See Anderson Cooper Unwind Anxiety With Dr. Jud

Overview

Anderson Cooper and a team from the CBS television show 60 Minutes visited Dr. Jud’s neuroscience lab to see firsthand how mindfulness affects the brain. Using a cap lined with 128 electrodes, Dr. Jud was able to show real-time brain activity in the posterior cingulate cortex (PCC) — a region central to the brain’s default mode network and closely linked to stress, mind-wandering, and rumination.

Cooper had been practicing mindfulness exercises for one month before the visit. Dr. Jud’s equipment revealed specific and measurable changes in Cooper’s brain over that time. When Cooper thought about something stressful, his PCC immediately lit up. But when he let go of those thoughts and refocused on his breath, the stress-related brain cells quieted down within seconds — a vivid demonstration of how breaking bad habits of mental reactivity is possible with practice.

This segment brought decades of neuroscience research into millions of living rooms and showed that the science behind habit change is both real and accessible to anyone willing to practice.

Key Takeaways

• One month of meditation produced measurable brain changes: Cooper’s brain imaging showed clear before-and-after differences after just four weeks of regular mindfulness practice.
• The PCC responds to stress in real time: When Cooper thought about stressful topics, his posterior cingulate cortex fired immediately — and calmed within seconds when he shifted attention to his breath.
• Mindfulness is trainable, not mystical: Dr. Jud’s lab equipment demonstrated that meditation produces concrete, observable changes in brain function, not just subjective feelings of calm.
• The default mode network drives anxiety: The PCC sits at the hub of the brain network responsible for rumination, worry, and mind-wandering — the same mental habit loops that fuel anxiety.

“When I thought about something stressful, the cells in my brain’s posterior cingulate immediately started firing, shown by the red lines on the computer screen. […] When I let go of those stressful thoughts and refocused on my breath, within seconds the brain cells that had been firing quieted down, shown by blue lines on the computer.” — Anderson Cooper

Related Resources

• What is the habit loop?
• How anxiety becomes a habit
• Mindfulness exercises to try today
• Unwinding Anxiety — Dr. Jud’s book on breaking the worry cycle