10 Ways You Can Use Neuroplasticity in Your Practice Today

From the 2010 New Brain Science Series

All the brain science in the world wont help our patients unless its got a good dose of application to go along with it. Thats why during each of our sessions last year, we focused on application. These are the Top Ten Takeaways you may have gotten from last years first annual series on that New Brain Science. Plus, these Top Ten will provide a foundation for our upcoming series on the New Brain Science.

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Your Action Plan: The hippocampus is important to learning. Anything we can do to support the hippocampus can be helpful in countless areas of life. But the corollary is also true its important to avoid anything that makes the hippocampus shrink. Keep this in mind as we go along. The amygdala is constantly on the alert for danger. Were hard wired this way but . . . this hyper-reactivity can be very harmful it affects our blood pressure and our interpersonal relationships. But it also affects our brains. Aerobic exercise increases BDNF, which stands for brainderived neurotrophic factor. When BDNF is released into the system, brain growth and neural connections are enhanced its like miracle grow for the brain. Research indicates that for approximately 24 hours after exercise, its easier to grow new neurons and to make new neural connections. Explain this to your patients and get them moving. Weight training not only builds muscles and contributes to bone health, but it also improves cognitive functioning. Improvements are in areas such as a heightened ability to make decisions, resolve conflict and improve focus. Meditation quiets the amygdala and activates the hippocampus. (Keep in mind take-away number ten, anything that supports the hippocampus is good for you.) The cerebral cortex thins with various brain diseases. Well, unfortunately, it also thins with age. But researchers are finding that mindfulness practices help to thicken cell walls in the brain. __________________________ __________________________ __________________________

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The National Institute for the Clinical Application of Behavioral Medicine www.nicabm.com

Too much stress can be harmful, not just to the cardiovascular system, but also to your brain. As we reported in the blog last year in studies with rats, it was shown that when corticosteroids were increased, neurogenesis decreased. Corticosteroids are hormones released from the adrenals in response to stress. So, when stress went up, brain growth, or whats known as neurogenesis, went down. In fact, chronic stress can shrink the brain making it hard to learn new information or to even simply retain the information you already have.

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The sweet spot for neuroplasticity. New learning is most likely to take place when the brain has an optimal amount of arousal. Too much arousal and the brain shuts down, not enough and it gets distracted and lazy. Its important to keep this in mind during psychotherapy . . . but really during all our interventions. Teachers, parents, managers - this is useful information. The harmful side of neuroplasticity. We normally think of the possibility of the brain growing and changing as a positive thing, but there can also be a dark side to neuroplasticity. When you are experiencing trauma, you are also in learning mode but this time, your brain is laying down neural connections that include vivid memories and sensations of terrifying experiences. All practitioners are neuroscientists! Our interventions are successful when we create an experience that results in change and change is only possible with neuroplasticity. Heres a way to think about what we do and this is key: good therapy needs to bias the brain in favor of hippocampal learning rather than amygdala learning. We shared a lot of specifics about what goes into an optimal experience in the transcript of the call with Lou Cozolino, PhD last year. If you havent read that yet, be sure to take a moment to go back and check it out. Youll find a link to it below. http://www.nicabm.com/brainexchange/confirmed

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The National Institute for the Clinical Application of Behavioral Medicine www.nicabm.com