Even though almost everything we know about the brain has changed in the last decade or so, there is still much misinformation out there and this was the subject of an article on the SharpBrains web site dated June 20th by CEO Alvaro Fernandez which included the Top Ten Brain Training/Cognitive Health Myths. You will find the article on the SharpBrains site here.
The myths are:
1. Genes determine the fate of our brains.
2. Aging means automatic decline.
3. Medication is the main hope for cognitive enhancement.
4. We will soon have a Magic Pill or General Solution to solve all our cognitive challenges.
5. There is only one “it” in “Use It or Lose it”.
6. All brain activities or exercises are equal.
7. There is only one way to train your brain.
8. We all have something called “Brain Age”.
9. That “brain age” can be reversed by 10, 20, 30 years.
10. All human brains need the same brain training.
One that stands out for me is number three. SharpBrain’s response to this myth is, “Non-invasive interventions can have comparable and more durable effects–side effect free.” I was diagnosed with ADHD Primarily Inattentive. My understanding is that this subtype is not usually that responsive to stimulant medication and if it is at all it is usually at low doses. This was the case for me but my low dose was almost too low to have any beneficial effect at all.
The other myth that stands out for me is number seven and SharpBrain’s response to this one is, “Brain functions can be impacted in a number of ways: through meditation, cognitive therapy and cognitive training.”
For those that struggle with medication to temporarily improve working memory, what can be accomplished by cognitive training, meditation and other options is good news but I despair at those out there who are still operating as if the SharpBrain myths were true.
When I was researching an article on the brain aging last summer I did an interview with one of the researchers working at the Rotman Research Institute at Baycrest Geriatric Health Care System here in Toronto. She mentioned a study they had completed previously and in the process made mention of something she referred to as a default mode in the brain. As she put it, default mode is what the brain does when it isn’t engaged in any specific activity. It is a kind of ongoing internal conversation but is mostly unconnected gibberish. The study showed that as we age it gets harder and harder to dial down the default mode until it actually interferes with the normal functioning of the brain. From my reading about meditative practices lately I noticed that when people describe what meditation does, it seemed one of the benefits might be to turn down the default brain mode. I also know that mindfulness meditation is being employed more and more in therapies for mental health disorders and perhaps it works because of this function. Mindfulness meditation arises from the Tibetan tradition of Buddhism and I know that the subject of the book, Train Your Mind Change Your Brain, one of the first works about neuroplasticity, was about a conference the Dalai Lama held with the top researchers in neuroscience about a decade ago. The author, Sharon Begley states in the chapter entitled, Transforming the Emotional Mind, “The goals of shamatha practice are to quiet the noise that bedevils the untrained mind, in which one’s focus darts from one sight or sound or thought to another like a hyperactive dragonfly and replace it with attentional stability and clarity.”
I would be most interested in comments from those of you who meditate regularly on this idea.
On June 30th, The Toronto Catholic District School Board (TCDSB) will decide whether to renew its contract with the Arrowsmith Program. The TCDSB had invited Arrowsmith to waive its fees for two years while the Board conducted a review of the effectiveness of, Arrowsmith, as well as other programs designed to improve cognitive functioning in learning disabled students. Arrowsmith declined in a letter to the Board dated May 27th, 2009.
The Arrowsmith Program was developed at the Arrowsmith School in Toronto and has been available in the TCDSB for about a decade. The goal of the Arrowsmith Program, according to Arrowsmith: “is to help students strengthen the weak cognitive capacities underlying their learning dysfunctions. The Arrowsmith Program deals with the root causes of the learning disability rather than managing its symptoms.” It was one of the first programs for learning disabled students to apply the principles of neuroplasticity.
A memo from the Director of Education for the TCDSB to the Committee of the Whole for the Board indicated that the cost of delivery of the Arrowsmith Program to each student is roughly $14,000. Costs of delivery include yearly salaries for one full time teacher and one assistant at each school. The site license fee from Arrowsmith for the seven schools delivering the program is $174,000. For the TCDSB the issue if both program effectiveness and cost.
Currently, there are 70 students in the TCDSB enrolled in the program.
As anyone who reads this blog will know by now, you can change your brain and you can improve your working memory and this begs the question, “By how much?” In an interview conducted for Science Magazine last February, Dr. Torkel Klingberg of the Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm commented on a study he had conducted that demonstrated that working memory training actually changes the structure of the brain, Dr. Klingberg said that the training was associated with changes in the brain’s dopamine system.
I jumped to what I thought was the logical conclusion, when I first heard about the study–that the training increased the number of dopamine receptors (actually D1 receptors) and that this meant there might not be any limit on how great that improvement might be. Like most things involving the brain, it is not that simple. Dr. Klingberg made it clear in the interview that the training changed the density of D1 receptors. He went on to say that either too much or too little is not good and that for most subjects in the study, there was actually a decrease in receptor density and that for some of them there was a very small increase.
From my own experience I know that stimulants such as Ritalin (or its many varients such as Concerta or Biphentin) increase the amount of the neurotransmitter dopamine available to the brain. But it would seem that there is something much more complicated and refined going on with working memory training.
Why is this important? In the interview Dr. Klingberg points out that working memory deficits occur in ADHD, but also in schizophrenia and even the normal aging process. So improving working memory may have a beneficial effect on some of these disorders. Finding the optimal dose of a medication is a tricky issue, especially with stimulants. But it would appear from what Dr. Torkel says that working memory training is self regulating, that, put quite simply, you can’t over do it. It would seem that working memory training is a safe, effective and efficient way of improving working memory and, hopefully having an effect on disorders where deficits in working memory is a factor.
Beyond all this, another study conducted at the Karolinska Institutet, constructed a mathematical model of the brain and using this model discovered a mechanism that restricts the number of items held in working memory to seven.