that could be a good candidate for regenerative therapies that stimulate the brain to repair itself after injury or disease.

Drinking alcohol leads to the release of endorphins in areas of the brain that produce feelings of pleasure and reward, according to a study led by researchers at the Ernest Gallo Clinic and Research Center at the University of California, San Francisco

 

Weekly Round-Up

Blogging may have psychological benefits for teens suffering from social anxiety, improving their self-esteem and helping them relate better to their friends, according to new research published by the American Psychological Association.

Scientists at The Scripps Research Institute have discovered that DNA stays too tightly wound in certain brain cells of schizophrenic subjects. The findings suggest that drugs already in development for other diseases might eventually offer hope as a treatment for schizophrenia and related conditions in the elderly.

Deep depression that fails to respond to any other form of therapy can be moderated or reversed by stimulation of areas deep inside the brain.

Radiology researchers at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth) have found evidence that multiple sclerosis affects an area of the brain that controls cognitive, sensory and motor functioning apart from the disabling damage caused by the disease’s visible lesions.

People with diets high in several vitamins or in omega 3 fatty acids are less likely to have the brain shrinkage associated with Alzheimer’s disease than people whose diets are not high in those nutrients, according to a new study published in the December 28, 2011, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

When you experience a new event, your brain encodes a memory of it by altering the connections between neurons. This requires turning on many genes in those neurons. Now, MIT neuroscientists have identified what may be a master gene that controls this complex process. The findings, described in the Dec. 23 issue of Science, not only reveal some of the molecular underpinnings of memory formation — they may also help neuroscientists pinpoint the exact locations of memories in the brain.

HealthTech Ideas That Will Change Medicine In 2012

Following on from yesterday’s video presentation from Daniel Kraft on the future of innovations in medicine, here is a link to a recent interview in which he discusses the biggest emerging trends in HealthTech.

The TechCrunch interview examines how A.I, big data, 3D printing, social health networks and other new technologies will help you get better medical care. Kraft believes that by analyzing where the field is going, we have the ability to reinvent medicine and build important new business models.

6 Big HealthTech Ideas That Will Change Medicine in 2012

Image Credit: TechCrunch

Weekly Round Up

Welcome to the last weekly round-up of 2011. I have enjoyed putting this together each week and look forward to updating you with lots more new and exciting research in the field of neuroscience in the coming year.

New research has shown, for the first time, that the cortex, which is the largest zone of the brain and which is generally associated with high cognitive functions, is also a key zone for emotional learning.

When you experience a new event, your brain encodes a memory of it by altering the connections between neurons. This requires turning on many genes in those neurons. Now, MIT neuroscientists have identified what may be a master gene that controls this complex process.

A new technique for color-coding nerves involved in touch gives neuroscientists a much-needed tool for studying that mysterious sense.

When accidents that involve traumatic brain injuries occur, a speedy diagnosis followed by the proper treatment can mean the difference between life and death. A research team, led by Jason D. Riley in the Section on Analytical and Functional Biophotonics at the U.S. National Institutes of Health, has created a handheld device capable of quickly detecting brain injuries such as hematomas, which occur when blood vessels become damaged and blood seeps out into surrounding tissues where it can cause significant and dangerous swelling.

Shrinkage in certain parts of the brain may herald Alzheimer’s disease long before symptoms arise, according to new research.

At UCLA’s Laboratory of Integrative Neuroimaging Technology, researchers use functional MRI brain scans to observe brain signal changes that take place during mental activity. They then employ computerized machine learning (ML) methods to study these patterns and identify the cognitive state — or sometimes the thought process — of human subjects. The technique is called “brain reading” or “brain decoding.”

Compared to our other senses, scientists don’t know much about how our skin is wired for the sensation of touch. Now, research reported in the December 23rd issue of the journal Cell, a Cell Press publication, provides the first picture of how specialized neurons feel light touches.

Both children and the elderly have slower response times when they have to make quick decisions in some settings. But recent research suggests that much of that slower response is a conscious choice to emphasize accuracy over speed. In fact, healthy older people can be trained to respond faster in some decision-making tasks without hurting their accuracy – meaning their cognitive skills in this area aren’t so different from younger adults.

Scientists at the University of Cambridge have made a significant step in the development of a novel therapy that could one day help to slow down, or even halt, the damage caused by Parkinson’s disease, one of the most common neurodegenerative disorders.