In busy, efficiency-focused workplaces, unfortunately names too often get neglected. It’s too bad we rush past people without addressing them by name, because recent research suggests that you add value to a person’s brain when you speak their name. 
Intrapersonal intelligence – or that part of your brain that makes you – unique – is impacted when people hear their names spoken. Researchers found a sudden spike in personal self-awareness, at the sound of your own name.
When they used PET scans to observe activity in the brain whenever people heard their first name spoken, they observed a strong cerebral flow change in the brain’s right superior temporal area.
An even stronger change of flow was observed in the medial prefrontal cortex. This change – along with a stronger flow suggested that this region plays a significant role in a person’s processing of “self.”
Check out the details at Neuropsychologia, in Volume 43 (1), on pages 12 to 19.
What do you think?
How are you today Ellen :). I think Mark Twain said that there's no sweeter sound that a human being can hear than the sound of their own name :). I like your take on intrapersonal intelligence and uniqueness. Do you think that this means that the deeper we delve, the more likely we are to express what it is that makes us one of a kind?
Posted by: Galba Bright | March 12, 2007 6:59 PM | Permalink to Comment