This is Ted Health, a podcast from Ted, and I'm your host, Dr. Shoshana Ungerleiter.

I'm going to be honest with you. Sometimes I wonder if my brain has a mind of its own.

I'll sit down to answer an email, and suddenly I'm shopping for new running shoes, half

reading a news headline, and then remembering I never texted my sister

back. Does that sound familiar? That's the strange thing about attention. We know it's important.

Our health, our work, relationships, and even our safety depend on it. But we also live in a world

where a mini computer in our pocket can ping and buzz and pull us in a dozen

different directions all at once. And while we might laugh out loud about having the attention

span of a goldfish, the truth is that it's important to nurture our ability to focus. Because it's

one of the most powerful tools we have for making healthier choices, building habits and actually living the

lives we want. Think about it. Eating more mindfully, sticking with exercise, remembering to take

medication. All of those start with attention, the ability to notice and to filter and then

choose where our mental energy goes. And when that filter isn't working well,

the distractions constantly win, that's when life can feel chaotic and overwhelming. The good news

is that attention isn't just some fixed trait that we're stuck with. Neuroscience is showing us

that it can be trained, supported, and even reimagine with the help of technology. And the implications for our

health are huge. In today's talk, computational neuroscientists, Mady Ordi-Cani-Sidlar, invites us to look

more closely at what our brains are really doing when we pay attention and how that knowledge

might transform the way we approach everything from daily tasks to complex

medical challenges. Then I hope you'll join me after the talk for a conversation with Dr.

Sasha Hamdani, a prominent psychiatrist specializing in ADHD in digital health. She's also my

friend and colleague. It's an enriching addition to this episode's big ideas.

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