And you do that by measuring the relative activation of the left prefrontal cortex in the fMRI, versus the right prefrontal cortex.

Consideration for others is located in the prefrontal cortex.

So you have the prefrontal cortex here, lighting up in red.

And so we had this focal area called the medial prefrontal cortex that went way up in activity.

And you see activity in some regions we've seen today, medial prefrontal cortex, dorsomedial, however, up here, ventromedial prefrontal cortex, anterior cingulate, an area that's involved in lots of types of conflict resolution, like if you're playing Simon Says, and also the right and left temporoparietal junction.

Three brain areas the hippocampus, the prefrontal cortex, and the amygdala are particularly susceptible to pathological changes in size and function.

It goes to the nucleus accumbens, all the way up to the prefrontal cortex, orbital frontal cortex, where decisions are made, high level.

We had this broad patch of area called the lateral prefrontal cortex that went way down in activity, and I'll summarize that for you here.

In red is an area that active in the prefrontal cortex, the frontal lobe of the brain, and in blue is this area that was deactivated.

The orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) is a prefrontal cortex region in the frontal lobes in the brain which is involved in the cognitive processing of decision making.

Similarly, there is evidence that the prefrontal cortex a key structure in emotional regulation as well as in decision making and working memory shrinks in major depression.

In very short, people who have more activity in the right side of the prefrontal cortex are more depressed, withdrawn. They don't describe a lot of positive affect.

In those individuals who avoid such thoughts, there is a related opposite type of pattern in which there is a decrease in the activation of the dorsal amgydala and the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex.

Repeated stress causes neurons in the hippocampus and the prefrontal cortex to shrink and lose connections with other nerve cells, while it also causes neurons in the amygdala to grow and form new connections.

And when you're happy what we call positive valence you squirt dopamine into the prefrontal lobes, which makes you a breadth first problem solver you're more susceptible to interruption you do out of the box thinking.

The reptilian part of our brain, which sits in the center of our brain, when it's threatened, it shuts down everything else, it shuts down the prefrontal cortex, the parts which learn, it shuts all of that down.

So what happens when we pay attention is that the prefrontal cortex, the sort of executive part of our brains, sends a signal that makes a little part of our brain much more flexible, more plastic, better at learning, and shuts down activity in all the rest of our brains.

But it is an extraordinary statement for a religious leader to make, because it sets to one side the question of the truth or falsehood, or the ethical value, of religious beliefs. Or rather all that wiring in the prefrontal cortex must be ethical, because it is good for survival.