Mind and Body Connection





People interested in the topic of this Wiki page will likely also enjoy Dave Moursund's short IAE Blog entry at http://i-a-e.org/iae-blog/research-on-how-exercise-improves-brain-functioning.html.


 * "To keep the body in good health is a duty, for otherwise we shall not be able to trim the lamp of wisdom, and keep our minds strong and clear." (Buddha, His Life and Teachings.)

There is a lot of research-based literature on the importance of physical exercise for the body, mental exercise for the brain, and how these compliment each other. However, there is also a lot of "hype" and companies jumping on the bandwagon.

The Human (and Aging) Brain
See Resources for Science Learning at http://www.fi.edu/learn/brain/exercise.html. The article lays a good foundation for study of body/brain and summarizes some of the brain/physical exercise research literature. Quoting from an early art of the article:


 * Step back a half-billion years ago, to when the first nerve cells developed. The original need for a nervous system was to coordinate movement, so an organism could go find food, instead of waiting for the food to come to it. Jellyfish and sea anemone, the first animals to create nerve cells, had a tremendous advantage over the sponges that waited brainlessly for dinner to arrive.


 * After millions of generations of experimentation, nervous systems evolved some amazing ways of going out to eat. But behind all the myriad forms of life today, the primary directive remains. Movement. In fact, a diminished ability to move is a good measure of aging. Inflexibility heralds death, while a flexible body and fluid mind are the hallmarks of youth. …


 * Before birth you created neurons, the brain cells that communicate with each other, at the rate of 15 million per hour! When you emerged into the world, your 100 billion neurons were primed to organize themselves in response to your new environment – no matter the culture, climate, language, or lifestyle.


 * During infancy, billions of these extraordinary cells intertwined into the vast networks that integrated your nervous system. By the time you were four or five years old, your fundamental cerebral architecture was complete.


 * Until your early teens, various windows of opportunity opened when you could most easily learn language and writing, math and music, as well as the coordinated movements used in sports and dance. But, at any age you can – and should – continue to build your brain and expand your mind.

The Aging Brain (Guttman, 2001) provides a nice overview of what was known about the aging brain at the turn of the century. Quoting from the article:


 * Until recently, brain aging-and everything that entails, from the annoying inconveniences of age-related memory loss to more  serious conditions like Alzheimer's and dementia-was equated  with neuron failure.  "I think historically the subject  was thought to be very simple: that brain neurons were lost from  birth onwards," explains Caleb Finch, Ph.D., the ARCO/William  F. Kieschnick Chair in the Neurobiology of Aging and a professor  of gerontology and biological sciences. "Now it is really  clear that if you don't have a specific disease that causes loss  of nerve cells, then most, if not all, of the neurons remain  healthy until you die. That's a big change, and it has only come  about in the last 10 years." …


 * Brain weight and volume decrease. On average, the brain loses 5-10 percent of its weight between the ages of 20 and 90.
 * The grooves on the surface of the brain widen, while the swellings on the surface become smaller.


 * So-called "neurofibriallary tangles," decayed portions of the branch-like dentricles that extend from the neurons, increase.


 * "Senile plaques," or abnormally hard clusters of damaged or dying neurons, form.


 * Along with realizing these physical changes in the brain, one of the big surprises in recent years is data that suggests cognitive  decline like age-related memory loss is not due to neuron loss,  as previously thought. Instead, scientists now believe changes  in function as we age have more to do with complex chemical interactions  in the brain that occur over time.

Physical Exercise
Quoting from the Wikipedia:


 * Physical exercise is any bodily activity that enhances or maintains physical fitness and overall health or wellness. It is performed for various reasons. These include strengthening muscles and the cardiovascular system, honing athletic skills, weight loss or maintenance and for enjoyment. Frequent and regular physical exercise boosts the immune system, and helps prevent the "diseases of affluence" such as heart disease, cardiovascular disease, Type 2 diabetes and obesity.[1][2] It also improves mental health, helps prevent depression, helps to promote or maintain positive self-esteem, and can even augment an individual's sex appeal or body image, which again is also linked with higher levels of self-esteem.[3] Childhood obesity is a growing global concern[4] and physical exercise may help decrease the effects of childhood obesity in developed countries.

Mental Exercise
Posit Science (http://www.positscience.com/) is a good starting point for resources for this section. See research studies at http://www.positscience.com/science/proven-in-labs.

Of course, there are many articles in which authors assert "Use it or lose it." In the past this typically referred to one's physical body. Now, they also refer to one's brain and mind. It is now common to draw a parallel between brain (mind) and muscles.

We all understand physical conditioning, with muscles becoming bigger and stronger, increased stamina, and so on. These changes are relatively easy to see and measure. Such is not the case for the results of "brain exercises."

If you want to look back a hundred years or so in the United States, you will see a time when the study of Greek and Latin was required for admission to many institutions of higher eduction. It was argued that such study somehow strengthened the brain. It is more appropriate to argue that knowledge of Greek and Latin is helpful in better understanding English and of some ancient history.

The following article about computer games is relevant to the discussion in this section.

Timmer, John (9132010). Gamers make faster decisions than nongamers, just as accurate. ars technica. Retrieved 9/13/2010 from http://arstechnica.com/science/news/2010/09/gamers-make-faster-decisions-than-nongamers-are-just-as-accurate.ars?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=rss. Quoting from the article:


 * There's a significant controversy over the value of games that are designed to improve people's mental faculties, as some studies have indicated that brain training only helps prepare you for similar tasks, while others indicate that general improvements are possible. But there turns out to be a type of game that is known to boost a variety of skills, from decision making to tracking multiple objects:  standard action games.  A study, released today by Current Biology attempts to explain how these video games can produce such wide-ranging improvements.
 * The authors of the study argue that the root of all these tasks involves making a probabilistic inference, where complete information is missing, so people have to make a best guess based on known odds. Video gaming, in their view, increases the efficiency at which people can process the odds and make an accurate decision—gamers simply can do more with less.  As a result, any task of this sort sees benefits.

…


 * Of course, as the authors note, this doesn't demonstrate causation: "It could also be the case that [video game players] are individuals who have been born with improved abilities at performing probabilistic inferences." To rule this out, they took the non-gamers and gave them 50 hours of training and practice on action games (a control group learned to play slower-paced games).  After the training, the same sort of pattern emerged, with the action gamers displaying an enhanced decision time.

General Education
There is quite a bit of research literature supporting the idea that the brains of people who have a greater amount of formal education are better able to deal with the brain changes (deterioration) that come with aging. Quoting from a Lumosity Newsletter of 9/14/2010:


 * Building up your brain power now can reduce the cognitive effects of aging later. That's the central message behind a wave of recent research findings showing the importance of cognitive reserve for preserving brain function.


 * One such study from the University of Cambridge in the UK was published last month in the journal Brain. This study showed that the negative effects of the brain pathology associated with aging did not affect all people equally. According to their results, education had a large impact on moderating these negative effects. Each additional "dose" of education -- from grade school through university -- led to a significant reduction in the likelihood of experiencing dementia in later life, when the impact of neural degeneration was taken into account. In other words, exercising the brain through education improved cognitive function years later, even in the face of age-related changes in the physical structure of the brain.

Lumosity is a for-profit company that (among other things) develops and sells "brain-training games." See some examples at http://www.livescience.com/health/lumosity-games/.

Anthony Chemero
The article (Keim, 2010) discusses research by Anthony Chemero, a cognitive scientist at Franklin & Marshall College. Quoting from the article:


 * An empirical test of ideas proposed by Martin Heidegger shows the great German philosopher to be correct: Everyday tools really do become part of ourselves.
 * The findings come from a deceptively simple study of people using a computer mouse rigged to malfunction. The resulting disruption in attention wasn’t superficial. It seemingly extended to the very roots of cognition.


 * “The person and the various parts of their brain and the mouse and the monitor are so tightly intertwined that they’re just one thing,” said Anthony Chemero, a cognitive scientist at Franklin & Marshall College. “The tool isn’t separate from you. It’s part of you.”


 * Chemero’s experiment, published March 9 in Public Library of Science, was designed to test one of Heidegger’s fundamental concepts: that people don’t notice familiar, functional tools, but instead “see through” them to a task at hand, for precisely the same reasons that one doesn’t think of one’s fingers while tying shoelaces. The tools are us.

Meagen Timne
Meagan Timney (7/28/2010)is a postdoctoral fellow at the Electronic Textual Cultures Laboratory at the University of Victoria. Quoting from her 7/28/2010 article:


 * Here are three reasons to nurture the mind-body connection:


 * Exercise makes the mind stronger. A recent study suggests that physical activity aids brain growth in mice. Other research has shown that physical exercise increases brain function in humans and may reduce the effects of aging on the brain.
 * Staying active helps combat stress and makes you feel good. Let's face it; academic work causes a lot of stress. Exercise increases serotonin and dopamine production in the brain. These "mood boosting" hormones have been shown to have anxiolytic effects. So exercise is good for your mood and your health. If you're healthy and happy, then you're more likely to be productive, too.
 * Physical activity is fun. Especially if you make it a social affair. Play some squash, go for a bike ride with a friend, shoot some hoops at lunchtime, join the department softball team. Who doesn't like fun?

John Ratey
See http://www.johnratey.com/newsite/index.html. Quoting from the Website:


 * John J Ratey, MD, is an Associate Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, Research Synthesizer, Speaker, and Author,  as well a Clinical Psychiatrist maintaining a private practice in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He has lectured and published 60 peer reviewed articles on the topics of Aggression, Autism, ADHD, and other issues in neuropsychiatry.


 * Dr. Ratey has authored A User¹s Guide to the Brain(2000) and co-authored Shadow Syndromes(1997) with Catherine Johnson, PhD.    From 1994 to 2005  he co-authored Driven to Distraction(1994), Answers to Distraction  (1995) and Delivered from Distraction (2005) with Edward Hallowell, MD, all published by Pantheon/Random House.   Additionally, he has edited several books including The Neuropsychiatry of Personality Disorders (1994), published by Blackwell Scientific.


 * Most recently, Dr Ratey has penned, Spark: The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain published by Little Brown. In Spark, Dr. Ratey guides the reader to an understanding of neurobiology and inspires the reader to reach for their potential, and embrace exercise that is crucial for the brain and body to operate at peak performance.


 * Spark: The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain, released in 2008, is the culmination of years of experience with the brain body connection, new research data, and the synthesis of biological sciences. Spark is revolutionizing how we see the human species. A call to return to our evolutionary roots; to get in sync with our metabolic design honed through eons of survival to optimize mental and physical health.   Dr. Ratey is the spark that will set your old paradigms on fire, which will clear your mind to see a new vision for mankind, and inflame a passion of commitment to create a healthy future for our posterity.

Video Materials
http://www.cbc.ca/thenational/indepthanalysis/story/2009/10/06/national-braingains.html

http://www.cbc.ca/video/#/News/TV%20Shows/The%20National/ID=1405796472

http://www.cbc.ca/video/#/News/TV%20Shows/The%20National/ID=1305544903

Author or Co-authors
The initial version of this page was created by David Moursund.