Science

There’s been a lot of talk lately about how natural aging causes changes in the brain: changes responsible for a weaker memory, a less focused-focus and overall perceived loss of mental function. An entire industry of brain-training programs has sprung up, waging war against these age-related changes.

But what if those changes aren’t a sign of a failing neural system?

What if they simply reflect a useful, positive change in how we process information as we age?

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Don’t try to deny it, I know you’ve had them - everyone does - those embarrassing instants of mind-numbing stupidity. You’re faced with a task, question or action that you’ve done a thousand times, and yet, you flub it. Even worse, you may even recognize the problem *as you make it*, you may know that you’re about to screw up colossally, and yet, you’re unable to stop it. Brain fart. <cue obnoxious sound file>

Turns out, it’s more than just a cutesy way of explaining away our embarrassment over mental glitches. Brain farts are real. No, the brain doesn’t actually belch noxious fumes, but still — they are real, measurable events in the brain, and even more interesting, they’re predictable. Here’s the deal:

Researchers were looking in the brain for cues that a mistake was being made - hoping to spot some sort of activity blip that signaled an error, perhaps an instantaneous loss of concentration.

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The benefits of cognitive fitness programs still haven’t hit home with most people, but their fears of Alzheimer’s, dementia, and everyday memory loss are growing by leaps and bounds.

Thank you, Loyal News Media! Let’s all be skeered, yay! (Is sarcasm good for the brain? Quick, someone do a Newspaper on Stock.Xchng" align="right" border="0" height="229" width="166"/>study!)

Seriously, my Google News Page has been bogged this month down with news of Alzheimer’s related research.

Nearly every article cited brain-numbing statistics from the Alzheimer’s Association: Every 71 seconds, someone develops Alzheimer’s. More than 5 million people in the U.S. currently have Alzheimer’s disease. As many as 10 million baby boomers are expected to develop Alzheimer’s - that’s 18% of them. Us. Scared yet?

The risk-factor stories the news focused on were just as alarming.

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Poor Ginkgo Bilboa. This rather innocent tree first came to my attention when I was still a child and the media “rediscovered” this living fossil growing in the living rooms of some monks in China. It doesn’t appear to have been very lost (both the monks and a slew of scientists knew where to find it ) but, whatever. I’m sure the tree recovered, once the paparazzi cleared out. (The monks were thankful, too)

Lost or not, the tree is quite remarkable.

It comes in two sexes; the male trees produce mobile sperm, making it both a rarity in the plant world, and the target of the media baby bump watch. Ginkgo trees were around long before the Jurassic period, where no doubt dinosaur cousins of Geraldo fed on its leaves. Very long lived (A Chinese example is said to be 3,500 years old), they’ve not only survived Geraldo, but the atomic blast in Hiroshima - and only a kilometer or so away from the blast crater. Off topic for MindTweaks, I know, and yet interesting.

But The Media’s most recent obsession over Ginkgo is, actually, on topic. It has to do with the subject of memory-loss. [click to continue...]

In the latest over-reported neuro-science news, there’s a gem of insight the mainstream media is over looking: our beliefs and expectations can and do impact how we experience the world around us.

 The study itself is pretty simple - take identical bottles of wine, slap on price tags ranging from  $10 to $90,  and measure people’s brain activity while they sample and rate the wines according to preference.    (The actual details were a little more complicated than that, but, hey, you’ve got the idea)

The general results aren’t too surprising: people preferred the wines with the more expensive price tags, regardless of the actual value of the wines.   Marketing experts have known this for a long time, and any number of tests have been done to confirm it, and it’s this aspect that the media seems to be focused on. 

“Consumers are shallow and easily fooled,” seems to be the message, but the brain scans revealed something deeper than simple consumer-snobbery.

The participants didn’t just have a vague impression that pricier wines were better; their brains actually registered more pleasure when they sampled what they believed were better quality wines.  The activity in the brain’s taste centers were not affected by the price tags, but the areas that process pleasure showed stronger activity associated with the wines that were believed to be more expensive.

In other words, the wines didn’t actually taste better to the brain, but the experience was more pleasurable.

Back to the gem of info that’s being overlooked here?

Because the research subjects expected certain wines to be more pleasurable than others, they experienced them as more pleasurable.  And they didn’t just slap mental labels of “better” or “worse” onto their reactions to the wine, they *experienced* them differently.

So …

What we expect to experience really can change our experience: and not in some magical, mystical way, ala “The Secret” but in measurable terms, via various brain scanning technologies, accepted by real scientists.

Pretty powerful stuff, isn’t it? 

I do believe I’m drunk on the knowledge!

In a very pricey way, of course.

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MINDTWEAK: “I am open to the guidance of synchronicity, and do not let expectations hinder my path” -Dalai Lama
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College students apparently aren’t: In a test of working and visual memory, the 5 year old chimp Ayumu and his friends came out on top. Find out how you stack up with a version of the test , available by courtesy of the good folks at Lumosity.

Ok, so yes, we’re muddying the definition of “smart” again… the study really tested a very limited skill set. Overly simplified, a series of numbers appeared on a computer touch screen, then were hidden with white squares. The chimp or human was required to select the squares in order of the numbers they replaced. (And yes, both the chimps and college students had learned to count to 9.)

The results varied depending on the details of the test, but over all, the chimps did better.Sometimes they were faster, sometimes they were more accurate. Ayumu (immortalized here on YouTube) did the best, with an 80% success rate in at least one set of tests. Even with 6 months of training, the students still couldn’t out perform their young primate cousins.

The difference was clearest when the numbers were shown very briefly, appearing for less than 2/10ths of a second. That’s too fast for our eyes to scan the pattern, much less attempt to consciously remember it, so the chimps probably have a better eidetic memory than we do — meaning they have photographic recall.

The researchers suggested two possible reasons for this: humans may have given up some memory and processing skills in order to develop those areas of the brain for other uses, like speech. The difference might also have to do with age; the chimps tested were young, and the task requires a skill children have, but which fades with age. (Apparently, in a later test, Ayumu’s mother, Ai did worse than the college students, so they can take some comfort in that.)

On a personal note, the mention of children losing a sort of photographic memory with age interested me - I had something akin to it up until high school, when it started to fail. I chalked the loss up to some health issues, but maybe it was just normal maturing.

For those of you into such things, here’s a link to the actual study (or at least an abstract of it): Working memory of numerals in chimpanzees

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MINDTWEAK: I still have a photographic memory, you know. It’s just that I forget to take the lens cap off.

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Neuroplasticity is my favorite new buzzword; not so much because of its meaning (which is pretty impressive) but because of the image it invokes: my brain, modeled out of cheap plastic, and distributed via Mattel.

In fact, the Mattel/China toxic paint debacle might explain a lot…. perhaps my neurons have been recalled? I’ll have to check it out. Meanwhile, on with the defining!

Neuroplasticity is the brain’s ability to reorganize itself, generate new cells, new neural pathways, and to change which areas control which functions. It’s become a buzzword for good reason; new understandings of neuroplasticity are turning assumptions about our minds and brains upside down.

One of the basic beliefs about the brain was that once it matured, it was fixed. Neuroplasticity was a function of a developing breain, or so it was assumed. The ability to learn new tasks was believed to be strictly limited, and many of the brains functions (including intelligence, levels of happiness/emotional stability, and mental health were thought largely fixed. Mental decline was considered inevitable with aging, and adult victims of stroke, brain injury and disease were without much hope of improvement.

But modern neuroscience shows that the adult brain remains remarkably flexible. It can reorganize itself after extreme injury and trauma. It can grow. It can form new connections, change wiring, eliminate old wiring.

Perhaps most astounding are discoveries that it adapts not only to external experiences, or to correct injury, but can adapt and change according to our internal thoughts. How we *think*, what we think about, the activities we engage in, the things we value and focus on and practice — they change the physical structure and neural pathways in the brain.

I’m trying to avoid the heavy science here, because I want to get this one point cemented.

Our brains.. my brain, and *your* brain…. are capable of astounding change and growth, for good or ill.

Some of that change is within our ability to control.

It’s worth learning about.

It’s worth learning about, because that process of learning itself changes our brain.

And *that* is neuroplasticity, applied

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MindTWEAK: Turns out, you CAN teach an old dog new tricks!
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Is meditation a self help method? Is it about healthy living? Medical Treatments? An antidepressant? Spiritual growth and enlightenment? All of the above? None of the above?

In the past few years, meditation has been promoted as a cure-all for personal and world troubles, with studies suggesting that meditation can lower blood-pressure, lift depression, reduce cholesterol, combat the effects of aging, and make physical changes to the brain, among other things. 

These benefits have been so widely promoted that it’s starting to backlash - a recent review of the data concluded that were not enough solid clinical trials to prove the benefits enough for doctors to recommend meditation, which the media somehow twisted into ““Meditation Won’t Boost Health!” That, in turn has produced its own backlash, with researchers declaring the study itself flawed. 

The whole thing had me ready to rant about everyone’s prejudices, sloppy science and journalism, when along came a post from GNF Brainblogger to put it back in perspective, pointing  to the traditional intent behind meditative practices. 

Here’s my take on it:

What most people (and most research studies) mean by “meditation” is a disciplined practice of concentrated attention, usually based on one of the traditional Buddhist practices.

Different forms of meditation focus attention through different means, but the tested and traditional practices all share the same eventual goal: spiritual enlightenment, and through enlightenment, the elimination of suffering.

“The Elimination of Suffering” sounds in tune with Western medicine, the self help movement, and ideas about healthy living, doesn’t it?

But here’s the rub… The traditional intent of meditation is not to eliminate suffering by lowering blood pressure or stress or even reducing physical pain, but to eliminate suffering by shifting perspective. 

Meditation teaches you to turn attention *away* from the mundane physical and personal experience of world (where the problems seem significant), and learn to experience life through a broader, more interconnected perspective… “being one with everything” so to speak. The process transcends and changes our sense of self, so that our problems seem less meaningful and less troubling. The point is not to reduce the physical causes of discomfort through improved health, but to change the importance we place on that discomfort — many long term meditative practices actually increase physical stress and discomfort.

So the very same meditations…

… that now get all the attention for their health benefits were designed to to de-emphasize the importance of an individuals health, stress levels, and personal issues.  With this in mind, approaching meditation practices with a single-sighted goal of health-improvement is somewhat counter productive, and certainly counter-intuitive.

Additionally, traditional meditation is difficult, time-consuming and frustrating to master (especially without proper instruction and guidance).  Though rarely mentioned by those promoting the practices, meditation can cause emotional issues to surface, raise fears and doubts, and even anxiety.  On a spiritual path, these things are expected, even sought after…  but if meditation is being used in its traditional forms to treat depression, anxiety, and stress — these difficulties become significant.   It’s easy for beginning meditators to feel a profound sense of failure, which can deepen depression.

So Where Does This Leave Meditation Studies?

With a lot of research that suggests (but doesn’t prove) that meditation may have a lot of physical and mental health benefits.  The research also doesn’t yet tell us *why* meditation has those benefits, or what aspects of it create the positive changes. There’s a lot of promising research being done, but its still far too early for the media and self-improvement seminars to be pushing generalized meditation as a cure-all.

Personally speaking, I still respect, admire, and recommend a solid meditation practice for everyone. A long term practice will do more than tweak your mind — it’s closer to an extreme makeover that affects body, mind, and spirit.

But it’s not the effective quick-fix and cure-all that headlines often suggest, and it’s more difficult to achieve than generally believed.

People suffering from depression, anxiety, and major health issues may not have the focus and discipline to succeed at such a practice, much less the cope with the challenges fears and concerns that crop up along the way… and challenges do crop up, even in healthy, long term practitioners.   Meditation is difficult -inspite of the claims of the new age gurus tell you otherwise.

A good teacher with a gentle, supportive and encouraging approach will go a long way towards minimizing the difficulties, and is almost a must if you want to use meditation as an aid for depression, anxiety or stress. 

It’s worth considering other methods, too.

For health results and changes in energy and stress levels, it’s worth considering other techniques, methods that provide some of the same stress reduction, increased focus, lowered blood pressure, etc.   Brainwave entrainment techniques,  hypnosis, self hypnosis, and brain-training programs are easier to start and maintain than meditation, though admittedly they have less lofty goals than enlightenment.

I don’t want to leave the impression I’m discouraging  meditation…  I’m all for spiritual enlightenment, being in the now, and a disciplined mind — and I believe there are immense and many layered benefits to a meditation practice.  But reducing traditional forms to a ”healthy living technique” does both the practice and its practioners a disservice.

So What’s The Point?

Meditation has a lot of benefits — some health related, some in the areas of personal development, some focused on spiritual growth.

But before investing time and energy into an in depth meditation practice, examine your goals and your resources.  Are you looking for short term mental relief, general health improvement, or a life-altering spiritual practice, or all of the above? How disciplined are you? How much patience do you have with difficult new practices?

As much as I believe in meditation, as tempting as it is to suggest it as a catch all solution, other methods are worth considering as well…  some of them may turn out to be just as effective, less difficult, and less stressful. _________________________

 MindTweak:
     Do not try to become anything.
     Do not make yourself into anything.
     Do not be a meditator.
     Do not become enlightened.
     When you sit, let it be.
     What you walk, let it be.
     Grasp at nothing.
     Resist nothing.

If you haven’t wept deeply,
you haven’t begun to meditate.

.Ajhan Chah
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As I sit here, jotting out notes for a future follow up on “Debunking The Secret”, I realize that I can seem like a skeptical curmudgeon.

It’s not that I don’t believe there’s a great deal of mystery out there, because I do. I’ve had more than my share of odd experiences, some of which do defy my best attempts at explanation - but I prefer my mysteries actually be *mysteries*, rather than carefully crafted illusions or short-sighted thinking. So I’m not a curmudgeon, but a skeptical mystic who resents the insult of pseudo-science applied to poetry.

I don’t think skepticism and mysticism are mutually exclusive, or that science and faith are incompatible; each picks up where the other falls short. The trouble comes in because the line between them isn’t fixed. It shifts and moves as our body of knowledge and world view changes.

The more science discovers about the world we live in, the less we have to rely on religion to tell us how the world works — which is why the battle between science and religion heats up during any period of massive scientific growth.

When science booms, religions are threatened. Suddenly scientists replace priests as the people of knowledge, and text books replace sacred scrolls as the storehouse of wisdom. It’s easy to see how they end up seemingly at war, arguing over who controls the territory.

But they don’t have to be at war, if each will cede the territory it does not excel at controlling.

I reconcile the apparent conflict of science and faith with my most abstract concept of God: Mystery-with-an-upper-case-M. Mystery shifts, and changes, but never vanishes. There is always more, and each answer leads to more questions.

The best expression of the idea I’ve found is from Of Water and the Spirit, by Malidoma Some’. In the book, Some’ explains that in his native language of Dagara, there is no concept of “supernatural”. The closest term they have is Yielbongura , or “The Thing Which Knowledge Cannot Eat”. [click to continue...]

I’ve become a blogging packrat; my ‘drafts’ folder is full of links to research studies in neurology, psychology, and who knows what else. My intent was to write a post on each one, but… that’s not gonna happen.

I’m on a spring cleaning kick this weekend, so along with the unidentifiable stuff from the junk drawer, I’m going to toss out a few links. They aren’t necessarily new, or earth shattering, or even correct, just interesting. Maybe they’ll find a good home with someone.

• Psychology Today: Is Panic Hardwired? Experts Disagree Interesting theories about an over-sensitive suffocation response, and the impact of early experience on panic attack sufferers.
• New Scientist: Meditation Builds Up The Brain Studies show that not only does meditation increase mental performance, but actually thickens areas of the cerebral cortex.
• MindHacks: Hacking The Senses I loved this one! Links to Wired magazine articles describing people who hacked their senses with magnets, and developed an unerring sense of direction and/or the ability to detect magnetic fields. Seriously Cool Stuff.
• ABC News: Basic Instincts: The Science of Evil Article about how PrimeTime recreated the famous Milgram Experiment… and yes, people still followed authority, over ruling their own moral concerns. Not great science or info… just a good reminder.

And see.. even after all my bitching, I posted on topic and on schedule.

MindTWEAK: Declutter, destress.