The Brain Body Blog

You see it all the time. Paralysis by analysis - thinking about an activity way too much to actually be able to do it. Awkward ball room dancers, clumsy photographers, reluctant artists, ungraceful athletes. Too much thinking, too little doing. Brain body connection run amok.

What’s usually behind the analysis paralysis is the belief that you have to do something that you don’t know how to do. So you think about exactly what you’re supposed to be doing and try to do that.

Maybe that’s not such a good idea. Think about it: you layer additional unclear movement activities on top of the muscular tension you’re already carrying. Is it any wonder the dance steps don’t flow, the golf swing breaks down, the painting becomes a mess?

Usually, this layer of analytical thinking is unnecessary, and only gets in the way.

But what if, instead of adding some muddled ideas, you were able to stop doing something that could be interfering with your ability to learn a new dance step, athletic movement, or whatever?

How can you do that?

Australian researchers are using technology to test out these sorts of ideas. Basically, they use a strong magnet to temporarily zap the analytical part of the brain that’s getting in the way of learning how to do something.

The ultimate aim of the experiment is to “produce a thinking cap that would unleash creativity as and when required.” But I bet even a graceful dancer would look silly wearing a magnetic hat.

For more on the experiment, read this article.

Have you ever seen a brain without a body, or a body without a brain? I didn’t think so. Brain and body are inseparable, a unity. But sometimes we might want to enhance the brain’s functioning so that the body is better able to “help” a person’s nervous system accomplish things the want and need to do.

It would be nice, for example, to have a brain device that lets you have a pro golf swing. That’s probably pretty far off. But now the people who need this kind of help are the severely disabled - those with compromised mobility or some other crucial bodily function. If you can’t move, you can’t act on your own behalf.

Fortunately, promising research science efforts are making progress in helping the severely disabled with something called neuroprosthetics or neural prosthetics. That is, they are developing technology that can augment the nervous system’s ability to control movement.

The worst cases are those who have become “locked in” - conscious but unable to move any part of themselves. A common cause is a stroke centered in the brain stem. You’ve probably seen representations of this condition on medical television dramas, stuff like “blink once for yes, twice for no.” Even worse, hard to even imagine, are partially or fully conscious “locked ins” who have been misdiagnosed as being in a vegetative state. (The depressing movie Johnny Got His Gun comes to mind.)

Technology can augment the brain even in severe cases, thanks to the brain’s plasticity or ability to adapt to learning. Researchers have shown that neural activity thatt corresponds to one body part can adapt and learn to move another body part. The part of the brain controlling blinking, for example, might be adapted to control vocal cords.

According to Leigh Hochberg, a neuroscientist with the Department of Veterans Affairs:

“If we can take those natural signals and send them to a functional electrical stimulation system placed in and around the muscles and nerves of an arm or a leg, someone might be able to control their own limb again using neural technology rather than injured biology.”

These are promising technologies, to say the least. Hopefully, progress from research to market will be rapid. For more on developments in neuroprosthetics, see the excellent The Rise of the Cyborgs on the Discover magazine site.

When I think of the brain body connection, I usually don’t think about flies. Those annoying household pests aren’t high on my list for either intelligence or brawn. But I have to admit they are speedy little insects; much faster than me when I try to swat one.

And that’s where the brain body connection comes in. The reason fearless fly can scurry away from your swatter of choice comes down to a hardwired brain body connection. A fly can sense the approaching swatter and react by flying away in about one one hundredth of a second.

Unsurprisingly, there’s no thought involved - it’s all hardwired into that tiny little brain. (There’s a troubling thought: thinking flies.)

All of this is revealed in a UK newspaper article that contains a nifty slow motion video of flies getting away, as well as tips for would-be swatters.

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Bags, Balls and Brains is a sensory motor integration program which enhances brain function through rhythmic movement patterns. Participants benefit physically, mentally, emotionally and socially. These activities integrate the whole body-mind system bringing mental fitness, physical coordination, social awareness and self-esteem. We have fun and feel great at the end of each session.

Repetition of the rhythmic bag and ball patterns integrates the senses — auditory, visual, kinesthetic, tactile and fine motor skills. This whole brain learning approach creatively combines Bal-A-Vis-X®, Brain Gym® and Learning Breakthrough Program activities. Learning challenges are met through reflex integration and supported by BodyMind Centering® explorations enhancing awareness and presence.

Instructors Shirley and Linda have extensive backgrounds and experience in the fields of education and movement. They deftly weave together all of their multi-faceted past trainings and experiences.

See http://www.bags-balls-and-brains.com for schedule, slide show of classes, and complete information.

More videos of classes and techniques to come.

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The Regions of the Brain

The brain has three major functional and anatomical parts–the forebrain, midbrain and hindbrain. The forebrain consists of the cerebral hemispheres, thalami, hypothalamus and limbic system. The top inch of the brain stem is the midbrain. The hindbrain includes the cerebellum, the pons and the medulla. Other parts of the brain’s anatomy include: the cerebral cortex, a thin layer of nerve cells on the surface of the cerebral hemispheres; the cerebrum, composed of many millions of nerve fibers, is covered by the cerebral cortex; the corpus callosum, a C-shaped collection of fibers, forms a bridge between the left and right hemispheres; the thalamus, which relays and receives messages to and from other areas of the brain; the limbic system, concerned with memory and emotion; the cerebellum, the largest part of the hindbrain and responsible for balance and the fine control of muscle movements; and the hypothalamus, which lies below the third ventricle of the brain, and regulates many of the body’s functions and the activity of the pituitary gland.

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What happens to the brain body connection when one or the other is damaged? Adaptation is the answer, as it has always been. But today’s developing technologies provide new choices. One of them is to substitute one part or function for the damaged one. Thanks to brain plasticity, this can work quite well.

Take for example a situation where there’s paralysis. Researchers at Georgia Tech are developing a tool to augment a person’s mobility when it’s naturally limited. Mobility solutions for the disabled have been available for quite a while. Wheelchairs, for example.

But what about controlling a wheelchair or other device when brain body damage is extensive? The Georgia Tech guys are substituting the functions of the tongue, using it’s movements to steer or otherwise manipulate mobility devices like wheelchairs.

As it turns out, the tongue is a logical choice for at least a couple of reasons.

The tongue, though, is a more flexible, sensitive and tireless option. And like other facial muscles, its functions tend to be spared in accidents that can paralyze most of the rest of the body, because the tongue is attached to the brain, not the spinal cord.

But beyond the (usually) fortunate situation of spared tongue mobility, the brain body connection manifested in the human tongue offers the agility and coordination that make it a logical choice. And it’s not just the tongue itself, but the representation of the tongue in the brain maps that make for a huge advantage here. As Rush Dozier puts it in 2003’s Why We Hate

The brain map of a chimpanzee has a disproportionately large tongue because with the tongues chimpanzees produce a series of calls used to communicate with each other. The representation of the tongue on the surface of the human brain, however, is much larger. Our complex language, which depends on fantastically rapid and complicated movements of our tongue, is absolutely essential for our cooperation and survival. The human tongue takes up an especially large area of the cortex because it contains a denser and more complex network of nerves for the purpose of sensation and control.

The Georgia Tech project has a ways to go before it’s ready for the public. But it’s a promising start.

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Things around you don’t have to be real for your brain body connection to work. In fact, the brain body connection might be able to handle more complex movements in a virtual reality than in everyday familiar situations.

One of the most fascinating topics in Your Body Has a Mind of Its Own involves virtual reality. VR pioneer Jaron Lanier describes learning how to move agilely in a kind of lobster suit that gave his arms several more joints than they have in “real” life.

Virtual reality and related brain body computer interfaces are trickling out of the lab into the real world. One beneficial application is therapy for those whose brain body connections have become somehow disabled. Thanks to the brain’s amazing capacity for plasticity, many disabled people can improve their functioning through learning. And virtual reality tools might accelerate that learning.

And that’s exactly what’s happening at Portsmouth University. There, stroke recovery patients walk thorough virtual landscapes while on an ordinary treadmill.

Using a variety of different settings, including urban and woodland landscapes, the device creates a virtual world for the patient to “walk” through on the treadmill. This immersion also acts as a distraction, and early research has shown patients using it have a decreased perception of pain.

Wendy Powell, the researcher at Portsmouth University who developed the software, said: “The virtual system encourages patients to walk more quickly and for longer, almost without them realising it.

It’s a neat and beneficial sort of trick to get the brain body connection reestablished. And that’s a real benefit from a virtual technology.

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The brain body connection is always with us. One of the most important aspects of it is the sensory motor learning we all go though as infants, toddlers, and beyond. 

It’s naturally occurring, but we all need a little (or more) help from the big kids. There have always been scores of ways of helping the little nippers through this important time of their lives. 

Here’s one you can see. PlayMove&Sing with Sukey Molloy is an interactive movement, song, and play program for infants, toddlers and pre-school children, designed specifically to encourage the natural growth of physical skills and sensory-motor learning during the child’s developing years. Through guided play with song, rhythm, motor discovery, and hands-on materials, participants receive “brain food”, while exploring physical skills, sensory learning, and the feeling of “I Can!” Visit www.playmovesing.com for more information.

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The thing about the brain body connection is a brain isn’t just a brain, and a body isn’t just a body. I’ve never seen one walking around without the other. An eye can’t do the vision thing without the meat and nerves being connected; neither can an ear or any other sense.

The brain body connection is more and more recognized in sports. Yet when we think of sports performance, often we don’t give the sense organs their proper due. But how you use you eyes can make a tremendous difference in any kind of movement activity.

Take golf, for instance. A recent New York Times article gives us a couple of examples.

In golf, the eyes and ears may control more than you think. Several years ago, Joan Vickers, a researcher at the University of Calgary, discovered that elite putters had what she termed “quiet eyes.” These players kept their eyes absolutely still for a few seconds before and after striking a putt. Less accomplished putters moved their eyes rapidly, darting from target to ball and other places on the green.

I’ve tried it and it works - at least playing golf in Wii Sports;-)

But the benefits of controlling eye movements in golf aren’t restricted to putting:

“The quiet eye works in the full swing, too,” said Chris Bertram, a professor of kinesiology at the University of the Fraser Valley in British Columbia. “We’ve studied golfers with goggles that measure eye movement, and the more skilled ones lock on a specific target ahead of them and then focus entirely on the back of the ball. The lesser players have jumpy eyes — one look at the green, one look at a pond, then they look at their club, then their feet, the ground. Their eyes are still moving in that critical one second before they start their swing.”

To prove his point, the professor cited an example of a nearsighted golfer who hit straight shots, but couldn’t see the ball when it went past 200 yards:

Then Guadagnoli’s friend had Lasik surgery and soon started hitting more wayward drives. “My theory is that he started turning his head to watch the ball,” Guadagnoli said.

So if you slice or hook your drives off the fairway often, maybe you need to look at the problem. Literally.

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The brain body connection is more than one connection. There are many of them; exactly how many is anyone’s bet. But one that has fascinated me lately is the brain body connection afforded by mirror neurons.

The idea that fascinates me the most is the idea that watching someone do something can fire off similar neurons in the observer’s brain. I’ve wondered about this when I watch elite athletes in action. Taken on face value, the mirror neuron idea suggests you can get better at golf just by watching the pros hit a few shots.

Now, we all know better than this - at least hopeless hackers like me do.

Crack science writer Sharon Begley looks at the mirror neuron/brain body connection in elite basketball players. She cites a new study the examines how elite players know when a shot’s going in and when it isn’t - just by watching the hand release and posture of the shooter.

The basis for the players’ ability to predict free-throw success seems to be mirror neurons in the motor cortex. These neurons fire when we see someone else undertake some action; you can think of them as the brain’s empathy neurons, since they seem to be the basis for our ability to, literally, feel what someone else is experiencing. This neuronal activity was higher in players than in non-players, as if observing others’ actions triggered “a covert simulation of the very same action,” write the scientists. That unconscious simulation serves as the basis for the impressive accuracy in predicting whether a free throw will go in: it’s as if the players are unconsciously processing the idea of what would happen if they held their arm and fingers the way the shooter is.

But what separates the elite players’ ability to do this from the rest of us? Unsurprisingly it turns out to be practice (and ability).

That requires actual shooting experience, not just watching. “Seeing without doing is not enough to achieve excellence,” the scientists conclude.

A blinding flash of the obvious, to be sure. But at least it gives a realistic dimension to the idea of mirror neurons. Whatever their other properties, the don’t automatically convey elite athletic ability.

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