Are you rational?
I’ve just read one of Seth Godin’s recent posts (you can find it here – ). His view is summed up in the last line of his post; “There’s room for both rational and irrational decision making, and I think…
Category Cognitive Neuroscience
Cognitive neuroscience is the scientific study of biological substrates underlying cognition. It addresses the questions of how psychological/cognitive functions are produced by the brain. Cognitive neuroscience is a branch of both psychology and neuroscience.
Perceived exertion and lactate threshold
Picture this, you've been riding for three hours and you're tired, you can feel the burn creeping into your legs, a sure sign that your body is producing more lactate than it can metabolise. You know that if you carry on at this pace you're not going to make it. And you begin to wonder, how on earth to the professionals do it? Is their perception of fatigue the same as yours or are they immune to feeling the burn.
Real or perceived fatigue during the Cape Argus Cycle Tour
I just completed my very first Cape Argus Cycle Tour, with a wind resisted time of 5 hours and 17 minutes. For the most part I felt really strong during the race, but there were times when all I could think of was "when will this end". I have to wonder at what point my brain was correct when it told my legs, "hey slow down". It is incredibly difficult to know how far to push yourself. Athletes who have down years of endurance training seem to develop an accurate sense of how far they can go.
Where did I put my keys?
I am always hunting for my keys, usually because I wasn’t paying attention when I put them down, or I was interrupted by something else when I walked in the door, or I put them down on Friday evening and…
Could you be James Bond?
Do you what it takes to be a secret agent? James Bond needs to have a high level awareness and attention. Let’s see if you make the grade. Here’s an exercise for you to do to test your awareness. Watch…
Mind Over Matter – Prior experience and the perception of fatigue
Continuing on the topic of mind over matter, and specifically in relation to exercise, I am reminded of some work done by Professor Tim Noakes several years ago. Professor Noakes challenged a long established belief that fatigue originates in the…
Yoga, Qigiong and PsychoNeuroImmunology
Traditional Eastern medicine can be traced back thousands of years; well before the advent of science as we know it – many of the ideas found across Asia can be traced back to the Upanishads of around 1200 to 900…
The neuroscience of now
Some esoteric or spiritual authors say that in order to be more enlightened and awakened you need to be more present, and you to release yourself from the desires of the ego – an essentially Buddhist point of view –…
Just a collection of sparking neurons?
Are we just a collection of sparking neural messages whizzing about our brains? It might be disturbing for some to consider that our attitudes and beliefs, our thoughts and feelings are the result of a complex mix of neural connections and chemicals that work together to construct our unique view of the world. Or are we more than that?