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She found that nostalgic music activated an area of the brain typically associated with remembering personal experiences and narratives called the ventromedial prefrontal cortex, along with the reward networks of the brain.

Studies in humans suggested that having control activates the prefrontal cortex — one of the most recent parts of the human brain to evolve that is associated with cognition, decision-making and motivation.

While kindness is hard to access in the immediate aftermath of stress, just as it can be when someone is chronically lonely, it could be a shortcut to bringing the prefrontal cortex back online.

Specifically, those who initiated these substances before age 15 had larger overall brains and a thinner prefrontal cortex in certain regions compared to kids who didn’t initiate drug use.

Brain regions such as the anterior cingulate and ventromedial prefrontal cortex integrate many sources of information – essential for being able to form a mixed emotion.