Exercising Your Brain

by Ann Crickmer, MSW

Improving Thinking Skills

As the "Decade of the Brain" comes to a close, let's review a few highlights of what we have learned from the two billion dollars of annual research money that Congress allocated. Is there anything in this research to help people cope with the thinking and mood changes they may experience due to MS? I think so. The research involves scores of laboratories and hundreds of scientists. The mind/brain exploration is being driven by advances in basic knowledge and by new imaging technology such as Positron Emission Tomography scans.

Scientists have discovered the first strong evidence that intellectual stimulation can significantly increase the number of brain cells in a crucial region of the mind. We know now that the right brain remains plastic throughout life (Schore 1999). Princeton researchers have demonstrated that mature brains regenerate learning and memory neurons. Biologists have found that the brain generates a daily stream of new cells that migrate into the cerebral cortex, the area that harbors higher intellectual functions. The discovery was made in monkeys and is expected to prove true of people, too. Elizabeth Gould, Charles G. Gross, and Joe Z. Tsien at Princeton have been working in this area ( NYT 10-17, 1-24-99; WSJ10-15-99). This caps a series of findings that refute the long-standing view that no new cells are formed in the adult brain, that the number of active brain cells is essentially fixed early in life.

A research study, published in 1997 in Nature was conducted by the brain researcher Fred Gage at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in La Jolla, California. It speaks to the importance of an "enriched environment" to enhance cognitive performance. Researchers generally believe this happens because stimulation makes the brain more efficient, increasing the number of connections between nerve cells. Lifelong mental exercise can nourish the growth of new connections between neurons, which are called dendrites and synapses. The synapses between neurons multiply in response to new experiences. Learning occurs when fresh synapses sprout, or when existing connections are modified in response to new information. People with dense synapse networks are "smarter", or more adept at absorbing new information and relating it to what they already know. Learning by doing - rather than merely by listening to lectures or watching demonstrations - appears to build these synapse networks most effectively because it engages all the senses.

Researcher David Snowdon at the University of Kentucky studied health records of 678 elderly nuns. They also studied autopsy data and found that nuns with the highest educational and intellectual life suffer least from symptoms of Alzheimer's disease. An autopsy of the brain of a 102 year old nun who remained intellectually intact until the day she died was riddled with the protein plaques of Alzheimer's disease, yet she'd never shown outward symptoms during her life. Dr. Arnold Scheibel, director of the Brain Research Institute at UCLA encourages people not only to remain active, but to take up new pursuits. "People go to the gym and work on their muscles and bones, but what about the brain?" Although MS is more like Parkinson's than Alzheimer's disease, these same principles would seem to apply to MS. Some people exercise their brains by learning a new skill, playing games or doing crossword puzzles even if it is a challenge for them.

Exercising Your Emotions

Joseph LeDoux is mapping emotion at New York University. He researches post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and says "we now believe that experiencing fear is an emotion that is "hard-wired" into the brain. If this inborn circuitry becomes damaged, people's ability to process fear is impaired, perhaps leading to any number of mental health problems". This finding is a direct challenge to prevailing notions that feelings only come from thoughts and ideas. We know that MS lesions can sometimes affect the emotional processing part of the brain. The right brain processes socio-emotional information and mood states (Proges). It is involved in enabling the organism to cope with stress and regulates the secretion of the stress hormone cortisol. The orbito-frontal cortex acts in "the highest level of control of emotion" (Price). Emotions organize behavior along either a behavioral set involving approach and attachment, or a set predisposing one to avoidance, escape, and defense (Schore).

The prefrontal-limbic cortex regulates motivational states and has a role in the adjustment or correction of emotional responses. It thereby acts as a recovery mechanism that monitors and autoregulates the duration, frequency, and intensity of not only positive but also negative affect states. The loss of the ability to regulate the intensity of feelings is a result of deficits in these parts of the brain (Schore). There is cutting-edge research being done today that "exercising" the emotional parts of the brain, the joint verbal and non-verbal processing of emotional material together with an undamaged right brain, in psychotherapy for instance, can lead to the growth of new structure in the brain to better regulate mood. Verbally acknowledging the feelings with family and friends and labeling the feelings is another good way to exercise the brain.

Was this information helpful? Then please consider making a donation. We are a small, independent nonprofit agency and are dependent on donations from our supporters. Thank you from all the staff at the MSA.




	Exercising Your Brain *by Ann Crickmer, MSW* Improving Thinking Skills As the "Decade of the Brain" comes to a close, let's review a few highlights of what we have learned from the two billion dollars of annual research money that Congress allocated. Is there anything in this research to help people cope with the thinking and mood changes they may experience due to MS? I think so. The research involves scores of laboratories and hundreds of scientists. The mind/brain exploration is being driven by advances in basic knowledge and by new imaging technology such as Positron Emission Tomography scans. Scientists have discovered the first strong evidence that intellectual stimulation can significantly increase the number of brain cells in a crucial region of the mind. We know now that the right brain remains plastic throughout life (Schore 1999). Princeton researchers have demonstrated that mature brains regenerate learning and memory neurons. Biologists have found that the brain generates a daily stream of new cells that migrate into the cerebral cortex, the area that harbors higher intellectual functions. The discovery was made in monkeys and is expected to prove true of people, too. Elizabeth Gould, Charles G. Gross, and Joe Z. Tsien at Princeton have been working in this area ( NYT 10-17, 1-24-99; WSJ10-15-99). This caps a series of findings that refute the long-standing view that no new cells are formed in the adult brain, that the number of active brain cells is essentially fixed early in life. A research study, published in 1997 in Nature was conducted by the brain researcher Fred Gage at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in La Jolla, California. It speaks to the importance of an "enriched environment" to enhance cognitive performance. Researchers generally believe this happens because stimulation makes the brain more efficient, increasing the number of connections between nerve cells. Lifelong mental exercise can nourish the growth of new connections between neurons, which are called dendrites and synapses. The synapses between neurons multiply in response to new experiences. Learning occurs when fresh synapses sprout, or when existing connections are modified in response to new information. People with dense synapse networks are "smarter", or more adept at absorbing new information and relating it to what they already know. Learning by doing - rather than merely by listening to lectures or watching demonstrations - appears to build these synapse networks most effectively because it engages all the senses. Researcher David Snowdon at the University of Kentucky studied health records of 678 elderly nuns. They also studied autopsy data and found that nuns with the highest educational and intellectual life suffer least from symptoms of Alzheimer's disease. An autopsy of the brain of a 102 year old nun who remained intellectually intact until the day she died was riddled with the protein plaques of Alzheimer's disease, yet she'd never shown outward symptoms during her life. Dr. Arnold Scheibel, director of the Brain Research Institute at UCLA encourages people not only to remain active, but to take up new pursuits. "People go to the gym and work on their muscles and bones, but what about the brain?" Although MS is more like Parkinson's than Alzheimer's disease, these same principles would seem to apply to MS. Some people exercise their brains by learning a new skill, playing games or doing crossword puzzles even if it is a challenge for them. Exercising Your Emotions Joseph LeDoux is mapping emotion at New York University. He researches post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and says "we now believe that experiencing fear is an emotion that is "hard-wired" into the brain. If this inborn circuitry becomes damaged, people's ability to process fear is impaired, perhaps leading to any number of mental health problems". This finding is a direct challenge to prevailing notions that feelings only come from thoughts and ideas. We know that MS lesions can sometimes affect the emotional processing part of the brain. The right brain processes socio-emotional information and mood states (Proges). It is involved in enabling the organism to cope with stress and regulates the secretion of the stress hormone cortisol. The orbito-frontal cortex acts in "the highest level of control of emotion" (Price). Emotions organize behavior along either a behavioral set involving approach and attachment, or a set predisposing one to avoidance, escape, and defense (Schore). The prefrontal-limbic cortex regulates motivational states and has a role in the adjustment or correction of emotional responses. It thereby acts as a recovery mechanism that monitors and autoregulates the duration, frequency, and intensity of not only positive but also negative affect states. The loss of the ability to regulate the intensity of feelings is a result of deficits in these parts of the brain (Schore). There is cutting-edge research being done today that "exercising" the emotional parts of the brain, the joint verbal and non-verbal processing of emotional material together with an undamaged right brain, in psychotherapy for instance, can lead to the growth of new structure in the brain to better regulate mood. Verbally acknowledging the feelings with family and friends and labeling the feelings is another good way to exercise the brain. Was this information helpful? Then please consider making a donation. We are a small, independent nonprofit agency and are dependent on donations from our supporters. Thank you from all the staff at the MSA.
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