Mind-and-Neuroscience on Yuval Bloch — Complexity & Ecology

The Magic of Nature - Attention Restoration Theory and Fractals

Sat, 27 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000

The Magic of Nature: Attention Restoration Theory and Fractals

While learning—and practicing—how to improve my focus, I stumbled upon Kaplan’s Attention Restoration Theory and the surprising power of nature to heal our attention. Along the way, I discovered the role of fractal patterns—structures that repeat across scales and appear everywhere, from coastlines and trees to art and digital design.

What struck me most is that this body of knowledge holds real, practical power. It can help people maintain well-being, sustain creativity, and do meaningful, focused work. Yet it remains far from common knowledge. Much of it is buried behind dense academic language, making it inaccessible to many who could benefit from it the most.

Compassion, Empathy, and Activism Without Burnout

Sat, 30 Aug 2025 00:00:00 +0000

As the war in Israel drags on — a strain on the mind I write about before — I see many friends—especially peace activists—feeling burned out. It’s not surprising. Carrying so much pain for so long takes a toll. But psychology, neuroscience, and ancient traditions offer an insight that can help: a deeper understanding of empathy and compassion, and how they shape our inner lives.

The Problem with Empathy

Imagine this: you trip and hurt yourself, then a friend hugs you. Suddenly, you feel a little better. Simple enough, but your brain is doing something extraordinary. Professor Simone Shamay-Tsoory’s research helps explain it. By having people hold hands while one was in pain, and using fMRI to scan their brains, she found that their brain activity actually synchronized, lighting up the same neuron patterns in both sides. The closer their brains “mirrored” each other, the less pain the person felt. This is the neurological basis of empathy: we don’t just imagine another person’s feelings; we simulate them inside our own brain. We run their pain through our own neural circuits, and by doing so, reduce our partner’s suffering. This is why empathy motivates us to help and why it can alleviate feelings of isolation.

The Possible Me: Identity as a Path, Not a Point

Thu, 03 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0000

With Pride around the corner here in my favorite desert town, Mitzpe Ramon, and following recent reflections on quench disorder, Life’s inherent instability, and the mind–matter dance, this feels like the right moment to turn our attention to something both deeply personal and profoundly collective: identity.

What We’ve Learned So Far

In Life on the Edge, we explored how living systems don’t just persist—they remember. DNA stores information structurally, while in more complex organisms, memory is also encoded neurologically. What’s vital here is that memory doesn’t endure by staying still, but by renewing itself. Life persists through motion, not stasis.

The Eye of the Storm: Understanding Our Minds During Struggles

Thu, 19 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000

This morning, the stark reality of war struck close to home. Beersheba, a city that until now had remained relatively peaceful compared to central Israel, was hit by a bombing at our main hospital. The shockwave I felt from the public shelter near my apartment served as a cruel reminder of humanity’s darkest capacities. This experience profoundly underscores the urgent importance of learning to manage our emotions in such circumstances—a challenge that, as I’ll argue, complexity theory can illuminate.