Hacking the Limbic System: Comfort, Fear, Excitement and Learning

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In this step Valerie Pennington talks about hacking the limbic system to create a challenging and engaging learning environment. She explains that the brain wants both novelty and comfort, but too much comfort becomes boring and too much novelty is overwhelming and frightening. She then talks about the nucleus accumbens, the amygdala and the hippocampus, and how they are involved in fear, memory and reward pathways. Lastly, she explains how to create a framework of trust and comfort to help students approach new challenges with curiosity rather than fear.