Bold = spelled wrong Optimizing Brain Fitness This lecture will change your brain.

You're forming new networks of ideas which are encoded in your brain's circuitry. Traditionally, we didn't think that way, we thought the brain was formed by adulthood. In fact, it's life experiences that shape the brain, influence neurotransmitters and shape the brain. Physical and mental exercises differ. There is an important difference between strengthening the brain and improving general body conditioning. If you practice any physical exercise, it will lead to general health benefits. Mental exercises in contrast tend to be more specific. For instance a memory exercise won't help you test better on a test
of logic.

Mental exercise - more limited/specific to the exercise done - memory won't help with logic etc. You get the 1. ATTENTION - The gateway to top performance in Math, Reading, Auditory, and Visual Memory, basis for learning what to do and focus on and what to ignore, the coordinator of sensation movement, emotions and thinking. 2. Memory - an extension of attention, activate and maintain widely scattered circuits 3. Working Memory - Most important mental operation carried out by the human brain. We use our working memory when we keep multiple things in mind and mentally manipulate them. Frontal Lobes - distinguish us from other animals. Forseeing consequences of our actions, executive control and drive. Controlled processing - thinking, reasoning etc. through our income taxes Automatic Processing (vs. controlled) - eating meal, driving to drug store consciousness isn't involved - frees up other areas of the brain for other uses. Civilization advances by extending the number of operations we can perform without thinking about it. Teaching someone to drive demands controlled processing. Balance is still required. Too much automatic processing and we're too impulsive - too much controlled processing and we're too paralyzed with indecision. Balance is also needed between cognitive and emotional brain processes. Cognition - word for all the mental processes we do (thinking, remembering, processing, daydreaming) - all of these responses that occur to our inner and outer worlds. Cognition and emotion overlap. Many thoughts and experiences are accompanied by emotions. Pick up the phone - if irritating sales person, one emotion, if friend, another emotion. What areas for cognition vs emotion.

Automatic processing back of brain - occipital parietal and temporal lobes. Controlled processing mainly involves the anterior part of the brain. Cognition involves the whole brain. Not localized to one particular part. Emotions - limbic circuit - right hemisphere. How does brain integrate outer experiences - right and left sides - each lobe is concerned with different processes. Despite this, we experience the world in one unity. We experience scenarios that are synthesized into a unified experience. Our understanding of this comes from the early history of TV - audio and video circuits 100 milli-second window to put audio and video together. Information is the unit of exchange of the brain. Messages are the token of informational exchange. Message transmission is the basic brain operation. Large brain reflects small brain. Brain cells - do they communicate with each other or not - no one was sure who was correct. Special ways of staining neurons revealed that brain cells were connected by what is called a synapse. Brain cells are connected like people on cell phones. In touch with each other but not physically connected. There can also be strong or weak connections caused by distance, interference, competing signals Entaglement - the neurons are tightly entangled with one another. Think of the brain as a gigantic bowl of spaghetti, with each noodle highly branched and entangled. But not quite physically connected with the others. MESSAGE TRANSMITTION TAKES PLACE IN TWO STAGES Stage 1 - Electrical - discharge travels along the length of the axon to the terminal of the synaptic space. The electrical signal then triggers the chemical stage, which is the release into the synapse and the neurotransmitter, which is the messenger molecule, the neurotransmitter enters the synapse, travels along like a ferry boat to the receptors located on the membrane of the dendrite. What are receptors? Think of them as dynamic proteins within the cell membrane and the neuron. We say dynamic because they increase or decrease in number over very quick and short periods of time. An increase in number occurs in addiction leading to a with drawl reaction when the drug is unavailable. At such time the receptors literally cry out for the chemical. The withdrawal reaction ends when the receptors decrease in number. Back to the ferry boat trip from pre-to-post synaptic neuron trip takes 1 thousandth of a second. Each neurotransmitter attaches to a special receptor just like a lock would attach to a key, HIGHLY specific. One dendrite cell is activated then inhibited from firing. At this point, communication reverts again to an electrical signal which travels along the axon until reaching the next terminal which becomes chemical once

again. It's a life cycle for neurotransmitters after attaching to the dendritic membrane the neurotransmitters are either re-absorbed a pre-synaptic neuron prepared for re-release or they're broken down into smaller chemicals. Think of the brain as the summation of billions of interacting neurons influencing each other via the interplay of hundreds of neurotransmitters and their receptors. Shift focus to the whole brain - structural imaging, and process imaging. Structural - think carpenter - shows the location where things are happening - Cat Scans, MRI - both structural Process imagining - think electrician, activities, shows electrochemical activity - fMRI and PET What imaging can do - Can measure blood flow which increase as neurons become active and we get what are called activation maps. Activation pattern of someone listening and thinking about what they're hearing. Can serve as a marker for decease states. It can also show a developmental profile such as adolescence, age within a certain range. Imaging can't predict individual behavior or proclivities whether someone will turn out this or that way. Can't always optimize certain treatments for certain disorders - for some reason he explains this by saying that there's a discinction between isolated regions and the overall unity. The more abstract the concept the more difficult to show through imaging - courage for example, nothing for consciousness - this would be neuromythology. Basic brain facts - The brain encompasses 100 billion neurons with each neuron connected to perhaps 100 thousand others for a total of 1 million billion connections. Picture 1 million - small city - a billion is the size of 1000 small cities, 6 billion people currently living on or planet. A worm has 300 synapses - tracing the connections took 10 years without the help of the computer - 7000 connections. Interlacing of neural fibers - vast interconnectivity at all levels. What you do affects dynamic processes like this in your own brain. Why computers have difficulty tracing neuron connections in the human brain. Professor of Computational Neuroscience at MIT - you'd need 100 million terabytes to store the images from the human brain. - It would take 30 years to analyze all the images the human brain takes in. Neurons are produced first followed by synapses. Synaptic connections form rapidly - 1 million per seconding in the womb. Unused synapses are eliminated by pruning - just like gardening - patters of brain growth - volume, weight size, a plateau is reached and a decrease determined by usage and circuitry formation. Occurs at 15 in boys. Think of a 3 lb organ with 100 million neurons 40% of synapses are lost by adulthood

- those parts of the brain that are not used are in danger of being eliminated. The brains of animals in enriched environments hang on to more synapses. Distinct peaks of grain growth - age 3, individuation, age 7 concrete reasoning starts age 11 and 12 hormones, age 15 abstract reasoning and judgment starts - beyond 15 brain development depends very much on experience. With maturation grey matter (or brain cells) decreases while the white matter (connections ) increase. Myolination - insulation of white matter - increases, progresses from the inferior to superior, posterior to anterior. White matter increases with greater efficiency and speed of conduction. Particularly important with the Frontal cortex and cerebellum which mature late. Cerebral cortex - outer part of the brain. Take a deck of cards - take out 6 cards - they're essentially 2 millimeters in thickness and they have six layers each one is different and each one is interconnected, that's what we're seeing with the brain, it has that same arrangement. Stretched out, the human cortical sheet is about the size of the large dinner napkin. Beneath the cerebral cortex is the white matter, tightly bundled communication lines linking points of the brain, think of that tightly bound fibers you find in a baseball beneath the leather covering, in this case the leather covering is the cortical mantle. Within this bundle of white fibers are the gleal cells. The classical view that the gleal cells constituted a scaffolding for neurons. Glea means glue in greek. Glea numbers outnumber neurons as much as 6 to one in certain parts of the brain. We're not certain at this point what the function of gleal cells are. They process information, but they do it differently than neurons, they're slower, they communicate broadly rather than linearly. So we have a new concept of gleal cells which are now believed to be involved in message transmission. They don't generate electrical impulses but the do respond to them. They use calcium ions instead of electrical signals. They possess sensors that detect signaling by neurons and they can alter it. Basil Ganglia - ions of grey matter suspended in the white matter, so they're down underneath - connected to each other, connected to the cerebral cortex, the frontal cortex particularly. They're concerned with organizing automatic rather than intentionally directed behavior - walking across the room. The frontal cortex processes the goal pick up the cards, but it's not processing every step. These circuits are extremely complex and convoluted with positive and negative effects. So the brain is a work in progress - A NEW INSIGHT. New neurons are created over the life span. We have granular cells in the hippocampus continue to be produced called neurogenesis, we're inhibited by stress or depression, sleep deprivation, or anxiety, we also have an experience dependent brain, infants born with a capacity to perceive and react to the phonames and react to eat. If Japanese Children don't hear english they loose the ability to distinguish between r and l sounds. Exposure to language increases proficiency. 20 month olds with talkative Mom's learn more - at age 2 they know 300

more words. Only live interaction works, not TV. Early achievement (3rd grade) is related to early exposure. Kids deprived of vision for the first 3 months of life grow up with permanent visual impairments, song birds who don't hear their native sounds can't produce those sounds. Monkeys raised in isolation grow up with emotional problems. Among people with perfect pitch, this occurs only in musicians who started training before age 7. In order to speak a language, a foreign language without an accent a child must speak a languages phonemes by puberty. But dispite these sensitive periods and critical windows, the brain is still able to form new connections and associations not only in adulthood but far into old age. So what have we learned so far. Brain circuits and nerve cells can increase and nerve cells can increase in number. Each brain is a result of individual experiences and choices and the richer, the more varied the experiences, the more enhanced the brain function. In other words, what you do shapes your brain's structure and function. The electrical chemical activity in the circuits determines their fate. Cells that fire together wire together. Information is widely disseminated among neurons leading to higher order processing such as memory imagination and creativity. The important point is the brian remains modifiable throughout our lives. In the next lecture we'll learn more about our ability to change our brains as we examine brain plasticity in more detail. Lecture 2 - How Changes in your brain can improve the way you function in day to day life Traditionally we considered intelligence to be unmodifiable, now comes a revolutionary transformation in our thinking, intelligence is not a fixed trait that can't be modified over a lifetime, it changes as our brains change. James Flem - Univ. of ___ in NZ demonstrated that from 1947 to 2002 Americans gained 24 points in IQ but only four points on vocabulary and ___ points on Now we have more education, more leisure activities.. and in the process we've altered the process between the abstract and the contract. In agrarian and hunting societies, intelligence was practical and literal, talking about growth and animals and trails, but thanks to urbanization, education, and the permeation of scientific thinking into our everyday lives we now move beyond thinking only about the here and now. We can actually work with concepts that involve abstraction. Intelligence today involves the ability to think outside the bounds of personal observation and experience. Proverbs are good examples of this - a rolling stone gathers no moss. It's really not about stones or moss, but about the fact that one has to keep moving along to prosper and do well. A stitch in time saves nine isn't about stitches or nine, it's about how taking precautions save time in the long run. How did this change come about (literal to abstract thinking) - Flem thought that genetic changes could not account for the increase - instead intelligence is related to cultural forces and it can change in tandem with these forces. Twin studies favoring genetics

are flawed. Imagine two twins separated at birth, both tall, neither have initial interest in basketball coaches but due to hight are approached by ball coaches. There's a strong tendency for genetic advantages to get more and more matched to it's corresponding environment. We can further this goal through what we learn and what we do. We can increase our intelligence by solving math problems, interpreting literature etc. MOST IMPORTANT is seeking challenging cognitive environments. Rachel was born and tested later to have an average IQ. Parents provided intellectually stimulating experience. When she fell behind she had tutors that helped with the subjects. Her parents weren't helicopter parents but were involved at school. She was accepted into a good high school, went to a small well regarded university. Met a teacher who inspired her to become a lawyer. After law school she joined a firm specializing in intellectual property, married a guy who is lawyer + musician. Rachel's experiences have taken her further than her modest IQ would have predicted. What goes on in the brain to account for such changes. Plasticity - something that's malleable. When you exercise your brain you release natural growth factors like BDNF, neurotransmitters are released which enhance your performance. Neurogenesis - brain building new nerve cells - (true at least in parts of the hippocampus) - increases in the efficiency of cell to cell communications (chemical messengers) - third, we have a new mapping of the functional connections of neurons as new things are learned, new maps are created or old maps are altered. The establishment of alternative circuits to compensate for lost or injured ones. For instance, after a stroke a person may not be able to move their right arm, if you constrain that arm in a sling and force them to use their left hand and arm you will begin to get improvement. Much of what we've learned about plasticity comes from animal research in enriched environments, ___ - university of illinois - worked with two groups of rats - one group of rats was what we call marked down, isolated, no contact with other rats, nothing stimulating 2nd group was in the rat equivalent of disney land - they had wheels and other rats and interactions they were more social and physically active, brighter cages. Under the microscope, 25% more synapses per neuron were found in the 2nd group of rats. They improved brain volume, learning, and best of all this continued across their life span. If you want a smarter rat, make it's life more challenging. Each of these enhances the brains development and leads to smarter rats. The tantalizing question raised by this study - is would an enriched environment in the real world lead to enhancement in the human brain? Bookarest early intervention project compared abandoned children reared in institutions, to abandoned children moved from the institutions to be raised in foster care. Their content of development was tracked for 54 months. The younger the child when placed in foster care, the better the result. Environmental enrichment isn't limited to infancy. Study on dyslexia - difficulty in reading - there's a light problem but it's not necessarily

associated with IQ or achievement. In medical school his roommate was dyslexic and still graduated top of the class. Dislexics only read for practical reasons. Dislexic children between the ages of 8 and 10. They introduced a reading remediation program that lasted only six months that led to an increase in white matter in the brain in response to language. 37 poor readers received remedial instruction while 12 did not. The white matter changes occurred only in the remedial group. Anatomical changes incidentally coincide with the improvements in reading. This is what's called a brain behavior correlation, a change in brain structure or function corresponding to behavioral change. The explanation for the dyslexia results are that repeated use of circuits stimulated dendrites to produce more myelin along the axons being fired. This increases the speed of conduction, even modest modifications in white matter may lead to major changes in cognitive ability. The study provided evidence that repeated cognitive exercises can alter the connectivity in the brain. This course is based on that insight. In a later lecture we will be talking about a form of repeated cognitive evercise called intensive, repeated practice. The main feel is that repeated cognitive exercises lead to mastery and changes in the brain. For instance, intense piano practice produces white matter according to the intensity of the practice. We sculpt our brains according to our life experiences. No two brains are alike, not even the brains of identical twins. Using images you can make inferences about a person based on his or her brain organization. A skilled pianist shows activation in the brains finger areas when listening to music or watching someone else perform music, but he shows no response when watching random finger movements over a keyboard. A similar activation occurs in brain areas involving ballet dancers and surgeons. We speak hear of brain memory. You've heard the term muscle memory, but it's not muscle memory it's brain memory, think of brain development as existing on a continuum across the life span. Brains of all ages share the same challenges, need for stimulation, need to maintain nerve cell circuits despite steady loss of neurons. There is also a striking paradox here that is worth mentioning, namely that improved function comes about with fewer components. So the brain is unlike any other biological or mechanical structure. Imagine running a car that every time you pull the hood up gets better gas mileage etc. that'd be a strange car. An infant at birth has fewer neurons than in the later part of gestation, but a far greater number than an adult. This is due to pruning. The circuits and networks, not nerve cell numbers are the key to improved functioning. Learning is a means of establishing and maintaining these circuits. For instance reading remediation as mentioned in Justin Keller's research. Think of brain circuits like friendships, those that are maintained and enriched will endure, those neglected will disappear. Maintenance, novelty and enriched experience are like fertilizer. Enriched experience - london cab drivers - they've studied for two years all the streets of london. Studies have shown the they have a larger hippocampus with the size related

to years of experience. A second study was of older adults who have learned to juggle three balls over three months. It shows an increased volume of the hippocampus. This volume disappeared 3 months after juggling stopped. A third example - a sighted person can be taught, by wearing a blindfold, that he can acquire the skill of person who's blind in the use of a cane. That's what's called an enlargement of pari-personal space. That awareness disappears after only a few minutes when the blindfold is removed. Notice the short time span involved - only 10 minutes. We create new patterns of brain organization based on what we see, what we do, what we imagine and what we learn. Learning something new establishes pathways consisting of millions of other cells, DOING AND NOT JUST OBSERVING IS WHAT'S IMPORTANT. We have to activate what's called the action observation network. Remember the experience of the ballet dancers described earlier. The development of muscle memory which is really brain memory. This is based on what's called the simulation hypothesis, the use of motor memory to interpret what other people are doing. Skilled athletes do this all the time, they can predict another athletes performance. Boxers are particularly good at this. All of these examples are based on mirror neurons in the pre-frontal cortex. These are clusters of cells originally observed in the Mucac Monkey. The cells respond when one monkey watches another one grasp a peanut. These cells respond when the monkey grasps the peanut itself. Other neurons are task specific, they work according to what's called a perception, action, matching system. If you watch me reach for a cup of tea, your brain becomes active in the same areas that are used in the same areas when I'm reaching for the cup of tea. In other situations for other reasons, such as cleaning up after a tea party, nothing happens, the mirror neurons are not activated. Now lets talk about body image and its alterations. What is a body image, well, look at pictures of yourself or videos of yourself taken at different ages, when you're 8 or 10 years of age your image of yourself and what your body is like is certainly different than what it is now. It can be altered subtly, a new hairstyle or a clothing alteration can also change your body image. Your image can also expand in cases external to ourselves, parking space lines look smaller to hummer drivers than prius drivers. Extension of body boundaries include attachment to electronic gadgets. The box may say that it will be repaired or replaced at the manufactures discretion, that's because we can become very attached! You're in my space, one driver is cut off, and the other driver feels that their personal space has been invaded. Big cultural difference exist between how close someone must be before one feels that personal space has been invaded. Let's talk about learning, think of the branching of a tree. In full bloom the tree gives off branches, leaves and blossoms, similarly, learning leads to fuller and richer circuits. If learning stops the circuits revert to a tree in winter. Remember, learning is specific, a ballet dancers brain responds when watching other ballet dancers but not to ballet dancers. We scupt our brain and our learning by our specific experiences. Surgeons

have greater activation in the hand regions of the brain perhaps that's why surgeons take up hobbies related to hand agility, such as ceramics. Technology can also bring about changes in the brain thanks to plasticity - scanning and skimming. Technology rather than biology will determine future brain development. The thinking patterns of the web generation differ from the traditional ways of obtaining information. In the last part of this lecture I want to suggest some plasticity enhancing exercises. We start with elementary physical sensations because we often pay insufficient attention to what our senses are telling us, this leads to failures of memory, we can't remember what we do not register, we're going to talk about three exercises, visual and auditory, sensory and motor exercises involving hand dexterity and paripersonal space exercises. Visual exercises - Actors have always used sense motory exercises - traditional one the use of an empty coffee cup, you hold one recognize its height, color, composition, ridges on the lips, artwork, designs, light reflections from it. When you're finished looking at it, you involve your other senses, how does it feel, what sound does it make when you flick it. How heavy is it. The goal is to recreate the cup in your brain. The same brain circuits are involved incidentally as when dealing with or exploring at the real cup. The audience can actually see a cup that he's not actually holding because of the way he's holding it and using it etc. Take any object that interests you, and recreate it via a similar exercise. Sound exercises - paying attention to the sound around you. 1950s Jack Foeley - came up with the idea of creating sound effects for movies by using simple and readily available sources, which requires a sharp ear for fire. Stabbing a body is essentially the same sound as stabbing a watermelon. Listen to the things around you, try to figure out which sounds might be substituted for others. Bird calls. Emotions in human voices. Paripersonal Space - Virtual envelope around the skin surface that increases our body boundaries. Eyes closed, fingers touch. Pretend you've got a gun and point it at your toe. You're not able to do it well because of your brain's over reliance on vision. Take up a sport that depends on an awareness of your body boundaries like tennis - it will give you enhanced kinesthetic sense. Tai Chi - you learn a complicated form - you realize parts of your body are making a certain movement - takes a while to know exactly where your hand or arm is. Your brain and your intelligence can change throughout your life span. Lecture 3 - Care and Feeding of the Brain