estimated, 40. at the subconscious neuron firing per second, 40 million. larry: is the heart, cara, in conflict with the brain? i know this girl is wrong for me. that s a different thing. i think this is actually really important, because it speaks to what some of the panelists have been saying about the prefrontal cortex and its connections to some deeper brain structure, such as the limb bik system thought of to be responsible for emotion. even in a healthy brain, we have neuron tracts. we have fibers that connect neurons in certain areas of the brain to neurons in other parts of the brain. there are many tracts connecting to the prefrontal cortex. but there are almost none connecting back to the limpic system. it has total control over our executive function. our sort of conscious being
clinical psychologist. a body/mind approach to calmer, happier, more successful you. first, what is a neuroscience researcher? somebody who studies the brain, really. in all aspects. neuroscience is kind of a broad term. it can be neuroby ol, neuropsychology. i have a mixed background in both. larry: do you write or teach or both? i have been in the past teaching. and doing research while i was working on my degrees. and education is really the path that i want to take. larry: let s get into the overall topic here of the brain. start with you, dr. pinsky. why does the brain not stop us from doing things we know are wrong? you know, it would make sense if you had, say, an evolutionary point of view that the brain was a perfect instrument that only increased our sur vvivability. but not just trying to decide why the brain isn t a perfect system, in terms of how it operates, how doefs the brain
humans than any other animal. when your prefrontal cortex works right, and it s not fully developed until we re about 25 years old, when it s weak, it s like the supervisor in your head is taking a break. then your inner child, who s having tantrums, or who wants the crack cocaine or wants the third piece of cheesecake, if your prefrontal cortex is not right, nothing in your life is going to be right. so head injuries matter, low blood sugar matters. you don t eat breakfast, you re going to make bad decisions about food the rest of the day. if you don t sleep right, lower blood flow to the brain. larry: doesn t that defy, dr. pratt, that when you re 4 years old, you know everything about yourself then? when we re 4, actually, when we re talking about will power, or want power, we have a conscious and subconscious mind. if we didn t it s called
question posted on our facebook page. do we know what part of the brain causes obsessive compulsive behavior? there s a lot of imaging work with that. what we see in the prefrontal cortex, rather than being low, what we see in impulsive disorders, the prefrontal cortex works way too hor with people with ocd. some of the medicines we use or therapies we use actually calm down the prefrontal cortex, so people don t think about things over and over again. larry: we ve posted to the larry king facebook page asking for questions on the brain. 12 years ago i got into an accident in the snow. i don t drive in the snow anymore. i m a terrified passenger if it s snowing. i ve become paralyzed. i cry. i know it s irrational. what s going on with my brain? cara? it sounds like it could be a
[ security agent ] right. you never kick off with sales figures. kicking off with sales figures! i m yawning. i m yawning some more. aaaaaaaand. [ snores ] i see your point. yeah. [ snores ] [ male announcer ] we understand.® you need a partner who delivers convenience. next time use fedex office. larry: the late lenny bruce, very funny guy, once said there must be a good side to drug addiction, or else why would so many people take it, if they tell you it kills you and you run down to the store to get it, or steal it or do whatever you can. how does the brain deal with that? why would any brain person with a brain sniff cocaine? there s sort of two answers to that question. one is why you start using it and why you can t stop using it. larry: let s start with the start. the starting is you re