Shamans and Scientists

Shaman – Tombamento da Ayahuasca

By Jeremy Narby

In 1999, three molecular biologists traveled to the Peruvian Amazon to see whether they could obtain bio-molecular information in the visions they had in sessions orchestrated by an indigenous shaman. They had no previous experience of ayahuasca shamanism or of the Amazon, though they did have an interest in alternative healing traditions and shamanism. Their age ranged from the late-30s to mid-60s. One worked as a scientist in an American genomics company. Another was a professor at a French University and a member of the National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS). The third taught in a Swiss University and was a director of a research laboratory.

None of the scientists spoke Spanish, and the indigenous ayahuasquero did not speak English or French, so I translated for them. The first thing to report is that the scientists and the shaman had many long conversations. They did not cease to have things to say to one another. The shaman had been studying plants, as an ayahuasquero, for 37 years. He answered the biologists' questions for days on end. He also conducted night-time ayahuasca sessions, in which the biologists took part. They saw many things in their visions, including DNA molecules and chromosomes. 

The American biologist, who normally worked on deciphering the human genome, said she saw a chromosome from the perspective of a protein flying above a long strand of DNA. She saw DNA sequences known as "CpG islands," which she had been puzzling over at work, and which are found upstream of about sixty percent of all human genes. She saw they were structurally distinct from the surrounding DNA and that this structural difference allowed them to be easily accessed and therefore to serve as "landing pads" for transcription proteins, which dock on to the DNA molecule and make copies of precise genetic sequences. She said the idea that CpG island structure enables them to function as landing pads had not crossed her mind previously, and that genomic research would soon be able to verify this hypothesis.

The French professor had been studying the sperm duct of animals for many years, first in lizards, then in mice. When a sperm cell comes out of the testis and enters the sperm duct, it is incapable of fertilizing an egg. It only becomes fertile once it has traveled through the duct, where about fifty different kinds of proteins work on it. The professor and his team had spent years trying to understand which protein makes the sperm cell fertile. Understanding this could have implications for the development of a male contraceptive. He brought three questions to one of the ayahuasca sessions. First, was there a key protein that makes sperm cells fertile? Second, why had it not been possible to find the answer to that question after years of research? And, third, was the mouse the appropriate model for studying fertility in men? He received answers from a voice that spoke in his visions. In reply to the first question, the voice said: "No, it is not a key protein. In this organ, there are no key proteins, just many different ones which have to act together for fertility to be achieved." To the second question, it said: "I already answered that with your first question." To the third question, it said: "This question is not important enough for me to answer. The answer can be found without ayahuasca. Try to work in another direction."

The Swiss scientist wanted to consult the shamanic sphere about the ethics of modifying plant genomes. She wanted to know if it was appropriate to add genes to plants to make them resistant to diseases. It so happens that tobacco is an important plant for both genetic engineers and Amazonian shamans. Shamans from many different indigenous societies say they speak in their visions with the "mother of tobacco," or the essence of the plant. The biologist reported that she spoke during an ayahuasca-influenced meditation with an entity that the shaman subsequently identified as the mother of tobacco. This entity informed her that tobacco's fundamental role was to serve all living beings. It also informed her that manipulating tobacco's genome was not a problem in itself, so long as the plant could play its fundamental role in an adequate environment, and so long as it was in keeping with that environment. The biologist saw, in a vision, a resplendent plant growing in a desert thanks to an extra gene which allowed it to resist drought. She came away from this experience with the understanding that genetic manipulations were best gauged case by case, in a way that takes into consideration the scientist's intention as well as the way in which the modified plants will be used by society.

In interviews conducted in their respective laboratories four months after the Amazonian experience, the three biologists agreed on a number of points. All three said the experience of ayahuasca shamanism changed their way of looking at themselves and at the world, as well as their appreciation of the capacities of the human mind. They all expressed great respect for the shaman's skill and knowledge. They all received information and advice about paths of research they were on. The two women reported contact with "plant teachers," which they experienced as independent entities; they both said that contacting a plant teacher had shifted their way of understanding reality. The man said that all the things he saw and learned in his visions were somehow already in his mind, but that ayahuasca had helped him see into his mind and put them together. He did not think he had experienced contact with an independent intelligence, but he did think ayahuasca was a powerful tool for exploring the mind.

The scientific information and imagery accessed in ayahuasca visions by the three biologists were certainly related to the information and images already in their minds. They did not have any big revelations. "Ayahuasca is not a shortcut to the Nobel prize," the French professor remarked. They all said that ayahuasca shamanism was a harder path to knowledge than science, and as scientists, they found specific difficulties with it. For example, getting knowledge from an ayahuasca experience involves a highly emotional, subjective experience that is not reproducible. One cannot have the same ayahuasca experience twice, nor can somebody else have the same ayahuasca experience as oneself. This makes it almost contrary to the method of science, which consists of designing objective experiments that can be repeated by anyone, anywhere, anytime.

The scientists said that more research was needed; and that this would require preparing questions carefully, and working with qualified shamans in well-defined conditions. And they are all planning to return to the Amazon at some point to continue working on this.

They conducted this preliminary experiment over two weeks. Afterward they visited a school for bilingual, intercultural education, where young women and men from fourteen indigenous societies are learning to teach indigenous knowledge and science, in their mother tongue and in Spanish. They are Aguaruna, Shipibo, Huitoto, Ashaninca and so on. The school's goal is to train indigenous primary school teachers. Each people has elected an old "indigenous specialist" to work at the school as the keeper and teacher of its knowledge, language and lore.

The scientists met with the school's director and with the old indigenous specialists. They spoke positively about their recent experience with an indigenous shaman. But several of the specialists warned them about the abuses that can occur with ayahuasca shamanism. They said that sorcerers worked with ayahuasca and shot darts into people to cause disease. They said ayahuasca was double-edged. "The plant can show you things that will harm you," said one. They emphasized that using ayahuasca required the presence of a well-trained and talented ayahuasquero.

The specialists asked the scientists about science: What was its nature? Where did its center lie? One of the scientists replied that science was fragmented into many disciplines and was practiced in many countries. He went on to say that he thought it was very important that young indigenous people learned about science, because it was currently the dominant form of knowledge around the world. In reply, one specialist said he thought this was true, but he also thought that the scientists might consider sending their children to the Amazon to learn about indigenous knowledge. That way, he said, they too would benefit from a complete education.

Once everybody had spoken, the Aguaruna director of the school thanked us for our visit and said: "Here in the Amazon, our knowledge has been taken many times by others, but we have never received any benefits from it. Now we would like to see some returns." He said that an agreement regarding the compensation of indigenous knowledge should be established before any further research was conducted. This experiment seemed to show that scientists can learn things by working with indigenous Amazonian shamans. Some observers have suggested that shamanism, as classically defined, is reaching its end. But bringing shamans and scientists together seems more like a beginning.

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Alcohol and the Brain

"While the history of alcohol use dates back thousands of years, the chemistry of alcohol metabolism - what actually takes place in the body when we imbibe - is only now becoming clear. Indeed, our understanding of alcohol’s toxic effects is still evolving. We know, for example, that the liver is uniquely susceptible to injury from alcohol, as it is the organ primarily responsible for metabolizing toxins entering the bloodstream. While evidence suggests that drinking in moderation may confer modest cardiovascular benefits, make no mistake - generally speaking, alcohol is toxic to living cells." Dale Kiefer in a publication called "A Little Known Fact: Alcohol is a Carcinogen"

To drink or not to drink?

Information about alcohol and its impact on brain health and health in general, can be confusing at times. In many publications we read that people who drink two drinks a day are healthier, live longer, and have lower risk of Alzheimer's and cardiovascular disease than heavy drinkers or those who do not drink at all. Other findings present evidence that any amount of alcohol is detrimental to brain health. Alcohol affects many parts of the brain. It has adverse effect on the brain tissue and it also depresses the central nervous system. What are we to make out of such conflicting reports?

The effects of alcohol are quite obvious after just a few drinks, although men seem to tolerate higher amounts of alcohol than women. Blurred vision, distorted speech, slower reaction time, impaired memory function, and distorted motor function, are the most immediate and noticeable effects of alcohol on the brain and the amount of alcohol that causes such impairments is rather minimal. Some people do not even need to drink much to reach the state of complete inebriation.

Alcohol and brain physiology

Ethyl alcohol, or ethanol, is the alcohol that is commonly consumed in alcoholic drinks. Once ingested, alcohol is not digested like other foods or drinks. It is calculated that about 20 percent of ingested alcohol bypass the digestive system and enter the bloodstream directly through the stomach wall. The remaining 80 percent is absorbed through the wall of the small intestine. The brain needs a constant supply of blood and is quite vulnerable to the effects of ethanol. Within minutes of alcohol consumption, the brain receives blood that is infused with alcohol. Alcohol interferes with communication between neurons by interacting with the receptors on some cells. Alcohol suppresses excitatory nerve pathway activity, increasing at the same time the inhibitory nerve pathway activity. This enhances the activity of the inhibitory neurotransmitter GABA and diminishes the excitatory neurotransmitter glutamine. As a consequence, a person under the influence of alcohol experiences sluggishness. Moreover, acetaldehyde which is a toxic by-product of alcohol metabolism, can cross the blood-brain barrier and cause irritation of brain membranes. This not only leads to headaches and hangover, but also increases the risk of developing a cancer.

Excessive drinking increases the exposure to acetaldehyd. This can cause brain fog, memory lapses, mood swings, irritability, and loss of motivation. But probably the most damaging effect of alcohol in the brain is caused by the free radicals produced during the metabolism of alcohol. Free radicals destroy cell membranes in a process called lipid peroxidation and precipitate the aging of the brain. Research demonstrated that the concentrations of creatine and choline in the brain diminish with the increasing levels of alcohol. Creatine protects the brain cells and choline is a building component of cell membranes. Diminished amounts of these compounds in the brain leave this organ vulnerable to damage. Autopsies show that people who abused alcohol had smaller and more shrunken brains than abstinent adults of the same age and gender.

In order to function properly, the brain needs a steady supply of glucose. In July 2009 researchers found out that even relatively small amounts of alcohol cause changes in the sugar that is being delivered to the brain. The brain's activity diminishes as it begins to run on the sugar derived from alcohol instead of the glucose that it normally uses.

Research also shows that alcohol does not destroy the entire brain cells, but damages dendrites which are responsible for the delivery of the incoming information to the brain. In moderate drinkers this damage is temporary. The dendrites grow back, but the brain cell structure is altered permanently. After a period of abstinence, the brain cells seem to regenerate even in the brains of alcoholics. However, scientist are still trying to figure out the impact of these altered structures on the brain function.

Alcohol and cognition 

The American Journal of Epidemiology announced in 2005 that some observational studies suggested improved cognitive function and reduced risk of cognitive decline and dementia in moderate drinkers. But research also shows that heavy alcohol consumption impairs the cognitive function. People who abuse alcohol have impaired memory and diminished reasoning ability. Although less dramatically, the cognitive function is also affected in people who consider themselves to be social drinkers. Tests demonstrated some deficits in cognitive performance that could be correlated to the amount of alcohol consumed. The findings, however, are inconsistent as there are other studies that show no correlation between alcohol consumption and the cognitive impairment. Researchers generally agree, though, that some cognitive impairment in alcoholics is reversible. Three factors may play a role here: abstinence from alcohol, better nutrition, and improved social interaction. However, the skills that require novel, complex, and rapid information processing take the longest time to recover.

Heavy, long-term abuse of alcohol is associated with the Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome in which deficiency of Vitamin B1 (thiamine) is responsible for a number of symptoms including confusion and dementia. Alcohol interferes with the active gastrointestinal transport of Thiamine. In addition, a chronic liver disease in heavy drinkers interferes with thiamine metabolism and the liver's capacity to store this vitamin. The chronic lack of Vitamin B1 impacts the memory centers in the brain. A person may suffer from memory loss or loses the ability to form new memories. Loss of muscle coordination, changes in vision, and hallucinations have been observed as well.

Alcohol and Alzheimer's disease

As far as Alzheimer's disease is concerned, findings are inconclusive. While some researchers insist that alcohol consumption impairs cognition and causes damage to brain tissue, others demonstrated that moderate alcohol use actually lowered the risk of developing Alzheimer's disease. It is possible that alcoholic dementia and Alzheimer's disease are caused by factors that are not yet understood. An ongoing research is being conducted and we may learn more about the Alzheimer's-alcohol connection in the near future. 

Alcohol and stroke

The most recent studies demonstrated that alcohol consumption is related to the incidence of stroke. The higher the consumption of alcohol, the higher the risk of stroke. This is true for both, the ischemic (due to lack of glucose and oxygen supply to the brain) and the hemorrhagic (due to bleeding) types of stoke. However, research showed that moderate drinking may protect individuals against the ischemic stroke. There is also an evidence that women benefit more than man from the moderate alcohol consumption. Alcohol seems to inhibit coagulation and rise the HDL or high-density lipoprotein commonly known as the good cholesterol. Both factors are associated with lowered risk of ischemic stroke. However, the fact that alcohol inhibits coagulation and rises blood pressure may directly lead to the increased risk of the hemorrhagic stroke.

Alcohol and brain development

There is no safe dosage of alcohol for pregnant women. Women who drink alcohol during pregnancy increase the risk of miscarriage and still birth. They give births to smaller children with the so called Fetal Alcohol Syndrome. Alcohol impedes the normal physical and mental development of a child. Children whose mothers drunk alcohol during pregnancy have a developmental delay and often show signs of mental retardation. The physical effects of alcohol may vary from infant to infant and depend on the amount of alcohol consumed during pregnancy, but all infants show abnormal brain and behavioral development. This fact must be seriously considered by all women who are pregnant or trying to conceive a child.

Conclusion

Alcohol is a toxin! It affects every organ of the body and deprives the body of nutrients. The consequences are more severe in people who regularly abuse alcohol, but so called social drinkers experience noticeable changes in behavior and motor function even after moderate consumption of alcohol. All researchers agree that alcohol consumed in large quantities over a long period of time is detrimental to health in general and brain health in particular. However, researchers found out that even the brain of a former alcoholic has the capability to regenerate itself to a certain degree. The current theory is that people can only profit from small amounts of alcohol. Scientific medical research demonstrated that moderate alcohol consumption improves thinking, reasoning, and memory in aging adults. It is up to every individual to decide for or against the alcohol consumption. Active lifestyle and wholesome nutrition are vital independently from the choices made.

By Dominique Allmon

 

WHO considers alcohol to be a potent carcinogen just like tobacco, asbestos or radiation but most drinkers do not believe that there is a connection between drinking and an increased cancer risk.  

*Information in this article is for educational purposes only. It is not meant to diagnose, treat or cure a disease.

Alcohol and the Brain by Dominique Allmon is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

Chronestesia

 Paul Citroën holding the painted portrait of Nico Jesse
1953

The ability to remember the past and imagine the future can significantly affect a person’s decisions in life. Scientists refer to the brain’s ability to think about the past, present, and future as “chronesthesia,” or mental time travel, although little is known about which parts of the brain are responsible for these conscious experiences. In a new study, researchers have used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to investigate the neural correlates of mental time travel and better understand the nature of the mental time in which the metaphorical “travel” occurs.

Mental time travel consists of two independent sets of processes:

1. those that determine the contents of any act of such ‘travel’: what happens, who are the ‘actors,’ where does the action occur; it is similar to the contents of watching a movie - everything that you see on the screen;

2. those that determine the subjective moment of time in which the action takes place - past, present, or future.

In cognitive neuroscience, we know quite a bit (relatively speaking) about perceived, remembered, known, and imagined space. We know essentially nothing about perceived, remembered, known, and imagined time. When you remember something that you did last night, you are consciously aware not only that the event happened and that you were ‘there,’ as an observer or participant (‘episodic memory’), but also that it happened yesterday, that is, at a time that is no more. The question we are asking is, how do you know that it happened at a time other than ‘now’?

In their study, the researchers asked several well-trained subjects to repeatedly think about taking a short walk in a familiar environment in either the imagined past, the real past, the present, or the imagined future. By keeping the content the same and changing only the mental time in which it occurs, the researchers could identify which areas of the brain are correlated with thinking about the same event at different times.

The results showed that certain regions in the left lateral parietal cortex, left frontal cortex, and cerebellum, as well as the thalamus, were activated differently when the subjects thought about the past and future compared with the present. Notably, brain activity was very similar for thinking about all of the non-present times (the imagined past, real past, and imagined future).

Because mental time is a product of the human brain and differs from the external time that is measured by clocks and calendars, scientists also call this time “subjective time.” Chronesthesia, by definition, is a form of consciousness that allows people to think about this subjective time and to mentally travel in it.

Some previous research has questioned whether the concept of subjective time is actually necessary for understanding similarities in brain activity during past and future thinking compared with thinking about the present. A few past studies have suggested that the brain’s ability for scene construction, and not subjective time, can account for the ability to think about past and future events. However, since scene construction was held constant in this study, the new results suggest that the brain’s ability to conceive of a subjective time is in fact necessary to explain how we think about the past and future.

Until now, the processes that determine contents and the processes that determine time have not been separated in functional neuroimaging studies of chronesthesia; especially, there have been no studies in which brain regions involved in time alone, rather than time together with action, have been identified. 

The concept of ‘chronesthesia’ is essentially brand new. Therefore, the most important result of the study is the novel finding that there seem to exist brain regions that are more active in the (imagined) past and the (imagined) future than they are in the (imagined) present. That is, some evidence for chronesthesia has been found.

At this stage of the game, it is too early to talk about potential implications or applications of understanding how the brain thinks about the past, present, and future.

This study is the first swallow of the spring, and others will follow. The findings are promising, but they have to be replicated, checked for validity and reliability, and, above all, extended to other conditions and situations, before the scientists can even begin thinking about their implications and practical applications.

More information on the subject: Lars Nyberg, et al. “Consciousness of subjective time in the brain.” PNAS Early Edition.

How to Nourish Your Brain

Brain food

Food for Thought or How to Use Nutrients for Cognitive Health

As we age our bodily functions deteriorate. We might not be as flexible as we have been in our forties or fifties. Our brain is aging, as well. And while wisdom is generally attributed to old age, it is old age that often brings the undesirable loss of mental acuity and in worst cases, dementia.

The deterioration of the brain may seem inevitable to some people, yet we can slow it and prevent it with proper nutrition and supplementation. Human brain is a very complex organ and it has nutritional needs that have to be met on daily basis if we want to stay mentally fit until old age. Moreover, our brain needs challenge and exercise in order not to atrophy.

Some foods have the capability to boost the cognitive function. They deliver nutrients to the brain, help produce neurotransmitters and increase the oxygen flow to the brain. Consuming them daily will help you stay mentally fit and agile till old age. Brain supportive foods are:

• complex carbohydrates
• essential fatty acids
• phospholipids
• amino acids
• vitamins and minerals

Complex carbohydrates 

Glucose delivers energy and is the most important nutrient for the brain and the nervous system. The brain consumes more glucose than any other organ in the body and needs a steady flow of it. It is vital to avoid insulin "spikes" and to keep the blood sugar at stable level. Avoid any form of sugar (saccharose) and all foods containing added sugar. Eat whole grains, fresh fruit, and vegetables to maintain optimal blood sugar levels and to secure a steady supply of glucose to the brain. Although fruits contain the simple sugar fructose, fructose is not immediately released into the blood stream as it has to be converted into glucose by the body. Moreover, fresh fruits contain fiber which slows dawn the release of sugar into the blood stream. While choosing your nutrition, watch for foods with low glycemic index (GI) and remember that combining carbohydrates with protein helps prevent insulin from spiking.

Fats

Our brain mass is about 60 per cent fat and it is absolutely necessary to feed our brains with the right fats if we want to maintain optimal brain function. Fats facilitate the circulation of neurotransmitters in the brain. Diet containing very little or no fat at all is detrimental to the brain and our mental health. The brain's fat tissue needs to be replenished constantly, and while saturated and monounsaturated fat, as well as cholesterol are synthesized by the body, essential fatty acids such as omega-3 and omega-6, must be delivered through our diet. Our diet should include saturated, monounsaturated, and polyunsaturated fats. However, fat should comprise no more than 20 per cent of our daily caloric intake. Hydrogenated fat should be avoided and the consumption of saturated fat reduced in favor of the mono- and polyunsaturated fats. The polyunsaturated omega-3 (especially EPA and DHA) and omega-6 (GLA and AA in particular), should comprise one third of the total fat consumption. Avoid fried and processed foods and reduce the consumption of saturated fat from meat and diary. Instead, eat plenty of seeds and nuts and cold water fish such as salmon, herring, mackerel. Include cold pressed oils such as olive or hemp oil and supplement with high quality, hexane free omega-3 and omega-6 capsules.

Phospholipids 

Our brain could not function without the phospholipids phosphatidylcholine (PC) and phosphatidylserine (PS). Phospholipids are the building blocks of all cell membranes. They constitute the myelin sheath of nerve cells and facilitate the communication between the brain cells. The body can make its own phospholipids, but we should also include foods such as eggs, butter milk, and organ meats in our diet.

It has to be mentioned that choline is a precursor to acetylcholine - the memory neurotransmitter. Posphatidylserine, the memory molecule par excellence, is needed to maintain the structural integrity of brain cells. It promotes memory and boosts the brain power. Supplementation with lecithin granules and a good PS formula will help you improve your memory and stop the decline of the brain. Studies have demonstrated that PS taken together with DHA is even more effective.

Amino acids 

Amino acids are the building components of neurotransmitters which the brain uses for the communication between cells. There are hundreds of different neurotransmitters circulating in the brain and in the body, but the most important for the mind/brain function are:

• adrenalin
• noradrenalin
• dopamine
• GABA
• serotonin
• acetylcholine

Our mood, memory, and concentration depend on the levels of these neurotransmitters and therefore, our nutrition must provide all the amino acids which body uses to produce neurotransmitters. Enrich your diet with high quality protein sources such as cold water fish, turkey, chicken, nuts, seeds, pulses, and eggs. Supplementing with essential amino acids (isoleucine, leucine, lysine, methionine, phenylalanine, threonine, tryptophan, and valine ) will help deliver everything your body needs to produce sufficient amount of neurotransmitters.

Vitamins and minerals

Vitamins and minerals are the important catalysts in all processes that include the production of neurotransmitters or the conversion of glucose into energy for the brain. Without them the brain could not function properly. The most important for the brain function and development are:

• vitamins of the B group, especially B1, B3, B5, B12, and the folic acid
• vitamin C
• calcium
• magnesium
• manganese
• zinc

Research shows that nutrition deficient in vitamins and minerals results in diminished IQ. Consume fresh fruit and vegetables daily. Eat nuts, seeds, pulses, mushrooms, and whole grains. If necessary, supplement with a high quality multivitamin and mineral supplement. 

Antioxidants

Like every other cell in the body, brain cells are subject to oxidative damage. Your diet should include foods rich in antioxidants such as dark leafy vegetables, carrots, sweet potatoes, beets, berries, cherries, prunes, seeds and nuts. Avoid nicotine and stimulants, and reduce alcohol consumption. Limit the consumption of fried and processed foods, foods containing artificial sweeteners, colorants, and preservatives. Eliminate sugar from your diet. If necessary, supplement with a high quality antioxidant formula containing among others high levels of:

• vitamin C
• vitamin E
• CoQ 10
• selenium
• proanthocyanidin
• Alpha Lipoic Acid
• Beta Carotene

Herbs

Some plants and herbs have been identified as effective brain modulators enhancing cognitive health, improving memory and overall brain function:

• Bacopa monnieri
• Eleuthero root
• Ginko biloba
• Gotu kola
• Huperzia serrata, the source of Huperzine A
• Periwinkle plant (Vinca minor), the source of Vinpocetine
• Rhodiola rosea
• Reishi mushrooms

These plants contain active agents that are known to promote blood circulation to the brain, relaxation and resistance to stress.

Huperzine A is an alcaloid which inhibits acetylcholinesterase - enzyme that breaks dawn the acetylcholine which is, among others, important for the memory function in the brain.

Vinpocetine helps to improve concentration and memory by enhancing cerebral metabolic function. Ginko biloba enhances the blood circulation to the brain.

Gotu kola is known to improve memory and relieve anxiety. This herb has the capacity to relax the nervous system while stimulating the brain at the same time. This double action results in enhanced concentration.

Rhodiola Rosea has the enormous potential to enhance brain function and mood. It helps to reduce stress which normally interferes with memory function. The herb is known to enhance cognitive function and learning ability. It also increases the resistance to physical and emotional stress and may help protect the brain and the nervous system from oxidative damage caused by free radicals. 

Reishi mushrooms, also known as ganoderma or the mushrooms of longevity, act in the brain as a powerful anti-oxidant. The mycelium in supplements such as has the capacity to reduce inflammation in the brain. According to recent studies, it helps to protect the brain from the damage done by Alzheimer's disease. 

Brain fitness

Like any other body part, brain needs exercise and challenge. Mental activities such as learning a new language, learning to play an instrument, solving puzzles, or reading, all promote the growth of new synapses and activate vast areas of the brain that otherwise remain "idle". Physical activity and exercise promote blood circulation to the brain and help to improve memory and concentration.

Conclusion

Your lifestyle may help you maintain your cognitive function and even improve your intelligence, or on the contrary, diminish it. Old age dementia, but also Alzheimer's or Parkinson's diseases are probably the most feared, but so are brain tumors. Human brain is a very complex organ. Healthy nutrition, mental stimulation, physical activity, socialization, stress control and relaxation, are the vital elements of a brain-supportive life style. Keeping this in mind and following few simple rules, will help us to retain mental agility until old age.

By Dominique Allmon


*Information in this article is for educational purposes only. It is not meant to diagnose, treat or cure a disease. 

Nourish Your Brain by Dominique Allmon is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

Increase Pain Threshold with Zen Meditation

Zen meditation helps lower sensitivity to pain by thickening a part of the brain that regulates emotion and painful sensations, according to a Montreal study published in February, 2010.

University of Montreal researchers compared the gray matter thickness of seventeen Zen meditators and eighteen non-meditators and found evidence that practicing the centuries-old discipline can reinforce a central part of the brain called the anterior cingulate.

"Through training, Zen meditators appear to thicken certain areas of their cortex and this appears to underlie their lower sensitivity to pain," lead author Joshua Grant said.

Building on an earlier study, the researchers measured thermal pain sensitivity by applying a heated plate to the calf of participants.

This was followed by scanning the brains of subjects with structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).

The MRI results showed central brain regions that regulate emotion and pain were significantly thicker in meditators compared with non-meditators.

"The often painful posture associated with Zen meditation may lead to thicker cortex and lower pain sensitivity," Mr Grant said.

The study was published in a special issue of the American Psychological Association journal, Emotion.

In the previous study, the researchers recruited Zen meditators with more than thousand hours of practice and non-meditators and measured their respective tolerance to pain.

Several of the meditators tolerated a maximum 53C produced by a heating plate.

They appeared to further reduce their pain partly through slower breathing: 12 breaths per minute versus an average of fifteen breaths for non-meditators.

"Slower breathing certainly coincided with reduced pain and may influence pain by keeping the body in a relaxed state," Mr Grant said in the earlier study.

Ultimately, Zen meditators experience an eighteen per cent reduction in pain sensitivity, according to the original study.

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Does Memory Reside Outside the Brain?

By Leonardo Vintiñi

 

After decades of investigation, scientists are still unable to explain why no part of the brain seems responsible for storing memories.  

Most people assume that our memories must exist somewhere inside our heads. But try as they might, medical investigators have been unable to determine which cerebral region actually stores what we remember. Could it be that our memories actually dwell in a space outside our physical structure?

Biologist, author, and investigator Dr. Rupert Sheldrake notes that the search for the mind has gone in two opposite directions. While a majority of scientists have been searching inside the skull, he looks outside.

According to Sheldrake, author of numerous scientific books and articles, memory does not reside in any geographic region of the cerebrum, but instead in a kind of field surrounding and permeating the brain. Meanwhile, the brain itself acts as a “decoder” for the flux of information produced by the interaction of each person with their environment.

In his paper "Mind, Memory, and Archetype Morphic Resonance and the Collective Unconscious" published in the journal Psychological Perspectives, Sheldrake likens the brain to a TV set - drawing an analogy to explain how the mind and brain interact.

“If I damaged your TV set so that you were unable to receive certain channels, or if I made the TV set aphasic by destroying the part of it concerned with the production of sound so that you could still get the pictures but could not get the sound, this would not prove that the sound or the pictures were stored inside the TV set.

“It would merely show that I had affected the tuning system so you could not pick up the correct signal any longer. No more does memory loss due to brain damage prove that memory is stored inside the brain. In fact, most memory loss is temporary: amnesia following concussion, for example, is often temporary.

This recovery of memory is very difficult to explain in terms of conventional theories: if the memories have been destroyed because the memory tissue has been destroyed, they ought not to come back again; yet they often do,” he writes.

Sheldrake goes on to further refute the notion of memory being contained within the brain, referring to key experiments which he believes have been misinterpreted. These experiments have patients vividly recall scenes of their past when areas of their cerebrum were electrically stimulated.

While these researchers concluded that the stimulated areas must logically correspond to the contained the memory, Sheldrake offers a different view as he revisits the television analogy:  “… if I stimulated the tuning circuit of your TV set and it jumped onto another channel, this wouldn’t prove the information was stored inside the tuning circuit,” he writes.

Morphogenetic Fields

But if memory does not live in the brain, where does it reside? Following the notions of previous biologists, Sheldrake believes that all organisms belong to their own brand of form-resonance - a field existing both within and around an organism, which gives it instruction and shape.  

An alternative to the predominant mechanist/reductionism understanding of biology, the morphogenetic approach sees organisms intimately connected to their corresponding fields, aligning themselves with the cumulative memory that the species as a whole has experienced in the past.  

Yet these fields become ever more specific, forming fields within fields, with each mind - even each organ - having its own self resonance and unique history, stabilizing the organism by drawing from past experience. “The key concept of morphic resonance is that similar things influence similar things across both space and time,” writes Sheldrake.  

Still, many neurophysicists insist on probing ever deeper into the cerebrum to find the residence of memory. One of the more well known of these researchers was Karl Lashley, who demonstrated that even after up to 50 percent of a rat’s brain had been cut away, the rat could still remember the tricks it had been trained to perform.  

Curiously, it seemed to make no difference which half of the brain was removed - lacking either a left or right hemisphere, the rodents were able to execute the learned actions as before. Successive investigators revealed similar results in other animals.

Picture This

The holographic theory, born from experiments such as those of Lashley, considers that memory resides not in a specific region of the cerebrum but instead in the brain as a whole. In other words, like a holographic image, a memory is stored as an interference pattern throughout the brain.

However, neurologists have discovered that the brain is not a static entity, but a dynamic synaptic mass in constant flux - all of the chemical and cellular substances interact and change position in a constant way. Unlike a computer disc which has a regular, unchanging format that will predictably pull up the same information recorded even years before, it is difficult to maintain that a memory could be housed and retrieved in the constantly changing cerebrum.  

But conditioned as we are to believe that all thought is contained within our heads, the idea that memory could be influenced from outside our brains appears at first to be somewhat confusing.  

Sheldrake writes in his article Staring Experiments:  “… as you read this page, light rays pass from the page to your eyes, forming an inverted image on the retina. This image is detected by light-sensitive cells, causing nerve impulses to pass up the optic nerves, leading to complex electrochemical patterns of activity in the brain.  

All this has been investigated in detail by the techniques of neurophysiology. But now comes the mystery. You somehow become aware of the image of the page. You experience it outside you, in front of your face. But from a conventional scientific point of view, this experience is illusory. In reality, the image is supposed to be inside you, together with the rest of your mental activity.”

While the search for memory challenges traditional biological understanding, investigators like Sheldrake believe that the true residence of memory is to be found in a non-observable spatial dimension.  

This idea aligns with more primal notions of thought such as Jung’s “collective unconscious” or Taoist thinking that sees the human mind and spirit derived from various sources both inside and outside the body, including the energetic influences of several different organs (except, or course, the brain).  
In this view, the brain does not act as a storage facility, or even the mind itself, but the physical nexus necessary to relate the individual with its morphic field. 

Image and article source here

Albert Einstein's Brain

Albert Einstein 14 March 1879 - 18 April 1955

By Allan Bellows 

"Dr. Albert Einstein died on April 18, 1955 at Princeton Hospital in Trenton, New Jersey. In accordance with his wishes, he was cremated without ceremony on the same day, and his ashes scattered at an undisclosed location. But the body that arrived at the cremation oven was not quite complete… it was lacking its brain.

That’s because Einstein’s brain was sitting in a jar of formaldehyde in Dr. Thomas Harvey’s office. Dr. Harvey was the pathologist who performed Einstein’s autopsy, and while doing so, he removed and kept the brain for his own study. Some say that Einstein volunteered his brain for research, but the executor of his estate denies this, saying that it was Einstein’s son Hans who made the decision to have it preserved. But the press soon learned that Einstein’s brain had been set aside for study, and antagonized Einstein’s family with unwanted attention. 

Dr. Harvey became very protective of the brain, and divided it into 240 sections, which he kept in jars at his house. Despite being in possession of the organ for years, he never published any findings, saying that he was unable to find anything unusual about it. But over the years he gave away samples of the brain to various researchers, and one such recipient, Dr. Marian Diamond from UC Berkeley, studied the brain and discovered some interesting features.

A brain’s network of neurons are fed and nourished by cells called glial cells. Dr. Diamond compared the percentage of glial cells in Einstein’s brain to that of other men who died at the age he did, and found that his contained about 73% more than the average. This indicated that Einstein’s neurons probably had a greater metabolic need; they needed and used more energy. 

 

For years, Dr. Harvey toted the rest of the brain with him every time he relocated, until in 1996 when he moved back to New Jersey. There, Dr. Harvey surrendered the remaining pieces of Einstein’s brain to Dr. Elliot Krauss, the chief pathologist at Princeton Hospital. Soon the brain was subjected to some serious scientific scrutiny. Scientists from McMaster University were given access to it, and they discovered that Einstein’s brain was remarkable in several other ways. 

The researchers found that Einstein’s brain was 15% wider than average, due to the fact that the inferior parietal regions on both hemispheres were much more developed than most. This would have given Einstein some powerful visualization skills, given that these regions of the brain are largely responsible for visuospatial cognition, mathematical thought, and imagery of movement. They also found that Einstein’s brain lacked the groove which usually runs through part of this area, which suggests that the neurons might have been able to work together more easily given their proximity.

During his life, Einstein was quick to downplay his own intellect, being heard to remark, “The contrast between the popular assessment of my powers … and the reality is simply grotesque.” On another occasion, he said, “I have no special talents, I am only passionately curious.” But his achievements during his life and the examination of his brain after his death have indicated that he possessed a mind capable of great leaps of insight and visualization. 

These days, Einstein’s brain spends most of its time sitting in jars of formaldehyde at Princeton Hospital, no doubt waiting to unlock even more insight into the mysterious construction of a genius mind. “The fairest thing we can experience is the mysterious,” Albert Einstein once said. “It is the fundamental emotion that stands at the cradle of true art and true science.”