Podcast appearances and mentions of Adam Gazzaley

Distraction is making you anxious and sleepless. Here's how to fix it.   Adam Gazzaley, M.D., Ph.D. is the David Dolby Distinguished Professor of Neurology, Physiology and Psychiatry, and Founder & Executive Director of Neuroscape at UCSF. He co-authored the 2016 book “The Distracted Mind: Ancient Brains in a High-Tech World”.    In this episode we talk about: The impact of multitasking on our attention, relationships, emotions, anxiety, and memory The difference between top-down and bottom-up attention What it means to have cognitive control—and some practical tools for restoring your own cognitive control.  Controversial technologies that could eventually help us have a stronger brain The impact of music and rhythm on the mind And how to use technology for your brain's benefit   Join Dan's online community here Follow Dan on social: Instagram, TikTok Subscribe to our YouTube Channel  

Could psychedelics revolutionize mental health care? Psychiatrist Dr. Will Van Derveer openingly discusses his exploration of psychedelic-assisted therapies after becoming disillusioned with conventional treatments. He details remarkable results using ketamine, psilocybin, and MDMA for conditions like PTSD and depression. With the FDA's imminent decision on rescheduling MDMA, Van Derveer provides an inside look at these groundbreaking medicines' therapeutic potential. For those struggling with mental health issues, this candid conversation may reveal new hope.You can find Will at: Website | Higher Practice Podcast | Episode TranscriptIf you LOVED this episode you'll also love the conversations we had with Adam Gazzaley about cutting-edge research he's leading in this field.Check out our offerings & partners: Join My New Writing Project: Awake at the WheelVisit Our Sponsor Page For Great Resources & Discount Codes Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this special episode of The Human Upgrade, you will gain insights from four experts on brain health, memory, attention, and cognitive enhancement. Dr. Daniel Amen, a renowned psychiatrist and brain health expert, discusses the importance of daily practices for brain and mental health. He shares strategies to improve brain function and prevent cognitive decline. Jim Kwik, a brain coach and memory expert, talks about physical and mental exercises that boost brain performance. He offers tips on how to improve reading, memory, and focus, and highlights the benefits of both fiction and nonfiction reading. Dr. Adam Gazzaley, a neuroscientist and professor, explains the difference between top-down and bottom-up attention. He introduces Endeavor Rx, a video game approved by the FDA to improve attention in children with ADHD and shares how it can benefit adults as well. Dr. Patrick Porter, an expert in brain fitness and neurogenesis, discusses the BrainTap technology. He explains how it can enhance cognitive function, reduce stress, and improve sleep through guided meditation and light therapy. Tune in to this episode to learn practical tips and expert advice on optimizing brain health, improving memory, and enhancing attention for better cognitive performance. CHECK OUT THE FULL EPISODES NOW! Dr. Daniel Amen: https://youtu.be/ri7-Ou6VvSI Jim Kwik: https://youtu.be/QCt2XHJkt2Y Dr. Adam Gazzaley: https://youtu.be/H9QT7bKFgmM Dr. Patrick Porter: https://youtu.be/o8B4XrueQlc Timestamps: 00:00:07 - Introduction by Dave Asprey 00:00:10 - Dr. Daniel Amen on Brain Health Practices 00:10:04 - Jim Kwik on Physical and Mental Exercise 00:12:28 - Jim Kwik on Reading and Brain Exercises 00:18:22 - Jim Kwik on Sleep and Productivity 00:30:26 - Dr. Adam Gazzaley on Top-Down vs Bottom-Up Attention 00:40:02 - Dr. Adam Gazzaley on Endeavor Rx and Attention Improvement 00:46:51 - Dr. Patrick Porter on Neurogenesis and Brain Fitness 00:58:51 - Dr. Patrick Porter on BrainTap and Cognitive Enhancement Sponsors: Fatty15 | Go to Fatty15.com and save an extra 15$ when you subscribe with code DAVE15. Our Place | Go to FromOurPlace.com and use code DAVE for 10% off your order. Resources: Dr. Daneil Amen's Website: https://danielamenmd.com/ Dr. Daniel Amen's Instagram: @Doc_Amen Jim Kwik's Instagram: @JimKwik Jim Kwik's Linktree: https://linktr.ee/kwiklearning Dr. Adam Gazzaley's Instagram: @adamgazzaley Dr. Adam Gazzaley's website: https://gazzaley.com/ BrainTap's Instagram: @BrainTapTech BrainTap's Linktree: https://linktr.ee/braintap Dave's Linktree: https://linktr.ee/daveasprey Dave Asprey's Book ‘Smarter Not Harder' is out now: https://daveasprey.com/books Follow Dave on Instagram: @Dave.Asprey Want to join The Human Upgrade Podcast Live? Join Our Upgrade Collective: https://www.ourupgradecollective.com/ Danger Coffee by Dave Asprey: https://www.instagram.com/dangercoffeeofficial/ Supplements by Dave Asprey: https://shopsuppgradelabs.com/ Own an Upgrade Labs: https://ownanupgradelabs.com/ See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

The future of the brain. In it we cover digital therapies, psychedelics, co-evolving with AI, technologies impact on society, and re-inventing how clinical trials are run. Guiding us will be Dr Adam Gazzaley, a Distinguished Professor of Neurology, Physiology and Psychiatry at UC San Francisco and the Founder & Executive Director of Neuroscape, a neuroscience center engaged in technology creation and scientific research of novel brain assessment and optimization approaches. Adam is also co-founder of Akili, a company developing therapeutic video games, that brought the first FDA approved game to market. He is also a founder of JAZZ Venture Partners, a venture capital firm with close to $1B AUM investing in experiential technology to improve human performance. He has been a scientific advisor for dozens of companies including Apple, General Electric and PepsiCo. Adam has filed multiple patents and authored over 180 scientific articles. Subscribe for the latest episodes. Email me on danieldarling@focal.vcSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Explore the mystical world of psychedelic guides with Rachel Harris, Ph.D., author of Swimming in the Sacred: Wisdom from the Psychedelic Underground. In this fascinating discussion, Harris pulls back the veil on the intuitive, somatic ways women elders have been guiding others on sacred psychedelic journeys for decades. Discover the critical role of the shaman in holding the ceremonial container, the differences between Western guides and indigenously trained shamans, and wise advice for anyone curious about ethically exploring this realm. Whether you're new to psychedelics or a seasoned journeyer, this eye-opening conversation offers a rare glimpse into the underground traditions surrounding entheogenic medicines like ayahuasca.You can find Rachel at: Website | Episode TranscriptIf you LOVED this episode you'll also love the conversations we had with Adam Gazzaley about the science of psychedelics.Check out our offerings & partners: Join My New Writing Project: Awake at the WheelVisit Our Sponsor Page For Great Resources & Discount Codes Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Does it feel impossible to concentrate these days? You're not alone. In this fascinating discussion, the author of Stolen Focus: Why You Can't Pay Attention - and How to Think Deeply Again reveals the hidden forces conspiring to hijack our attention spans. From predatory tech platforms to childhood culture shifts, Johann Hari exposes the surprising modern factors undermining our focus.But it's not all bad news - he also shares empowering solutions for reclaiming our minds. You'll learn practical tips to sharpen your concentration alongside Johann's vision for an "attention movement" to reshape society. If you want to think deeply, achieve your goals, and live more purposefully in our frantic world, don't miss this essential listen.You can find Johann at: Instagram | Website | Episode TranscriptIf you LOVED this episode you'll also love the conversations we had with neuroscientist Adam Gazzaley on brain function, memory, focus, and his lab's psychedelics research impacting emotions and health.Check out our offerings & partners: Join My New Writing Project: Awake at the WheelVisit Our Sponsor Page For Great Resources & Discount Codes Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

VR headsets allow us to step into vast virtual worlds. What does that mean for our brains? Virtual reality technology is the most advanced and affordable it's ever been, and the tools to create immersive environments are just a few clicks away. Are we destined for a dystopian future, lost in computer-generated isolation? On the contrary, VR devices have been put to good use in clinical settings for research and therapy. Our brains react to their hyper-realistic simulations, but without any of the physical dangers. In this episode, we discuss: • How VR gadgets trick your brain into forgetting you're in a virtual reality • The clever ways VR game designers prevent us from feeling motion sickness • How VR has been used in treating conditions like PTSD and ADHD • The early uses of VR tech in neurological studies, back in the 90s • The ethical responsibility we all have to adopt these technologies with a healthy degree of caution We're joined by two experts at the intersection of VR and neuroscience: Albert ‘Skip' Rizzo, Research Director at USC Institute for Creative Technologies for Medical Virtual Reality, and Dr. Adam Gazzaley, co-founder and Chief Science Advisor of therapeutic video game development company Akili Interactive. ‘Your Brain On' is hosted by neuroscientists and public health advocates Ayesha and Dean Sherzai. Drs. Ayesha and Dean are now welcoming patients via the Brain Health Institute: https://brainhealthinstitute.com/  ‘Your Brain On... Virtual Reality' • SEASON 2 • EPISODE 6   LINKS Albert ‘Skip' Rizzo: at USC Institute for Creative Technologies: https://ict.usc.edu/about-us/leadership/research-leadership/albert-skip-rizzo/  Dr. Adam Gazzaley: Adam's website: https://gazzaley.com/  at Neuroscape: https://neuroscape.ucsf.edu/profile/adam-gazzaley/    FOLLOW US Join the NEURO Academy: NEUROacademy.com Instagram: @thebraindocs Website: TheBrainDocs.com More info and episodes: TheBrainDocs.com/Podcast

Dr. Adam Gazzaley is a Professor of Neurology, Physiology and Psychiatry and the Founding Director of the Neuroscience Imaging Center at the University of California, San Francisco. Adam is also Co-Founder and Chief Science Advisor of Akili Interactive Labs, a company that is developing therapeutic video games. Much of the research in Adam's lab focuses on aging and how aspects of cognition, like memory and attention, change over our lifespan. They are working to develop new, innovative tools, including engaging video games, to enhance brain function, improve cognition, and improve quality of life. In his free time, Adam can be found spending quality time with friends and family. He is a fan of hanging out over dinner, enjoying live music, hiking, camping, and getting outdoors. He received his M.D. And Ph.D. in Neuroscience at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine. Adam then completed his Internship in Medicine and Clinical Residency in Neurology at the University of Pennyslvania, followed by postdoctoral training in Cognitive Neuroscience at UC, Berkeley before joining the faculty at UCSF where he is today. Adam is the recipient of the Pfizer/AFAR Innovations in Aging Award, the Ellison Foundation New Scholar Award in Aging, the Harold Brenner Pepinsky Early Career Award in Neurobehavioral Science, and the UCSF 150th Anniversary Alumni Excellence Award. He is also an elected Member of the American Society for Clinical Investigation. Adam is here with us today to tell us all about his journey through life and science.

Adam Gazzaley is David Dolby Distinguished Professor of Neurology, Physiology, and Psychiatry in the School of Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco. He obtained his M.D. and Ph.D. in Neuroscience at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine. Adam works on developing new approaches to both assess and optimize human cognition, with particular attention to underutilized but high-potential tools like video games. In this episode, Robinson and Adam discuss the cognition crisis—why our brains seem to be under such duress in the modern age—and the structural features of the brain, as well as its plasticity, and how these things can be modified and optimized to deal with the current environment. Check out Adam's book, The Distracted Mind (MIT, 2016). Adam's Website: https://gazzaley.com The Distracted Mind: https://a.co/d/aZm8Reg OUTLINE 00:00 In This Episode… 00:39 Introduction 03:09 Science and Medicine 07:29 What Is Brain Plasticity 11:17 What Is the Cognition Crisis? 31:48 Can Neuroscience Make Us Smarter? 43:17 Can Neuroscience Develop Technological Medicine? 54:45 On Medicinal Video Games 01:04:01 Why Doctors Might Prescribe Video Games For ADHD 01:23:49 Sleep Improvement 01:27:24 The Future of Medicinal Video Game Research 01:43:07 How We Can All Improve Cognitive Function Robinson's Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between.  --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/robinson-erhardt/support

Have you ever wondered about the secret fungal networks operating unseen beneath your feet? My guest Merlin Sheldrake, author of the New York Times bestseller Entangled Life, reveals a surreal subterranean cosmos of mycelium underlying life as we know it.In this mind-expanding conversation, Sheldrake illuminates the alien intelligence of fungi and their profound interconnectedness with human existence. Discover how these overlooked organisms communicate, adapt, and even exhibit consciousness despite their radically decentralized biology.Delving into fungal behaviors and the latest scientific research, Sheldrake fundamentally alters our perception of the natural world. His new book Entangled Life: The Illustrated Edition: How Fungi Make Our Worlds brings the magic of fungi to life through stunning visuals. After listening, you may never look at mold quite the same way again.You can find Merlin at: Website | Instagram | Episode TranscriptIf you LOVED this episode you'll also love the conversations we had with Adam Gazzaley about psilocybin and those things we know as magic mushrooms or psychedelics.Check out our offerings & partners: My New Book SparkedMy New Podcast SPARKED. Visit Our Sponsor Page For Great Resources & Discount Codes Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Our brains evolved for a simpler life, and today they struggle to cope with a deluge of distraction from technology. Dr. Adam Gazzaley, professor of neurology at the University of California San Francisco, reveals why the brain loves multi-tasking even though it's so bad for productivity; why "single-tasking" is so hard to relearn; and why 60-year-olds can't filter out irrelevant information. Plus... a prescription video game that can help kids with ADHD and others change their brains to find better focus. Click here for a bonus segment on distraction and the "Coffee Shop Effect."  For more information, visit https://thisisyourbrain.com 

How can our "ancient" brains struggle to cope with the deluge of distraction from modern-day technology?   Dr. Adam Gazzaley, professor of neurology at the University of California, San Francisco reveals how cellphones and video games are designed to capture and hold our attention by triggering instinctual responses that stem from our deep evolutionary past.

If you struggle with retaining sharp focus or have been diagnosed with ADHD or other conditions that impede your brain from functioning at its optimal level, this is the podcast episode for you. We learn about a (literally) out-of-the-box solution to attention training—video games. Yes, you read that right.Our guest today, Dr. Adam Gazzaley, holds an M.D. and Ph.D. in Neuroscience from Mount Sinai School of Medicine and completed Neurology residency at the University of Pennsylvania, followed by postdoctoral training in cognitive neuroscience at UC Berkeley. He's currently the David Dolby Distinguished Professor at UC San Francisco and the Founder/Executive Director of Neuroscape, a center focusing on technology-driven scientific research. So it's safe to say that Adam is not your prototypical basement gamer.As someone who struggled with focus and attention due to Asperger's syndrome and brain fog due to the effects of toxic mold exposure, figuring out how to retrain my brain to be able to retain more information and focus longer was one of the first areas of biohacking I ever explored. This is why I'm so excited to be talking all about Endeavor Rx today, the world's first FDA-authorized prescription video game treatment for pediatric ADHD—and Endeavor OTC, for adults who struggle with ADHD, focus, attention, and distraction.We explore how we can measure attention and improvement in focus, the biological systems that control what we focus on consciously and subconsciously, the role of nutrition in our ability to focus, the underlying technology of Endeavor, measuring its effectiveness, and Adam's vision for how we can use biosensing technology—now and in the future—to optimize awareness, focus, mood, and more. (03:07) Addressing Modern Attention Challenges• Defining our attention systems and how to measure them• How I learned how to pay attention, even with ADHD• Read: The Distracted Mind by Adam Gazzaley and Larry D. Rosen• Tools we have for addressing attention challenges• What I use now for brain function and focus• The role nutrition plays in being able to focus• What typical of video games can aid in training attention • The potential negative effects of shooter games (20:37) Understanding Endeavor: How to Train Attention Using a Video Game• Top down vs. bottom up thinking• Endeavor: the video game that trains your attention• The journey of getting Endeavor approved by the FDA• The effectiveness of Endeavor for adults• What to expect from playing Endeavor• How you can utilize multimodal biosensing for quantifying physiology• Hugs from Dr. Love with Paul Zak – #334• Exploring what technology is used in a sensory immersion lab, including AI(49:21) Exploring Potential Costs & Opportunities of Biosensing Technology• Understanding the potential adverse effects or downsides of this technology• Join the Live Audience: ourupgradecollective.com• The exhaustion factor in playing Endeavor• What video games would be likely to reduce cognitive function• Using Lion's Mane for increasing brain function• What this system could look like in 10 years ResourcesDave Asprey's NEW Book ‘Smarter Not Harder' is out now: https://daveasprey.com/books Endeavor OTC: https://www.endeavorotc.com/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/endeavorotc/Website: https://gazzaley.com/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/adamgazz/The Human Upgrade is produced by Crate Media.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

In our fast-paced, technology-centric society, it's easy to focus on the ways in which our devices are making us more distracted and disconnected. But what if we harnessed the power of technology for good? What if we could utilize technology in a way that could promote neuroplasticity and improve cognition?   Today's guest, Dr. Adam Gazzaley, is the founding director of Neuroscape at University of California, San Francisco and a professor in neurology, physiology, and psychiatry. He is also the chief scientific advisor and board member at Akili, a company that is dedicated to changing the landscape of cognitive medicine. In this interview, Dr. Gazzaley is sharing the details behind the first-of-its-kind treatment for ADHD—a video game experience.   In this interview, we're going to talk about the importance of harnessing your attention and how technology can impact your attention span. You'll learn about the future of experiential medicine, how to improve cognition and neuroplasticity, and so much more. I hope you enjoy this interview with the incredible Dr. Adam Gazzaley!   In this episode you'll discover: Why our attention is our most valuable asset. The challenges that our technology-driven world has created for our brains. How accessibility to technology changed our attention spans. Why humans are essentially cyborgs. The importance of disconnecting from technology. How your brain handles single-tasking vs. multitasking. Why awareness about the inefficacy of multitasking is critical. How to make single-tasking gratifying. Why technology is a double-edged sword. What neuroplasticity is, and how it occurs. The link between neuroplasticity and technology. How video games can improve cognition. Why experiences can target systems in the brain. The difference between molecular medicine and experiential medicine. Why “chemical imbalance” is an oversimplification. The history of the first FDA approved video game. What experiential medicine is. Why the placebo effect works. Other important modalities for improving mental health.   Items mentioned in this episode include: Beekeepersnaturals.com/model -- Save 20% on raw honey & other natural remedies! Foursigmatic.com/model -- Get an exclusive discount on your daily health elixirs! EatSmarterCookbook.com -- Preorder the cookbook today & claim your bonuses! EndeavorOTC EndeavorRx Akili The Distracted Mind by Adam Gazzaley Connect with Dr. Adam Gazzaley Website   Join TMHS Facebook community - Model Nation    Be sure you are subscribed to this podcast to automatically receive your episodes:  Apple Podcasts Stitcher Spotify Soundcloud    

As helpful as traditional therapy can be, there simply aren't enough affordable therapists for everyone who needs mental health care. To address this growing problem, companies like Akili Interactive use technology to create innovative, accessible solutions for treating psychological disorders.  In this episode, Dr. Adam Gazzaley (co-founder and Chief Scientific Advisor) and Dr. Scott Kollins (Chief Medical Officer) tell us about how Akili made the groundbreaking video game that has FDA approval to treat Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). We discuss how the game "EndeavorOTC" works and the potential for digital tools for mental health. Check out EndeavorOTC on Instagram and TikTokThe team at Akili has provided a special link offering a discounted annual subscription for EndeavorOTC! Instructions for redeeming the discount: 1) Download EndeavorOTC from the iOS app store. 2) Copy and paste the URL into your browser: https://apps.apple.com/redeem?ctx=offercodes&id=6447322997&code=HWM4TWJTYT6JLPRWJR&pt=1026987&mt=8&ct=HWM4TWJTYT6JLPRWJR3) Redeem the offer and get started! Please note: If you copy & paste the URL into your browser before downloading EndeavorOTC, be sure to download after you redeem the offer. It may not always happen on "auto-download" from the iOS app store. Learn more about Akili or EndeavorOTC or EndeavorRX*Note: Akili is not paying us, we just think they're cool. Support the showFor more info about this podcast, check out: www.alittlehelpforourfriends.comFollow us on Instagram: @ALittleHelpForOurFriends

This week my guest is neuroscientist and entrepreneur, Adam Gazzaley, who co-authored the 2016 book The Distracted Mind: Ancient Brains in a High-Tech World, and whose company Akili Interactive has developed the world's first video game approved by the FDA for the medical treatment of ADHD. Adam and I start the conversation with a robust exploration of attention from a neuroscientific perspective, investigating the modern impacts of distraction and technological stimuli. From there, we delve into how technology can also be used to improve our cognitive functioning, including through unexpected avenues like video games. Find out more about Adam and his work at gazzaley.com or follow him at twitter.com/adamgazz ** Learn more about Singularity: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠su.org⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Host:⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Steven Parton⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ - ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠LinkedIn⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ /⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Twitter⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Music by: Amine el Filali

For the next few weeks I'm choosing my favourite episodes from the back catalogue of the podcast. With over 100 episodes to now choose from, I'm taking this opportunity to revisit some of the episodes I've most enjoyed putting together. This is a classic episode exploring the benefits of slow looking. Slow looking is simply the art of learning through observation. I've been immersed in slow looking for the last 12+ years and can wholeheartedly recommend it to anyone. But don't just take my word for it. Why would you want to slow down and spend time with an artwork or object? Why is it important to practise paying attention and noticing more details?Looking at something slowly and carefully is in itself a rewarding process – the object or art work becomes more interesting the longer you look at it. But more than this, slow looking is good for you. Today, I'm going to take you through the 12 benefits of slow looking.LinksSupport the ShowMy book is out in September - Slow Looking at Art: The Visible Thinking in the Museum ApproachDownload my free Slow Art GuideDownload the Ultimate Thinking Routine ListDownload the free guide - how to look at art (slowly)Slow Looking ClubSign up for my Curated newsletterThe Art of Slow Looking in the Classroom The Distracted Mind: Ancient Brains in a High Tech World, authors Adam Gazzaley and Larry D. RosenWhy Looking at Art Makes you Smarter Peter Clothier

Today we're talking to Adam Gazzaley, Founder & Executive Director of Neuroscape at UCSF. We discuss the intersection of video games and neuroscience, Adam's thinking behind the first FDA approved video game for treating ADHD, and the subtle significance of separating diagnosis from treatment. All of this right here, right now, on the Modern CTO Podcast!  Check out Adam's work and sign up for his newsletter here: https://neuroscape.ucsf.edu/ To see Adam's work in action, visit: https://www.endeavorrx.com/testimonials/ Have feedback about the show? Let us know here Produced by ProSeries Media.

"These environments, the ones that speak to me deepest, usually have trees." This is a Contemplation Capsule. A distilled moment, to step inside Adam Gazzaley's places of rest, respite, and contemplation. Happy listening. H To support this podcast: - Share it, leave a review, show someone a little grace; - Join in @thearchitectureofcontemplation; - You can treat a coffee over at Patreon @hkaur (this is copiously consumed during a conversation; if I'm feeling particularly loquacious, I'll hit the matcha or cha).

"I have gotten incredibly comfortable with being uncomfortable, and stepping into new territory." Today I have the pleasure of speaking with Adam Gazzaley. Amongst many other titles, Adam is  the Founder & Executive Director of Neuroscape, a translational neuroscience centre engaged in using technology to fundamentally enhance our cognition, refine our behaviour, and ultimately to improve our minds. "Our" here being the human animal, of course. We cover Adam's ground-breaking work in experiential medicine, recent forays into psychedelic research, evolving into a leader at scale in parallel to recent fatherhood, being intrepid in the pursuit of new frontiers, and the power of being in quiet within nature. The word for me that washes upon the shore of this conversation, is mastery. Adam is positively enlivened by following his curiosity into new and known fields, in mastering these domains, synthesising his learnings, and in turn creating tools that offer hope, and lend dignity, to the lives of millions of people. We of course, also cover rest, respite and contemplation and it shall be of no surprise, that Adam is as intentional about instilling his life with restorative moments, as he is the pursuit of meaningful, life-ennobling work. Without further ado I bring you, Adam Gazzaley. H To support this podcast: - Share it, leave a review, show someone a little grace; - Join in @thearchitectureofcontemplation; - You can treat a coffee over at Patreon @hkaur (this is copiously consumed during a conversation; if I'm feeling particularly loquacious, I'll hit the matcha or cha).

Imagine playing a video game where data about you in the moment is being collected with sensor technology, performance metrics, emotional responses, body movements, brain activity. And this is all used in real time to guide the environment you're experiencing, personalizing both the challenges and rewards to improve your cognition. No, this isn't the plot of a sci-fi movie. We're in the midst of a cognition crisis and experiences are a powerful way of changing our brain, says Adam Gazzaley, neuroscientist, neurologist, inventor, author, photographer, entrepreneur, investor, and creator of the first ever digital medicine, and the first ever FDA cleared digital treatment for children with ADHD. In this incredible episode of Summa & Friends, Adam explains why the cognition crisis is getting worse on a global scale, especially for our children, and why his digital medicine was born out of a frustration at the lack of research and treatment that we as a species should have developed by now. To find out more, download and listen. On today's podcast:What is digital medicine and who is it for?What is the cognition crisisWhy we need a multi-modal approach to improving cognitionThe enduring nature of experiential medicine Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Justin and Leigh recently released GOLDEN: The Power of Silence in a World of Noise. Published by HarperCollins in the US and Penguin in the UK, it is appearing in 14 languages globally. Together, Leigh and Justin founded Astrea Strategies, a consultancy that bridges deep visioning with impactful communications and action. Justin has served as both a meditation teacher and a senior policymaker in the US Congress. He is a Harvard-and-Oxford-trained specialist in the economics and psychology of wellbeing, who has written for The Atlantic, Washington Post, The Guardian, Harvard Business Review, Foreign Policy, Wired, Time, CNN, and others. He lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico, with his wife and three children. Leigh is a leadership and collaboration consultant with organizations including Harvard, Google, and IKEA. She has led a multi-year program teaching experimental mindsets to multigenerational teams at NASA. Leigh is also a longtime student of pioneering researchers and practitioners of the ritualized use of psychedelic medicines in the West. Leigh lives in Berkeley, California, with her husband and daughter. Find GOLDEN on Amazon, HarperCollins, or anywhere books are sold. Listen to the Audio Book narrated by Prentice Onayemi. Highlights: How Justin and Leigh's paths crossed. Defining silence and noise. How silence promotes flow states, creative problem solving, and self-transcendent experiences. Silence and psychedelics. The sacredness of shared silence. The neurobiological effects of silence and noise. Balancing science and mysticism to inform a new paradigm. Cultivating introspection for wiser and more effective leadership. Episode links: Justin & Leigh's website Justin & Leigh's book, Golden: The Power of Silence in a World of Noise Episode 140: Adam Gazzaley, M.D., Ph.D. Third Wave's Coaching Certification Program These show links may contain affiliate links. Third Wave receives a small percentage of the product price if you purchase through the above affiliate links. This episode is brought to you by Magi Ancestral Supplements! Among Magi's beta-Carboline nootropics is my personal favorite minidose, Stard Deep Meditation Aid which has been shown by brain scans to help you achieve a deeper state of meditation. Right now Magi Ancestral Supplements is offering 10% off for listeners of the Third Wave Podcast with coupon code paul10.  Visit ancestralmagi.com to learn more about Stard and their other cognitive-enhancing nootropics. ... and by Apollo Neuro, the first scientifically validated wearable that actively improves your body's resilience to stress. Apollo was developed by a friend of Third Wave, Dr. David Rabin M.D Ph.D., a neuroscientist and board-certified psychiatrist who has been studying the impact of chronic stress in humans for nearly 15 years. Third Wave listeners get 15% off—just use this link. ... and by Third Wave's Mushroom Grow Kit. Get the tools you need to grow mushrooms along with an in-depth guide to finding spores.

How do you focus a distracted mind? Attention and focus come up a lot in the Kwik Brain community. In the world of dings and pings, staying on task can become increasingly difficult, especially when your to-do list is a mile long. But attention exists to help you not only survive, but to thrive—if it's trained. To go in-depth on this topic, I'm thrilled to have Dr. Adam Gazzaley, M.D., Ph.D. on our show today. Dr. Gazzaley is the David Dolby Distinguished Professor of Neurology, Physiology, and Psychiatry at UCSF. He's the founder of Neuroscape, host of a national PBS show, and the co-author of The Distracted Mind: Ancient Brains in a High-Tech World. It's impossible to put all of your focus everywhere at the same time. That's simply not how the brain works. But being able to ignore certain stimuli isn't a process that comes naturally. You have to learn how to direct where your attention goes. If you've been struggling with how to concentrate, focus, and minimize distractions in your daily life, this episode is for you. ***If you're inspired, I want to invite you to join me in my brand NEW 10-day course, specifically designed to boost your productivity. I know it sounds too good to be true, but I give you step-by-step guides using the accelerated learning model to help you get more done and achieve your goals. Visit http://kwikbrain.com/productivity to join me today.***

I've had Adam Gazzaley on the show before. He's an incredibly blended human who is a neuroscientist, speaker, entrepreneur, photographer, author, he's even an inventor. He's revolutionizing how we use technology for brain optimization. His work is paving the way forward when it comes to using technology to improve and retrain how we use our brains. This includes treating ADHD and other mental health and cognitive impairments. Adam has a creative industrious side that works with his academic side. He's an MD PhD., and a full-time professor at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). His research lab at the university is the Neuroscape center. This is where his groundbreaking work takes place. The center engages in technology creation and scientific research to better assess and optimize the brain function of healthy and impaired people. The work they do is at the intersection of technology and neuroscience. This is how it goes beyond the lab into people's lives. Adam is an entrepreneur and moves with his pursuits. He's co-founder, board member, and science advisor for a company called Akili. In this episode, we'll hear more about what the company is doing but think of prescribed video games as medicine! Akili is using technology to help people with cognitive impairment and to change the way medicine is designed and delivered. In today's episode we're talking about: 11:50 - Thinking Beyond the Pill for Attention Deficit 24:26 - Changing the Paradigm of Medicine 28:12 - How Attention Impacts our Experience 32:17 - Ancient Brains in a High Tech World 55:13 - Doing The Work Between Our Ears Enjoy!

Whether you consider yourself a spiritual person, or not, your brain - yes, you - is wired for spirituality in a way you never imagined. It is activated, turned on, and greatly benefits, from spiritual experience. And, it's not just your brain, it's your body, your health, your relationships, your work, your life. Which begs the question, “what even IS spiritual experience?” And, beyond feeling more deeply connected to some notion of Source, God, or oneness, how does it affect us? And, is there science that explains it? That's where we're headed with today's guest, acclaimed researcher, and pioneer in the science of spirituality, Dr. Lisa Miller. Dr. Miller is a professor of twenty years in the Clinical Psychology Program at Teachers College, Columbia University. She is the Founder and Director of the Spirituality Mind Body Institute, the first Ivy League graduate program and research institute in spirituality and psychology, and has held over a decade of joint appointments in the Department of Psychiatry at Columbia University Medical School. Her innovative research has been published in more than one hundred peer-reviewed articles in leading journals, including Cerebral Cortex, The American Journal of Psychiatry, and the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.Dr. Miller is the New York Times bestselling author of The Spiritual Child and her newest book, The Awakened Brain, explores her groundbreaking research on the science of spirituality and how to engage it in our lives. In my conversation with her today, she uncovers more about the innate spirituality that's within all of us, dives deeper into the research that connects spirituality to wellbeing, and awakens the question that's inside us all, which is how do I live a meaningful and purposeful life? And, be sure to listen and join in when she guides me through a powerful thought experience, in real-time, that reveals insights about my own spiritual sense that surprised even me!You can find Lisa at: Website | InstagramIf you LOVED this episode you'll also love the conversations we had with Adam Gazzaley about neuroscience, psychedelic and spiritual experience.Check out our offerings & partners: My New Book SparkedMy New Podcast SPARKEDVisit Our Sponsor Page For a Complete List of Vanity URLs & Discount Codes.Solo Stove: Make more backyard memories with solo stove's award-winning fire pits, stoves, & grills. Right now, you can get big discounts on all fire pits during Solo Stove's Summer Sale. And use promo code GLP at SoloStove.com for an extra $10 off. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

How does attention work? Adam Gazzaley has devoted his career to figuring out the science behind how we develop attention and how to optimize it. He knows what we need to do in order to have peak attention, how to make our minds work more efficiently, and why education has failed us in giving us the tools to optimize our attention. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Subscribe for ad-free interviews and bonus episodes https://plus.acast.com/s/the-unmistakable-creative-podcast.

I've come to believe that the quality and richness of our lives is, in no small part, determined by the depth and quality of our attention. If it's massively distracted, perpetually spinning out, and focused on negativity, that will also largely be the state of our lives, regardless of the actual objective circumstance of our lives. And, that is where we go in a powerful way with my guest today, Johann Hari. Johann is a writer and journalist, whose work appears in everywhere from the New York Times, Le Monde, to The Guardian and many other newspapers and media outlets. His TED talks and NowThis viral video have been viewed almost 100 million times, and his work has been praised by a broad range of people, from Oprah Winfrey to Noam Chomsky. He was the Executive Producer of the Oscar-nominated film “The United States vs Billie Holiday” and of a forthcoming eight-part TV series starring Samuel L Jackson. And following an incident with his Godson a few years back, he decided to turn his attention to the topic of attention, what attention actually is, how it affects us our mental and physical health, relationships, careers, and lives, what our ability to either harness or lose control of it is doing to us, and how our world, technology and global enterprise have built models designed to hijack our attention not in the name of the betterment of our lives or of humanity, but rather for their own good. Johann goes deep into his research and ideas in the groundbreaking book, Stolen Focus: Why You Can't Pay Attention - and How to Think Deeply Again, and we explore what he calls an attentional pathogenic culture, how it's making life both harder and sadder, and, importantly, what we can do about it to reclaim our attention and, in doing so, our lives.You can find Johann at: Instagram | WebsiteIf you LOVED this episode:You'll also love the conversations we had with neuroscientist Adam Gazzaley about the way our brain works.Check out our offerings & partners: My New Book Sparked | My New Podcast SPARKEDVisit Our Sponsor Page For a Complete List of Vanity URLs & Discount Codes.AquaTruRitualThrive Market See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Dr. Larry Rosen is Past Chair and Professor of Psychology at California State University, Dominguez Hills. He is a research psychologist with specialties in generational differences, parenting, child and adolescent development, and educational psychology, and is recognized as an international expert in the Psychology of Technology. He is co-author with Adam Gazzaley of “The Distracted Mind: Ancient Brains in a High-Tech World  https://www.amazon.com/Distracted-Mind-Ancient-Brains-High-Tech/dp/0262034948/ In this candid interview with Kate Kunkel, Dr. Rosen explains what obsession with devices does to our brains, and how anxiety and other mental health issues can be exacerbated with overuse. Plus – what effect does technology have on developing brains and how can we use it without losing our ability to communicate and make good decisions?Some highlights from this show;2:32 What happens in the brains of kids who use technology to excess4:42  Parents need to set limits on technology7:44 Is multitasking possible or is it task switching? And what does that do to the brain?12:11 Did technology make things easier -  or not?18:34 Why we make poor decisions when we are young27:37 Suggestions on ways to live kindly with technologyLearn more about Dr. Rosen's work at: http://drlarryrosen.com/Kate Kunkel is an Amen Licensed Brain Trainer, sound therapist, and vegan nutritionist. She coaches midlife and older clients to improve brain function that is compromised due to head trauma, diabetes, obesity, or early cognitive decline.  We are not stuck with the brains we have, and Kate helps you make yours the best that it can be. With this podcast and a series of courses, programs, and books, Kate shares proven techniques and tools to help you create a healthier, more vibrant future free of worries about dementia or other neurodegenerative diseases.Learn much more about using music for a healthier brain with Kate's book: Don't Let the Memories Fade https://www.amazon.com/Dont-Let-Memories-Fade-Preventing-ebook/dp/B08GBR1Z37/ To become part of a community that helps you stay on track and committed to nurturing a healthier brain, join the Boost Your Brain and Prevent Dementia Facebook Group here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/preventdementiaandalzheimersIf you prefer to listen to this episode, remember, this, and many more Brain Health Matters episodes are available on all podcast services. Find the show on your favorite service here: https://brainhealthmatters.today/podcastsIf you prefer to watch this episode on video, this, and all Brain Health Matters episodes are available on Videos – Brain Health MattersMeet Kate at: https://brainhealthmatters.today

Can a video game help improve attention skills in kids with ADHD? According to Akili Interactive in Boston, the answer is yes. They've created an action game called EndeavorRx that runs on a tablet and uses adaptive AI  to help improve focus, attentional control, and multitasking skills in kids aged 8 to 12. And it's not just Akili saying that: In 2020 the U.S. Food and Drug Administration agrees cleared EndeavorRx as a prescription treatment for ADHD, based on positive data from a randomized, controlled study of more than 600 children with the disorder. It was the first video game ever approved as a prescription treatment for any medical problem, and Harry's guest this week, Akili co-founder and CEO Eddie Martucci, says  it opens the way for a new wave of so-called digital therapeutics. Even as Akili works to tell the world about EndeavorRx and get more doctors to prescribe the game for kids with ADHD (and more insurance companies to pay for it), it's testing whether its approach can help to treat other forms of cognitive dysfunction, including depression, the cognitive side effects of multiple sclerosis, and even Covid-19 brain fog.Please rate and review The Harry Glorikian Show on Apple Podcasts! Here's how to do that from an iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch:1. Open the Podcasts app on your iPhone, iPad, or Mac. 2. Navigate to The Harry Glorikian Show podcast. You can find it by searching for it or selecting it from your library. Just note that you'll have to go to the series page which shows all the episodes, not just the page for a single episode.3. Scroll down to find the subhead titled "Ratings & Reviews."4. Under one of the highlighted reviews, select "Write a Review."5. Next, select a star rating at the top — you have the option of choosing between one and five stars. 6. Using the text box at the top, write a title for your review. Then, in the lower text box, write your review. Your review can be up to 300 words long.7. Once you've finished, select "Send" or "Save" in the top-right corner. 8. If you've never left a podcast review before, enter a nickname. Your nickname will be displayed next to any reviews you leave from here on out. 9. After selecting a nickname, tap OK. Your review may not be immediately visible.That's it! Thanks so much.TranscriptHarry Glorikian: Hello. I'm Harry Glorikian, and this is The Harry Glorikian Show, where we explore how technology is changing everything we know about healthcare.Can a video game help improve attention skills in kids with ADHD?According to Akili Interactive in Boston, the answer is yes. They've created an action game called EndeavorRx that runs on a tablet and uses adaptive AI  to help improve focus, attentional control, and multitasking skills in kids aged 8 to 12.And it's not just Akili saying that.The U.S. Food and Drug Administration agrees.In 2020 the FDA cleared EndeavorRx as a prescription treatment for ADHD, based on positive data from a randomized, controlled study of more than 600 children with the disorder. It's the first video game ever approved as a prescription treatment for any medical problem.Kids are advised to play the game for 25 minutes a day, five days a week. After two months of play, two-thirds of parents of kids in the controlled study said they saw a meaningful change in their children's day-to-day impairments. The FDA's approval of EndeavorRx opens the way for a new wave of so-called digital therapeutics, designed to treat all kinds of problems with cognitive functioning, including depression, the cognitive side effects of multiple sclerosis, and even Covid-19 brain fog.Akili is busy telling the world about EndeavorRx and working to get more doctors to prescribe the game for kids with ADHD and more insurance companies to pay for it. And here today to tell us about all of that is Akili's co-founder and CEO Eddie Martucci.Harry Glorikian: Eddie, welcome to the show.Eddie Martucci: Thanks, Harry.Harry Glorikian: So I'm dying to get into the company and all the things you guys are doing. But, like, before we jump into the company, I'd love our audience to get to know you a little bit. Right, because you're a long time health entrepreneur. You got your PhD at Yale in the departments of pharmacology and molecular biophysics and biochemistry, where you studied structure based drug design. But how did your personal path lead you from molecular biology, which is near and dear to my heart, to video games to treat cognitive impairment? I mean, that that's not exactly the Venn diagram I would see that somebody would just put together.Eddie Martucci: No, it's not. And there is no there is no path for this. Right. Because this is so different and so new. I would say my personal passion is just new science findings. Like I just love brand new science. I was a researcher for a short stint while I did a PhD. I think I had some pretty cool research. But really, if I zoom back, it's new science and new discoveries that are moving the health world forward. And that can be whether it's insights about some part of our biology that we didn't know before, that leads us to understand the human body better. Or in the case of what I've really done from a professional perspective, it's scientific insights that can lead to new treatment modalities. And so that's really what got me most excited. I think the path that was most impactful for me, you know, I was a biochemist at Providence College and a biochemist and biophysicist at Yale, and I love proteins and structural biology and all that. I still do. But I came out of my PhD and and worked with a group called PureTech Health in Boston. And Puretech is really just this unique new health care company where they've done everything from, they have research and development and discovery, but they also have in many ways nailed down a process of starting new companies off of groundbreaking science. And so while I was in grad school, I was exposed to a couple entrepreneurs that really put a light bulb in my head that, wow, this is something I should look into. And then I got training at PureTech in Boston. And that's what kind of got me thinking about brand new medicine and brand new modalities that were never considered medicine before. And the rest is history. Once you get a framework where you can start thinking like that, then it's just work.Harry Glorikian: Yeah. I mean, I knew Daphne, I think when she started PureTech and her advisory board was like, I mean, Nobel Prize winning, who's who sort of. Right. Just watched it evolve over time. But, you know, when you were at PureTech, I think one of their focuses was neurophysiological disorders. I mean, is that the real bridge that helped start Akili? Because I remember that came out of Adam Gazzaley's lab at UCSF, if I remember correctly.Eddie Martucci: Yeah. Adam Gazzaley is where we found the core technology that which we call SSME, which has gone on to power our products, including our FDA approved product. But yes, what I was working on at PureTech, including directly with Daphne, who's really brilliant in helping and bringing new big ideas to life and board members, including people like Ben Shapiro, who used to be at Merck. And he was one of my longest term board members. It doesn't hurt to have folks like Bob Langer in the room once every quarter to bounce ideas off of as well. So like, a very privileged place to start a company. But yes, I was working on novel CNS technologies, in fact. In fact I was working on a few and one in particular that was new devices, new devices for various neurological conditions. And it was really from that effort in thinking about what are the newest modalities of medical devices that we leaped one big bridge further and said in 2010 or about or maybe 2009, could we go further from a user experience perspective now that the whole world is carrying cell phones and tablets every day? Could we go further? Could we could we think about digital? And that was right around the time when everyone and their mother was talking about digital helping medicine. And because we were in the headspace of novel therapeutic modalities, I think it was a natural leap to say, what about digital being the medicine? And then we had to find the science. And that's where I found Adam Gazzaley and, and, and we got off to the races with that technology from UCSF.Harry Glorikian: Yeah. I mean this whole area of digital therapeutics, I've been talking about it for years now and trying to convince people and they look at me really weird when I say digital therapeutics and I try to explain it to them. But so but the game you have built is called EndeavorRx. If I got that correctly. And can you tell? Me more about the game itself. Like, what are the operative features or game mechanics that are thought to increase attention in kids who play the game?Eddie Martucci: You kind of have to back up to the core technology. So the way we build the business is not building one product or one game. We're building a platform technology, meaning a technology that is not made for a single disorder. But instead the problem we're going after and that we started with all of those years ago, about a decade ago, is cognitive functioning. Cognitive dysfunction in medicine is not targeted well by molecular pharmacology. That is the problem statement. We don't target cognition very well in medicine, if at all. And so our whole theory and thesis for the business was, if we could bring in the best technologies in the world, that through software could actually target cognitive functioning directly, then we would be bringing a pillar of medicine that does something much, much different than what medicine does today. So the technology out of UCSF that we started the company around, that we have branded the Selective Stimulus Management Engine, the way this technology works, which will then help you understand how the products in for ADHD children works. The way this technology works is it is giving constant stimulus, both visual and motor. So it's creating conflicting and overwhelming stimulus to activate the part of the brain that controls attention, which is the midline prefrontal cortex. So the front part of the brain that really controls attention and speed of processing and integration, this technology is patented to be able to activate that part of the brain very strongly, but also enhance what's called long range coherence. So as you're using this technology, not only is the front part of the brain activating much more, so you can apply your attention downwards.Eddie Martucci: And I'll get to exactly how this manifests, I promise. It is also more seamlessly based on the neurological data we have. It appears to more seamlessly be helping the brain communicate to the sensory processing regions. And so the way this manifests in ADHD children, when they're using our product EndeavorRx, which is meant for children 8 to 12 years old with ADHD who struggle with the attentional issues. This product is basically experienced like a racing video game where children are running a little alien figure down a course that is ever adapting. And they're getting information, meaning things that fly up to the screen that they have to make decisions on. And that's ever adapting because we have these deep, personalized algorithms so that everyone gets their own experience. So basically what people feel is they're using this technology that feels like a game, and it's just constantly challenging them in different ways. What's happening in the brain and this is how it's designed, is that the game is presenting very specific stimuli for each user that is pushing them at the edge of their processing ability. And that's part of the IP we have, is how to do that in a really seamless way so that by the end of using a game you haven't just been using a game, you have been essentially taxing the weak link in your attentional processing every single second for hours.Harry Glorikian: I think every CEO of that we may know mutually needs to be prescribed this game.Eddie Martucci: You know, CEOs and investors have been probably the most common people that in meetings will stop me and say, hey, I think I need this.Harry Glorikian: Yes. So how did you ideate and test the game mechanics?Eddie Martucci: Yeah. This is this is really a tenet of the business where we decided early on that to truly—we want to disrupt medicine and we want to create and integrate our type of medicine into mainstream medicine. Far too often, digital is kind of left to early adopters or on the sidelines of real medicine, excuse me. And our whole thesis was you have to run real validated and literally gold standard, rigorous clinical research. So when we had done this, no one had done a well designed trial before to study something that looks like a video game. And so that's really where we spent the first handful of years of our existence is after we built the kind of data infrastructure, which we can talk about, and the adaptive algorithms. We then invested years in how to run good clinical trials with this type of product that's an experiential product. So our goal all along was being able to run the same or better rigor of randomized controlled trials that you'd expect from a drug for this same disease area. Obviously, as an interactive product that you can see and you interact with, that means you have to take a little bit of a different approach.Eddie Martucci: So we had to do a lot of work with some of our advisors and with places like Duke University on how to blind the protocol. Because it has to blind very differently. And how to how to have a control, an active controller sham that is actually controlled. And there's many nuances like that. But at the end of the day, the trials we run are meant to replicate or be analogous to drug trials, where you have really strong controls up front, that you're not biasing individuals and that the outcomes—and this is the differentiator in digital—that the outcomes are gold standard accepted outcomes for whatever you're studying. And so that was what we've done. What we did the first time we were in a trial, we were like, it took a lot of work and we were nervous about it. But we have a clinical ops team now and we've run a few dozen trials across, I think, nine or ten disease populations, so we've become pretty good at it.Harry Glorikian: Yeah, I was going to say, I mean, coming up with the first one, everybody's probably scratching their head trying to figure out, are we doing the right thing? But, and I have this discussion with some of the people I work with all the time, what's the proprietary special sauce in the case of digital therapy? I mean, is there a defensible algorithm or insight at the heart of something like EndeavorRx that would be comparable to a patented small molecule in the you know, in the traditional drug industry?Eddie Martucci: In our case, yes. And I'll tell you about that. I think what this really comes down to, though, that question about digital therapeutics, it's like a business question for the industry. To answer that question, it's important to recognize there's nuance in the industry. So the vast majority of digital approaches, I think, are tough to protect because they're taking well known human practices and putting them into an app. Right. So there's 90 percent of the digital therapy companies or products out there are using different forms of behavioral therapy or disease management techniques or strategies, and they're bringing them into an app that is not bad. It's hopefully very, very good for patients. There's a few validated products there that are, no question, good for patients. I think it does make those types of products harder to protect. We've taken a bit of a different tack. We're a little bit, I guess, iconoclastic within the industry in that what gets us excited is software that even though it's software, it's more drug like in that it's directly targeting and activating the dysfunctional physiology in the body. You can measure that and by virtue of that, you're having a really unique effect. Eddie Martucci: The second big difference is we are using algorithms that have not been ever reported on before. So we take much more of a drug lens where we actually do protect we patent our technology. So we call this whole class “physiologically activating digital therapeutics.” Some people have referred to them as mechanistic digital therapeutics or disease modifying. There's different phrases, but this idea of unique algorithms that you actually can protect with patents and copyrights, which we do. So we have about 50 issued patents for the technology that underlies EndeavorRx and another 100 that are filed on our various technologies. And you can demonstrate this has a real, unique physiological effect. I think what it enables, at least for these types of products is a feeling from the health care world that this is much more what I'm used to seeing in my traditional medicine where it's unique. I can't just go get this anywhere because I trust that this one product is the only one that has this unique technology. And by the way, it's been proven to work. And I trust that they're a stable company that's going to be around for a while. Those things are really important to our model.Harry Glorikian: Well, it's a good thing that I've been explaining it to people the right way. So at least now that we've talked, you know, my explanation is aligning correctly. So I'm happy about what I'm reading is correct. Let's take a step back. So, there's a lot of kids with ADHD who have no problems concentrating on something for hours if they're really interested in it. But it strikes me the key feature of the of the product is not just keeping kids engaged. It's supposed to build or improve those skills. Is that the key thing that makes the game special or unusual or different from any other pastime, say, building LEGO spaceships?Eddie Martucci: Yes, absolutely. So the engagement is critical, but the differentiator is the challenging and improving of that core cognitive functioning. And you don't get that just by engaging in something. And actually, the vast majority of entertainment products you engage with will allow you to either passively engage, meaning you could watch YouTube videos for hours and hours, but you're not actually challenging your brain or actively engage, but in a way that you don't really have to challenge what you don't do well. So in most video games, you can choose what most of us do in life, choose the path of least resistance, because we like certain ways of using a product. Our product is unique in that this this patented algorithm forces you—it's essentially measuring second by second where you're weak and processing the various streams of information and it is forcing you to work on those areas where you are weakest. But it's doing it naturalistically. It feels like you're using a treatment, but it's really that level of focus on, for lack of a better word, it's really that level of focus of delivery of that algorithm that's actually going to stress you where it, for lack of a better word, hurts the most. That is the differentiator. The other big differentiator is, is the personalized algorithms that that we built in. And this is where, frankly, technology and data rich medicine has never gone before. But within seconds of using the experience, this product is tailoring to each individual user. And this is true whether we're talking about kids with ADHD or some of our trials and products and adults with depression or MS, these products can actually tailor to your functional level and then move you along from there. So those two those two bits of how the algorithm works are critically important. The engagement is really the delivery vehicle to make sure you're getting that level of medicine.Harry Glorikian: Yeah, definitely, if this was available to people in a larger age range, there are people that I definitely need to recommend this to when well then that becomes available.Eddie Martucci: But well, that's the interesting thing about cognitive dysfunction, right? The way I talk about it sometimes is cognitive functioning and or problems with cognitive functioning go across disease, right? They're in many ways disease agnostic. Almost anything that touches the brain results in some level of cognitive dysfunction or at least some proportion of patients that have longer term cognitive dysfunction. But it also goes above and below disease, meaning subclinical. So there are people that are not diagnosed with issues that, you know, that probability-wise there's 20 or 30 percent that are significantly below the mean they're struggling with these things. So this is a this is a basic human function that rears its head in a really nasty way in many diseases, but is actually relatable to all of us.Harry Glorikian: Yeah. So. I mean, there's a lot of challenges when you're trying to design something like this. A ten year old will not spend much time playing a mobile game unless it's it's just as compelling as, you know, anything that they could download as a mobile app. So. How did you guys, what steps did you guys take? You know, it's almost like game design and, you know, therapeutic outcome, you know, together in one package. And so how did you guys, what steps did you guys take to make sure this thing was fun?Eddie Martucci: Correct. Yeah. And it does depend on the population. Right. So we have products, obviously a marketed product in for children with ADHD, but we're developing products and have trials and data and adults of various ages. The I think you're right. If you focus on children, there's a there's an engagement bar that is not easy. Right. Kids are highly discerning. They know a good game and a bad game. And what we like to say is we have no delusions that we're going to come out with the next blockbuster entertainment game. That is not how we built the company. However, we do want to have a game that looks and feels like the type of games that you actually like to play. So it has to be worlds better than edutainment, as people call it, educational software, because kids know. And so the way we did that is this is one thing that makes Akili very unique. Instead of outsourcing or kind of outsourcing game development or adding game development at the end of our development cycle, we actually have built the company to have cognitive science, clinical science, and game development fully integrated from the earliest days. And data science, for what it's worth, is really a kind of foundational thread for all of those. And it's hard. It's really hard. I mean, developing a product that has both these things, the strong science and the engagement, is really hard, but it's also really hard for people from all these different industries to, you know, be speaking the same language and work together because the development processes are different, the language you use is different. Your mindset of how you think about developing is different. And so for us, what I always talk about is it's literally daily attention. I'm unwilling to sacrifice or give up on it. We have to do both. Well, I think where we are today with EndeavorRx as our first product out of the platform, it's a really good product. It was built to show clinical efficacy and engage people to a minimal degree. It does that. Some kids love it. They will play for months at a time, you know, five days a week for four months. But yeah, there's a lot of people that kind of get through it and then plenty of kids that say, I really don't want to use this. So we've built features around the edges, things like an app for parents to allow them to track and monitor and incentivize their children. And we try to educate our users on why you're doing this. And so it's got to be a mix of the engagement itself, but also a little bit of inherent motivation that, hey, your doctor's in the loop, this is your medicine. It's important to put the work in and accomplish it.[musical interlude]Harry Glorikian: Let's pause the conversation for a minute to talk about one small but important thing you can do, to help keep the podcast going. And that's leave a rating and a review for the show on Apple Podcasts.All you have to do is open the Apple Podcasts app on your smartphone, search for The Harry Glorikian Show, and scroll down to the Ratings & Reviews section. Tap the stars to rate the show, and then tap the link that says Write a Review to leave your comments. It'll only take a minute, but you'll be doing a lot to help other listeners discover the show.And one more thing. If you like the interviews we do here on the show I know you'll like my new book, The Future You: How Artificial Intelligence Can Help You Get Healthier, Stress Less, and Live Longer.It's a friendly and accessible tour of all the ways today's information technologies are helping us diagnose diseases faster, treat them more precisely, and create personalized diet and exercise programs to prevent them in the first place.The book is now available in print and ebook formats. Just go to Amazon or Barnes & Noble and search for The Future You by Harry Glorikian.And now, back to the show.[musical interlude]Harry Glorikian: What makes you optimistic? Because I've been, you know, enamored with this space for a while now and trying to watch like where it's going to grow and what's going to get in its way. And so what makes you optimistic about digital therapeutics, either as a venture scale business or a public company. Because I know you guys are thinking about that. Tell me what you're thinking.Eddie Martucci: Yeah, a couple of things that make me very optimistic. I think the foundational groundwork is now done and we've shown it can be done. So we know that these products now can be developed, they can be protected, they can be brought through clinical trials and actually help patients. That's the most important thing. They can undeniably with strong clinical data, help patients and they can be brought through the FDA and now being prescribed by docs. So these prescription digital therapeutics, there's only a couple of them on the market. But literally at this point there's been now thousands of docs, not merely tens or hundreds, but we're talking now about thousands of docs who have prescribed prescription digital therapeutics to patients, where a couple of years ago that would have been essentially zero. So the foundations are there more. Every month that goes on, it becomes a a self-fulfilling cycle where doctors and patients hear about it, they're aware of it. They know someone who's tried it. And it's becoming a little bit common nature to think, wait, isn't there something digital that I've heard about for this? I think that will flip in the coming years to I expect to have a digital treatment or I expect to be told the digital option for my doc. So that makes me that makes me optimistic is that the groundwork is there. We know it can be done.Eddie Martucci: The second thing is, frankly, society is demanding better medicine in many different ways. They're demanding, and mainly I'm talking about patients in many respects, they're demanding more accessible medicine. They're obviously…we all got the efficiency bug of telemedicine during COVID. And while I've seen the data that that has significantly receded, I don't think the concept of online or digital in medicine has receded from anyone's mind. I think we all know that it's far more efficient and we should expect to see more products that are digital in nature, whether that's scheduling with a doc or taking a treatment. And so I think there's this kind of wave in society that is that is pushing people to recognize that we should be open to these types of products. The other thing is, whereas docs and patients years ago when we did market research, there was a level of skepticism that was pretty healthy. I now see a level of openness where if there's good data and there's especially in our case, things like FDA approval and strong clinical data, there's a better chance than not that both patients and doctors are going to be not only acceptable or accepting, but they're going to want to at least try something like this. So all the groundwork is there. We've just got to keep keep plugging away because it's new.Harry Glorikian: I talk about the whole digital therapeutic space in my book. And I always tell people look, if a product like this works for you, you're not going to have a side effect profile the way you have with some of the small molecule drugs that I've seen. It's trial and error with those things. And sometimes things don't go as well as you want them to and you end up with a very angry child if the drug doesn't do what it's supposed to do.Eddie Martucci: It's egregious. It's egregious. I mean, medicines, pharmacological medicines for neurological conditions are critically important. Don't get me wrong, I think they're critically important. And EndeavorRx is not meant to be an alternative to medication, especially if it's working well for for a child. But the problem is, there are many components of these conditions that are just not well addressed. And so you're left as a clinician to try to use these blunt instruments, these molecules which weren't delivered for these problems or rather weren't designed for these problems. You're trying to use them, but you're fighting the side effect profile as much as you're fighting the efficacy the whole time. And so you're right. Trial and error is the right phrase. Like the fact that we're still doing trial and error in CNS conditions all these years later is crazy. And there's a better way because we now can have these more targeted products that are part of the patient's toolbox.Harry Glorikian: Yeah, and we need more of them, so. Yeah, great. But let's talk about the business model, right? I mean, this is, you know, feels like fresh territory, right? And if I think about mobile games generally don't make money unless you sell millions of copies. Right. So you have you must have a different business model in mind from the beginning. I suspect this business model revolved around, you know, selling Akili games as a prescription based therapeutic at a cost that would be more typical for a drug than a mobile game.Eddie Martucci: Right. Right. So the concept here is we want the products to get to the patients that really need them and we want to involve the doctor in the loop and we want to have products that are proven. And so all of that to me says a core medicine model, meaning prescription treatment, as you said, covered ideally by insurance largely, but with a little bit of out-of-pocket burden from the patient. You're right, the general cost is a little bit more in line with pharmacology, although the good news in mental health and behavioral health is that's that's relatively inexpensive. We're not talking about multi-thousand-dollar therapies here. We're talking about something that is in the low hundreds per month. And for the patient, really more like $30 to $50 a month. So these are the cost structures that we think are tenable and have been working well in behavioral medicine. And that's really where we're starting. But we're in the early days. I think one of the beauties of digital is we don't have to just stay there, meaning that is the core of the model, a prescription that scales and is paid for by both insurance and patient.Eddie Martucci: But I think there's a lot of potential to evolve and iterate the model that has more consumer elements to it. For instance, like your best technology products, we can adapt the product itself to grow with you. Like your best technology products. We can serve, you know, services and help on the side beyond or in between your use of the actual treatment. So there's a level of connectivity with our end user and consumer that is that actually looks a lot more like best in class consumer software where you can have a long term relationship with a patient. Now, we have not pulled any of those levers yet, but I think what we're most excited about is the bringing both of those models to bear. A medical model, but that has some aspects to it that can actually grow and extend more like software. I actually think that's where the field will go. But it is early days. We'll have to see how this we'll have to see how this shakes out.Harry Glorikian: Well, that's why I always I always tell people, like, you know, once you digitize something like you get to have a broader imagination about what is possible in that realm as opposed to, you know, sticking to exactly what we did before.Eddie Martucci: Exactly.Harry Glorikian: But taking a step back here, no one has ever marketed a prescription based video game or won marketing approval from the FDA for such a product. Right. So how did you frame yourself? You walk in there and you say, “Hey, here, play this. And you're going to like it.” What were the hurdles? What did you have to overcome to get regulatory approval for this? What was it like dealing with the FDA?Harry Glorikian: No, it's a great question. Yeah, the FDA process is fascinating. We know it is rigorous, it's long, it's mostly collaborative. Right. The FDA wants to learn and help. But I think, number one, most importantly, there's unfortunately a myth out there today that digital therapeutics are actually medical devices generally don't have to go through efficacy analysis by the FDA. So I see this myth all the time. People say, well, you know, on the medical device side, they only look at safety. And so, unfortunately, with broad brushes, people have painted digital therapeutics as part of that. They've said, well, digital therapeutics may or may not have evidence, but the FDA looks at safety. I can unequivocally tell you that could not be farther from the truth. I would say 95 percent of our interactions with the FDA, which took the better part of two years because our product was so novel, you can imagine we were not only innovating the delivery mechanism, it's a video game. We were innovating the target, which is cognitive functioning, which there are no products labeled for cognitive functioning. And we were trying to look at what are the endpoints that, you know, that read on cognitive functioning. All of this is new, but not 95 percent of the questions we had, and that's—please don't quote me on the specifics, this is not a deposition—but in that range, were about efficacy. And we went through every little bit of our efficacy data so that the FDA could understand it, so that they could audit it.Eddie Martucci: We even, midway through our regulatory process, brought on a fifth study. So we have five studies in our FDA label package. So we brought on the most recent study to show to address some questions FDA had around efficacy in the longer run or efficacy along with medication. So this was a very rigorous process. I always tell people the good news about this is you can trust it when it comes out because this is something that looks and feels a lot like the drug process, right? There's a lot of scrutiny put on the trials and the legitimacy of the trials. So so it looked a lot like that. It's highly iterative. From a business side, the one tough part with FDA is when you're when you have a new classification for a product, so a 510K de novo, so they're creating a classification, there is no hard timeline on the review. And so when you're a startup and you're building a business, you kind of just keep iterating until you get to a label or not, right? And luckily in our case, we did. But yeah, I mean, as a startup, you're going through a nearly two-year approval. It's stressful. It's stressful, but it's good for the industry, I believe, because it's really forcing a high bar of science.Harry Glorikian: Well, no. And I mean, that's what you want. You don't want a low bar and then things go wrong, like you want it to be held to a higher standard. And usually when the FDA is taking on something new, they've also got to take the time to catch up to where you are. Right. They can't just walk in the room and be ready for this. So you're sort of paving the path for everybody that's coming behind you, which is a I guess there's a good part of that and a bad part of that.Eddie Martucci: Yes. Yes.Harry Glorikian: So there's a lot of stakeholders and gatekeepers in this space that we're talking about, right. Patients, parents, physicians, payers. I mean, each one of them needs to be persuaded that digital therapy or digital therapeutics are, you know, beneficial and worth prescribing or worth paying for. So, anything special you're doing to sort of win them all over?Eddie Martucci: Well, we're doing the work to put time and attention towards it. So you're right. Just because it's digital does not mean people will use it or understand it. So you've got to sit with patients and educate. Just because docs have a new tool doesn't mean they'll trust it. So you've got to spend time to make sure they understand the data and more importantly, understand where we're trying to play in the treatment paradigm. Right. Because, again, we're not … the easy answer for a digital is, “Oh, this is supposed to be a digital equivalent of a drug.” No. It's more nuanced than that. This is supposed to help in a very specific way. And insurers are probably the biggest barrier because it's so new for them. Right. This is this is very new. They don't really, they're not really built to be able to adjudicate digital products. Right. And unfortunately, we've got some of these types of myths floating around, like the FDA medical device myth, which understandably makes insurers uncomfortable. Right. If they if that's what they've heard, they say, well, how in the world am I supposed to adjudicate efficacy if the FDA doesn't? I guess I'll look at this with all the other hundreds of wellness apps out there.Eddie Martucci: So it's education time. Honestly, it's education time to unravel these myths, to really sit and make sure these stakeholders understand the data and the utility of the product. In terms of special things, one of the one of the nice things about growing a company, especially with digital company in this day and age, is you can test and iterate really quickly on all of these fronts. And so when we test you've got to have the meetings and you've got to fit into their review cycles. But for patients and docs, you know, we, we take a very clear test and learn approach. We are releasing certain types of educational content or certain types of marketing messages in pilot phase. Right now we see what works, we see what doesn't. We adapt. We do the same thing with the distribution infrastructure, frankly. Like how in the world do you get a video game therapeutic from your doctor? We built the infrastructure. We tested, we changed, we scrapped half of it and started again. So that is the beauty of living in a digital world. We can we can do that type of testing and learning.Harry Glorikian: And good old AB testing on what works and what doesn't.Eddie Martucci: Totally.Harry Glorikian: All right, let's step out of ADHD for a minute. You've been talking about other neurophysiological sort of conditions. And I think the website, if I'm not mistaken, mentions depression, cognitive dysfunction, multiple sclerosis, autism spectrum disorder, and a few other future treatments is. Is there something about the EndeavorRx platform or the proprietary adaptive algorithm that gives you the ability to sort of generalize? And I think you mentioned that earlier, but sort of to dig into that a little bit.Eddie Martucci: Yeah. So it really starts with what technology are looking for. And so we don't source technologies that are meant for any one condition. That is more common in the behavioral therapy space where there's behavioral therapy for disease X because it's a tried and true technique specific to the disease. The way we work is looking for technologies that actually activate specific brain regions and have data that they do that well. And so the interesting thing that we found about cognitive functioning, and we knew a little bit about this, but you know, I don't like to have revisionist history and say we we knew it all, with cognitive dysfunction and disease, independent of the etiology or the cause of why the brain is having issues, the downstream manifestation actually tends to bucket into very similar issues. And so our theory was, and so far it's proven true, is if you could bring technologies that are meant for the neurological processing issues, not the disease, not specifically the disease, then any condition that results in similar issues, you should be able to have a functional impact on. Because we're not we're not targeting, you know, dopamine reuptake and a dopamine driven disorder. We're not targeting myelination in am anti-myelinating disorder. We are targeting the end result, which is how well the brain is communicating. So we've because we start there, we, we theoretically have the ability to go across disease, and we've actually shown it now. So the same technology that has a treatment label for ADHD has been able to power two studies, including a larger randomized controlled study in multiple sclerosis adults, and showed clinically meaningful, large changes in speed of processing and related cognitive functions. That's the same technology under the ADHD product. ADHD and MS could not be farther from each other in terms of cause, but because the resulting functionally in the same in the same area, that's then you get that benefit. So that's our theory and that's how we're going to continue to develop products and take a functional and a neural network approach, if you will. And, and ideally, we have a much more efficient product pipeline because of it.Harry Glorikian: So. In your mind, like what are the biggest unanswered questions, either for EndeavorRx or for the Akili business. Is it more product? Is it more market? I mean, for example, do you worry about whether it'll work, you know, in the real world, as well as it did in your initial studies, whether doctors will prescribe the game, whether payers will cover it. There's all these issues. And so I'm just wondering where you think the biggest hurdles lie?Eddie Martucci: Sure. Yeah, I think I think my number one is not about the product. It's really systemic to the to the health care system and industry, which is it's important to me that the insurance industry, the doctors write prescriptions, but more importantly, the insurance industry and broader we could call it the payer industry. Right. Anyone that should be paying for medicine pays for digital therapeutics. Right. I don't think this should be the only class of medicine where patients bear the entire cost. That makes no sense. So we are not there yet for sure. Right. We're in such the early days that I think some payers are waiting, but I think we're starting to see a turn. We're beyond skepticism, beyond intrigue, probably into early acceptance. And I think the work needs to be done. And frankly, we need we need a couple folks in this industry and by folks, I mean both people, but also organizations to step up as the early pioneers for their patients. I think that's really important. Now, again, I have empathy for why that part of the industry moves slower. They're trying to protect patients. There's obviously cost arguments as well. And there are some of these myths or misconceptions out there about the industry. But I think when education is done right and when payers really engage, we're going to start to see a broader payer ecosystem adopting this like they would any other medicine. So I think that's kind of the biggest near-term barrier. And slightly longer term, I think the business model is a question. Which no one likes to hear, no investor likes to hear. And we're a company that's going to go public. I don't mean the business model is a question in that we don't know if we can make money or build a business. I just mean, what is…so, the foundations we know are there. Doctors will prescribe, patients will pay, payers are starting to pay. It has a benefit in people's lives. So the foundations are there. The business will grow. What the eventual business model is, is TBD, frankly. What is the top end business model that's going to allow a company to thrive at scale? I think we have to invest to learn that. And I'd say the same thing about the product. In terms of the product, it's not whether it will work, it's not whether it can help patients on the market. We've shown all of that. It's at this point, how well can you develop that product on the market so that it engenders long term compliance so that engenders loyalty and use in the future? And so I think in both those scenarios, I guess the health care system's got to get there. Which is a secondary priority, more like an opportunism. We don't want to miss the opportunity to find the best business model or to iterate on the products because we have the ability to do so. I don't want to miss that opportunity to grow the best business model we possibly can.Harry Glorikian: So you mentioned going public once or twice, and so I saw that there's paperwork with the SEC to go through a public filing with a special purpose entity backed by Chamath, whose I think it was Social Capital, through his venture fund. What's the thinking behind becoming public? Why now?Eddie Martucci: Yeah. I think I always had a mantra and I didn't come up with it. This is from advisors to me and mentors: Stay private as long as you possibly can for the business to be able to adapt and iterate and a little bit more of a clean way. But I think that time has come, and the reason I say that is we have a product that is being prescribed by doctors now and we have a pipeline where I've already talked about it. We could help potentially up to dozens of different populations who are struggling today. On top of that, the need and urgency around mental health and behavioral health has had a step function change in the last year. Right. We know that President Biden talked about it at the State of the Union. The surgeon general has put out a national state of emergency on youth mental health. So the time is right for a real investment here and the time is right for the company to fill that need. We know all the all the foundations are right. So I've always wanted to wait till that moment why we chose this specific entry point and vehicle, which we hope is kind of middle of this year, that Akili becomes a publicly listed company is, I think, the opportunity to not only have capital and the type of flexible capital that the public markets gives you, but in the case of a special purpose acquisition company, the expertise of that acquiring entity, in this case, Chamath Palihapitiya, who's extremely well known and amazing at building disruptive technologies for different industries that scale to ubiquity using technology and data.Eddie Martucci: But actually that the SPAC vehicle here is Social Capital Suvreta. Suvreta being a well known biotech hedge fund who specializes in early commercial biotech companies. So rarely do you get to become public with the right amount of capital, but also some new expertise around the table, strategic expertise in a disruptive business. And I think we get both of those with this deal. So we're still, it's too early to tell if the whole thing will go through. We're certainly crossing our fingers and hopefully if people listen to this in the longer future, Akili is already a public company and thriving.Harry Glorikian: Well, I mean, it's a good thing I spoke to you now so that we could speak a little bit more freely than when you're under that public rubric.Eddie Martucci: But oh, no, I'm already I'm already watching my words. It is important. It's a level of maturity as a business. Now, we have we've grown for about a decade. We grew methodically and slowly. We have over 100 employees now. And, you know, businesses change and mature. And I think it's the right time for us to do it.Harry Glorikian: Oh, yeah. I mean, a lot of the companies that I interact with as an investor, I mean, when we're going to go public, it's like, “Oh, we got to do this, we've got to get that ready. We got to get accounting ready. We got it.” I mean, you've got to go through it methodically because being public is is not for the faint of heart for sure. So, well, I wish you the greatest success. I look forward to staying in touch and, you know, keeping up to date on how things are going with the company. And, you know, I hope a ton of people listen to this because it's easier for them to hear it from you than hear it from me.Eddie Martucci: Thanks, Harry. This is a lot of fun. And thanks for your focus in innovation and these new areas that are really going to transform patients' lives. So I'm hoping we're doing our part there.Harry Glorikian: Thanks.Harry Glorikian: That's it for this week's episode. You can find a full transcript of this episode as well as the full archive of episodes of The Harry Glorikian Show and MoneyBall Medicine at our website. Just go to glorikian.com and click on the tab Podcasts.I'd like to thank our listeners for boosting The Harry Glorikian Show into the top three percent of global podcasts.If you want to be sure to get every new episode of the show automatically, be sure to open Apple Podcasts or your favorite podcast player and hit follow or subscribe. Don't forget to leave us a rating and review on Apple Podcasts. And we always love to hear from listeners on Twitter, where you can find me at hglorikian.Thanks for listening, stay healthy, and be sure to tune in two weeks from now for our next interview.

Adam Gazzaley is a neuroscientist, neurologist, inventor, author, photographer, entrepreneur, and investor. Most notably, he's the founder and executive director of Neuroscape as well as the David Dolby Distinguished Professor of Neurology, Physiology and Psychiatry at the University of California, San Francisco. In this episode of the Third Wave podcast, Adam talks with Paul F. Austin about the new Neuroscape psychedelics division at UCSF, how studying individual biomarkers can give us novel insights into personalized psychedelic experiences, how different psychedelic dosages can work synchronistically with sensory stimuli, and how Neuroscape is using videogames to train attention.

Dr. Adam Gazzaley obtained an M.D. and Ph.D. in Neuroscience at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York, completed Neurology residency at the University of Pennsylvania, and postdoctoral training at University of California, Berkeley. He is currently the David Dolby Distinguished Professor of Neurology, Physiology and Psychiatry at University of California, San Francisco and the Founder & Executive Director of Neuroscape at UCSF, a translational neuroscience center engaged in technology creation and scientific research. At Neuroscape, he leads the design and development of novel brain assessment and cognitive optimization technologies. Neuroscape's novel approach involves the development of custom-designed, closed-loop video games integrated with the latest advancements in software and hardware (virtual/augmented reality, motion capture, mobile physiological recording devices, transcranial electrical brain stimulation). These technologies are then advanced to rigorous research studies that evaluate their impact on cognition, as well as neural mechanisms using a combination of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), electroencephalography (EEG) and transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS). Dr. Gazzaley is co-founder and Chief Science Advisor of Akili Interactive, a company developing therapeutic video games, Sensync, a company creating the first Sensory Immersion Vessel, and JAZZ Venture Partners, a venture capital firm investing in experiential technologies. He has been a scientific advisor for over a dozen companies including Apple, GE, Deloitte, Magic Leap, and the VOID. He was a Science Board member of the President's Council on Fitness, Sports & Nutrition, and is currently a Board of Trustee and Science Council member of the California Academy of Sciences. Dr. Gazzaley has filed multiple patents for his inventions, authored over 140 scientific articles, and delivered over 675 invited presentations around the world. His research and perspectives have been consistently profiled in high-impact media, such as The New York Times, New York Times Magazine, New Yorker, Wall Street Journal, TIME, Discover, Wired, PBS, NPR, CNN and NBC Nightly News. He wrote and hosted the nationally-televised PBS special “The Distracted Mind with Dr. Adam Gazzaley”, and co-authored the 2016 MIT Press book “The Distracted Mind: Ancient Brains in a High-Tech World”, winner of the 2017 PROSE Award in the category of Biomedicine and Neuroscience. Dr. Gazzaley has received many awards and honors, including the 2015 Society for Neuroscience Science Educator Award. Episode 145: Upgrading humanity's cognition with subconscious learning moments with Adam Gazzaley

Slow looking is simply the art of learning through observation. I've been working in this way for the last 10+ years and can wholeheartedly recommend it to anyone - both as an individual practice and as a way of working with and connecting your participants to art and objects.  But don't just take my word for it.  But, why would you want to slow down and spend time with just one artwork or object? Why is it important to practise paying attention and noticing more details? Looking at something slowly and carefully is in itself a rewarding process – the object or art work becomes more interesting the longer you look at it. But more than this, there are known benefits of slow looking and in this post, I'm going to take you through 12 reasons why you, yes, you, should get started with slow looking. LINKS https://thinkingmuseum.com/2022/02/23/12-reasons-to-get-started-with-slow-looking/ (Episode Web Page) Join the FREE https://www.facebook.com/groups/slowlookingclub (Slow Looking Club) Support the Show Sign up for my Friday newsletter - https://tinyurl.com/theTMWeekly (The ™ Weekly) https://www.gse.harvard.edu/news/uk/20/01/art-slow-looking-classroom (The Art of Slow Looking in the Classroom)  In The Distracted Mind: Ancient Brains in a High Tech World, authors Adam Gazzaley and Larry D. Rosen https://observer.com/2015/08/why-looking-at-art-makes-you-smarter/ (Why Looking at Art Makes you Smarter ) https://peterclothier.com/one-hour-one-painting/video-demonstration/ (Peter Clothier)

Johann Hari: “When you try to do lots of things at once, you do all of them less competently—you make more mistakes, you remember less of what you do, and you're far less creative.”  Hari, a New York Times bestselling author, joins mbg co-CEO, Jason Wachob, to discuss how to reclaim your attention span, plus: - The link between sleep & focus (~05:16) - Why multitasking never works (~10:39) - How reading for pleasure retrains your brain (~21:05) - How to eat for attention (~35:54) - Why you shouldn't reply to texts immediately (~39:21) Referenced in the episode: - Hari's book, Stolen Focus. - kSafe. - Freedom app. - A study showing it takes 23 minutes to get back your focus after an interruption. - A study on the switch-cost effect. - A study from Charles Czeisler that sleeping ~5 hours a night impairs attention the same as a blood alcohol level of .1%. - Read more about Hewlett Packard's study on the link between work distractions and IQ. - mbg Podcast episode #79, with Adam Gazzaley, M.D., Ph.D. - Read more about Lenore Skenazy and Let Grow. We have recently introduced our innovative longevity & vitality collection! Visit mindbodygreen.com/longevity and use the code LONGEVITYPOD to get 20% off a one-time or first month subscription purchase of this premium collection, which includes vitamin D3 potency+, cellular beauty+, ultimate multivitamin+, and omega-3 potency+. Enjoy this episode! Whether it's an article or podcast, we want to know what we can do to help here at mindbodygreen. Let us know at: podcast@mindbodygreen.com.

Topic: South Korean 'phone maniac' won't give up his LG smartphones South Korean Ryu Hyun-soo describes himself as an ''LG phone maniac'' and says he won't give up his LG smartphones even though the company is getting out of the business. 南韓人柳賢秀形容自己是「LG手機狂人」，還說即使這家公司準備停止手機業務，他也不會棄用。 LG Electronics Inc. said in April it would wind down its smartphone division by the end of July because of a prolonged sales slump. LG電子4月宣布，由於長期銷售委靡，將在7月底前逐步關閉手機部門。 Ryu, 53, who has collected nearly 90 devices over 23 years, said the audio quality made him fall in love with them. At his house in Anyang, Ryu has a room dedicated to the devices and the parts and tools to fix them. 23年來蒐集近90支LG手機的53歲柳男說，音質使他鍾情於此。在他位於安養市的家中，有一個房間專門放LG手機和修理用的相關零件和工具。 He'll use the LG phones "forever" as long as the parts are still being supplied. 只要零件仍持續供應，他將「永遠」使用LG手機。 "A Samsung phone is like a smart friend and an Apple phone is like a girlfriend to me. Then a LG phone is like a friend whom I've shared the ups and downs of life together with. It is sad to see the friend leaving. It is very sad," Ryu said. 柳男說：「對我來說，三星手機就像聰明的朋友，蘋果手機就像女朋友，而LG手機就像與我一起度過人生高低潮的朋友。看著這位朋友離開很難過，真的很難過。」   Next Article   Topic: The ‘Right to Repair' Movement Gains Ground If you buy a product — a car, a smartphone, or even a tractor — and it breaks, should it be easier for you to fix it yourself? 如果你買了一個產品，例如一輛汽車、一部智慧型手機，甚至是一台拖拉機，結果它壞了，是不是應該讓你自己修理起來更容易些呢？ Manufacturers of a wide range of products have made it increasingly difficult over the years to repair things, for instance by limiting availability of parts or by putting prohibitions on who gets to tinker with them. It affects not only game consoles or farm equipment, but cellphones, military gear, refrigerators, automobiles and even hospital ventilators, the lifesaving devices that have proved crucial this year in fighting the COVID-19 pandemic. 多年來，許多種產品的製造商都讓維修變得愈來愈困難，比如限制零件的取得，或對何人有權動手維修施加限制。受影響的產品不止於遊戲主機或農用機具，還有手機、軍用設備、冰箱、汽車，甚至包括今年對抗新冠病毒疫情發揮關鍵作用的救生設備—醫院裡的呼吸器。 Now, a movement known as “right to repair” is starting to make progress in pushing for laws that prohibit restrictions like these. 現在，一項名為「維修權」的運動在推動禁止此類限制的立法上，正取得進展。 In August, Democrats introduced a bill in Congress to block manufacturers' limits on medical devices, spurred by the pandemic. In Europe, the European Commission announced plans in March for new right-to-repair rules that would cover phones, tablets and laptops by 2021. 今年8月，美國民主黨因防疫需要而在國會提出一項法案，旨在阻止製造商對醫療裝置設下限制。在歐洲，歐盟執行委員會3月宣布了新的維修權規定計畫，在2021年以前實施，涵蓋手機、平板電腦和筆記型電腦。 And in more than 20 statehouses nationwide, right-to-repair legislation has been introduced in recent years by both Republicans and Democrats. 近年來，在全美國20多個州的議會裡，共和黨和民主黨都提出了維修權法案。 Over the summer, the House advanced a funding bill that includes a requirement that the Federal Trade Commission complete a report on anti-competitive practices in the repair market and present its findings to Congress and the public. 今年夏天，眾議院推動了一項資助法案，其中責成聯邦貿易委員會做成一份關於維修市場反競爭行為的報告，並向國會和民眾提交調查結果。 The goal of right-to-repair rules, advocates say, is to require companies to make their parts, tools and information available to consumers and repair shops in order to keep devices from ending up in the scrap heap. They argue that the rules restrict people's use of devices that they own and encourage a throwaway culture by making repairs too difficult. 倡議人士表示，維修權規定的目的是要求企業向消費者和維修商家提供零組件、工具及資訊，以免這些裝置最終被扔進垃圾堆。他們主張，目前的慣例對人們使用自己的裝置設下限制，並透過讓維修變得太過困難的方式，助長了一種用完即丟的文化。 They also argue that it's part of a culture of planned obsolescence — the idea that products are designed to be short-lived in order to encourage people to buy more stuff. That contributes to wasted natural resources and energy use at a time when climate change requires movement in the opposite direction to rein in planet-warming emissions. 他們還認為，這是一種計畫性淘汰文化的一部分，即為了鼓勵人們購買更多東西，產品被設計成短命的。在氣候變遷需要採取反向行動來控制溫室氣體排放的此際，這助長了自然資源的浪費以及能源的使用。 Manufacturing a new device or appliance is still largely reliant on polluting sources of energy — electricity generated from burning fossil fuels, for instance — and constitutes the largest environmental impact for most products. 製造一種新設備或裝置在很大程度上，仍仰賴會造成汙染的能源，例如燃燒化石燃料產生的電力，對大多數產品而言，這正是構成最大環境影響的因素。 Source article: https://udn.com/news/story/6904/5015841   Next Article   Topic: Help for Curing The Phone Addiction Like pretty much everyone, Susan Butler stares at her smartphone too much. But unlike most everyone, she took action, buying a $195 ring from a company called Ringly, which promises to “let you put your phone away and your mind at ease.” 和大多數人一樣，蘇珊．巴特勒盯著智慧手機看的時間太長了。不一樣的是，她採取了行動，從Ringly公司買了一只195美元的戒指，保證可「讓你手機放一旁，腦袋放輕鬆」。 Ringly does this by connecting its rings to a smartphone filter so that users can silence Gmail or Facebook notifications while preserving crucial alerts, which cause the ring to light up or vibrate. Ringly透過將戒指連接一個篩選程式辦到這一點，因此使用者可以讓Gmail或Facebook通知改為靜音，同時保留重要提示，這時戒指會發光或震動。 “Hopefully it will keep some distance between my phone and my hand,” said Ms. Butler, 27, a technology consultant who lives in Austin, Texas. 住在德州奧斯汀、27歲的科技顧問巴特勒說：「希望它能讓我的手機和我的手之間保持些距離。」 Given how quickly cellphones have taken over, it's easy to forget that they are still a relatively new technology. The first iPhone came out eight years ago. 手機快速地主導了人們的生活，很容易讓我們忘了它仍是相當新的科技。第一支iPhone問世不過是8年前的事。 Yet already people spend close to three hours a day looking at a mobile screen – and that excludes the time they spend actually talking on the phones. 然而已有人每天花近3小時看手機－這還不算實際用手機講電話的時間。 In a recent survey of smartphone use by Bank of America, about a third of respondents said they were “constantly” checking their smartphones, and a little more than two-thirds said that they went to bed with a smartphone by their side. New companies see a business opportunity in helping people cut back. 美國銀行最近一項智慧手機使用調查發現，約三分之一受訪者表示「不斷」查看手機；略多於三分之二的人說，睡覺時把手機放在身旁。一些新公司在幫助人們少用手機這件事上看到了商機。 “Technology has evolved so quickly that we have spiraled out of control and nobody has stopped to think about how this is going to impact our lives,” said Kate Unsworth, the founder of a British company, Kovert, that also makes high-tech jewelry to filter out everything but the most urgent stuff. 英國Kovert公司製造的高科技首飾能濾除最緊急資訊以外的所有訊息，創辦人凱特．安茲沃斯說：「科技發展飛快，讓我們失去掌控，沒有人停下來思考這一切會如何影響我們的生活。」 Smartwatches like the Apple Watch are designed to encourage more glancing and less phone checking. In June, Google and Levi's announced plans for a line of high-tech clothes that will allow people to do things like turn off a ringing phone by swiping their jacket cuff. Apple Watch之類智慧手表設計宗旨在於讓人多簡單過目，少滑手機。谷歌和Levi's六月宣布一項高科技服飾系列的合作計畫，讓人們能做拍打外套袖口就關掉手機響鈴之類的事。 Offtime limits customers' access to apps they overuse and produce charts on how much time they spend on their phones. Moment encourages people to share their phone use with friends to compete in a game of who can look at their phone the least. And Light Phone, a credit-card-size phone that does nothing but make and receive phone calls. Offtime程式限制顧客開啟過度使用的應用程式，並製作圖表顯示他們花在手機上的時間。Moment鼓勵人們和朋友分享自己使用手機的狀況並互相比賽，看看誰能最少看手機。還有信用卡大小的手機Light Phone，只能撥打及接聽電話。 NoPhone is a $12 piece of plastic that looks like a smartphone but actually does nothing. “Most people don't think about phone addiction as a real thing until you're like, ‘O.K., they're buying a piece of plastic because they are worried about their friend,' ” said Van Gould, head of the nascent venture that had sold close to 3,200 NoPhones. NoPhone是塊12美元的塑膠，看來像支智慧手機，實際上啥也不能做。這家新興公司已售出近3200支NoPhone，老闆范恩．古德說：「多數人沒把手機成癮真當個問題，直到你覺得『是的，他們買了一件塑膠，因為他們擔心朋友。』」 Adam Gazzaley, a neurologist and neuroscience professor at the University of California, San Francisco, said, “You have a population that is starting to say, ‘Wait, we love all this technology but there seems to be a cost – whether it's my relationship or my work or my safety because I'm driving and texting.' ” 舊金山加州大學神經病學家暨神經科學教授亞當．加札利說：「有一群人開始說『等等，我們愛這些科技，但似乎要付代價－無論是我的感情、工作或安全，因為我邊開車邊打簡訊。」 Some products are trying to find a balance. Google Now uses data to bother you only when you need it. “If I'm about to forget my kid's birthday I want the phone to scream at me until I do something about it,” said Sundar Pichai, Google's senior vice president of products. 有些產品試著尋求平衡。Google Now只在你需要時用數據打擾你。Google產品資深副總裁桑達．皮柴說：「在我將要忘記孩子的生日時，我要手機對我尖叫，直到我讓它停止。」 Smartphones are a potent delivery mechanism for two fundamental human impulses, according to Paul Atchley, a psychology professor at the University of Kansas: our quest to find new and interesting distractions, and our desire to feel that we have checked off a task. 堪薩斯大學心理學教授保羅．艾區利表示，對於兩項基本的人類衝動而言，智慧手機是有力的傳遞機制：尋求新鮮有趣的娛樂，以及感覺自己檢查過一項工作的欲望。 “The brain gets literally rewired to switch – to constantly seek out novelty, which makes putting the phone down difficult,” he said. 他說：「大腦實際上會重新連接以轉變，持續尋求新奇事物，這使得放下手機很困難。」 Addiction or not, Ms. Butler still sought help from Ringly. 無論成癮與否，巴特勒仍持續自Ringly尋求幫助。 Mr. Atchley is skeptical. Successful treatment, he said, is about controlling our demons – not outsourcing them. 艾區利表示懷疑。他說，成功的治療在於控制自己的心魔－而非將此事外包。 In technology, as in life, a little willpower goes a long way. 面對科技，一如面對生活，一點點意志力就很有用。 Source article: https://paper.udn.com/udnpaper/POH0067/282793/web/#2L-6186766L

What if a therapist could peer inside the black box of a patient's psychedelic experience? Adam Gazzaley and his Neuroscape team at UCSF are using multimodal biosensing research to make that dream a reality. On the show, Adam explains the concept of experiential medicine and how the brain modifies itself in response to different experiences. He shares his previous work creating a video game that is also a class two medical device for ADHD. He relates his long inquiry with shamans and therapists to understand how to design set and setting research studies. We explore the future of psychedelic therapy with a data-rich AI assistant and the potential concerns therapists might have about being replaced by innovative technology. Finally, Adam shares a powerful message to psychedelic healers and those who aspire to be. Adam Gazzaley is an American neuroscientist, author, photographer, entrepreneur and inventor. He is the founder and executive director of Neuroscape and the David Dolby Distinguished Professor of Neurology, Physiology, and Psychiatry at University of California, San Francisco. The new Neuroscape Psychedelics Division will be lead by Robin Carhart-Harris is dedicated to advancing the field of psychedelic science and medicine through multi-level research covering basic to translational to clinical science. Links Adam Gazzaley Neuroscape at UCSF Neuroracer in Nature “The Cognition Crisis” Timestamps :06 - How the brain modifies itself in response to experience :12 - How Adam got a video game approved as a class two medical device by the FDA :21 - Why Adam is studying the context (set and setting) of psychedelics :29 - Lessons from therapists and shamans that inform Adam's research :36 - Studying the impact of community, nature, and an ongoing healing journey. :47 - The future experience of a therapist using multimodal biosensing tools :53 - Could an AI associate displace the need for a therapist? 1:00 - Adam speaks to psychedelic therapists

A fundamental challenge of our health-care system is the enhancement of cognition for millions of people who suffer from psychiatric and neurological conditions. Despite 70 years of global effort in attempting to identify molecules deliverable as pills to accomplish this goal, we have largely failed to deliver truly effective, accessible and low-side-effect treatments for cognitive impairments associated with medical conditions, including depression, anxiety, PTSD, ADHD and dementia. It is important to be aware that for thousands of years we humans have been creating experiences to enhance the quality of our lives and support our mental health. However, this approach has largely been marginalized as “alternative” and has not been embraced within the core of mainstream medicine. Dr. Adam Gazzaley will describe his mission to develop and validate experiences as medicine by integrating neuroscience-guided design, invention and experimentation. In this talk, he will discuss his invention of a closed-loop video game that has now become the first FDA-cleared video game for any medical condition, and the first digital treatment for ADHD. He will share how the next generation of experiential medicine will incorporate advances in artificial intelligence, sensory immersion, virtual reality, multimodal physiological recordings and noninvasive electrical brain stimulation. He will conclude with a deep dive into his newest undertakings to explore the intricacies and possibilities of one of man's oldest experiential medicines—psychedelics. Dr. Adam Gazzaley obtained an M.D. and Ph.D. in neuroscience at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York, completed neurology residency at the University of Pennsylvania and postdoctoral training in cognitive neuroscience at the University of California, Berkeley. He is currently the David Dolby Distinguished Professor of Neurology, Physiology and Psychiatry at the University of California, San Francisco and the founder and executive director of Neuroscape, a translational neuroscience center at UCSF engaged in technology creation and scientific research. MLF ORGANIZER Patty James NOTES MLF: Health & Medicine SPEAKERS Dr. Adam Gazzaley M.D., Ph.D., David Dolby Distinguished Professor of Neurology, Physiology and Psychiatry, University of California, San Francisco; Founder and Executive Director, Neuroscape Patty James M.S., N.C. Nutritionist; Chef; Author—Moderator In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, we are currently hosting all of our live programming via YouTube live stream. This program was recorded via video conference on September 22nd, 2021 by the Commonwealth Club of California. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A fundamental challenge of our health-care system is the enhancement of cognition for millions of people who suffer from psychiatric and neurological conditions. Despite 70 years of global effort in attempting to identify molecules deliverable as pills to accomplish this goal, we have largely failed to deliver truly effective, accessible and low-side-effect treatments for cognitive impairments associated with medical conditions, including depression, anxiety, PTSD, ADHD and dementia. It is important to be aware that for thousands of years we humans have been creating experiences to enhance the quality of our lives and support our mental health. However, this approach has largely been marginalized as “alternative” and has not been embraced within the core of mainstream medicine. Dr. Adam Gazzaley will describe his mission to develop and validate experiences as medicine by integrating neuroscience-guided design, invention and experimentation. In this talk, he will discuss his invention of a closed-loop video game that has now become the first FDA-cleared video game for any medical condition, and the first digital treatment for ADHD. He will share how the next generation of experiential medicine will incorporate advances in artificial intelligence, sensory immersion, virtual reality, multimodal physiological recordings and noninvasive electrical brain stimulation. He will conclude with a deep dive into his newest undertakings to explore the intricacies and possibilities of one of man's oldest experiential medicines—psychedelics. Dr. Adam Gazzaley obtained an M.D. and Ph.D. in neuroscience at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York, completed neurology residency at the University of Pennsylvania and postdoctoral training in cognitive neuroscience at the University of California, Berkeley. He is currently the David Dolby Distinguished Professor of Neurology, Physiology and Psychiatry at the University of California, San Francisco and the founder and executive director of Neuroscape, a translational neuroscience center at UCSF engaged in technology creation and scientific research. MLF ORGANIZER Patty James NOTES MLF: Health & Medicine SPEAKERS Dr. Adam Gazzaley M.D., Ph.D., David Dolby Distinguished Professor of Neurology, Physiology and Psychiatry, University of California, San Francisco; Founder and Executive Director, Neuroscape Patty James M.S., N.C. Nutritionist; Chef; Author—Moderator In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, we are currently hosting all of our live programming via YouTube live stream. This program was recorded via video conference on September 22nd, 2021 by the Commonwealth Club of California. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It is time to clear up a few common misconceptions about the brain and neurotransmitters. What is serotonin, and how does it work? What is dopamine, and how does it affect me? What occurs in my body and brain if I am low on any of these neurotransmitters? Today, Dr. Bray answers these questions and provides a deeper dive into how dopamine and serotonin have an incredible impact on your thoughts, behaviors, and perceptions. Learn what is floating around in your head. Thanks to James Lee for his words and his book, “Better Living through Neurochemistry.” Also, to Adam Gazzaley and his book, “The Distracted Brain.” Also, thanks to Harvard and their medical journals and commentaries that take complex concepts and make them easy for everyone to understand.

Adam Gazzaley is a neuroscientist, neurologist and game designer. His work and research focuses on designing interactive experiences that will enhance brain function and ultimately improve quality of life. He is at the forefront of digital medicine and has founded several innovative companies, such as Sensync, Neuroscape, and most notably Akili Interactive; the company behind Endeavor RX, the first FDA approved video game that is used to treat ADHD.------ www.planetgabo.comFollow and Subscribe for more content!-------Guest Links:https://gazzaley.com/https://www.akiliinteractive.com/https://sensync.net/https://neuroscape.ucsf.edu/-------Gaming Stream: www.twitch.tv/planetgabo@PlanetGabo on socials.

Adam Gazzaley, M.D., Ph.D. is the David Dolby Distinguished Professor of Neurology, Physiology and Psychiatry at the UCSF, and the Founder & Executive Director of Neuroscape at UCSF. Dr. Gazzaley is co-founder and Chief Science Advisor of Akili Interactive, Sensync and JAZZ Venture Partners. He has been a scientific advisor for over a dozen companies, filed multiple patents - notably his invention of the first video game cleared by the FDA, authored over 150 scientific articles, and delivered over 675 invited presentations around the world. He wrote and hosted the nationally-televised PBS special “The Distracted Mind with Dr. Adam Gazzaley”, and co-authored the 2016 MIT Press book “The Distracted Mind: Ancient Brains in a High-Tech World”, winner of the 2017 PROSE Award. He is the recipient of the 2015 Science Educator Award and the 2020 Global Gaming Citizen Honor.

How do our ancient brains react to the modern world? This episode explores the nature of human attention, our susceptibility to distraction, and the unforeseen impacts of the attention economy. Jeff and Adam also discuss the myth of multitasking and practices for improving cognitive function. Learn more about Commune at onecommune.com. Connect with us on Instagram at @onecommune and @jeffkrasno.

In this episode of the podcast, Sam Harris speaks with Adam Gazzaley about the way our technology is changing us. They discuss our limited ability to process information, our failures of multitasking, “top-down” vs “bottom-up” attention, self-interruptions and switching costs, anxiety, boredom, “digital medicine,” neuroplasticity, video games for training the mind, the future of brain-machine interface, and other topics. Adam Gazzaley, M.D., Ph.D. is a Professor in Neurology, Physiology, and Psychiatry at the University of California San Francisco, and the Founding Director of the Neuroscience Imaging Center, Neuroscape Lab, and the Gazzaley Lab, which explores mechanisms of neuroplasticity and designs, develops and validates new technologies to optimize cognitive abilities. He is also co-founder and Chief Science Advisor of Akili Interactive, a company developing therapeutic video games and Chief Scientist of JAZZ Venture Partners, a venture capital firm investing in experiential technology to improve human performance. Adam co-authored the award-winning MIT Press book The Distracted Mind: Ancient Brains in a High-Tech World with Dr. Larry Rosen. Website: gazzaley.com Twitter: @adamgazz Episodes that have been re-released as part of the Best of Making Sense series may have been edited for relevance since their original airing.

Er det sundt eller skadeligt at se serier, hvis man er stressramt? Er det fint at bruge sociale medier som afkobling fra tankemylder, eller er det bedst at gøre noget andet? Her har jeg fokus på, hvorfor skærmtid ikke er en god pause, hvis du er ramt af stress. Nogle stresseksperter anbefaler, at du sætter dig i sofaen og ser serier for at slappe af. Det anbefaler jeg ikke. Læs mere her, om hvorfor det kan være en dårlig idé. Eller lyt med i podcastepisoden: Det er ikke fordi, jeg mener, at skærmtid altid er skadeligt. Og der er ingen løftede pegefingre her. Jeg kender fra egen erfaring, hvor svært det kan være at styre forbruget af digitale medier. Og budskabet er heller ikke total afholdenhed, for der er mange gode ting at hente via digitale medier. Skærmtid handler som så meget andet om balance og, hvorvidt dine skærmaktiviteter samlet set bidrager til eller ødelægger din trivsel.   Bruger du også skærmtid som pause, fordi en ekspert har anbefalet det? Jeg gør det selv, og du gør det sikkert også. Bruger din smartphone som en mental pause. I toget, når vi venter i køen i supermarkedet, i pauser, når vi ikke orker at gå i gang med noget svært eller kedeligt, når vi er rastløse, når vi bare lige skal tjekke... Dertil kommer tiden foran computeren i løbet af arbejdsdagen og foran fjernsynet om aftenen. Danske børn og voksne ligger i den helt høje ende globalt, når det kommer til skærmtid, og nyere forskning tyder på, at der er en klar sammenhæng mellem lang tid foran skærmen og dårlig fysisk og psykologisk trivsel. Det varierer selvfølgelig meget alt efter aldersgruppe og andre faktorer, men under alle omstændigheder bruger vi lang tid foran skærmen, og det er blevet en måde at koble af på. Alt tyder på, at for megen skærmtid ødelægger vores trivsel. Vores mentale og fysiske helbred er kun blevet ringere i takt med den stigende digitalisering. Og er du stressramt er det utroligt vigtigt, du ikke bruger for lang tid foran skærmen. Det kan forhindre dig i at få det bedre og være en belastning for en hjerne, der allerede er hårdt ramt. Det er afgørende (men svært) at få bugt med dårlige skærmvaner, hvis du lige nu er stressramt, og længere nede giver jeg dig gode alternativer dertil. Men først lidt mere om, hvorfor skærmtid ikke er en god pause for en stressramt hjerne. Hvis du selv gerne vil dykke mere ned i emnet, kan jeg desuden anbefale følgende bøger: Offline af Imran Rashid og Søren KennerThe Shallows af Nicolas CarrThe Distracted Mind af Adam Gazzaley og Adam RosenDeep Work af Cal Newport   Hvorfor skærmtid ikke er godt for stressramte Men hvad hvis du er alvorligt ramt af stress og ikke kan ret meget? Er der ikke eksperter, der anbefaler, at du sætter dig i sofaen og ser en masse serier og bare kobler af? Jo, det er der, men det er ikke min anbefaling. Det er der flere grunde til, men her får du 7 vigtige grunde.   Det kunstige lys stimulerer produktionen af stresshormoner Stress er for mange lig med søvnproblemer. Det kunstige lys fra skærmen (især efter mørkets frembrud) kobler os fra hjernens naturlige døgnrytme og holder os vågne længere, end vi ellers ville være. Hjernen stimuleres til at producere søvnhæmmende hormoner svarende til stresshormoner.   Det er stærkt vanedannende En del skærmaktiviteter som fx nyheder, spil og tv er afhængighedsskabende. Dermed bliver der tale om en slags “pseudoafkobling”, hvor vi reelt set ikke lader op men nærmere er i en form for trance og drives frem af en tvangsmæssig adfærd. Det er ikke smart og slet ikke, hvis du er ramt af stress, hvor du  derimod skal forsøge at etablere gode vaner, der øger din trivsel.   Du mister din kontakt til kroppen Når du er stressramt, har du brug for at genoptræne din kontakt til kroppen og hjernens evne til at fokusere. Skærmaktiviteter har ofte den modsatte effekt. Du mister kontakten til din krop og konstante input er underholdning,

Sociale og digitale medier er fantastiske og brugbare men kan have skadelige effekter. Derfor er mange begyndt at tale om digital sundhed, digital trivsel, digital stress og digital støj. Digital sundhed er ikke kun noget, der angår vores børn og unge, selvom der er meget der tyder på, at de lider under et for stort og forkert brug af sociale medier. Det er i høj grad også noget, vi voksne skal være bevidste om. I dette indlæg (og i podcast-episoden, som du finder herunder) fortæller jeg lidt om hvorfor det er vigtigt at have fokus på digital sundhed, og jeg giver dig 10 bud til digital sundhed for voksne. Jeg kommer ind på: Hvorfor du (og dine børn) kan risikere at komme på det digitale B-holdHvorfor det ikke længere er en holdningssag, om digitale medier kan påvirke vores trivselAt digitale vaner ikke er for sjovHvorfor det er nemmere sagt end gjort at ændre digitale vaner10 bud til digital sundhed for voksneHvor du kan lære mere Digital sundhed - du kan blive syg af dårlige vaner For nogle år siden, begyndte forskere og andre at så småt at råbe op om digitale mediers skadelige effekter. På det tidspunkt synes mange, det var hysteri, og at vi jo må følge med tiden og den digitale udvikling. Det blev gjort til en holdningssag, om man var for eller imod computerspil, brug af sociale medier og andet. Hvis der ikke var et studie, der kunne redegøre for præcis hvilken negativ effekt diverse brug af digitale medier havde, så var der tale om en overdrivelse og en heksejagt på mennesker, der synes det var hyggeligt at spille eller fordrive tiden på internettet. Det er imidlertid fortid. Og heldigvis for det. I dag har vi et mere klart billede af de faldgruber, vi skal være opmærksomme på. Jeg vil ikke remse diverse studier op her, men hvis du er interesseret i at dykke ned i emnet, så findes der mange gode bøger og ressourcer. Jeg kan bla. anbefale: Teknologiens Testpiloter af Camilla MehlsenHvordan Bliver Vi Digitalt Dannede af Camilla Mehlsen og Vincent HendricksOffline af Imran Rashid og Søren KennerThe Shallows af Nicolas CarrThe Distracted Mind af Adam Gazzaley og Adam RosenDeep Work af Cal Newport Én ting er, at mere og mere evidens peger i retning af, at digitale medier kan have negative helbredsmæssige, kognitive, sociale og følelsesmæssige konsekvenser. Noget andet er sund fornuft. Det siger jo sig selv, at hvis du bruger for lang tid foran en skærm eller hele tiden har halvdelen af din opmærksomhed på din smartphone, så forsvinder fokus fra de ting, der giver dig sundhed og trivsel, som bla. er at være til stede i nu'et, gode nære relationer, produktivitet og kreativitet samt bevægelse og frisk luft.   Nemmere sagt end gjort at begrænse digitale medier Enhver der har prøvet at ændre en vane ved, at det kan være nemmere sagt end gjort. Og digitale vaner er ikke nogen undtagelse. Tværtimod så kan det være overordentligt svært at ændre digitale vaner, og det er der særlige grunde til: Der er mange pengestærke firmaer, der har en økonomisk interesse i, at du bruger tid og opmærksomhed på diverse platformeTilgængeligheden er endeløs. Skærme og adgang til diverse tillokkende og stimulerende universer er overalt.Du kan ikke bare droppe digitale medier helt, som en alkoholiker kan droppe alkohol. Du skal stadig bruge din email og internettet til visse ting, og så tager det kun et splitsekund at forvilde dig ud i endeløs underholdning og afledningDet er en ond cirkel. Er du først hooked, er din opmærksomhedsevne forringet, og det kan være svært at droppe vanen. Lidt ligesom hvis du graver dig selv ned i et hul. Det er vigtigt, vi ikke er naive, når det kommer til hvor svært det kan være at ændre digitale vaner. Det er noget, der skal tages seriøst, fordi overforbrug og forkert forbrug af digitale medier kan have virkelige og alvorlige konsekvenser. Især er det også vigtigt, at vi beskytter vores børn, og det gør vi bedst ved selv at være digitalt bevidste og dernæst være gode eksempl...

How technology can help look after an ageing population. Ed Butler visits a care home in Japan where robots are used to help dementia patients, and hears from Adam Gazzaley, a California-based professor of neurology and psychiatry who has developed a video game aimed at keeping older people alert. Computer science academic Alessandro di Nuevo gives an overview of how technology is increasingly employed in elderly care.(Photo: 'Paro', the therapeutic seal robot with an elderly woman in Japan, Credit: BBC)

How does attention work? Adam Gazzaley has devoted his career to figuring out the science behind how we develop attention and how to optimize it. He knows what we need to do in order to have peak attention, how to make our minds work more efficiently, and why education has failed us in giving us the tools to optimize our attention. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Become a member at https://plus.acast.com/s/the-unmistakable-creative-podcast.

How does attention work? Adam Gazzaley has devoted his career to figuring out the science behind how we develop attention and how to optimize it. He knows what we need to do in order to have peak attention, how to make our minds work more efficiently, and why education has failed us in giving us the tools to optimize our attention.Adam Gazzaley is an American neuroscientist, author, photographer, entrepreneur and inventor. He is the founder and executive director of Neuroscape and Professor of Neurology, Physiology, and Psychiatry at University of California, San Francisco. He's the author of The Distracted Mind: Ancient Brains in a High-Tech World. You can follow him on Twitter @adamgazz See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Become a member at https://plus.acast.com/s/the-unmistakable-creative-podcast.

We discuss ways to strengthen your memory - everything from remembering names to learning more effectively. Show Notes 0:59— Ian starts off with a stat from a survey about which types of people have memory challenges and we learn that it is a challenge for people of all ages. 2:48— March tests Ian and Darren's memory with a series of words to remember. 4:53— March talks a bit about why memory is important and what are the different ways you use memory in your daily life — thinking, social interaction, mental exercise. 7:27— Ian shares a trick that Bill Clinton used during law school to remember people's names and personal stories. 12:45— Ian wonders whether muscle memory is a thing, and if so, where is muscle memory rooted in the brain. 13:33— We learn about the difference between implicit and explicit memory. 18:32— Darren notes how it challenging it is to try to not read words on signs. 21:04— Ian describes how, for him, the smell of plastic or styrofoam has a strong correlation with the Super Nintendo product from when he was a kid. 21:40— March explains the structural, anatomical reason for why the sense of smell is our strongest, most memorable sense. 24:09— Darren shares a counter intuitive fact about how our ability to forget things actually helps us remember the most important things. 27:12— Ian describes the difference between the way kids learn in school today versus how lessons were taught 30 years ago. 28:44— We learn that Plato was fearful of writing eroding humans' capacity to think and so he memorized all his lessons and stories to avoid having to write. 32:50— Ian is curious whether the brain uses the same areas for memory as it does for creativity. He is hopeful that our reduced  36:11— Darren shares that he is terrible at remembering names but is incredibly good at recalling song lyrics and movie dialog. 37:55— Darren recalls a phone number from a Sports Illustrated television commercial he saw when he was a kid. 38:17— Darren makes a phone call to a phone number he remembers from a television commercial 35 years ago. 41:58— We learn about March's personal experience with memory and how he is challenged with remembering biographical information but that he excels at understanding “tree of knowledge” type of information. 46:57— Ian asks Darren and March if they recall where they were when the learned about the attacks on 9/11. 48:23— Darren recommends the Lumosity app as a fun way to exercise different functions of your brain. 48:40— Ian shares news on the first FDA-approved video game aimed at improving memory.  53:42— We learn about another classic movie that Ian hasn't seen yet.  55:26— March shares a tip about the positive affects of exercise on memory and we give a shout out to dodge ball as a great game for school children. 58:01— March reveals a clever tactic he uses that instead of a “1 on 1” meeting, he has a “run on 1” meeting once per week. 1:00:26— Ian is curious about whether Ginko Biloba is an effective supplement for memory improvement and we do some impromptu research to find out 1:05:06— Ian reveals his mental trick for remembering people's names and faces. To Ian, March is a banana and Darren is a chocolate chip cookie. 1:09:53— March shares an ancient trick called the “memory palace” for remembering complex ideas or stories. 1:19:55— March shares that research has found that caffeine helps trigger the memory consolidation process actually helping memory recall. 1:20:48— We get the payoff on March's memory test when Ian and Darren attempt to repeat back the sequence of words March listed at the beginning of the show. Mentions What does it take to be a Grand Master of Memory? Black Mirror Season 1 Episode 3 --- The Entire History of You March's pro tip

This week hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter speak with renowned neuroscientist Dr. Adam Gazzaley, Director of the Neuroscience Imaging Center and Gazzaley Lab at UC San Francisco. Dr. Gazzaley discusses his closed loop system designed to improve brain function through personalized game design and feedback, which are already undergoing FDA clinical trials for therapeutic interventions for a number of brain disorders including ADHD, aging brain, PTSD and addiction.

Virtual reality has transformed the way we think of and create new worlds, but it also allows us to explore the inner-most workings of the human body. We'll discuss the very real implications virtual reality is having on healthcare—from how we study biological structures to how we administer care. Hear from UCSF's Adam Gazzaley, Next Galaxy Founder & President Mary Spio, and TechCrunch's Sarah Buhr.