As I write this, I’m thinking about the bag of tasty trail mix poking out of my purse. Contradictory messages are flooding my brain: Chow down, it tastes good. Eat more, it will provide energy. Don’t eat more, you’ve already had enough and you don’t want to gain weight. And so on. Eventually, I reach over and push the trail mix deeper into the purse, out of sight.
According to conventional wisdom, the part of my brain that controls my arm and hand is not connected to the part that’s fretting about my waistline. Medical textbooks show a model of the brain in which the motor cortex alone controls movement. But new research suggests that model may be wrong. Previously overlooked areas of the motor cortex appear to link control of specific muscles with information about the entire body and brain.
This discovery helps explain how the brain synchronizes complex systems required to perform even simple movements. "You have to control heart rate. You have to control blood pressure. You have to control so-called fight and flight responses,” says neurobiologist Peter Strick. So it makes sense that the same ribbon of brain tissue involved in a movement like standing up would be connected to the brain areas involved in planning, goals and emotion. A system that weaves together movement and mental states also could explain why our posture changes with our mood, or why exercise tends to make us feel better.
We live in a worrisome world. Yet many of us know at least one person who moves through life with a smile and a sense of equanimity in spite of the news and even personal setbacks. Where do they get that inner buoyancy from, and can we have some?
NPR’s Ari Daniel just returned from the Skoll World Forum, an event that brings together entrepreneurs and innovators tackling problems like pandemic prevention and racial injustice. And he brought back lessons in optimism from some inspiring attendees.
Filmmaker Ava Duvernay talked about the challenges faced by people in the civil rights movement and activists in today’s racial reckoning. “Something challenging and horrible had to happen to activate people and make them want to embrace dignity in a new way,” she notes. “So when we look at how much we’ve survived and the shoulders that we stand on, what’s not to be joyous about?”
Rodrigo Paris Rojas, CEO of a non-profit that works with rural women in the Global South, says working in rural communities has helped him “understand that the future is possible.” He says he’s seen a resilience among rural people based on a connection with nature that goes back millenia. Their ways of thinking can be incredibly useful, he says, to imagine a better future.
We want to hear your strategy for staying positive in the face of pessimism. Email goatsandsoda@npr.org with the subject line "Optimism" and your advice may be featured on npr.org and/or in this newsletter.
When Maria Caprigno was 14, obesity was a matter of life or death. Diet and exercise weren’t working, and navigating middle school at 440 pounds was brutal. "I had been told at that point by my pediatrician that the way I was gaining weight every year, I wouldn't see my 18th birthday," Caprigno says.
In 2010, she became one of the first teenagers in the US to receive bariatric surgery. Now 27, she says the weight she lost made it possible for her to pursue her dreams. She now works as a teacher, and is raising her two children on her own.
Today, about 2,000 American adolescents undergo bariatric surgery each year. And new guidelines from the American Academy of Pediatrics endorsing the procedures are expected to expand insurance coverage to more families seeking surgery. But the practice still draws controversy, including from surgeons who caution parents against making such life-altering decisions for their kids. Learn the pros and cons of bariatric surgery for teens.
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