Korva is a scroll of the internet’s best ideas.
The brain's tenacity region grows
Neurosurgeon Joe Parvizi showed that stimulating the area makes people feel a challenge coming on and want to lean into it. It connects across the brain, including reward systems, and tracks when pressure is felt and when pushing back happens.
It is highly plastic. People who diet successfully have a bigger, more active one, and so do people who start a new exercise program. Doing something that isn't a reflex, such as mobility work, makes it larger and more willing to take on challenging things afterward.
The resistance can be physical, cognitive, or emotional: a cold plunge, learning a new language, or a dance class for someone it stresses.
How did researchers find the tenacity region?
In a 2013 paper in Neuron, Josef Parvizi and colleagues at Stanford reported on two epilepsy patients who had electrodes implanted in the brain for monitoring. When the cingulate area was stimulated, both described a sense that something difficult was coming and a determination to get through it. The sensation arrived within seconds and faded when the stimulation stopped. The authors titled the paper after the will to persevere.
What shows that brain structure can change?
A well-known example comes from London taxi drivers. In 2000, Eleanor Maguire's group at University College London found that the back part of the hippocampus was larger in drivers who had memorized the city's streets than in other people. The longer they had worked, the larger it was. Brain scans have since shown structural changes after weeks of learning a skill such as juggling.
Why does one brain area link effort and reward?
The cingulate cortex wraps around the corpus callosum and connects to emotion, decision, and movement areas. Imaging studies show it becomes active when people weigh how much effort a reward is worth. Animals with damage to the region tend to choose easy options over high-effort, high-reward ones. Its position between feeling and action makes it a hub for effort decisions.
More from The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
