Old Dogs - New Tricks_________________________________________________

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(originally posted on ZenofGossip.com September 7 , 2010) Robert McFadden

Mention the name "Ivan Pavlov" at your next martini soirée and watch noses curl in horror of white lab
coats scrubbing brains and charting pain thresholds. Pavlov’s concept of the conditioned response
attained an international audience – and much notoriety - through works of fiction such as Aldous
Huxley’s Brave New World and Richard Condon’s The Manchurian Candidate. Yes, thought control
techniques have subsequently been built upon the findings of Pavlov's work. And yes, the nature and
possible uses of pain has be studied in science labs worldwide, though pain was never a part of
Pavlov's repertoire. While his name and techniques have become synonymous worldwide, the basic goal
behind Pavlov's experiments remains lost on the general public: to develop an understanding of the
processes underpinning learning and memory.

One of Pavlov's Dogs Rklawton

Pavlov's lesson is simple enough: bring together an innate response - like the salivation of a dog at the
arrival of food - with an unrelated object - say, the ringing of a bell - and, with enough
regular repetitions, you'll have the dog salivating to the bell with no food in sight. We can each build
conditioned responses in our own brains simply by consistently rehearsing desired skills within a set
context. Jai-alai players, carpet weavers, jazz musicians, and all such masters of the interplay between
“muscle memory” skills and sensory flow - kinetic and tonal patterns, relationships of harmony and
rhythm, and the like - are familiar with this phenomenon.

Mediation is another practice that works in exactly this same way, as do all other techniques for the
long-term acquisition of life skills. Abstract appreciation of benefits arising from awareness, empathy,
creative thinking, and the like may seem excellent incentives to the cultivation of such abilities, but
eventual mastery depends firstly upon the experience of their actual performance honed through
repeated practice and daily application.

The application of the conditioned response process has been given a new twist with recent clinical
work in neuroplasticity. Previously incurable conditions - including total blindness, severe brain damage,
and phantom limb pain - are now being treated with techniques redirecting the acquisition process for
unavailable stimuli – such as vision, intentions, and memories1 - through entirely different sensory
channels. With repetitive practice, patients are learning to see with their tongues, reactivate “lost”
motor activities, and release sensations of severe cramping in limbs long gone . Our brains, we now
know, are in a life-long process of adaptation to the world around us, and conditioned responses play an
important role in this development.

Learn more about neuroplasticity in Norman Doige's The Brain

That Changes Itself. You can view a CBC documentary based
on Doige's book by clicking on the above image.

The task of explaining the learning and memory aspect of conditioned responses was completed in 1949
by psychologist Donald Hebb.2 Almost half a century after Pavlov's original experiments, Hebb
detailed the remarkable ability for a connection between two neurons to change in strength with his
theory of synaptic plasticity. Hebb proposed that associations between individual cells are intensified by
repeated, persistent use - a concept we've all encountered with the catchphrase “use it or lose it” . As
subsequent research demonstrated, synaptic plasticity is indeed fundamental to the processes of
learning – the means by which neural connections are strengthened - and memory – the
interconnection of disparate information markers to form a cohesive recollection. These two functions –
learning and memory – set the stage for what has long been esteemed as the epitome of our specie’s
achievements: the ability to form an idea.

1
On first reading, “intentions” and “memories” may seem odd examples of stimuli. Stimuli, however, are
constantly being encountered in both the external world (sights, sounds, etc) and the internal milieu of the body –
the digestive system (feelings of hunger), the somatic system (like pressure and temperature), the nervous system
(from a toothache to the triggering of one neuron by another), and so on. In cases of stroke paralysis, a disconnect
between the formation of an intent to move a body part and the failure of that body part to do so can be treated
by reconnecting an unavailable stimulus – the intention – to the desired response – movement of the body part.
Similarly, phantom limb pain results from memory retention coupled with the expression of sensations acquired at
the time of the limb's loss. New treatment quells the stimulus for the sensation of pain by retraining memory maps
of the original condition.
2
Interestingly, Donald Hebb’s name also arises in connection with brainwashing-related sensory depravation
research conducted at McGill University in Montreal during the 1950s. The equipment used in these experiments
to induce the sense of isolation - isolation chambers containing buoyant salt water maintained at body
temperature – have today been adopted for entirely different purposes: flotation tanks for rest and meditation.