Choosing your Hat

Thoughts on science stuff - our brains mainly!

It has been long generally accepted that while the skin, liver, heart, kidney, lungs and blood could generate new cells, the brain and the spinal cord could not.  Neurologists have just discovered within the last five years that this is not in fact the complete story.  Our brains change throughout life and the variety of challenges we face as individuals often contribute to that mechanism of change.  This has led to new hope for repairing brains following injury or disease and also even opened the door to enhancing healthy brainpower.  Adult brain cells, contrary to old beliefs, do generate new cells and the proof is emerging that this is both a cause for celebration and a call for action.

It seems our brains create new brain cells periodically, but less than half of the neurons created successfully migrate to areas to form useful connections.  Interestingly, it seems it takes a month from the formation of new neurons until they become fully functional and able to send and receive information.  In response to a stroke the brain immediately sets about repairing and produces more neurons in an attempt to heal damaged brain tissue, and in the cases of small minor strokes, is so successful that the victim does not notice that any damage has actually occurred.  One study has suggested that depression is linked to a decrease in the production of new neurons in our hippocampus in the brain.  Chemicals designed to increase the production of neurons to treat disorders such as Huntington’s disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and Parkinson’s have been investigated and there is an urgent need to understand the whole process of neuron production and migration. 

The production of new neurons - neurogenesis also occurs in the brain of adult mice when they are moved to a more stimulating cage with exercise wheels, etc, provided.  Regular exercise has been shown to decrease depression in humans, which could be evidence of neurogenesis at work.  Although the details of how to chemically induce neurogensis is still under investigation and there are dangers - brain tumors, etc - evidence is emerging that choosing a mentally challenging and physically active life enhances the ability of the brain repair processes.  The brain repair kit also responds positively to not only exercise, but also a good diet and adequate sleep.  All these activities are found to increase the number of neural connections, improve memory and reasoning ability.  It would seem our very environment affects how our brains are wired!  Self repair and self-enhancement is not only possible, it is beginning to emerge that it is how the brain was designed to work. 

All the recent research would seem to indicate that the brain was constructed to change.  Every time we learn a new mental/physical skill we change the construction of our brains in a very real and dynamic way.  Magnetic resonance imaging has revealed the new maps with different areas illuminated.  Task shifting of the brain has been accomplished by a series of intense mental and physical exercises.  Patients who have lost speech or limb mobility have managed to undo the effects of injury.  Some patients whose strokes occurred 20 years previously have been able, via exercise-based tasks, to regain mobility again.  Plastisticity of the brain is now being demonstrated beyond doubt and it gives much hope for advances in recovery from a wide range of complaints previously thought irreversible. While science is already beginning to overshoot, looking for how to use this new factor to create a smart pill to enhance normal brain performance - a sort of viagra for the brain - several valuable lessons have been learned.  To summarize these:

Read daily a thought provoking piece of writing.

Learn a new skill and/or tackle a new physical activity.

Be creative on a daily basis.

Eat a balanced diet.

Sleep well

Live in a stimulating environment both socially and intellectually

Meditate every day

All these sound old hat, but according to the recent neurological research, they all encourage important parallel processes in our brains.  It would seem less relevant to sit and wonder why we have been given the brains/life we have, but far more practical and expedient to realize it is more important what we choose to do with the matter under our hat.  An understanding of the dynamism going on in our brains might just spur us not to lethargy and passive acceptance, but to change and growth and hope.  New neurons are waiting to be created and spurred into useful production, not decimated by inactivity.  We really are what we choose to do in a very fundamental sense. Our old ‘gray matter’ is being renewed and we can cultivate more growth and more connections by how we choose to live.  Your life/brain is in your hands!