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Wow, that is not just mind 
blowing, that's brain blowing. 

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Like that's NSR team and yeah, I
am going to go into the 

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prefrontal cortex. 
Our questions, shout out to Maya

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E Congo from Abu Dhabi. 
So number one is does the 

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prefrontal cortex develop 
differently depending on gender?

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Oh man, that's a good question. 
You know, honestly, I can't say 

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for sure. 
I remember seeing some studies 

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on this like a couple of years 
ago, and I don't think I ever 

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really got to the bottom of it. 
I'm sorry, I can't give a 

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definitive answer, but you know,
hey, this is also one of those 

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things where you don't want to 
look stupid asking questions. 

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What kind of neuroscientist 
wants to come on a podcast and 

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say, I don't know the answer? 
The answer is an honest one, one

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that will actually say, look, I 
don't you know, this is the you 

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have reached the limits of my 
knowledge. 

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And I think that's also, by the 
way, a good sign of who you 

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should trust. 
If you ask someone a question 

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and they always have the. 
Absolutely, absolutely. 

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I always say something, you 
know, I'm a professional, right?

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But I don't know all the answers
but I've had myself. 

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That's OK. 
Knowing we had to get the 

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answers if I need to. 
Exactly, exactly. 

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Yeah, I could find that answer. 
Maybe I'll check it out and I'll

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send. 
It and of course. 

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So that means that automatically
we should book a party for this.

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So now you're going to come 
back. 

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You can come back with a Cortex 
edition. 

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Yeah. 
Prefrontal cortex addition. 

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You said you're ready. 
So #2 is a Does a stress or 

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trauma inhibit its function, 
particularly before it's fully 

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developed? 
Interesting. 

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Yes, so I do know the answer to 
this one. 

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Stress does influence the 
function of the prefrontal 

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cortex. 
It's quite interesting also 

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based on some research done in 
my PhD lab. 

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So when in in short term stress,
couple days, couple hours, 

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whatever the the prefrontal 
cortex actually gets more 

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effective, it becomes better, 
like the cells are are 

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interacting more efficiently. 
Which makes sense because you 

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have to deal with some 
challenge. 

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You need to be locked in, right?
You got to be capable of 

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processing the challenge. 
But with chronic stress over 

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time goes for weeks or months, 
the prefrontal cortex, the 

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function goes way down and the 
brain cells actually become less

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effective at interacting. 
What what's really happening 

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amazingly, is that the, the 
receptors on the neurons where 

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you know, brain cells are 
sending messages to each other, 

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the receptors start going away. 
And so the brain cells actually 

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have trouble communicating with 
each other. 

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And, and basically what that 
amounts to is that you're 

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processing power and your 
computing power goes down South.

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Chronic stress is bad. 
As for the timing, I don't think

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it can, you know, impair I, you 
know, I would say in the context

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of like normal ranges of stress 
will not necessarily change the 

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function of your prefrontal 
cortex long term, but like 

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traumatic stress, like PTSD, you
know, really traumatic 

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experiences. 
It could I've been. 

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I believe there is evidence that
that it does alter the the 

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function of the prefrontal 
cortex. 

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Interesting. 
SO there's a third question, and

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that is how is the prefrontal 
cortex different from other 

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parts of the frontal lobe? 
I mean, the prefrontal cortex is

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the most like evolved. 
It's like the, it's the, it's 

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the reason you have the frontal 
cortex and then you have the 

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prefrontal cortex. 
The prefrontal cortex is even 

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more for towards the front. 
And there's this general idea 

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that like the further away from 
the brain stem you get and like 

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this base level, the more 
evolved and, and fancy the brain

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area is. 
And so the prefrontal cortex, it

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just, it has a lot of amazing 
functions that aren't 

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necessarily seen in the, the 
frontal cortex, like much more 

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higher level of cognition and 
being able to understand people 

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and do things that make us human
really. 

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But, but The thing is the, the 
prefrontal cortex is also like 

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every brain area. 
It's like very distributed. 

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There's all these different 
nuclei and brain and sections, 

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you know, within the prefrontal 
cortex there's the dorsolateral 

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prefrontal cortex and all these 
different subsets of areas that 

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are all involved in different 
things. 

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And you know, the brain is just 
immensely complicated. 

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But without a prefrontal cortex,
you know we would not be as high

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functioning animals. 
I like that. 

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I always say that human beings, 
we are animals, it's just that 

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we are higher animals, right? 
And of course, we have the 

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animals with the highest level 
of IQ. 

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That is why we are able to 
dominate. 

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So #4 is the prefrontal cortex 
is sometimes called the CEO of 

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the brain. 
Why is that and do you agree 

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with that? 
Interesting You could say that 

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you, I guess, I mean, there's a 
couple different CE OS of the 

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brain and actually the nucleus 
accumbens that I mentioned 

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earlier in the context of MDMA 
is also one of those. 

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But I would say, yeah, I guess 
the way I kind of think about 

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the prefrontal cortex is it's 
like the babysitter of the 

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brain. 
You have all these brain areas 

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that are just like impulsive and
they're doing their job. 

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And your prefrontal cortex is, 
is often like shutting off those

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impulses and being like, wait, a
wait. 

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But you know, before we slap 
this person in the face, let's 

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think about this for a minute, 
you know, and it's kind of 

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babysitting and keeping those 
brain areas in check. 

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So yeah. 
And many, many, it is the CEO. 

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But I like to think of the the 
CEO of the brain sort of as the 

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nucleus accumbens, because the 
nucleus accumbens is really in 

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charge of like decision making 
or not in charge of it. 

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But it has a major role in like 
deciding what things we pursue 

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and what actions we do based on 
how much they benefit us. 

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And you know, I think that's 
kind of like the role of the CEO

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really. 
So is it the CEO or the COO? 

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I feel like the, the, the, the 
nucleus accumbens is the CEO and

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the prefrontal cortex is like 
the executive board like that, 

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you know, you have a board of 
direct or a board that's like 

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steering the company in the 
right direction. 

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I feel like that's sort of those
two are combining to to make 

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things work properly. 
OK, interested stuff. 

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So this particular friend of 
mine, Maya, she, she's very 

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obsessed with the prefrontal 
cortex. 

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And anytime she sees a person 
acting, you know, in an abnormal

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way, she just says, oh, that 
person's prefrontal cortex is 

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not properly developed. 
And she's told me before that 

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the prefrontal cortex actually 
fully develops at the age of 25.

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Is is is that true? 
Yeah, the prefrontal cortex, 

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whether it's there's definitely 
not like a you, you're 25, it's 

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done. 
It's not really like that. 

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It's more of that, you know, as 
you're getting older, your 

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prefrontal cortex is continuing 
to be shaped by your 

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experiences. 
That's really what that whole 

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like your prefrontal cortex 
isn't done until 25 means. 

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It means that unlike other brain
areas, your Pfc remains flexible

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as you get older. 
And so, you know, it may not, it

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may be 25 that you kind of get 
to that point or maybe a little 

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bit later. 
You know, it doesn't really, 

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it's not like a firm thing that 
it's like boom, 25, you're done.