Dr. Andrew Huberman

So this brain region seems to be the

the brain region that puts us in a forward center of mass, physically and sort of cognitively and emotionally.

I often like to think that the nervous system, as sophisticated as it is, and psychology as sophisticated as it is, can be binned into kind of three categories.

Things that we like to eat or don't like to eat can kind of be binned into yum, yuck, or meh.

That's kind of what the nervous system has to do because ultimately you have to decide, do I want to go toward it?

So-called repetitive behavior.

Do I want to get away from it?

I don't want to do nothing.

People were either like, yum, or in some cases, yum, yuck, or in some cases, like, ugh, or like, meh.

Right?

Yum, yum, meh.

Yum, yum, meh.

This is the sort of three tributaries that we have the option of moving down, not moving down, or moving away from.

So the anterior midsingulate cortex, because it has inputs from so many different areas and outputs to so many different areas, it can access circuits related to dopamine, norepinephrine.

It can access circuits related to memory and context.

It's a hub.

It's a hub that...

by all views, through all lenses of the existing research, suggests that any time we do something truly challenging, in particular things that we do not enjoy, this is key, the anterior midsingulate cortex undergoes some sort of plasticity.

Everything in the research data now points to the idea that the anterior midsingulate cortex is the seat of so-called willpower, which is linked to concepts like tenacity or grit, etc.,

And what I love about this research is that it comes from a bunch of different areas, human brain imaging, brain stimulation, et cetera.