Aug. 9, 2012 The sought-after equanimity of "living in the
moment" may be impossible, according to neuroscientists who've
pinpointed a brain area responsible for using past decisions and
outcomes to guide future behavior. The study, based on research
conducted at the University of Pittsburgh and published August 9
in the professional journal Neuron, is the first of its kind to
analyze signals associated with metacognition -- a person's
ability to monitor and control cognition (a term cleverly
described by researchers as "thinking about thinking.") "The
brain has to keep track of decisions and the outcomes they
produce," said Marc Sommer, who did his research for the study
as a University of Pittsburgh neuroscience faculty member and is
now on the faculty at Duke University. "You need that continuity
of thought," Sommer continued. "We are constantly keeping
decisions in mind as we move through life, thinking about other
things. We guessed it was analogous to working memory, which
would point toward the prefron