Wow, that is not just mind blowing, that's brain blowing.
Like that's NSR team and yeah, I am going to go into the
prefrontal cortex. Our questions, shout out to Maya
E Congo from Abu Dhabi. So number one is does the
prefrontal cortex develop differently depending on gender?
Oh man, that's a good question. You know, honestly, I can't say
for sure. I remember seeing some studies
on this like a couple of years ago, and I don't think I ever
really got to the bottom of it. I'm sorry, I can't give a
definitive answer, but you know, hey, this is also one of those
things where you don't want to look stupid asking questions.
What kind of neuroscientist wants to come on a podcast and
say, I don't know the answer? The answer is an honest one, one
that will actually say, look, I don't you know, this is the you
have reached the limits of my knowledge.
And I think that's also, by the way, a good sign of who you
should trust. If you ask someone a question
and they always have the. Absolutely, absolutely.
I always say something, you know, I'm a professional, right?
But I don't know all the answers but I've had myself.
That's OK. Knowing we had to get the
answers if I need to. Exactly, exactly.
Yeah, I could find that answer. Maybe I'll check it out and I'll
send. It and of course.
So that means that automatically we should book a party for this.
So now you're going to come back.
You can come back with a Cortex edition.
Yeah. Prefrontal cortex addition.
You said you're ready. So #2 is a Does a stress or
trauma inhibit its function, particularly before it's fully
developed? Interesting.
Yes, so I do know the answer to this one.
Stress does influence the function of the prefrontal
cortex. It's quite interesting also
based on some research done in my PhD lab.
So when in in short term stress, couple days, couple hours,
whatever the the prefrontal cortex actually gets more
effective, it becomes better, like the cells are are
interacting more efficiently. Which makes sense because you
have to deal with some challenge.
You need to be locked in, right? You got to be capable of
processing the challenge. But with chronic stress over
time goes for weeks or months, the prefrontal cortex, the
function goes way down and the brain cells actually become less
effective at interacting. What what's really happening
amazingly, is that the, the receptors on the neurons where
you know, brain cells are sending messages to each other,
the receptors start going away. And so the brain cells actually
have trouble communicating with each other.
And, and basically what that amounts to is that you're
processing power and your computing power goes down South.
Chronic stress is bad. As for the timing, I don't think
it can, you know, impair I, you know, I would say in the context
of like normal ranges of stress will not necessarily change the
function of your prefrontal cortex long term, but like
traumatic stress, like PTSD, you know, really traumatic
experiences. It could I've been.
I believe there is evidence that that it does alter the the
function of the prefrontal cortex.
Interesting. SO there's a third question, and
that is how is the prefrontal cortex different from other
parts of the frontal lobe? I mean, the prefrontal cortex is
the most like evolved. It's like the, it's the, it's
the reason you have the frontal cortex and then you have the
prefrontal cortex. The prefrontal cortex is even
more for towards the front. And there's this general idea
that like the further away from the brain stem you get and like
this base level, the more evolved and, and fancy the brain
area is. And so the prefrontal cortex, it
just, it has a lot of amazing functions that aren't
necessarily seen in the, the frontal cortex, like much more
higher level of cognition and being able to understand people
and do things that make us human really.
But, but The thing is the, the prefrontal cortex is also like
every brain area. It's like very distributed.
There's all these different nuclei and brain and sections,
you know, within the prefrontal cortex there's the dorsolateral
prefrontal cortex and all these different subsets of areas that
are all involved in different things.
And you know, the brain is just immensely complicated.
But without a prefrontal cortex, you know we would not be as high
functioning animals. I like that.
I always say that human beings, we are animals, it's just that
we are higher animals, right? And of course, we have the
animals with the highest level of IQ.
That is why we are able to dominate.
So #4 is the prefrontal cortex is sometimes called the CEO of
the brain. Why is that and do you agree
with that? Interesting You could say that
you, I guess, I mean, there's a couple different CE OS of the
brain and actually the nucleus accumbens that I mentioned
earlier in the context of MDMA is also one of those.
But I would say, yeah, I guess the way I kind of think about
the prefrontal cortex is it's like the babysitter of the
brain. You have all these brain areas
that are just like impulsive and they're doing their job.
And your prefrontal cortex is, is often like shutting off those
impulses and being like, wait, a wait.
But you know, before we slap this person in the face, let's
think about this for a minute, you know, and it's kind of
babysitting and keeping those brain areas in check.
So yeah. And many, many, it is the CEO.
But I like to think of the the CEO of the brain sort of as the
nucleus accumbens, because the nucleus accumbens is really in
charge of like decision making or not in charge of it.
But it has a major role in like deciding what things we pursue
and what actions we do based on how much they benefit us.
And you know, I think that's kind of like the role of the CEO
really. So is it the CEO or the COO?
I feel like the, the, the, the nucleus accumbens is the CEO and
the prefrontal cortex is like the executive board like that,
you know, you have a board of direct or a board that's like
steering the company in the right direction.
I feel like that's sort of those two are combining to to make
things work properly. OK, interested stuff.
So this particular friend of mine, Maya, she, she's very
obsessed with the prefrontal cortex.
And anytime she sees a person acting, you know, in an abnormal
way, she just says, oh, that person's prefrontal cortex is
not properly developed. And she's told me before that
the prefrontal cortex actually fully develops at the age of 25.
Is is is that true? Yeah, the prefrontal cortex,
whether it's there's definitely not like a you, you're 25, it's
done. It's not really like that.
It's more of that, you know, as you're getting older, your
prefrontal cortex is continuing to be shaped by your
experiences. That's really what that whole
like your prefrontal cortex isn't done until 25 means.
It means that unlike other brain areas, your Pfc remains flexible
as you get older. And so, you know, it may not, it
may be 25 that you kind of get to that point or maybe a little
bit later. You know, it doesn't really,
it's not like a firm thing that it's like boom, 25, you're done.