Technology and Us with Neuroscientist Jennifer Perusini, PhD

Welcome to RxChill Pill, the podcast that strengthens your resilient mind every time you listen to the extraordinary stories, expert tips, and meditations to elicit your relaxation response, the antidote to your stress response. I'm Dr. Juna Bobby MD. I'm a physician and mom specializing in mind-body and lifestyle medicine. Find out more about me, my personalized online courses on procrastination and mindset coaching for kids, teens, and adults, at mindbodyspace.com. Hello there!

If you're like me, you've been fascinated by the recent documentaries made by Netflix, including one called "Social Dilemma." Everybody's talking about it. I think everyone should watch this. It's fascinating and horrifying at the same time, but I think that it ends with hope. I interview a lot of experts and neuroscientists, and so I wanted to have a running commentary on this documentary. Today I have Dr. Jennifer Perazzini, an upcoming guest who's a neuroscientist and the CEO of Neurovation Labs. Here's her thoughts on our brains on tech. So everybody's been talking about this Netflix documentary called Social Dilemma. I have to say Netflix have been— has been putting out amazing original documentaries, and this is one, and I just watched it this weekend, and I just wanted to talk to you, Jennifer, about being a neuroscientist and how you feel about technology. And in your personal life? I know this is not your area of expertise, but we always love to hear what someone like you thinks about these addictive devices.

Yeah, so for me, um, not even as a neuroscientist, but as, you know, an entrepreneur running a startup company from my own home, I have no choice but to be on my computer and my phone 24/7. I manage all of our social media. I have to do all that. Um, wasn't always big into social media before this, but it's become a really great platform for growing the nonprofits and even the company, um, just to get the word out. So it's really hard for me to break away, but I at least now try to turn my phone off, or at least put it away half an hour before I go to bed.

Mm-hmm.

Even just to watch the news or something, or, you know, to chat with my husband or call my dad or something, just to, you know, not look at social media. That's, that's super, that's super important. I think it's really difficult now to unplug, especially during the pandemic, because we're not seeing people too much. We're not really hanging out with a lot of our friends, and it's the only way to not really feel lonely.

Mm-hmm.

But I think pre-pandemic it was sort of getting out of control. I know a couple of studies have been done with the newer, the newest generation, you know, teenagers, their brains are actually different being on social media all the time. The activity in like the empathy areas of their brain, social connections, actually lower than normal.

Wow.

Meaning that they're not necessarily forming such great social connections through social media. Right now it's the best we can do. But, um, but I think, you know, it's definitely changing the world. Um, I'm not sure if we can stop it though, unfortunately.

Well, so there was like a glimmer of hope at the end. And, you know, I have to be honest with you, like, as much as I don't like certain aspects of it, and I feel myself getting really addicted to that, like scrolling and pulling things down. Do you do that? Do you feel like that? Do you ever go down the rabbit hole?

It's kind of hard for— at least on Instagram and Facebook and things like that. It's hard for me too because I get so busy with work. So when I'm on my phone, it's usually emails and things like that. But yeah, you can get into a hole, especially when you're bored. You have downtime. What's everybody doing? Oh, they look better than me. What's going on? They're going on great vacations. What's happening?

But I even get into it when I start to do research online, and then all of a sudden I have like 100 tabs open researching something that I want to talk about.

Yes. No, I definitely get that like that. And then they stay open for weeks and I mean to go back and read them and I never do. And it becomes a mess. Yeah, it's a lot of overstimulation for sure.

A lot of clutter.

It's so great. Sometimes I think back when I was at middle school and early high school, we were still in the library opening books to do research. Now everything's so accessible and I don't know if I can ever go back. To the way things were because it's just so easy to learn. And I love learning. I love knowledge, but sometimes it gets too much and it's hard to—

Yeah. And on the downside, you have to learn how to figure out which research is good and which one is not.

Exactly.

You have to be able to discern that.

Otherwise, I think as a scientist, you know, I always use COVID as an example. As a scientist, I know what papers to turn to. I know what experiments are bad, what shouldn't be getting press at all, you know, but people just read what's on, you know, the news, in the newspaper, what's in media, and, um, it's— there's so much misinformation. Uh, yeah, it's bad. Scientists, I feel lucky.

So the downside is that we can— it can be a rabbit hole. We can get our— our time can get just sucked into it, and we just like stuck to our screens all day, which happens. I mean, I have to admit that that happens to me sometimes. But on the flip side, you know, there's so much connection that goes on that For example, I wouldn't be able to see you right now if we weren't on this. And the information that you and I can learn on the internet, right? And also people like you being on Twitter with real scientific information, with real research, I think that's a plus.

Yeah, yes. That's where I gravitate on Twitter. I'm not the biggest Twitter user, but that's where I go for real science papers. In my little, you know, science community.

If we don't embrace it and there's only the false information out there, then there's not going to be people out there giving all balanced sides, right? Because every time I feel like I shouldn't be on there, then I think, you know, at least I'm trying to put out something that I'm hoping to help people with, right?

And at least you can question it and think about it.

So any neuroscientist tips for managing your devices for people who have trouble putting it down and find themselves procrastinating. And I feel like you're not a procrastinator.

Um, I can be sometimes. Occasionally, yeah. With, you know, when you, when you own your own company and everything's online and it'll be all your fault if things go wrong, I don't really have the chance to procrastinate. I think it's hard to put the phone completely down, but I think eliminating certain things. Like, like I said, I stop with social media later, later in the day or, you know, in the evening.

But you have to physically kind of put it away, or perhaps you have to physically plan in your planner what you're going to do and when you're going to do it.

Yeah, no, I definitely, I definitely try to schedule things that way. My calendar is my, my best friend. I stick to it.

All right, awesome. Thank you so much, Jennifer. Thank you for this little excerpt, and I can't wait to talk to you again.

Thank you so much.

That was Dr. Jennifer Perazzini, CEO of NeuroVision Lab and neuroscientist. Look for my upcoming interview with her where we talk about women in STEM and her breakthrough discovery in PTSD. Thank you so much for listening and strengthening those neuronal resilience connections in your brain. I know it's a mouthful. That's my inner science geek just telling you that you're changing your brain and boosting your resilience just by listening, reflecting, and learning. Email us at info@mindbodyspace.com if you have questions you'd like answered on the podcast or you have guests that you'd like to suggest. Most importantly, please share this podcast with your friends, family, and community. We can all use our brain's chemistry to boost our immune systems and resilience right now. Also email me at info@mindbodyspace.com to sign up for my SMART Programs, Stress Management and Resiliency Training, for the first time given completely online. The SMART Program was developed at the Benson-Henry Institute for Mind-Body Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School. 40 years of robust research backs this program. Again, that's info, I-N-F-O, @mindbodyspace.com. Looking Looking forward to seeing you. This is Dr. Juna signing off, wishing you and your loved ones wellness.