Happi Focus: The Best Mental State for Peak Performance and Achievement
Studies Show Neureka! Enhancement During Positive Emotions
The research in these two studies, performed by Dr. Estate Sokhadze at the University of Louisville Department of Psychiatry, shows the brain produces a higher level of Neureka! brainwaves when the person feels good.
In the first study, researchers read words related to positive emotions to subjects who were asked to feel that way for just 6 seconds. The researchers used the Peak BrainHappiness Trainer neurofeedback system to measure and record the levels of the Neureka! brainwave output for the subjects as they felt these emotions. With all of the positive words, the test subjects showed a significant increase above the baseline levels in their Neureka! output,. The highest increases in Neureka! values were for the words “happy” and “joy”.
The baseline they used was taken 2.5 – 3 minutes after the positive words were over. Dr. Sokhadze knew that anticipating something good caused the Neureka! output to go up at the start of the study, so the baseline from early in the experiment couldn’t be used.
The brain produced more Neureka! output when the subject felt positive emotions. The narrow lines above the bars are the standard errors of each measurement. The values for each of the positive feelings were statistically significantly better than baseline.
This graph shows the Neureka! output level when feeling positive feelings compared to negative or neutral ones. The Neureka! values during positive feelings were significantly better than during the repeating numbers and the negative and neutral emotions.
In the next experiment, researchers read emotionally positive, negative and neutral words to the subjects. The subjects created the feeling of each word inside themselves for 20 seconds this time, and their Neureka! output was measured by the Peak BrainHappiness Trainer neurofeedback system. After each group of words, the subject repeated a 3-digit number for 20 seconds to help the brain calm down . Using this clearer baseline as a comparison, the positive emotions raised Neureka! higher than baseline, while the negative and neutral emotions didn’t. The Neureka! associated with positive emotions was significantly higher than the Neureka! during negative or neutral emotions.
This graph shows the difference between the subject’s reaction to two words with a high Neureka! output level, compared to the two words with lower level of Neureka! output. This indicates how much and how quickly the brain can change when different types of feelings happen.
These experiments establish that the Neureka! protocol can measure a variety of positive feelings, in as little as six seconds. The next study shows that training people with Neureka! can improve their feelings, thinking and memory.
Interested in learning more? Join our mailing list and receive a special report, Understanding and Activating Your Brain’s Pleasure Centers. Just CLICK HERE .
