CYBCYL Chapter 11 – Looking Into Memory and Temper: The Temporal Lobes

The temporal lobes have “largely gone unnoticed in human psychology,” according to Amen. In fact, there has been little to no discussion on them in psychiatric journals However, using Amen’s brain imaging, he has found that the temporal lobes play an important part in our learning, socializations, emotional stability, and memory. Additionally, there is one lobe on each side of the brain, the dominant side (left), and the nondominant side (the right). The dominant side is responsible for: 

• Understanding and processing language
• Short-term and long-term memory
• Auditory learning
• Retrieval of words
• Complex memories
• Visual and auditory processing
• Emotional stability

The nondominant side is primarily responsible for: 

• Recognizing facial expressions
• Decoding vocal intonation
• Rhythm
• Music
• Visual learning

 Language is a very important function of the temporal lobes. There is a specific part, called Wernicke’s area, in the dominant side responsible for written and spoken language. In relating to the connection of neurons in the brain, each language has a particular “node” of neurons which connect to one another well per language. For individuals who know more than one language, there are multiple “nodes” in this region.

Since these lobes have a variety of functions, there are likewise many problems associated with them. Some common to both are:

• Memory problems
• Amnesia
• Anxiety for no reason
• Feeling of déjà vu, jamais vu, or presque vu
• Periods of spaciness or confusion
• Seizures

Amen lists many more problems on the temporal lobes, which take up an entire page. I had no idea that these “armchairs” of the brain are responsible for so many functions.

Since I know many people who can relate to the problems that this chapter describes, I am eager to see what “remedies” Amen has in store. It seems, from this chapter, that many of the problems with the temporal lobes are involved with memory and aggressiveness. Again, please follow the checklist provided in this chapter to see if you may have a problem with your temporal lobes.

Amen’s overall progression in this book has been quite significant, and even someone with little to no prior knowledge of the brain can understand if and where their problems lie and how they can be fixed. That is what makes this book so appealing. Moreover, someone can have only a minor problem in a certain area (or no problem at all), and yet Amen’s prescriptions would work excellently. Even though some might seem trivial, they are extremely effective (In fact, I have tried a few myself). So even average, brain-healthy people can start their journey to improving themselves and changing their lives.

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CYBCYL Chapter 10 – Getting Unstuck: Cingulate System Prescriptions

How can one heal deep cingulate system problems?

First, I advise readers to determine if they may have a problem using Amen’s provided checklist in Chapter 9. Then start to follow the prescriptions below. You do not have to have a problem to use these prescriptions.

Cingulate System Prescription 1: Notice When You’re Stuck, Distract Yourself, and Come Back to the Problem Later. The first step is to be aware that you have a problem, especially with circular or looping thoughts. This is what can enable you to distract yourself from these (usually harmful) thoughts and then come back to them later. Just get up and literally do something else.

Cingulate System Prescription 2: Think Through Answers Before Automatically Saying No. -As previously mentioned, people with a cingulate system problem are very likely to be inflexible and unable to cooperate with other people. Therefore, it is vital that these people work to fix this problem. Amen suggests to take a deep breath, and during that deep breath, consider what saying no will mean. This is especially important when considering relationships with significant others.

Cingulate System Prescription 3: Write Out Options And Solutions When You Feel Stuck. This one, like the others, is very self-explanatory. First you have to write out the thought. Then make a list of things you can do about the worrying thought. Then finally make a list of things you cannot do about the worrying thought. This is a very simple technique that can help ease the tension.

These are only some of the main prescriptions that can help your cingulate system. The book delves into many others which involve making paradoxical requests and Amen’s own prayer that he calls the “serenity prayer.” Please try to buy this book and see for yourself.

I felt that this chapter was especially important since the cingulate system is responsible for common problems, many of which we have every day. Again, as I mentioned before, you don’t have to have a problem with the cingulate system to take advantage of Amen’s “prescriptions.” Many of these problems are extremely commonplace, and by following his techniques, you can still change your life. I also immediately thought about how many people I know fit the symptoms of having a problem in their cingulate system. From chapters 9 and this chapter, however, it is easy for people to recognize that first, they have a problem and second, they can fix it. In this way, I hope that many other chapter will continue this trend of identifying, attacking, and ultimately, improving problems in your brain and in your life.

All in all, this book is very unique in that it talk about how one can influence change in their behavior through. After a particular system in the brain is discussed, the subsequent chapter talks about how people can positively influence that system which essentially changes them for the better (hence the title “Change Your Brain, Change Your Life”).

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CYBCYL Chapter 9 – Looking into Worry and Obsessiveness: The Cingulate System

This chapter delves into the role of the cingulate system in the brain. It is what enables to people to be flexible when considering other peoples’ ideas and viewpoints. Therefore, problems with this system would likely make someone inflexible and unable to cooperate with others. The cingulate system has many other functions including:

• Ability to shift attention
• Cognitive flexibility 
• adaptability
• movement from idea to idea
• ability to see options
• ability to cooperate
• ability to “go with the flow”

The chapter showed that in SPECT scans, brains that were more overactive in the cingulate area were correlated with subjects’ worrying as well as anger and obsessiveness. If you read my post in Chapter 2, you may remember that I talked about the boy who had been obsessed with taking out his teeth for the “tooth fairy.” Through a SPECT scan, it was later determined that this way because of a problem in his cingulate system. What this means is that when this system is overexcited, our perspective of the outside world changes (in this case, we become more inflexible and over-attached to certain things). In this chapter, Amen also focuses on the connection between obsessive-compulsive disorder and the cingulate system (which is very intuitive to consider). Please read this chapter for further information.

This chapter is very significant towards my understanding of human behavior. I did not know how or why certain people were more inflexible than others and why some people were known as “constant worriers.” I also did not know where OCD affected the brain and how it developed in a child and adult. However, this chapter answers all those questions.

The cingulate system is one of the most important parts of our brains, especially in determining human behavior. It was very interesting to read about how all the functions listed above were linked in some way, and I have seen that the key to understanding comes from knowing the key functions of the cingulate system. In my honest opinion, society may favor those who are very flexible and those who can tolerate plans changing suddenly at the last minute. I look forward to reading about some of Amen’s prescriptions for the cingulate system. 

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CYBCYL Chapter 5 – Looking Into Anxiety and Fear: The Basal Ganglia

This chapter delves into the role of the basal ganglia in our daily lives. They are a set of large structures toward the center of the brain that surround the basal ganglia system. The basal ganglia are mainly associated with integrating feeling, thoughts, and movement and helping to shift and smooth motor behavior. People with basal ganglia problems are prone to anxiety attacks and very low motivation. As for the functions of the basal ganglia, there are many more, including:

• Integrating feeling and movement
• Shifting and smoothing fine motor behavior
• Suppressing unwanted motor behaviors
• Setting the body’s idle speed or anxiety level
• Enhancing motivation
• Mediating pleasure/ecstasy

The basal ganglia is responsible for the decision/initiation to move. Often when a situation is too shocking to witness, an individual may literally be unable to move (frozen in space). Additionally, the basal ganglia are involved in suppressing unwanted motor activity. When people have abnormalities in this area, they are often prone to voice or vocal tics. The basal ganglia are also involved in anxiety signaling, which is one of the main things that Amen stresses in this chapter. Overactive basal ganglionic activity can be indicative of over-anxiety, as a certain patient case describes. It may be responsible for Tourette’s syndrome as well. Heightened basal ganglia activity may even lead to excessive motivational behavior (“workaholics”). Often these people work intense hours during the week and are very uncomfortable with the unstructured and restless period over the weekend.

The basal ganglia are very interesting to study. I did not know that they are what enables you to “choose”, per se, what action to conduct (when there are many actions in your mind). I am very interested to read Amen’s prescrtiptions for the problems with this system. It is also very curious to see that some of the problems with the basal ganglia resemble drug addictions under a brain scan. For instance, intense romantic love resembles a cocaine-like effect on the brain, and much dopamine is released in the basal ganglia.

This descriptive chapter is meant to introduce the reader to this part of the system, tell what it is responsible for, and list the problems associated with that part. Again, since this is such an interesting part of the brain, I look forward to reading about how to fix the problems associated with it. I recommend other readers to follow the helpful checklist that Amen provides in this chapter to find out if you have certain problems in the basal ganglia of your brain.

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