Brain Wave

When college students go blank

I pause the lecture and say, in a mocking tone, "Oh no -- they sent me to college and made me read and think!" I put my hands to my head. "It's too much!"

The glaze cracks on some of the faces and a few smiles break out.

Some of them seem to recall a reason for being in college. Some, but not all.

Original interview with author Ellen Morris Prewitt

Ellen Morris is the author of Making Crosses: A Creative Connection with God, which was released Wednesday (April 1).

Just before the book's release, I conducted an interview with her, which is available here.

Genetic research and sociology

Christopher Shea, writing in The Chronicle of Higher Education:

If sociologists ignore genes, will other academics — and the wider world — ignore sociology?

Some in the discipline are telling their peers just that. With study after study finding that all sorts of personal characteristics are heritable — along with behaviors shaped by those characteristics — a see-no-gene perspective is obsolete.

Nor, these scholars argue, is it reasonable to concede that genes play some role but then to loftily assert that geneticists and the media overstate that role and to go on conducting studies as if genes did not exist. How, exactly, do genes shape human lives, interact with environmental forces, or get overpowered by those forces? "We do ourselves a disservice if we don't engage in those arguments," says Jason Schnittker, an associate professor of sociology at the University of Pennsylvania. "If we stay on the ropes, people from a different perspective, with a more extreme view, will be making them."

Schnittker is among the contributors to a special issue of the American Journal of Sociology, the field's flagship publication, devoted to "Genetics and Social Structure" — evidence that at least some sociologists are attempting to reckon with the genetic revolution. And not just in the AJS. Other top sociology journals, too, are publishing work incorporating genetic perspectives: The American Sociological Review in August published a much-discussed article on genes and delinquency by Guang Guo, of the University of North Carolina. (A couple of years ago, in an early foray on this front, Guo co-edited a special section of another top journal, Social Forces, titled "The Linking of Sociology and Biology.")

Read the rest of the article here.

Regulation of blood sugar related to memory decline

Roni Caryn Rabin, writing in the New York Times:

Spikes in blood sugar can take a toll on memory by affecting the dentate gyrus, an area of the brain within the hippocampus that helps form memories, a new study reports.

Researchers said the effects can be seen even when levels of blood sugar, or glucose, are only moderately elevated, a finding that may help explain normal age-related cognitive decline, since glucose regulation worsens with age.

The study, by researchers at Columbia University Medical Center and funded in part by the National Institute on Aging, was published in the December issue of Annals of Neurology.

“If we conclude this is underlying normal age-related cognitive decline, then it affects all of us,” said lead investigator Dr. Scott Small, associate professor of neurology at Columbia University Medical Center. The ability to regulate glucose starts deteriorating by the third or fourth decade of life, he added.

Since glucose regulation is improved with physical activity, Dr. Small said, “We have a behavioral recommendation — physical exercise.”

Read the full article here.

More neurofeedback testimonials appear in mainstream press

Recently:

The Salt Lake Tribune carried the testimonial of Rebecca Boucher.

WINK News in Fort Myers, Fla., told the story of Brody Bowen.

And the New River Journal in Roanoke, Va., included this essay by Pris Sears, who works with computers at Virginia Tech. The essay mentioned neurofeedback in the context of using brain waves -- in lieu of a computer mouse! -- to operate one's computer.

Interview: Jim Sendelbach, neurofeedback practitioner, describes the development of protocols for neurofeedback

I contacted Dr. Jim Sendelbach of Anchor Point Neurofeedback and Counseling in Conyers, Ga., to find out if he thinks there are new uses of neurofeedback on the horizon. Here is his reply:

"Neurofeedback researchers and clinicians are constantly searching for protocols that address symptoms and symptom complexes.  Practices are typically small and take careful 'baby steps.' 

"For example, a client may seek neurofeedback for depression and the practitioner finds that the standard protocol is not working so well with this client.  So the practitioner may shift a lead [a contact on the head] from one site to another and observe the results.  Brain responses to neurofeedback are not necessarily predictable, as is the case of prescription medicines where a physician would shift a patient from one ineffective antidepressant to another based on response.  Because practices are usually small they follow a surgical model as distinguished from a pharmaceutical where clinical trials might involve hundreds or thousands of patients. The surgical model is the one involving organ transplants, for example.  No large scale clinical trials were conducted; just one case at a time, published in peer reviewed journals from which others learn. 

"Associations such as the ISNR and the AAPB routinely report the findings of researchers and clinicians in professional journals and advance the field of neurofeedback.  There is ongoing development of very sophisticated eqiupment that allows greater flexibility, clearer recording, and most precise interpretation of EEG signals.  Much work is being done with substance abuse, TBI [traumatic brain injury], and PTSD [post traumatic stress disorder].  Because the brain is involved in all psychophysical activities, this field of non-invasive treatment offers tremendous promise."

Boredom is good for the brain, research suggests

Does anyone recall Neil Postman's Amusing Ourselves to Death?

Along similar lines, the following is from today's New York Times:

Yet boredom is more than a mere flagging of interest or a precursor to mischief. Some experts say that people tune things out for good reasons, and that over time boredom becomes a tool for sorting information — an increasingly sensitive spam filter. In various fields including neuroscience and education, research suggests that falling into a numbed trance allows the brain to recast the outside world in ways that can be productive and creative at least as often as they are disruptive.

In a recent paper in The Cambridge Journal of Education, Teresa Belton and Esther Priyadharshini of East Anglia University in England reviewed decades of research and theory on boredom, and concluded that it’s time that boredom “be recognized as a legitimate human emotion that can be central to learning and creativity.”

Read the full article here.

A neurofeedback practitioner's recommended reading

I asked Susan L. Ford of the EEG Center for Neurofeedback in Tryon, N.C., which book would provide the best explanation of neurofeedback to non-practitioners. Her recommendation was ADD: The 20-Hour Solution by Mark Steinberg and Siegfried Othmer.

Energy & individuality in the brain

One of the things the neurofeedback has proven to me is that a positive change in the brain creates a positive change in life, and neuro-anatomist Jill Bolte Taylor's TED talk back in February is a brilliant, compelling story about how we experience the brain.

This does not mean that I believe neurofeedback solves everything like a magic bullet. I have spent some time in "talk therapy" with the doctor who conducts our neurofeedback sessions. I have also greatly benefited from books like Man's Search for Meaning and  Lost in the Cosmos: The Last Self-Help Book.

I do believe that neurofeedback offers substantial assistance for folks who are trying to address depression, attention-deficit problems, and anxiety. I've witnessed that assistance first hand in my life and the lives of my family.

Jill Bolte Taylor's talk touches on the idea that we could refocus the energy in our brains for the better -- in a most unusual story about her experience of a stroke.

Enjoy.

-Colin Foote Burch

International Society for Neurofeedback and Research offers good 'explainer' articles

I found some excellent articles at the International Society for Neurofeedback and Research Web site. Here are the highlights; you can click the titles below to go to the articles:

What is neurofeedback?

What is Quantitative EEG?

Neurofeedback for Depression

Quantitative Electroencephalographic Process for AD/HD

More articles are listed here.