As part of our Smithsonian Associates Art of Living Series, our guest today on the not-old-better show is Dr. Sarah

Shamstein. Born in Kiev, Russia, now the Ukraine, Sarah Schamstein is an associate professor of cognitive

neuroscience and director of the cognitive neuroscience program at the George Washington University.

Her research interests are focused on investigating the neural mechanisms of

attention by combining both behavioral and neuroimaging techniques in

normal as well as brain damage populations.

According to Dr. Schomstein, because the brain is unable to process the amount of information

coming at a cell holder once, it has developed a way to select a subset of information for further processing.

The critical question she says is how the brain chooses what to process first and what

to process next. what to process next.

She addresses the science behind that question and suggests ways we might enhance the

brain's ability to keep us focused.

We'll be paying attention, absolutely. In her spare time, Dr.

Schomstein plays squash, she skis, she scuba dives, travels, attends art exhibits, and

perfects her photography skills.

Give a listen to today's show featuring a very interesting subject.

This is personally very interesting to me, told by a very interesting person with great science,

passion, and research by her side.

Join me in welcoming Dr. Sarah, Shamsa.

Well, you know, Dr. Shamsain, I found so much about you online.

I really could talk about this subject for many hours as I say.

I am very personally interested. You of course are going to be talking about this subject for at least two hours October 19th

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