I ran across the article of Laura Schaefer featured in msn messenger today. (She must be a fellow German descendant. My ancestors are Germans and used to carry the surname, Brun after they settled in the Philippines and changed it to our present family name. The surname is also otherwise spelled by our relatives who went very far to Russia as Vroon, or in fiercely independent Bavaria as Braun. Here in Makati, I see a company Braun Chemicals. I never really had the least interest in finding out if we’re related. For all I know, their family name comes from Brawn, spelled in a different way, which is quite a different thing altogether, hehehe. Just joking. J)

Laura’s article interests me because she made my brain my largest sex organ! Whew! Read on guys!!!

The Male Brain, Explained

By Laura Schaefer

[excerpt]

Remember his brain is his largest sex organ

In males of several species including humans, the preoptic area of the hypothalamus is greater in volume, in cross-sectional area and in the number of cells. In men, this area is more than two times larger than in women, and it contains twice as many cells. And what, say you, does this have to do with the horizontal mambo? Plenty. This area of the hypothalamus is in charge of mating behavior.

This small structure connects to the pituitary gland, which releases sex hormones. So if your bf wants to get intimate all the time and you feel like Ms. Low Desire, remember: You're just experiencing normal, brain-based differences.

Recall the Swift Boat campaign.

When we hear the same information over and over again, true or not, we often end up believing it’s true.

That’s the conclusion from authors Sam Wang and Sandra Aamodt who wrote (take a deep breath):

“Welcome to Your Brain: Why You Lose Your Car Keys but Never Forget How to Drive and Other Puzzles of Everyday Life.”

Perhaps the winner of the world’s longest book title.

Funny how the brain gathers and store information.

Not like a computer hard drive at all.

First the facts go into the hippocampus, a section deep in the brain. Every time we get the information, we store it again and reprocess it. Eventually the information is gradually transferred to the cerebral cortex and is separated from the context in which it was originally learned.

So eventually we forget where the information came from in the first place and whether it was a credible source. This is known as source amnesia. It can also lead people to forget whether a statement is true.

The Swift Boat phenomenon.

Over the period of time – perhaps months – memories move from short-term hippocampal memory to long-term cortical storage. The source and credibility fade of that information fades. But its implications gain strength.

That may be why – over a period of weeks during the 2004 presidential campaign – the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth campaign against Senator John Kerry had a negative effect on his popularity.

That’s why 18 percent of Americans think the sun revolves around the earth.

That’s why ten percent of of Americans think Senator Barack Obama is a Muslim, even though he is a Christian.

Campaign strategists know that if the message is memorable, it will resonate long after it has been debunked.

We also tend to remember information that matches up with our own views and discount contradictory information. This works emotionally too, as ideas can spread by their emotional appeal rather than by factual merits.

The authors of “Welcome To Your Brain…” wrote about lies and your brain recently in the New York Times.

Wang is an associate professor of molecular biology and neuroscience at Princeton and Aamodt is a former editor in chief of Nature Neuroscience.

How intelligence is influenced by genes and the environment.

The book explains how the human brain processes information, regulates our emotions and forms memories. They also cover topics such as how intelligence is influenced by genes and the environment, the differences between the brains of men and women and what happens when we dream.

Plus the book provides some good advice about how to stay brain healthy as you get older.

Click here to visit their blog.

We’ve got some games on our web site – Brain Games Software - to help you stay mentally stimulated and keep your brain healthy.

A study which seems very important and involved millions of people, showed that those people taking ACE inhibitors (medication for reducing blood pressure) rather than other blood pressure lowering tablets were 40% less likely to get dementia and 45% less likely to develop other serious consequences of dementia. The research was presented at a conference in Chicago by a research group from the Boston University School of medicine. I don't have the methodology details but it should be very interesting to keep an eye on this research.

Psychiatrists doing less psychotherapy

The big story of the week was some research showing that psychiatrists are doing less psychotherapy and more prescribing which was published in the Archives of General Psychiatry. This may reflect a changing role of psychiatrists.

Psychiatry in the Olympics

The British Cycling Team are bringing along forensic psychiatrist Steve Peters to China in the hope of achieving some ambitious medal winning goals. Dr Peters is himself a veteran athlete medal winner and has coached the England Rugby Team and several top olympic athletes. Best of luck!

Prodromal Alzheimer's Disease and Atrophy

In the journal Neurology, Desikan and colleagues published a study (e-publication) on the prodromal phase of Alzheimer's Disease (the phase leading up to Alzheimer's Disease). This is an important phase as it is here that preventative measures would be expected to be most effective. The difficulty is in identifying people who will go on to develop Alzheimer's Disease. In this study which involved 66 subjects, the researchers used MRI to look at changes in the brain over time.  They found that those those who converted to Alzheimer's Disease had a greater rate of shrinkage in five areas of the brain compared to those who did not. These areas included the hippocampus and entorhinal cortex - areas classically associated with memory. These results may contribute to the development of preventative strategies.

Schizophrenia

Research in the Archives of General Psychiatry suggests that Oestrogens may be helpful in reducing symptoms of schizophrenia. There is evidence that psychotic symptoms (e.g. hallucinations) can change during pregnancy and after the menopause. The researchers administered an oestrogen patch and found a reduction in symptoms.

Depression

A study in the Archives of General Psychiatry provides evidence to suggest that genetic factors may lead to people being more likely to do exercise and having less depressive and anxiety symptoms. The study involved just under 6000 twins and over 2600 relatives. The author's findings are suggestive of exercise not leading to improvement in depressive or anxiety symptoms. However such findings need to be replicated using other research paradigms. Also exercise has many health benefits.

Autism

In the Archives of General Psychiatry, Jones et al, have examined autistic children, other children with developmental delay and children without these conditions. They found that children with autism were more likely to look at people's mouths than eyes compared to controls. Another study in Neuropsychologia by Riby and Hancock and reported on by neurocritic suggests that children with autism spend less time looking at the eyes and that children with Williams Syndrome spend more time. This is an interesting result because the general social abilities of people with Williams Syndrome and autism are usually contrasted although this contrast is too simplistic.

Disclaimer

The comments made here represent the opinions of the author and do not represent the profession or any body/organisation. The comments made here are not meant as a source of medical advice and those seeking medical advice are advised to consult with their own doctor.

The yellow areas, Schuff explained during his presentation at the city's Veterans Affairs Medical Center, showed where the hippocampus, which plays major roles in short-term memory and emotions, had atrophied.

"But we're still in the infancy of neuroimaging," Schuff cautioned later in his office. "Do you get PTSD because you have a small hippocampus? Or does a small hippocampus mean you'll develop PTSD? That, we still don't know."

The finding that the hippocampus possibly shrinks due to PTSD is very similar to the findings in depressed patients. Patients who have major depression also tend to lose brain mass in the hippocampus over the course of their illness. Antidepressant drugs have been shown to increase neurogenesis in the hippocampus, so I would imagine they might be able to stop or reverse this process in PTSD patients.

Brain Injury Lawyer is a blog about brain disorders, brain injury, brain injury lawyers and brain injury law.

it is, undoubtedly, a side effect of the chemo: ARA-C (aka. cytarabine) is known to damage the cerebellum, which is the part of the brain that controls movement. when receiving high-doses of ARA-C in the hospital, the doctors keep an eye on the state of my cerebellum by giving me silly tests, e.g. touching my finger to my nose and then to one of their fingers (which they move around), having me sign a piece of paper before and after the dose, or putting my heel to my shin and moving it down toward my ankle. some of these are completely useless. for example, my signature looks like the scribble that my 3 year old niece makes--i could have half of my cerebellum blown out and they still wouldn't be able to determine so by looking at my signature. so next time, i think i have a better test...i'll just stick out my finger.

note: as person with a degree in brain science (an ms in bs), i know that there are TONS of useless neurons sitting in the cerebellum. like literally, these guys sit there and ONLY fire in the off chance that your toe touches your shoulder-blade. so i'm hopeful that these neurons will be recruited (its called plasticity) to fix my twitching problem before someone mistakes me for an 80 year old man.

note for other bs-ers: in my induction round of chemo (where i was put on 24hr chemo for 7 days), i had aaa--what's that word...oh right, an aphasic stroke!!! it was minor, but for several seconds, i couldn't think of the word to describe how i was feeling to my nurse. my broca's area has never been the same. oh, and another thing--my hippocampus has been effected too (storage and retrieval)! so if you guys need me for a brain lesion study, i'm game! call me subject LT.

This past year has been a notable one for the restoration of the garden. One of the most visible changes has been the return of architectural detail to the garden; statuary, cisterns, furniture and metalwork that were either in disrepair or no longer existing have been painstakingly restored or recreated to help us recapture the feel of a historic garden.

The Hippocampus is once again center-stage as a feature of the fountain display in the Reflecting Pool and the newly placed Sundial helps emphasize the half-circle landing on the Reflecting Pool staircase.

A bench, bird bath, gates and cistern provide the formal detail that complements the new plantings of the Box Scroll Garden. Missing finials on the railings were replaced and painted.

The Loggia at the East Terrace has seen the return of the shipbreak furniture, a cistern complete with working water feature and chandelier. The lighting on the Porch of the Dupont Dining Room, across from the Loggia, is also enhanced by the addition of three chandeliers.

The plants outside of the Conservatory are anchored by a pair of newly placed cisterns at either end of the flagstone patio.

An extraordinary amount of time and craftsmanship has gone into the replacement of these features and is a result of the generous support of our donors, the craftsmanship of A. Thayer Smith and Heritage Metalworks, and the efforts of our own Winterthur staff.

As the BBC report describes, driving a cab in London is difficult and demands a well-developed knowledge of urban geography:

In order to drive a traditional black cab in London drivers have to gain "the knowledge" - an intimate acquaintance with the myriad of streets in a six-mile radius of Charing Cross.

It can take around three years of hard training, and three-quarters of those who embark on the course drop out, according to Malcolm Linskey, manager of London taxi school Knowledge Point. "There are 400 prescribed runs which you can be examined on but in reality, you can be asked to join any two points," he told BBC News Online.

As the BBC story explains, this on-the-job geographic education has distinctive, observable effects on the way that the cabbies' brains seem to handle geographic information. In particular, the extensive training seems to affect the actual size and shape of the hippocampus.

The tests found the only area of the taxi drivers' brains that was different from the 50 other "control" subjects was the left and right hippocampus.

Dr Maguire said: "One particular region of the hippocampus, the posterior or back, was bigger in the taxi drivers. The front of the hippocampus was smaller in the taxi drivers compared to the controls. This is very interesting because we now see there can be structural changes in healthy human brains." [Again, I've taken out some of the paragraph returns.]

Prof. Maguire's earlier research has covered a range of related topics, including studies of the navigational abilities of cabbies with hippocampal lesions (turns out that they lose track of side streets but not primary arteries); whether bus drivers' brains develop in similar ways (short answer: no); and whether the hippocampus is helping navigation by remembering geography or plotting spatial relations (short answer: seems like it's mapping). (Note: the lead author on the last article is Dr. Dharshan Kumaran, who according to the University College London website is a former clinical research fellow continuing his clinical training at King's College Hospital, London.)

This research on London cabbies has a number of interesting implications for neuroanthropology:
1) Other groups of people with extensive working geographical knowledge likely have similar brain development (although London cabbies may have a particular well-developed geographical sense -- I don't know). That is, foraging peoples, migrating herders, Aboriginal groups who have elaborate geographical systems of social memory and mythology might have brains that allocate additional resources to spatial memory. The shift in the hippocampus may be a pervasive developmental trait in cultures, professions, or other roles that demand this kind of knowledge.

However, one thing that I really like about Prof. Maguire's research is that she has also looked at how the cabbies remember "the knowledge" of London geography. That is, her papers suggest that the cabbies are actually remembering geographic places rather than plotting spatial relations among them when they navigate. We might find that other groups with extensive geographical memory solve this problem in a different fashion. The evidence from ethnographic work (such as in the collection, Senses of Place, by Steven Feld and Keith Basso) is that there are significant differences in modes of remembering of places. For example, in Feld's extensive research on the Kaluli, song seems to be crucial to remembering paths, traveled or imagined, between landmarks in the Papuan rainforest; in Basso's work on Western Apache storytelling, places seem more tightly tied to particular stories. These performative differences in remembering might be linked to distinct neurological strategies for recalling geography.

2) Spatial knowledge is frequently treated as a form of 'intelligence,' with some theorists arguing it is largely fixed. The data from Prof. Maguire's research would certainly cast substantial doubts on this conclusion, perhaps even on some sex differences in brain structure. Again, it's not clear; men's and women's brains might respond differently to the same long-term stimuli when it comes to processing spatial or geographic information (again, they might even store the information differently), or some differences may be the result of long-term patterns of training and use.

I'd be deeply suspicious of naturalizing any gender differences in geography without substantial comparative data. I know that my wife, for example, has uncanny spatial and geographic sense, in part because her knowledge of the New South Wales countryside is so damn extensive, and also because of her background in outdoor education, where orienteering and long-distance hiking are essential. How she recalls space and directions might be very different than they way that I do.

In Salvador, I was always struck by the way that vertical displacement affected people's sense of distance and proximity. Because the city is shot through with very steep hills, many of which are very hard to traverse (or even dangerous), low-lying areas and ridge-top regions are 'separated' in many people's sense of geography. Only by learning to navigate the bus routes in low-lying areas was I able to begin traveling about the city quickly, but I sense that in doing so, I had to learn to navigate social spaces that many upper-class Baianos (the residents) didn't really frequent at all. In other words, geography was organized by routes of travel, and it was definitely a learnable, flexible skill, differentiated more by experience and social boundaries than by innate ability.

Das sogenannte "Zwei-Hemisphären-Modell" ist so beliebt wie falsch (Scheier, Held, Wie Werbung wirkt (2006), S.26f, Haufe). Die Verzahnung der beiden Gehirnhälften ist mit über 200 Mio. Nervenfasern so groß, dass kaum von unabhängigen Hirnhälften gesprochen werden kann.

Außerdem besitzen beide Hirnhälften sowohl emotionale, als auch rational kognitive Hirnstrukturen. Als Beispiel sei hier die Amygdala (Mandelkern) genannt, eines der wichtigsten Emotionszentren in unserem Gehirn. Sie sitzt in beiden Hirnhälften und außerdem direkt neben einer rational kognitiven Zentrale, dem Hippocampus.

Die Verzahnunug und Verbindung von Kognition und Emotion ist so groß, dass eine Trennung dieser beiden nicht möglich ist.

Aus dieser Annahme ergeben sich wichtige Neuannahmen: 1. wird immer gefolgert, dass es lediglich zwei Zugänge ins menschliche Gehirn gibt:

1. der sprachlich-rationale Zugang
2. der bildlich-emotionale Zugang

Diese Annahme ist jedoch falsch. Wie ich in späteren Artikeln noch zeigen möchte, gibt es vier Zugänge in unser Gehirn.

2. Die Hirnforschung konnte auch zeigen, dass alle Informationen, die in unser Gehirn gelangen ohne Ausnahme emotional bewertet werden und es keine rein rationalen Vorgänge gibt.

Hier wird auch die Bedeutung des Neuromarketing klar. Denn die Erkenntnisse, die diese Wissenschaft bereits in ihren Anfängen mit sich bringt, zwingen uns zum Umdenken und eröffnen damit völlig neue Chancen.

It consists of a complex set of structures lying on both sides and underneath the thalamus, including the hypothalamus, hippocampus, and amygdala.

Emotions involve the entire nervous system, with two parts of particular importance - the limbic system and autonomic nervous system. These interconnect with the brain's pleasure center and can be stimulated naturally during sex and exercise or by recreational drugs such as opiates and cocaine. It is also linked to the prefrontal cortex which is involved in thinking about the future, making plans, and taking action. Some scientists contend that this connection is related to the pleasure obtained from solving problems.

In the past, very severe emotional disorders were treated by separation of the pre-frontal lobe, during psychosurgery(pre-frontal lobotomy). Patients who underwent this procedure often became passive and lacked all motivation.

There is also evidence, the limbic system helps maintain a healthy conscious state of mind.

In my opinion, one of the best resources for anything and everything is the internet . If you are under the age of 35, you probably spend at least one hour every day on the internet. After searching through countless web pages in my cyber-surfing career, I've stumbled upon lots of great resources to learn about almost anything. Here they are (in alphabetical order):

• Tell Me More - Language learning software available for free through MCPL . If you have a library card (they're free, too), then you can enter your card number here , and gain access to the software. I'm using it to brush up on my French and learn some Spanish, and so far it's great. Tell Me More teaches language mainly through listening, so it is good for learning conversational language, which is arguably the most important of language skills. In addition, you can learn business language (instead of conversational), which I haven't tested, but is probably also great. For help with the software, click here . If you don't live in Montgomery County click here for a free trial.
• Wikipedia - The free encyclopedia is probably the best resource on the web. If you have never used it, try it now. If you don't use it because of fact validity concerns, know that for every three errors on a href="http://www.wikipedia.org/"> Wikipedia , there are two on Encyclopedia Britannica . The biggest difference between the two is the amount of information. Encyclopedia Britannica has only 228,274 articles, while the English edition of Wikipedia boasts a whooping 2,431,178. Additionally, Wikipedia includes References and External Links, bringing even more information closer to you. For a challenge, try reading it in another language!
• Google News - Another one of Google's great tools. Google News brings you news from more than 4,500 different news sources all around the world. Google News also creates a selection of personalized news stories to match your interests. You can also search news archives that date back 200 years. Simply spending a half minute scanning the news headlines will get you more up to date on current events in the United States and around the world.
• HippoCampus - Need help with homework? Hippocampus has hundreds of articles sorted by subject, class, and topics. It also has links to thousands of textbook articles, sorted by subject, textbook, and page or section order. Many of the articles have been summarized into flash presentations, making them just a little bit more fun. If you can't find your textbook, or want help from another textbook on the same topic, then the tool can be infinitely useful. Overall, HippoCampus is one of the best free tools out there for homework or exam review in an efficient, easy to use format. Do yourself a favor, bookmark it now so you'll be ready for September!
• Wikihow - The how-to manual that anyone can edit! Wikihow isn't the most qualified resource, but all of the articles are full of advice from people just like you. Be warned, there are some articles on Wikihow that outline dangerous tasks, for which you might want to consult a more valid resource. But, if it's just an everyday question or a skill you've always wanted to learn, go right ahead!
• HTML is Easy - Need help with HTML , Javascript , or CSS ? It's all in the same place with HTML is Easy. For more help, download Amaya , an open source web page editor similar to Dreamweaver. Additionally, Visibone's Color Lab can help you decide on a color scheme.
• Wikileaks - A database of the latest "leaked documents alleging government and corporate misconduct". Wikileaks is a way for anyone to disclose a document anonymously to the public. There are tons of documents, along with analysis done by professionals and normal people. Whether you're cracking down on the latest government scandal, or just surfing around, Wikileaks is sure to impress. For more information about Wikileaks click here .
• AltaVista Babel Fish Translation - A quick translation tool. Babel Fish translates blocks of text and web pages quickly and fairly accurately. It's not perfect, but it's still understandable after translation. You can also use Altavista's main page to search images , audio , videos , or news in English or Spanish.

I hope you learn something new!

Why?

Because exercise stimulates the creation of new neurons in the hippocampus, which is crucial for forming new memories. And exercise counters the shrinking of the prefrontal cortex which is the part of your brain that manages concentration and working memory.

Halpern’s not just an advice giver. She’s a nature writer and novelist and gets deeply involved in the topic. She undergoes brain scans, takes batteries of cognitive tests, visits the labs of leading neuroscientists and tracks drug-development efforts.

Some of the material in the book comes from a 2005 New Yorker article in which she writes about going with a team of researchers from the Taub Institute for Research on Alzheimer's Disease as they gather data in the Dominican Republic, testing and interviewing people to build extended family trees.

“Can’t Remember What I Forgot,” is subtitled “The Good News From the Front Lines of Memory Research.” It doesn’t have a lot of good news but it’s a down-to-earth look at memory research.

You can also read a review in the New York Times Book Review.

Need a rest after that brisk walk? How about playing some solitaire on your PC. We’ve got a 100 or so variations on our web site, Brain Games Software.

The association cortex which makes up the unspecified areas of the cerebral cortex, is concerned with consciousness—awareness of self and the ability to think about the past and imagine the future.

The association areas called frontal lobes play a key role in such human capabilities as solving problems, planning, and relating the past to the present.

The hippocampus appears to be essential in transforming new information into semantic and episodic memories, but not procedural memories.

In what ways does the brain grow and develop after birth?

How do the left and right hemispheres differ?

The right hemisphere of the brain deals with the left side of the body. The left hemisphere controls the right side of the body and the use of language; in most people, it is the dominant hemisphere.

The two hemispheres are in constant communication through the corpus callosum, a thick cable of interconnecting neurons.

Experiments with patients whose corpus callosum has been cut—split-brain patients—indicate that the left hemisphere specializes in individual items of information, logic, and reasoning; the right hemisphere specializes in information about from, space, music, and entire patterns and is the intuitive half of the brain.

Here is a conversation. Find the problem.

Person A: "I've started walking eight blocks to the bus station and then riding to work to cut back on greenhouse emissions."

Person B: "So now how much do you walk every day?"

Person A [thinks, "Yikes--bad at math"]: "Eight to the bus, eight back. Sixteen total."

Try this one. Discover the hidden meaning:

Every day I walk past a gym. Through the row of windows of the gym I see a row of people on treadmills walking toward the windows and me walking past outside.

And we'll end with a multiple choice. Pick one.

I walk

a. because I feel guilty about my contribution to climate change.

b. to lower my cholesterol.

c. to save money (can't afford the gas!).

d. because I'm a human.

If you didn't ace this test, gently put down your Wii console and head outside. If you're lucky enough to have a place to walk once you get out there, then start walking. If you don't have a sidewalk or a quiet road or a path, then carefully dodge the Hummers, Minivans, and Hemis whizzing down the six lane roads that surround you all the way to City Hall and demand something better.

Humans are bipeds. We are built to walk and to look ahead while we are walking. The walking is not just for tracking down nuts and berries. It's also for thinking and creating. When you walk, your brain settles into the rhythm of walking, which is the rhythm of dreaming.

The dreaming-walking connection is the focus of Gyorgi Buzsáki’s research (Rhythms of the Brain, Oxford University Press, 2006). Buzsáki discovered that the part of the brain known as the hippocampus is the locus of rhythm. In his research, a rat grooming itself shows only random neuronal firing in the hippocampus. But when the rat walks, the neurons exhibit a theta rhythm, the same as the rhythm shown during dreaming. When the rat stops walking (and is not dreaming), the theta rhythm is replaced by occasional, short bursts of oscillations.

If you need a guidebook on this one, I recommend the Songlines, which chronicles Bruce Chatwin's exploration of the Aboriginal songlines of the Australian Outback. But more than anything it is a book about walking and the way walking is embedded deep in our human souls. The best part is the second half which, oddly, consists mostly of notes from the notebooks Chatwin kept while in South Africa, not Australia. The majority of the notes are about the human need to move and about what that movement does for us.

The Aborigines kept track of their landscape through song. They would sing each landmark and turn so they would know where to go. It is their belief that during the Dreamtime, which preceded our known physical world, the spirits created everything through sung language. So the Aborigines replicated that act of creation as they moved through the world created for them.

I used to sing, and I find that there is for me as well a symbiosis between singing and walking. And there is a symbiosis between creating and walking. Like the spirits and like the Aborigines, I am able to create in my mind and I am able to find my way through the world on both a literal level and a metaphoric one through walking and the inner song that accompanies it. It has something to do with the type of thinking that is like dreaming, when our mind is free to wander, just like our bodies wander.

My friends in the green movement want to get us out of our cars and get the Chinese back on their bicycles to make less greenhouse gas. The effect will be good for the planet I'm sure. But we need to walk or bike mostly to make something, not to make less. What we need to make is a path back to ourselves, our old animal selves. We need to walk our way back into the heart of life, sensation and perception, and the measured pace of true wisdom.

If you can walk, walk. If you can only roll, then roll is what you need to do, down the sidewalk, under the sky. If you can't move at all, then dream yourself walking.

©2008 ProgressiveKid

Photo by Tobias (chaosinjune), 2006, Creative Commons license

Summary of findings

1. Normal factual memories are stored in one part of the brain, while traumatic emotional memories are stored somewhere else.

2. Chemicals in the brain that communicate among brain structures are significantly altered during trauma, and can remain so through years of PTSD. These changes can lead to long-term mood/behavior changes, depression, fear, impulsive aggression, inability to perceive/process events correctly, and dissociation.

2. After trauma (especially prolonged), the size of these brain structures decreases. The imbalance of chemicals affects storage of regular memories (causing amnesia).

3. The communication between these structures can be compromised. This prevents normal processing of the traumatic memories (stored separately), because now there is no "story" to connect the intense emotions to. So these emotions remain raw, explode at times, and seem to have no source. This causes a vicious cycle of triggers, flashbacks, and inappropriate activation of the fight-or-flight response.

4. In individuals with DID, the communication pathway between both sides of the brain can shrink. DID may be caused by extreme reduced communications between the hemispheres. Switches between alters may be associated with switches between left-to-right brain activation.

Scientific research has shown that it is possible to forget memories and experiences. That raw emotional trauma never goes away without processing. That dissociation is a powerful coping mechanism for the individual to survive during the trauma, and in some cases, for the rest of their lives.

That PTSD and DID may not really be "disorders" but just the normal consequence of abnormal situations.

There's a lot to cover. Let's get started.

What prompted this long researched post? I knew it would be complicated, but I had promised to write about research and findings related to the brain in DID. It was on the back burner until I read an interesting post by a woman with autism who met a woman with DID, and they found many similarities in their experiences. It really got me thinking about the many components that fall into place to foster the development of DID in childhood and to cement it through childhood and adulthood. It's not all in our head, it's in our brains.

There are studies coming up with a variety of neurochemical, neurological and patterning differences in those who develop DID. [Williams]

[P]sychological trauma may in fact induce neurological damage in humans [Gilbertson]

There are several areas we need to cover to be true to this topic, including how the brain develops in young children, how trauma affects this development, some basics of memory storage and how traumatic memories are stored in different places in the brain than regular memories, and how continued trauma or secondary traumas make matters worse. Because of the complexity of the topic, I will summarize and provide references for the interested reader to pursue more. Please forgive any oversimplications.

Lotsa ground to cover, so let's get started.

Some basic stuff about memories

To do this topic justice, I need to talk a bit about types of memories, and the structures in the brain associated with each. This is because amnesia, flashbacks, and DID are associated with lack of integration of different types of memories, and/or changes in the associated brain structures.

Declarative memory (long term memory) is the autobiographical stuff. The "movie" of your life. It is conscious memory and the ability to reason and recall events. Two types of declarative memory exist - episodic, which is your memory of events, and semantic, which is your memory for facts. The hippocampus is involved in filing away these memories.

Non-declarative memory is implicit memory related to storage of senses and emotions and "our ability to recall smells, feelings, images, sounds, and tastes". It is related to fear conditioning and unconscious fight-of-flight responses. This processing takes place mainly in the amygdala.

A major problem that arises with PTSD and DID are amnesia for events, and extreme emotional responses and hypervigilance often related to triggering. Research has shown that trauma interferes with declarative memory - recall of events - but does not inhibit non-declarative memory - the part that stores emotional responses and sensations related to those events. [van der Kolk] Therefore, the feelings of trauma do not fade over time as normal memories do, due to the disconnect between the autobiographical elements. These disconnected feelings of high arousal and terror are never processed, and so remain vivid to be triggered in response to minor stress. [van der Kolk]

Changes in brain chemistry

It appears that the problems with the disconnect in the declarative and non-declarative memories is associated with a barrage of chemicals in the brain. So let's talk about some of these chemicals that are involved in stress and the response to stress. [Kendell] An overview will help see how changes in these chemicals can affect growing brain function, which I will talk about in the next section.

Neurotransmitters are chemicals that neurons use to communicate with one another. This list is not comprehensive, but includes the major players.

Cortisol: a stress-regulating hormone.

Serotonin, dopamine: neurotransmitters affecting mood and behavior.

Norepinephrine and epinephrine : neurotransmitters affecting mood and behavior, creating the familiar fight/flight/freeze trauma response.

Glutamate: The above neurotransmitters are inhibitory, while glutamate is excitatory. A balance of these are required for organized perception of events.

In normal stress, these chemicals allow an individual to mobilize and "with greater endurance, strength, immunity, and clarity". [Diehl]

So what goes wrong?

However, overwhelming stress, especially early in life, alters the production of these chemicals. Levels of cortisol are decreased in veterans and rape victims with PTSD. Norepinephrine and epinephrine are elevated, serotonin is decreased.

Prolonged exposure to cortisol and its derivatives causes "behavioral consequences of changes in social behavior, insufficiency of active avoidance learning" [Chundler], and changes have been observed with depression, trauma, fear, etc. Abuse can also lower serotonin levels, "leading to depression and impulsive aggression."

High levels of glutamate during trauma lead to "impaired perception at the time of trauma, as well as altered coding of memory" [Banks] "Drugs that block one subtype of glutamate (N-methyl-d-aspartate, or NMDA) produce dissociative symptoms." [Morgan]

New research shows that neurotransmitters that stimulate the release of GABA (gamma amino butyric acid) also increase dissociation.

With trauma, the imbalance of these chemicals interferes with the storage of declarative memories (the story of what happened).

Therefore, traumatic memories are stored in the implicit form, as emotions and senses. As practitioners, we have become accustomed to our clients remembering their experiences in pieces, and virtually "shutting down" as they attempt to re-tell their stories. Survivors become haunted by feelings and senses they know are related to the trauma, but have great difficulty clearly identifying the source(s).

This promotes a vicious cycle in which the body is unable to assess danger signals and reacts to any direct or indirect reminder of the trauma as a potential re-victimization, even if the reminder is completely non-threatening. These triggers bring overwhelming emotions and sometimes flashbacks and panic attacks which in-turn cause the body to return to the emergency chemical response. These continual "flight or fight" reactions bring base-level psychobiological changes [Diehl]

Developmental neurobiology and changes with trauma

We talked about chemicals, now let's talk about some structures in the brain that are associated with memory storage and retrieval, and how they are affected by these changes in brain chemistry. The structure of the brain changes with the accumulation of memories and experiences, both good and bad. It also has the amazing ability to connect multiple aspects of a specific experience - the sight, sounds, smell, etc., and generalize the effects for use in current or future events. [Perry] But this amazing ability relies on appropriate communications among several brain structures.

A leader in research in this area is Martin Teicher, who has provided physical evidence childhood trauma "dramatically affects both the structure and chemistry of the developing brain." He reported in 1993 that brain abnormalities were found in 54% of children with histories of physical abuse, but only in 27 of non-abused children. Add sexual abuse to the equation, and the number jumps to 72%. His theory is based on the "cascade effect" of how trauma and stress (including changes in the chemicals listed above) lead to brain abnormalities.

So, to the major structures in the brain:

1. The hippocampus - helps process the declarative memories and emotions and critical for learning. It is part of the limbic system and allows individuals to "process normal memories and manage the emotions associated with them. [Spiegel] WIth PTSD, reduced activation in the hippocampus leads to improper storage and/or processing and recall of these autobiographical memories - amnesia for traumatic events. [Chapman] In addition, increased levels of glutamate may cause cell damage in the hippocampus [Banks]. To corroborate this, left-hippocampus is smaller in abuse victims who are diagnosed with DID. [Tiecher] (More on this later.)

2 The amygdala - is associated with unconscious storage and processing of emotions and initiating the flight-or-flight response. It is a cluster of nuclei near the brain's emotional control center. It is part of the limbic system and is associated with fear in response to sensory inputs (visual, auditory, etc). It can stimulate in a near instant in response in the sympathetic nervous system.

The amygdala doesn't appear to activate with recall of normal events. However, when the amygdala modulates hippocampal activity, memories can be enhanced. Lesions in the amygdala have eliminated conditioned fear. Fear conditioning actually causes changes in plasticity of the amygdala. With PTSD the amygdala becomes hypersensitive, explaining why memories can feel so powerful. [Chapman]

Additionally, the hippocampus does interact with the amygdala, so events with a strong emotional content involve both the hippocampus and the amygdala. A great example is when you heard about 9-11. You remember where you were, what happened, and the emotions you felt. A normal stress response was activated, but not abnormal enough to cause the facts to be separated from the emotional recall (unless you were at the scene or somehow very intimately involved).

While some stress strengthens the system, "childhood sexual abuse does the opposite: it sensitizes the individual to subsequent stressors decades later." [Spiegel] Repeated abuse causes increased irritability of the limbic system, which causes the amygdala to signal danger even when there is no apparent threat. Temper tantrums and crying spells are symptoms of a constantly firing amygdala. Decreased size correlates with increased depression and irritability. Dr. Bruce Perry, a neuroscientist who heads the nonprofit research center, the Child Trauma Academy in Houston reports,

''A maladaptive amygdala makes an abused child recoil in fear at the drop of a hat.''

3. Cerebellar vermis - structure between the cerebellar lobes that is linked proprioception and the information regarding the body's movement through space. Trauma causes reduced activity in this area.

4. The cortex - associated with rational thinking and critical for learning. Includes the medial pre-frontal cortex (orbitofrontal cortex and anterior cingulate): Exerts some regulatory control over the amygdala. [Banks] Damage causes a decrease in self-reflection and self-awareness, and an increase in emotional instability and apathy.

5. Corpus collosum - thick "highway" band of neurons connecting the left and right hemispheres of the brain. Decreased myelination (sheath around neural axons that is required for proper signaling among neurons) decreases the thickness of the corpus collosum and decreases the integration of these two hemispheres. So what does this mean?

" In one study, adults with no history of abuse showed bilateral involvement in memory of both neutral and traumatic memories, while adults with a childhood trauma history showed activation of the left hemisphere during neutral memories with a marked shift to right hemisphere activation with disturbing memories"

Early exposure to stress causes the following, according to Teicher's cascade model:

1. Stress-response systems are activated. This changes their molecular organization by changing their sensitivity and response bias. This means normal responses to stressors can be exaggerated. "Increased fearfulness and anxiety and enhanced hormonal response to stress." (See full article for the gory details.)

2. Changes in stress hormones affects normal childhood development (e.g., myelination, programmed cell death, and genesis of new neurons and synapses).

3. Different brain regions have different sensitivity, partly due to genetics, gender, timing, rate of development and density of glucocorticoid receptors.

And finally, he proposes that these changes "increase vulnerability to neuropsychiatric consequences, including dissociative identity disorder."

So what about this left brain/right brain stuff?

Since one aspect of the development of DID involves decreased communication between the left and right hemispheres of the brain, let's recall a bit about that first.

Some of these topics can get complicated, and I am amused and pleased to find that there are a few websites that explain some complicated science ideas for kids. Chundler's Neuroscience for kids - Hemispheres is just such a page. It explains split-brain experiments and summarize the basic functions of each hemisphere.

The dominant functions for the left hemisphere include language, math and logic. Right brain dominant functions include spatial abilities, face recognition, visual imagery, and music. Now, these are not set in stone, and surgeons will often test for specific areas for language, for example, before performing brain surgery to make sure they avoid damaging important areas. [Chundler]

Why is this important? Well, during development of the brain from birth through about five years old, extensive changes to the size of the brain, the number of neurons, and their connectivity occur. Myelination increases brain size - this is the creation of layers around neural cells which increase the speed of information processing. Neurons connect to one another for communication (synaptic connections), and the connectivity is dependent upon our experiences in childhood. We start with many more neurons than we need, and about 50% are programmed to die as connections are established. [Chunder]

These changes that occur in the brain during development are called plasticity, and this nature decreases over time. An interesting and important aspect is that the decrease in plasticity over time is different for different systems in the brain. Some areas of the cortex continue to reorganize with experience until late in life, while others such as language centers are less likely to change. [Perry]

Trauma affects this normal development. These changes are not easily reversed, which is why trauma that occurs before the age of about five tends to facilitate the development of DID.

Dissociative identity disorder may be a result of an extreme of reduced hemispheric integration. One study indicated that patients diagnosed with DID had a much greater degree of left hemisphere activation. It is theorized that switches between identities may be related to transition to a right hemisphere dominant mode. [Teicher]

Another proposal

Putnum proposes a different model that the orbitalfrontal cortex (OFC) is the locus of this fragmented consciousness, or dissociative states. She bases this on the idea that normally children integrate different behavioral states to create an integrated "sense of self." But, trauma affects this integration and consolidation.

Forrest adds to this. She proposes that because dopamine and norepinephrine are primary neurotransmitters in the OFC, that their disregulation affects the OFC's role in "healthy adult humans to be conscious of and have mental representations of their past, present and future subjective experiences."

Since DID is associated with amnesia and splitting off of experiences, the OFC is involved. [Forrest]

Neuroimaging

In the quest for more facts and concrete evidence, researchers have turned to brain imaging techniques to look for differences in individuals with and without DID, and also for the same individual in different alter states.

Neuroimaging studies such as PET scans and fMRI studies have purported to show the brain areas involved in personality switching and differential access of different personality states to autobiographical memories of childhood trauma.

Tsai reported fMRI (functional magnetic imaging) study with one woman who could control a switch between two personalities. fMRI allows imaging of the brain during functional tasks, to see what areas of the brain change, in real time. While the study is small and the woman had a dual diagnosis of PTSD and DID, he observed a significantly smaller hippocampal volume than normal.

This study suggests that personality switches in DID may be produced by alterations in hippocampal and temporal function.

Another study by Reinders use a PET (positive emission tomography) scanner to study the patterns of brain activation in 11 women with DID. Each could switch between one of two personalities - one that was "traumatic" and the other "neutral". A traumatic personality was defined as one with access to the trauma, while the neutral personality was either amnesic to the event, or reacted "as if the event did not happen to them."

Scripts of traumatic and nontraumatic events were read to each participant and personality. The trauma scripts produced an inhibition of activity in several areas of the brain, including the temperal lobes, suggesting that the neutral personalities had difficulty recognizing the trauma as their own. This "blocking", as Reinders reiterates, is a normal defense mechanism to allow survivors to function somewhat normally. In addition, a difference in cerebral blood flow was noted. The authors conclude:

Our results indicate the possibility of one human brain to generate at least two distinct states of self-awareness, each with its own access to autobiographical trauma-related memory, with explicit roles for the medial prefrontal cortex and the posterior associative cortices in the representation of these different states of consciousness.

Individuals who are dissociating have lower activity in areas of the brain surrounding the hippocampus when they listen to accounts of their traumas. Processing of the memories and incorporating the emotional content are hindered. [Lanius]

Using MRI, a decrease in both hippocampal volume (19.2%) and amygdalar volume (31.6%) was observed in subjects with dissociative identity disorder as compared to the healthy subjects. The difference was statistically significant. [Vermetten]

Thoughts

Regarding these experiments - several researchers have commented that cause and effect has not been established. It may be possible that stress causes smaller hippocampal and amygdala volumes, or that smaller hippocampal and amygdalavolumes make an individual more susceptible to PTSD [Gilbertson] and DID. Or even that larger volumes may be associated with a protective effect. [Vermetten]

Two heads are not better than one when they share the same brain. The fragmentation of mental function that can occur after a series of traumatic experiences may both protect a person from distress and make it harder for the individual to put the trauma into perspective. As we come to appreciate the complexity of neural development, we also understand that early life experiences have a profound effect on the developing brain. [Spiegel]

Can these changes be undone?

Ta da! There is a biological basis for this psychological disorder! But can they be undone?

Wow - the question of the century.

I read an interesting article in Discover this month about the renewed interest in the use of Schedule 1 drugs such as psilocybin (the psychoactive ingredient in the hallucinogenic mushrooms), LSD, and MDMA (3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine or Ecstasy) on people with severe PTSD. [Marsa]

The cornerstone of PTSD treatment involves reliving the trauma in a way that enables patients to process their fears in a rational way. But by definition, revisiting the experience can be frightening, and people often become locked in the grip of intense anxiety.

The drug MDMA, a chemical cousin of mescaline and methamphetamine, can kindle intense euphoria or sublime seren­ity, creating a calming therapeutic environment in which to revisit trauma. [Marsa]

Studies have shown positive effects with individuals with trauma, reducing symptoms dramatically in a little as two sessions. [Marsa, Newton]

This idea is not new and was explored with some great success in the 1960's and 70's with veterans. LSD and other psychedelics were legally sanctioned for use to treat individuals with a range of psychiatric issues such as "schizophrenia, autism, drug addiction, alcoholism, and chronic depression...heroin addition, alcoholism."

While the exact effect is not known, these drugs simulate the release of seratonin, dopamine, and norepinephrine, stimulate an array of brain structures: "the prefrontal cortex, which is the center of executive functioning; limbic regions such as the amygdala that govern our emotional life and the formation of memories" [Marsa]

Are we just fragmented computer systems?

Some researchers are attempting to show reversal of these observed psychobiological changes in animal studies after anectodal evidence with patients suggests this may be possible. [Kendell]

The brains of adult survivors are fragmented and resemble a hard drive on a computer that has crashed. [Oak]

Ouch. I agree with the reference up to the part where the hard drive "crashes." That implies that the data cannot be recovered. Instead, I'd like to suggest an alternative analogy which may be more "techyy" but I think more descriptive:

The brains of adult survivors are fragmented and resemble a hard drive on a computer that needs to be defragmented. Clusters may be forever lost, but some files can be reconstructed.

Too bad, though, that we can't be defragged as easily and quickly as our computers by selecting Accessories -> System Tools -> Disk Defragmenter.

References

Chudler EH. (2006). Neuroscience for kids - Hemispheres. Accessed from http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/split.html

Banks A (Summary by Patricia Papernow) (2004). Relational Approach to the Neurobiology of PTSD and Dissociation: Can medications enhance therapeutic effectiveness? Presentation to NESTTD Society for the Treatment of Trauma and Dissociation's Annual Meeting, accessed from http://www.nesttd.org/Amy%20Bank%20Summary.htm

The Biological Psychology of Dissociative Identity Disorder: Developmental Neurobiology of DID, accessed from http://home.earthlink.net/~maiziekelly/DevNeuro.htm

The Biological Psychology of Dissociative Identity Disorder: Neurobiologial Etiology of DID, accessed from http://home.earthlink.net/~maiziekelly/EtiolDID.htm

Chapman H. (???) Emotion and memory. Guest Lecture, University of Toronto, accessed from http://www.psych.utoronto.ca/users/ferber/Emotionandmemory.pdf

Diehl ES (). Psychobiology of Trauma, from the Florida Council of Sexual Abuse Services newsletter, accessed from http://www.healing-arts.org/tir/n-r-diehl.htm

Donna William's Blog. (2006). Losing Time - Dissociative Identity Disorder and the real time travellers, accessed from http://blog.donnawilliams.net/2006/03/16/losing-time-dissociative-identity-disorder-and-the-real-time-travellers/

Forrest KA. (2001). Toward an etiology of dissociative identity disorder: a neurodevelopmental approach. Consciousness and Cognition, 10, 259-293.

Gilbertson MW. (2002). Smaller Hippocampal Volume Predicts Pathologic Vulnerability to Psychological Trauma, Nature Neuroscience, 2002, 5 (11), 1242-1247, accessed from http://www.trauma-pages.com/a/gilbertson-2002.php

Kendell J. (2002). How child abuse and neglect damage the brain, Boston Globe, accessed from http://www.snapnetwork.org/psych_effects/how_abuse_andneglect.htm

Lanius, RA, et al. Brain Activation during Script-Driven Imagery Induced Dissociative Responses in PTSD: A Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging Investigation. Biological Psychiatry 2002; 52(4): 305-311.

Marsa L. (2008). Could an Acid Trip Cure Your OCD? Researchers are again using mind-bending drugs as a means of treating mental disorders. Discovery Magazine, 5-16-2008, accessed from http://discovermagazine.com/2008/jun/16-could-an-acid-trip-cure-your-ocd/article_view?b_start:int=0&-C=

Newton C. (2001). FDA OKs Clinical Testing of Ecstasy, The Associated Press, Tuesday, Nov. 6, 2001; 9:52 p.m. EST, accessed from http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/aponline/20011106/aponline215233_000.htm

Morgan, CA, et al. Symptons of Dissociation in Healthy Military Populations: Why and How Do War Fighters Differ in Responses to Intense Stress? In E Vermetten, MJ Dorahy, and D Spiegel, eds., Traumatic Dissociation Neurobiology and Treatment, 157-179. Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Publishing, 2007.

Oak A. (2002), Survivors Project, Greenfield, MA

Perry D. (1999). Memories of Fear: How the Brain Stores and Retrieves Physiologic States, Feelings, Behaviors and Thoughts from Traumatic Events, Trauma Child Academy, originally from "Splintered Reflections: Images of the Body in Trauma" (Edited by J. Goodwin and R. Attias) Basic Books (1999), accessed from http://www.childtrauma.org/ctamaterials/memories.asp

Putnam FW, Zahn TP, Post RM (1990). "Differential autonomic nervous system activity in multiple personality disorder". Psychiatry research 31 (3): 251-60. doi:10.1016/0165-1781(90)90094-L . PMID 2333357.

Reinders, A.A.T.S., Nijenhuis, E.R.S., Paans, A.M.J., Korf, J., Willemsen, A.T.M., and den Boer, J.A. (2003). One brain, two selves. Neuroimage, 20, 2119-2125.

Reinders, A.A.T.S., Nijenhuis, E.R.S., Quak J, et al. (2006). Psychobiological Characteristics in Dissociative Identity Disorder: A symptom provocation study, BIOL PSYCHIATRY 2006;60:730–740, accessed from http://hal.psych.uw.edu.pl/2006zalaczniki/did%20pet.pdf

Spiegel D. (2008). Coming Apart: Trauma and the Fragmentation of the Self, The Dana Foundation, accessed from http://www.dana.org/news/cerebrum/detail.aspx?id=11122

Teicher MH. (2002). Developmental neurobiology of childhood stress and trauma. Psychiatric Clinics of North America, 25, 397-426.

Tsai, Guochuan E. MD PhD, Condie, Donald MD, Wu, Ming-Ting MD, Chang, I-Wen BA. (1999). Functional magnetic resonance imaging of personality switches in a woman with dissociative identity disorder. Harvard Review of Psychiatry, 7, 119-122.

van der Kolk B (2002). The Body Keeps The Score: Memory & the Evolving Psychobiology of Post Traumatic Stress, Harvard Review of Psychiatry, 1994, 1(5), 253-265, accessed from http://www.trauma-pages.com/a/vanderk4.php

Vermetten E. (2006). Hippocampal and Amygdalar Volumes in Dissociative Identity Disorder, Am J Psychiatry 163:630-636, accessed online from http://ajp.psychiatryonline.org/cgi/content/full/163/4/630

Check out the size of your hippocampus – the part of your brain that takes care of memory. Because the bigger it is the better equipped it is to protect you against dementia, according to a recent study.

Something that has puzzled researchers.

Some people may die with sharp minds and perfect memories, yet, when autopsied, their brains are riddled with the plaques and tangles of Alzheimer's disease.

Researchers at Oregon Health and Science University in Portland compared the brains of 12 such people with 23 others who had similar levels of plaques, but had been diagnosed with Alzheimer's before death.

The lead researcher was Deniz Erten-Lyons, M.D.

Some of those studied died with sharp minds while others who showed no dementia symptoms. The hippocampus of those with no symptoms of dementia was, on average, 20% larger than those with symptoms.

It’s a small study but researchers have been looking for an explanation of why some people diagnosed with Alzheimer’s die with their cognitive functions fully intact.

Professor Clive Ballard of the Alzheimer's Society, noted that the study was consistent with research that has shown that “people with higher levels of education or cognitive reserve may be protected from some of the effects of dementia."

There’s more details on this study at these three links.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7348900.stm

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/04/080415154223.htm

http://www.suntimes.com/lifestyles/health/896387,brain041608.article

We’ve got some games on our website at braingamessoftware.com that will challenge your brain. They may not make it any bigger, but maybe a little better.

Background: We have worked to develop rich communicative environments as a way to study the real-world demands that communication places on language-and-memory-in-use by focusing on the impact of declarative memory impairments on social interaction. Here, we analyse procedural discourse - the practice of telling another person how to do something (e.g., giving directions).

Aims: To facilitate comparison to previous research on procedural discourse, this study includes an analysis of the procedural steps produced by target participants. This study also offers a novel approach by focusing on the collaborative and interactional nature of how procedural discourse is produced to meet the demands of real-world communication.

Methods and Procedures: Procedural discourse samples were obtained on nine individuals with hippocampal amnesia and nine comparison participants each interacting with a clinician. Using traditional procedural and linguistic-based measures and interactional discourse measures, we analysed target participants' individual contribution to procedural descriptions and contributions of both the clinician and participant across the samples.

Outcomes & Results: No significant group differences were observed for procedural and linguistic-based measures. Rather, participants with amnesia were more reliably distinguished on interactional discourse measures (e.g., lack of engagement and support for clinician, less detail and personalisation of procedural steps, difficulty in shifting social stance).

Conclusions: These findings accord with our previous research suggesting that hippocampal amnesia disrupts the flexible deployment of declarative knowledge and the ability to shift social stances/perspectives to meet the demands of social interaction. These findings contribute to the evolving portrait of language-and-memory-in-use and further support the value of examining interactional aspects of communication in the empirical study of brain-behaviour relationships.
We thank Michelle Nolan, Lisa Cardella, Sarah Chalva, Julie VeSota, and Emily Porter for generating and preparing transcriptions of the sessions. This study was supported by NIDCD grant 1F32DC008825, Program Project Grant NINDS NS 19632, NIMH grant RO1 MH062500, and a Mary Jane Neer Research Grant of the College of Applied Health Sciences at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Shortly after I went to sleep, the feelings started. Instead of my normally detailed narrative dreams, what I experienced had a content I couldn't quite reach. As if I was experiencing the body thrashings of someone else's nightmares.

My research took me from hypnagogia, to theta waves, amnesic memories, co-consciousness, and amazingly, back around to the multiplicity of unity that is Jung.

I awoke to feel myself breathing heavily, my husband still watching TV beside me. I lay hovering in the gray zone between sleep and wakefulness, knowing I had been in nightmare. Asleep and awake again, unable to keep awake long enough to reset the dream, inevitably falling back down into it.

The nightmare was in my body; my mind was a swirl. A small voice in my head, not yet connected to my mouth, "Help me help me." Not my voice, but another within me.

I call to my husband, words leaking out, "My dreams are freaking me out." I don't know if he heard me, or if I actually spoke at all. But I had, reaching out while the dream below me continued on uninterrupted.

My body moves on it's own. Lungs heaving air for no reason I cannot discern. My body is in distress and drags me along for the ride. But part of me was on the edge of wakefulness and sleep.

Not completely unaffected, I was disturbed by the state of my self even though the specifics of the dream eluded me. Laying on my back, I felt my stomach contract, chest lifting to the ceiling, palms up and arms outstretched. Several seconds in this strange suspended prayer mode before sinking slowly back to the sheets.

My knees bend to one side, legs sprawled. I feel my hands pull a sheet up between them, legs still bare, mantra still running in my head. Still no images for eyes that dart back and forth behind half open eyelids, fluttering and twitching, perhaps playing scenes for another. Floating in the back of my head, I feel caught between awareness of a sister's nightmare and dreamless unconsciousness of my own. I struggle to stay awake to understand this unique shared consciousness. Not the "normal" co-conscious I/we experience often during the day, but a frightening duality disconnected from the content but hearing the voice and feeling the body nightmare of another.

Not pleasant at all, this freaky duality on both sides of the wall of consciousness.

Hypnogogic reverie?

My research quickly directed me to something called hypnagogia or hypnogogic reverie, a state occurring between wakefulness and sleep that can be accompanied by "vivid dreamlike auditory, visual, or tactile sensations" and sometime paralysis. Prominent in this stage of deep relaxation are theta waves, which are synchronized firings of neurons in the brain that can be seen on an electroencephalogram (EEG) at approximately 4 to7-8 cycles per second. They are associated with memory and learning in the temporal lobe, possibly the hippocampus.

Dreaming ↔ temporal lobe ↔ memories?

I'd already been reading about how hippocampus and amygdala structures in the brain are associated with memory storage and retrieval, and how these mechanisms can be physically and physiologically altered with prolonged PTSD and traumatic memories.

Hypnagogic dreaming ↔ damaged temporal lobe ↔ repressed and/or traumatic memories?

Kubie (1945) reported using hypnogogic reverie to access repressed amnesic memories, and suggested that this method can help individuals for whom therapy has failed because this allows direct access to memories, bypassing the problems with interpretation of dreams.

While I had had no paralysis, all this seems related. I have memory loss and partial amnesia of past events. My lucid dreams explain a lot, but require translation. Now I want to know more about this strange state of direct access.

But don't dreams just happen in REM sleep?

Apparently not. Dreaming occurs in REM (rapid eye movement) sleep, which generally does not begin until 2 hours after falling asleep. We normally sequence through several stages of sleep before reaching REM sleep, as shown below. Researchers can already differentiate REM sleep from other states by looking at the RSA (rhythmic slow activity) in the hippocampus during sleep.

[2]

However, Bodizs (2005) suggests that some elements of REM sleep, termed "covert-rapid-eye-movement," may accompany the initial transition to sleep, leading to the vivid impact of hypnogogia. He found an increase in REM-like 1.5-3.0 Hz parahippocampal activity in this wake-to-sleep transition state in epileptic patients. [3]

Wow - everything is starting to make sense. During my strange experience, I felt my eyes open and rapidly dart about. I was not consciously focusing on anything - just feeling the movement and being aware of the different perspective snapshots of my bedroom. Covert-REM.

So far, so good.

But the spooky thing is, I was also aware of it. I could hear another voice and feel another's motions and panic. My body moved but not under my control. I wonder what was running through the mind of that other welf.

And exactly who or what is this "covert-REM" supposed to be covert from? Was some part of me in this covert-REM mode while another other part watched?

Sure seems so. Half-away dissociation. Freaky.

Meditation, psychic experiences, and a duality of state

So these magical theta waves are associated with memory and with hypnagogia. Indicative of dreaming and near-unconscious.

The state is also reported to be the source of paranormal experiences, ESP, and even alien abductions. Also schizophrenia, the 'ekstasis' (ecstasy) trance-state of the shaman, the ‘void' state of Eastern transcendental meditation.

<Right. Fine. Whatever.>

Putting that digression aside, how many people have observed themselves in this state? A duality of state?

Turns out that with training, yogis and experienced meditators are able to maintain both theta waves and conscious awareness. A new lucidity after the feeling of falling asleep.

I also found some nice information from Ervin László, a Hungarian philosopher. Perhaps I misapply this philosopher's assertions <shrug>, but let's interpret co-consciousness my way. The separate consciousnesses of two selves as opposed to two persons.

In the 'experience of dual unity' a patient in an ASC [altered state of consciousness] experiences a loosening and melting of the boundaries of the body ego and a sense of merging with another person in a state of unity and oneness. In this experience, despite the feeling of being fused with another, the patient retains an awareness of his or her own identity.

The "other" or others can be someone in the presence of the patient or someone absent; he or she can be part of an experience from the subject's childhood, his or her ancestry, or even of a previous lifetime. [4]

László echos Kubie:

The hypnagogic reverie might be called a dream without distortion. Its immediate instigator is the day's "unfinished business," but like the dream it derives from more remote ‘unfinished business' of an entire lifetime as well.

What kind of shit that I can't remember is trying to come out this way? Yeah, the topic area is pretty clear. Part of me is distressed, can't breath. Trying to cover up between my legs. Attempting to get up, praying from that trapped position on my back.

With [hypnagogic reverie] significant information about the past can be made readily and directly accessible without depending upon the interpretation...of dreams...It is probable that in this partial sleep, in this no-man's land between sleeping and waking, a form of dissociation occurs which makes it possible to by-pass the more obstinate resistances which block our memories in states of full conscious awareness, and which contribute to the distortion of memory traces in dreams. [4]

Great - I know this intellectually. My therapist says I need to have all these memories in order to recast them. Remove their power to overwhelm me at their whim.

So this accessibility suggests a mechanism for cognitive and therapeutic restructuring, if we can only capture that hypnagogic state and learn from it.

Recovery of traumatic memories, both spontaneously and by induction, occurs in an altered state of consciousness, with remarkable emotional expression. Once the state of consciousness is altered by means of induction and relaxation, the perception of an event can undergo changes as well, and consequently, a new interaction and relationship with the trauma context will take place. [5]

Unus Mundus

Continuing on this idea of duality, I again trip across Jung, who came to see the psyche as one force containing multiple perspectives, "a multiplicity within unity." Unus Mundus - "one world" - the domain of symmetry, Jung's idea of collective consciousness.

Where alchemist Gerhard Dorn said,

[S]plits are healed, duality ceases, and the individual, the vir unus, unites with the world soul.

Dorn suggests that unus mundus is a unified multiplicity, a separateness of the parts and a oneness at the same time, that may only take place after death. [6]

All of this started getting too metaphysical for me, especially after I tripped across a meandering discussion of the history and some believable (and not so believable) interpretations of hypnagogia, located here: "Sleepless Sleep:Hypnagogia - the Shamanic Trance-State (The Neutral Point in Consciousness)" by Gary Osborn.

While I read some interesting things, I quickly realized that this whole realm is like statistics - throw a bunch of concepts together, apply the right munging factors, and it will explain whatever theory you want.

In the end, what I had was a strange experience of duality that was one step further along the path of co-conscious than I have ever been before. This idea that one was awake while the other was still asleep. Hypnagogy of multiples states with a multiple.

Freaky, and a f*ck of a night, but ultimately perhaps I'll view it as kinda cool.

References

[1] Kubie LS. (1945). The Use of Induced Hypnagogic Reveries in the Recovery of Repressed Amnesic Data, summarized in Greenson, R.R. (1945). Hypnosis Number: Bulletin of the Menninger Clinic. VII, 1943, Nos. 5 and 6.. Psychoanal Q., 14:135-13.

[2] Chudler EH. What is sleep and why do we do it? Accessed online from http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/sleep.html.

[3] Bódizs R et al., (2005). Human parahippocampal activity: non-REM and REM elements in wake-sleep transition. Brain Res Bull. 2005 Mar 15;65(2):169-76.

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John Ratey, the book's author and an associate professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, says "[I] cannot underestimate how important regular exercise is in improving the function and performance of the brain. ... Exercise stimulates our gray matter to produce Miracle-Gro for the brain. It's such a wonderful medicine."

The more rigorous the physical exercise, the better it is for your brain. But as noted in "Train Your Brain: Can Jogging Make You Smarter?", an article by Simon Usborne in The Independent (UK), "Even regular brisk walks can books memory, alleviate stress, enhance intelligence, and allay aggression."

The short article provides a fantastic CliffsNotes summary of Spark. Some excerpts:

Happiness

Evidence suggests that pounding the pavement can change the way our brains work to make us happier, or even stave off depression. "Exercise is as good as any anti-depressant I know," Ratey claims.

Last December, scientists from Yale University wrote in the journal Nature Medicine that regular exertion affects the hippocampus, the area of the brain responsible for mood. Tests on mice showed that exercise activated a gene there called VGF, which is linked to a "growth factor" chemical involved in the development of new nerve cells. Tests show that this brain activation lifts a person's mood.

Participants in one recent German survey were asked to walk quickly on a treadmill for 30 minutes a day over a 10-day period. At the end of the experiment, researchers recorded a significant drop in depression scores

Stress

We respond to stress in the same way our ancestors did – by adopting a "fight or flight" response. Adrenalin and other hormones are released into our bloodstreams and our muscles are primed for response. The problem is that, these days, stress is more likely to be brought on by a tricky PowerPoint presentation or a job interview than an attack by marauding lions, so the toxins that build up for a physical response have no outlet.

The results can be good; the cardiovascular system is accelerated and we can work harder (for a while, at least), but others are not so good; stress slows down the gastrointestinal system and reduces appetite, and can overexcite the brain, fuzzing our thought.

By responding to or anticipating stress with fight (kickboxing or judo, say) or flight (30 minutes on the treadmill, say, or 50 lengths of the pool), blood flow to the brain is increased, allowing the body to purge the potentially toxic by-products of stress.

According to Ratey, exercise also helps in the long term. "It builds up armies of antioxidants such as Vitamins E and C," he says. "These help brain cells protect us from future stress.

Intelligence

Says Ratey, "Exercise doesn't make you smarter, but what it does do is optimise the brain for learning."

Physical activity boosts the flow of blood to the part of the brain that is responsible for memory and learning, promoting the production of new brain cells. Several schools in the US and the Netherlands have taken note. Pupils at Naperville Central High School near Chicago, for example, start the day with a fitness class they call "Zero Hour PE". Equipped with heart monitors, they run laps of the playground, and teachers say exam results have soared since the keep-fit initiative kicked off.

Meanwhile, in Amsterdam, a test involving 241 people, aged 15-71, compared physical activity with the results of cognitive tasks. The researchers documented improved results among people who were more active, especially those in younger age groups.

Yet more research suggests that exercise boosts intelligence in the very, very young. Experiments on rats at the Delbrück Centre for Molecular Medicine in Berlin showed that baby rats born to mothers who were more active during pregnancy had 40 per cent more cells in the hippocampus, the area of the brain responsible for intelligence.

Aggression

"People assume exercise reduces aggression by burning energy. In fact, exercise changes your brain so you don't feel aggressive in the first place," says Ratey.

The frontal cortex is the part of the brain that decides whether you throw a punch or take something on the chin. Reduced activity in the region can result in an inability to control violent urges. "This area makes us evaluate the consequences of our actions," Ratey says. Exercise increases activity in that area, boosting rational thought, which makes us less likely to lash out.

Memory

"When we're exercising, we're using nerve cells in the brain which help build up what I call brain fertilizer," Ratey says. He is talking about new research that suggests exercise increases blood flow to the part of the brain responsible for memory, and improves its function.

In MRI scans on mice, conducted last year by neurologists at Columbia University Medical Centre in New York, the animals were shown to grow new brain cells in the dentate gyrus, which is affected in age-related memory decline.

"Exercise does more than anything we know of to boost memory."

Addiction

Research by British scientists suggests that as little as five minutes of brisk walking can reduce the intensity of nicotine withdrawal symptoms. In the tests, researchers asked participants to rate their need for a cigarette after various types of physical exertion. Those who had exercised reported a reduced desire to smoke. "If we found the same effects in a drug, it would immediately be sold as an aid to help people quit smoking," Adrian Taylor, the study's lead author at the University of Exeter, said last year.

The principle is that exercise can stimulate production of the mood-enhancing hormone dopamine, which can, in turn, reduce smokers' dependence on nicotine. "Dopamine works by replacing or satisfying the need for nicotine," Ratey explains

So how much does one have to exercise to realize these results?

In Spark, Ratey advocates that we invest as much time and effort as we reasonably can afford into exercising. But as noted in the article, "You don't have to become a marathon runner to benefit your brain. The mainstay of exercise is simple, brisk walking."

Especially beneficial is interval training - "really pushing yourself for between 20 and 30 seconds so that you are momentarily exhausted." Thirty seconds of sprinting, for example, sandwiched between two minutes of walking, for a total of 20-30 minutes, four-to-five times a day, will radically boost your brain power.

"The side effects on the body aren't bad either - I lost 10 pounds in no time," Professor Ratey says.

Play, think...
J.R. Atwood

Et lite tips bare... Vi som blogger har gode muligheter til å dempe stress her inne :lol:

...vel, tilbake til påskeferien. Det er stressdempende det også :-)