The Neuro-Protective Lifestyle

Ok so maybe don’t forget sex, try brainwave entrainment in addition too, not instead of, or maybe along with, sex- but still try it tonight.

But wait, what I’m I even talking about? Call it “neurofeedback“, “brainwave synchronization”, or “thalamo-cortical resonance”, it’s all the same thing.

photo credit: Brymo

In case you haven’t noticed, the mammalian brain is happiest when it is resonates at about 7.8 cycles per second. In fact all of nature, “mother-earth” included, resonates at about 7.8 Hz. In the fourth century BCE, the Chinese philosopher Zhuangzi developed a “philosophy of mind” based on the “natural order” of the universe - Taoism. In Taoism, man’s central goal is to live harmoniously or “resonate” perpetually with the universe. The concept of wu wei - roughly translated as “effortless doing” is the mind-set required to achieve this natural state of resonance.

If you think I’ve gotten too “new age” for you, consider this. In 1905 the Croatian physicist Nikola Tesla described global electromagnetic resonances, a theory that was later expanded upon and predicted mathematically in 1952 by Winfried Otto Schumann. Schumann was in fact able to measure the frequency of the band of waves that circumnavigated the globe - 7.8 Hz.

You will remember from a previous post that the brain itself is an electromagnetic power-house and oscillates at a variety of frequencies. For example, alpha-waves are associated with “restful alertness” and are present when brainwaves are in the - no surprise, 7-8 Hz range. More importantly, when the brain is subjected to external sound waves, it spontaneously begins to oscillate at the same frequency. Neuroscientists know this phenomenon as “frequency following response” (FFR). This is where the fun begins.

A good deal of the dissonance in our lives is reflective of the loss of resonance with our natural environment. From the Taoist perspective yin and yang forces are not in balance. From a neurobiology point of view, day to day decision-making depends on complete coordination of a variety of brain structures. For example, the hippocampus must resonate with the prefrontal cortex via theta waves in order for “spatial” information to be properly communicated.

Brainwave Entrainment, is all about applying this principle to a number of medical disorders including: depression, generalized anxiety, OCD, ADD to name just a few. Insomnia responds remarkably well to “medical resonance” therapy. Autism, eating disorders, addictions, learning disorders, all can benefit from “sound therapy”.

So how do you do it? The technology is vast and varied, but in essence it all boils down to the same thing - frequency training. A forty-five minute session utilizing acoustically acceptable headphones and an mp3 sound file that is able to generate alpha, theta, delta or beta waves is all that is needed to get started. Binaural beats are a special effect consisting of two sounds with a slightly different pitch played in two separate ears. A third pitch is then generated in the auditory cortex as the brain attempts to resolve the difference in pitch. It is well known for example that pyramidal neurons in the hippocampus resonate happily in response to binaural beats thus encouraging memory consolidation and peak learning performance.

Better than sex? Maybe not, but better than drugs and endless psychotherapy sessions of questionable benefit. Remember, the brain is fully capable of healing itself, if first we get out of the way.

If you want to know more, check out the link in the side-bar (MIND STEREO) and do as the Taoists do - resonate freely!

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The brain is an electromagnetic powerhouse. Just to keep the “lights on” requires twenty percent of all the calories you consume. Start doing advanced math or even sudoku and the cost goes way up. Fortunately we can measure this tremendous energy output in the form of electromagnetic wave activity. The EEG (electroencephalogram) has been around since 1875 but is just now coming into its own thanks to better filtering software. EEG topography, neurofeedback and more recently the “MEG” (magnetoencephalogram) provide even greater detail of our neuronal landscape.

The electromagnetic waves generated by the brain and revealed by EEG are divided into five main categories based on amplitude and frequency. They are the same regardless of culture, gender or country of origin.

Here are some classic brainwave patterns:

BETA - 12-30 cycles per second - active conversation, logical thinking (sudoku puzzling)

ALPHA - 8-12 cycles per second - restful alertness, quiet focus, hypnosis

THETA - 4-7 cycles per second - day dreaming, creativity, insight meditation, out of body experiences, mystical experiences.

DELTA - 1.5-4 or less cycles per second - deep dreamless sleep

GAMMA - 26-100 cycles per second - perception, neural synchrony, consciousness

By combining fMRI with our understanding of brain wave activity, researchers at Harvard, Yale, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have produced convincing neuroimaging evidence that meditators grow bigger brains. Measurements of cortical thickness confirm it. But how is this possible? How is the brain able to “pick itself up by its own bootstraps”, so-to-speak?

neural networks are established with repeated behavior patterns
say it again
neural networks are established with repeated behavior patterns
say it again…you get the idea.

We’ve known it all along. Every culture, every world religion teaches it:

“as a man thinketh in his heart, so is he” Proverbs 23:7

“all that we are is the result of what we have thought” Buddha 563 BC - 483 BC

“unto the pure all things are pure; but unto them that are defiled and unbelieving is nothing pure; but even their mind and conscience is defiled” Titus 1:15

Jon Kabat-Zinn, emeritus professor of medicine at the University of Massachusetts established the Center for Mindfulness in Medicine to this very end.

In short, like the blog says, “forget what you’ve heard-you CAN change your brain!”

Developed in 1979, Dr. Jon Kabat-Zinn’s Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) program, has been featured in the Bill Moyers’ PBS documentary Healing and The Mind, on NBC Dateline, on ABC’s Chronicle and in various national print media and is the subject of Jon Kabat-Zinn’s best selling book, Full Catastrophe Living and Saki Santorelli’s book, Heal Thy Self. Since its inception, more than 17,000 people have completed our eight-week Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Program and learned how to use their innate resources and abilities to respond more effectively to stress, pain, and illness. The central focus of the Clinic is intensive training in mindfulness meditation and its integration into the challenges/adventures of everyday life.

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The “empathic” brain. We all assume we have one, but like “hen’s teeth” it’s rarer than you think. The unbridled capacity to share and completely comprehend the emotional state of another person…well it’s what’s being human is all about…isn’t it? Empathic helping behavior is observed among all primates, not just humans. For the most part, we are genetically “hardwired” to care for offspring or remote kin for that matter. However, what makes us distinctly human is the capacity to “feel for” anyone or any “thing”, species notwithstanding.

To quote the late great Funkadelic (a 70’s funk phenom that my daughter recently re-introduced me to), “ya’ll feel what I mean?”.

If you can’t then it’s entirely possible you’re a spindle neuron or two short of what it takes to connect the sensory and motor components of your limbic system. Ultimately, the limbic motor and limbic sensory system represent the neuroanatomical basis for all human emotion. No matter, if your spindle cells are frankly even finely tuned, without “self-awareness”, empathy just doesn’t happen. “Lesion studies” have been able to confirm this over and over again. Patients with damaged amygdalas are unable to discern fear despite severe facial grimacing. Ordinarily pain would trigger a whole host of neurophysiological signals resulting in “caring” behavior. While self-awareness has no specific neuroanatomical correlate and empathy does, empathy ultimately remains an intentional capacity. In other words, it is under conscious control.

That homeless person you see on the way home from work, will most likely go hungry. Hurry home. The stranded motorist with a cardboard sign and a plea for help will likewise suffer. Sleep tight. By choice then we occupy the same “emotionless” continuum as the Antisocial, Autistic and Borderline personality disorder sufferer. Autistic individuals for the most part remain emotionless. Antisocial and Borderline personality individuals suffer from a hyprevigilant limbic system and an underfunctioning prefrontal cortex. They simply “can’t” without conscious effort “feel what I mean”.

Call it alexithymia (the opposite of emotional intelligence) cause’ that’s what it’s called. The inability to process, describe, or understand emotions in the self. Without it, no bliss no internal resonating chord of love…just the question, “What’s empathy got to do with it?”.

The answer…? Everything.

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