Lesson about fear powers career

Yale professor, and friend of RapidChange, Amy Arnsten has spent her career looking at the prefrontal lobes, the part of the brain that allows people to plan ahead, make complex decisions and organize.

A professor of neurobiology and psychology, Arnsten credits a pivotal moment while she was still studying neuroscience in college with putting her on her path to discovery.

It was summer, and she volunteered in her home state of New Jersey in a mental hospital that housed thousands of patients. Medications available then were inadequate, and Arnsten saw a need for neuroscientific insights into crippling mental illnesses. There were only two psychiatrists on staff, one with a penchant for administering painful electro-convulsive therapy — which today is still used to treat severe depression but has been improved so as to be painless.

One day back then, Arnsten was having a lucid conversation about astronomy with a patient who had been a physicist, when that doctor’s name came up. The comment triggered an immediate negative response: The man’s speech became disordered and incoherent, barely making sense.

“It was such a huge clue,” Arnsten said, “that stress can neuro-chemically alter the fabric of thought. It was a big clue in the treasure hunt that’s become my career.”

What lucid conversations are getting derailed because of fear in your organization and what can you do to make those conversations safer?

Arnsten's current work is focusing on developing a better understanding ADHD and researching treatments for Post-Traumatic Stress Syndrome.

Read more about Arnsten.

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