Using NASA Technology to Increase Attention and Cognitive Function

Posted by Peter on April 14th, 2005 | Comments off

Play Attention CEO to Speak at NASA Benefits of Space Exploration Brought to Earth

ASHEVILLE, North Carolina April 13, 2005

WCU graduate, Peter Freer, Founder and CEO of Unique Logic and Technology, Inc. will speak at the National Space Society 2005 International Space Development Conference in Washington, DC. His presentation is entitled, “From Outer Space to Inner Space: Using NASA Technology to Increase Attention and Cognitive Function.”

Freer holds a Master’s degree in education from Western Carolina University. He is a former educator in both Jackson County Schools and Asheville City Schools in NC. During his tenure as a teacher, Freer encountered an increasing number of AD/HD students. Combining NASA research and his background in educational computer programming, he developed Play Attention®, the nations leading educational attention training system used in schools, homes, and professional offices.

NASA currently uses feedback technology to increase astronaut and pilot attention during flight simulator training. Freer augmented this technology to accommodate educational needs and received four patents for his pioneering efforts. Freer adapted sophisticated instrumentation to fit the personal computer and then incorporated a sensor lined space-age helmet to process brain output and translate it onto a computer screen. This new learning system allows control of game action via the powers of concentration alone – no keyboard, no mouse, no joystick! Users practice paying attention by making video games respond to their brainpower at home or under the guidance of a teacher at school.

Just as NASA astronauts and pilots train to increase attention, Play Attention literally teaches the user to increase concentration, complete tasks, visual tracking, short-term memory, and to filer out distractions – all the skills necessary to be successful in the classroom. The learner directly observes his mind’s ability to command the computer screen in real-time.

”Play Attention,” says Freer, “is popular with students because of its entertaining game format. It keeps the student engrossed while he or she practices reaching new levels of concentration.” The inventor adds, “The system is success based and includes behavioral shaping techniques.”

He further notes studies demonstrate that children trained on Play Attention experience a greater sense of self-esteem, enhanced social interactions, and improved grades as a result of their own newly developed abilities.

Freer says that, “Both NASA and Play Attention have proven that feedback-based learning empowers individuals to deal with their personal challenges by learning how to use their own resources. This produces a sense of accomplishment, self-worth, and success. We owe NASA a great debt.”

The National Space Society 2005 International Space Development Conference is scheduled for May 19 – 22 at the Sheraton National Hotel Arlington, Washington, DC. The conference theme, “Your Ticket to Space” refers to the new opportunities for citizens to participate in space exploration and realize the benefits on earth.

PDF

Re-wiring Your Brain, Meditation & ADHD, A Self-service Guide

Posted by Peter on February 10th, 2005 | Comments off

In his January 3, 2005 Washington Post article, staff writer Marc Kaufman says, “Meditation Gives Brain a Charge, Study Finds”

“Brain research is beginning to produce concrete evidence for something that Buddhist practitioners of meditation have maintained for centuries: Mental discipline and meditative practice can change the workings of the brain and allow people to achieve different levels of awareness.”

“What we found is that the longtime practitioners showed brain activation on a scale we have never seen before,” said Richard Davidson, a neuroscientist at the university’s new $10 million W.M. Keck Laboratory for Functional Brain Imaging and Behavior. ”Their mental practice is having an effect on the brain in the same way golf or tennis practice will enhance performance.” It demonstrates,” he said, “that the brain is capable of being trained and physically modified in ways few people can imagine.”

It seems that science is finally catching up to practices that are literally thousands of years old. It is always amazing and somewhat frustrating that for centuries, millions of people have realized they can rewire their brains; however, science is just now beginning to understand the process and accept that it can actually occur.

Biofeedback and neurofeedback practitioners use equipment to undergo the same changes that the Buddhist monks undergo through training in the process of meditation. The machines used in biofeedback and neurofeedback allow the user to move into the same states as Buddhist monks. Sensors are attached to the scalp which permit the neurofeedback practitioner to view what the brain is doing, called brainwave activity, as it immediately happens via the computer screen. Repeating the practice of neurofeedback can be very similar to meditation. The Keck Laboratory verifies that physical activities or training can actually rewire the brain and this has been demonstrated for feedback practitioners too.

“The brain uses an enormous amount of the body’s energy. Even under normal circumstances it uses about 20 percent of your body’s entire energy production. When you work your brain harder, [meditate, use neurofeedback or biofeedback] you use more. The blood flow goes to the brain and it’s really like working out,” says Duke University neurobiologist Dr. Lawrence Katz.

Executive Director of the Center for Brain Health and professor of behavioral and brain sciences at the University of Texas at Dallas, Dr. Sandra Chapman says she wants to dispel the myth that the brain is “an untouchable black box. The brain is highly modifiable by everything we do.” Everything we do includes physical exercise, social interaction, meditation, prayer, or playing. Chapman says, “Whatever you spend time doing is what part of your brain is going to strengthen. Don’t do random things. Ask yourself if that’s the part of your brain you want to build. We see people who lose a lot of their ability, but the first thing to come back is the thing that they did the most.”

From our new knowledge of the working brain, it is evident that the opportunity exists to rewire the circuits that are weakest in persons with ADHD, i.e., those circuits that don’t allow attention to low-level stimuli like balancing a checkbook, cleaning your room, finishing homework, staying organized, or finishing a project at work. The object is to practice mindfulness and work on the aforementioned specific tasks. I developed Play Attention for just this purpose and science is finally catching up to us.

In referring to rewiring and strengthening the brain, research psychiatrist, Jeffrey Schwartz, of UCLA’s Neuropsychiatric Institute says, “The key really is the refocusing. When you refocus you activate alternative brain machinery… [It] really is like going to the gym; you’re strengthening your brain. When you stop doing it, you have a stronger brain.”

So, to rewire the circuits that are weak and strengthen them, we must repeatedly practice. For people with ADHD, this practice is clear: we must practice attention and those subordinate skill sets that are conspicuously missing. That’s the foundation of Play Attention. It is the only feedback based learning system that incorporates attention training with cognitive skills training. Our patents guarantee that. The scientific community IS finally catching up.

Portions of this blog were derived from Sky Magazine’s Brain’s World by Sophia Dembling (Feb. 2005)

PDF

The Controversy Over Brain Imaging – Introduction

Posted by Peter on December 18th, 2004 | Comments off

Has brain scanning become the new phrenology? It’s an interesting prospect that may be clarified by an historical perspective.

In the early 1600’s, Rene Descartes’ quest to find truth caused him to explore his consciousness and question reality. He became aware that his perception of his environment could be deceptive and depended on his sobriety, fatigue, etc. Therefore, all external things could be doubted but the consciousness that perceived those external things could not be doubted. Thus, he concluded, cogito, ergo, sum; I think, therefore I am. Consciousness was self-evidently different from and more important than the external world. This was perhaps the historical beginning of mind/brain separation or mind as separate from matter which later became known as Cartesian dualism.

Descartes wrote in The Passions of the Soul, “Let us then conceive here that the soul has its principal seat in the little gland which exists in the middle of the brain, from whence it radiates forth through all the remainder of the body…” Most likely, Descartes was referring to the pineal gland as location of the mind in the brain. Again, mind is definitively separate from the brain and thus could ostensibly exist without the brain. Cartesian dualism has persisted in the medical profession, as well as others, to this day. If one suffers from depression, social anxiety, or insomnia, we’ll seek out the guidance of a psychiatrist – one who specializes in the mind. However, if we suffer a stroke, have a palsy or migraine, then we seek out the guidance of a neurologist. It has been only recently that this schism seems to be constringing as psychiatrists embrace neurophysiology and neurologists embrace the fact that unacceptable behaviors are not solely the product of nervous system dysfunction. Cartesian dualism has been embedded in our consciousness for over 300 years and will only slowly die away.

While hot debate ensued regarding consciousness and God – and still does in some circles – another interesting figure appeared in the early 1800s who would directly influence brain research. Anatomist Franz Joseph Gall published Anatomie et Physiologie du Systeme Nerveux. Gall was convinced that the brain was the epicenter of all mental functioning. He classified twenty-seven distinct functions associating each with a specific area of the brain. All this was surmised on a predilection for observation Gall experienced since childhood. Gall meticulously studied the skulls of the famous, infamous, mentally handicapped, scholarly, gifted musician, and artist. He made hundreds of casts. By looking at the similarities of all of these skulls, their bumps, contours, and general shapes, he convinced himself and much of the general public that he could determine brain function by observation of the superficial.

Gall’s phrenological approach has since become a laughable topic. However, it did influence brain research in creating the notion of locality – the notion that certain functions in the brain occur in specific areas. This notion seemed to be reinforced by medical doctors treating injured soldiers. Certain areas of the brain that were damaged by concussion or shrapnel caused blindness, memory loss, or loss of function in a specific region of the body.

While the connection between phrenology and brain scanning may not be readily apparent, certain similarities will be explored in upcoming blogs.

PDF

Stimulation and Continued Brain Development

Posted by Peter on November 11th, 2004 | Comments off

Do not confine your children to your own learning, for they were born in another time.
–Hebrew Proverb

Learning takes place by construction of neural networks. Neural networks are the “whispering” of neurons to each other. Neurons are brain cells that communicate with each other via an electrochemical process that carries neurotransmitters across the division between the neurons (the synapse). Our five senses process information (external stimuli) and then select certain neural connections to become active.

In the recent past, scientists believed this network building or neural activation to be deterministic – the genes you are born with would determine the networks that could develop. However, it has been proved that activation is a random selection among many possible neural connections that could occur. It is not something that happens by deterministic design.

The ADHD Connection

No one, that’s right, no one, knows why people have attention problems. Theories abound, but since there is no real pathology associated with attention problems (other than theoretical) it cannot be physically located to be surgically corrected. However, we do know that new information (sensory input) enters the brain through preexisting networks, which is why it is imperative to provide challenging stimulation in early childhood. If the input is not new, it can trigger memory. If it is new it can trigger learning. Cognitive psychology refers to this process as constructivism: The learner builds his or her own knowledge on his current knowledge base, but only in response to a challenge. It is evident that some persons are not born with the neural networks that facilitate focused attention.

Furthermore, the old notion that early childhood experiences have little impact on later development has been proven false. We now know that the brain is directly and decisively affected by early experiences. This includes the architecture of the brain and the nature and extent of adult capacities; the actual capacity to form new neural networks is directly affected by early childhood experiences.

It was also thought that brain development is linear: the brain’s capacity to learn and change grows steadily as an infant matures into adulthood. It is now known that brain development is non-linear: there are optimum times for acquiring different kinds of knowledge and skills. For example, it is often easier for a very young child to learn a new language than a person past the age of 25.

However, the brain can grow and continue development through death provided the right conditions are met. In light of this, a recent research study quoted by WebMD Medical News shows that fluency in two languages or more prevents some of the effects of aging on brain function. The study reports that bilingual people have a greater capacity to stay focused on a task than people who spoke only one language. Inability to stay focused on a task is a hallmark of the aging brain’s decline. Bilingual people also seemed more readily able to filter out distraction or irrelevant data. This suggests that the function, capacity, or neural network involved in bilingual language processing may be the same processing needed to stay attentive. The study appears in the June, 2004 issue of the Journal Psychology and Aging.

It’s essential that early stimulation be provided as it seems to lay the foundation for growth and capacity in later life. It appears that stimulation in utero may be a good beginning.

PDF

Neurogenesis: Mechanisms of Change

Posted by Peter on November 11th, 2004 | Comments off

Until the recent past, the exact mechanism of the brain’s reorganization, learning, and memory was unknown. With the advent of the human genome project and its subsequent research findings, we now have a greater understanding of how genetic factors contribute to human learning. The draft sequence of the human genome provides us a fundamental roadmap to understanding how the brain stores information beginning from at the genetic level which alters neural networking (our cognitive faculties), and culminates in behavioral change. In upcoming articles, I’ll shine a light on various mechanisms of change beginning with neurogenesis.

Neurogenesis

In the past, it was thought that the brain did not create new brain cells after early childhood development. Scientists were convinced that humans were born with a set of brain cells that steadily decrease as we age. Research at the Salk Institute found that patients as mature as 72 were actually creating new brain cells. The formation of new brain cells is termed neurogenesis. Furthermore, the Salk Institute’s research revealed that mice that were stimulated environmentally – for instance made to run – produced more new cells than did their counterparts who were sedentary. This growth was witnessed significantly in the hippocampus, the brain’s center for memory and learning.

While Dr. Fred Gage of the Salk Institute found neurogenesis commonplace, he did not know whether the new cells became functional neurons taking an active role in the brain to aid in learning or memory until it was revealed in later research that these cells do indeed become active neurons that grow axons for communication between other neurons and produce dendrites to receive more messages from other neurons.

Use it or lose it!

This finding presents possibility that the mature brain may be more flexible and dynamic than had previously been thought. Experience seems to shape this flexibility – we have a use it or lose it proposition. This new growth may be due to the brain’s need to replace dying cells. However, Dr. Gage says, “Another possibility is that young neurons provide a greater degree of plasticity to the mature brain. This enhanced plasticity would become apparent from the integration of new functional units whose connectivity may be shaped by experience.”

Dr. Gage’s work coincides with our current understanding of neuroplasticity and is but one wonderful example of how the brain grows and adapts to environmental challenges.

PDF

ADHD: The problem is simply diffused attention

Posted by Peter on November 8th, 2004 | Comments off

To the man who only has a hammer in the toolkit, every problem looks like a nail.
–Abraham Maslow

As I’ve maintained for years, if we keep thinking of ADHD as unalterable brain damage, dysfunction, or dysregulation, it will be difficult to move forward with positive change. I contend that ADHD is a trait in the spectrum of human neurological variation. It is essentially no different that other genetic traits like intelligence, or eye and hair color, etc. Therefore, a new conceptualization of the basic nature and etiology of ADHD behaviors is necessary in which current known research about human potential and learning are incorporated to produce a scientific, systematic approach to teach sustained attention and improve subordinate deficits in related cognitive skills like short-term memory.

The problem is simply diffused attention. While this statement is quite simple, diffused attention greatly affects every aspect our one’s life. It makes the learning process much more difficult and therefore subsequently affects one academically, socially, and personally. However, having focused attention to a task, currently termed fluid intelligence, can be improved by providing correct challenges – both cognitive and behavioral. Therefore, one can learn to focus on any level of stimulation. The brain has a remarkable ability to compensate by either strengthening current neural networks.

In the very recent past, the brain was considered a gray lump that declined in function as it aged. We now know that this is entirely false. The brain is in a constant state of reorganization. This restructuring/reorganization of the brain is termed neuroplasticity. One of the root words is plastic. Its denotation is moldable or pliable like clay. It is not used in the sense of the hard plastic case covering a computer. Recent advances in brain scanning and analysis have revealed that the brain is plastic – always reorganizing not just in a sense of shuffling files, but architecturally as well. The wiring or neural circuitry is constantly changing depending on external challenges.

Children and adults with brain injury or developmental difficulties offer dramatic proof of the brain’s amazing capacity to compensate if provided a correct challenge that will stimulate the growth of a compensatory neural network or strengthen a previously existing one. Many neurological journals report cases where children who lose language due to a stroke at a young age often recover the ability to speak. This is due the fact that the brain is able to shift this function to another area (compensation through adaptive neural networks). According to UCLA pediatric neurologist Dr. Donald Shields, “if there’s a way to compensate, the developing brain will find it.”

Scientists apply the term neuroplasticity to the action of brain growth and adaptation in response to challenge. Provided the correct challenge and environment, children and adults frequently compensate (shift brain function from one area to another) when a certain area of the brain cannot function correctly. It is documented in many medical and neurological journals that the brain will increase activity in another region to overcome loss of another region.

Implications for ADHD

There is no question that the brain can compensate even if it has problems focusing attention. However, it has to be provided the correct environment prompting challenge. As recently as twenty years ago, scientists believed that the genes we were born with wholly determined the structure of our brains. However, current extensive research performed by scientists worldwide proves that how our brains develop, learn, and grow depends on the vital interaction between nature and nurture. Nature, or more accurately, genetic endowment, is directly affected by the environment, care, challenges, and teachings received (nurture).

As recently as twenty years ago, scientists believed that the genes we were born with wholly determined the structure of our brains. However, current extensive research performed by scientists worldwide proves that how our brains develop, learn, and grow depends on the vital interaction between nature and nurture. Nature, or more accurately, genetic endowment, is directly affected by the environment, care, challenges, and teachings received (nurture). Furthermore, the old notion that early childhood experiences have little impact on later development has been proven false. We now know that the brain is directly and decisively affected by early experiences. This includes the architecture of the brain and the nature and extent of adult capacities; the actual capacity to form new neural networks is directly affected by early childhood experiences.

When I was training at university, psychologists contended that an infant’s brain was very inactive. However, scans now reveal an infant’s brain to be three times as active as that of a college student. Much has changed in the last ten years. In upcoming commentary, I’ll describe how learning takes place, its connection to neural networks and neuroplasticity, and site studies which support that brain development can be greatly enhanced via cognitive re-education.

In upcoming articles, I’ll discuss how we learn. We’ll look at this perspective from an external cognitive approach to learning and then proceed to an internal perspective involving the actual structural neural changes that occur when we learn. Finally, I’ll examine the molecular (DNA) changes that trigger the learning process and encode it to long-term memory.

PDF

ADHD, Brain Growth and Development

Posted by Peter on November 3rd, 2004 | Comments off

Neuroscientists now generally agree that the brain is always changing and reorganizing (neuroplasticity). Equally important is the realization that the brain’s actual fundamental architecture is subject to change in relation to internal and external challenge or stimulation. This includes the brain’s wiring or neural connections, even its shape, and size.

It was believed in the recent past that our genetic makeup was the only factor in determining how our brain develops and forms its neural connections. We now know that brain development relies on a complex interplay of nature (genetic endowment) and nurture (environmental challenges)]. The formation of neural networks can be affected by good social interactions and even good exercise. Conversely, just as the brain responds favorably to good stimulation, it can also respond unfavorably to negative stimulation.

Lack of stimulation affects the architecture of the brain

Romanian orphans offer a primary example of pernicious effects due to lack of stimulation. Studies on human children demonstrating the impact of stimuli deprivation on brain function are scarce. Many stimuli deprivation studies have been performed on animal populations resulting in deleterious brain function. Romania does not adequately fund staffing for its orphanages as is the case for many of its bureaucratic institutions. Thus, there is a shortage of staff to nurture and stimulate the great number of orphans in their care. Infant stimulation is restricted to changing and feeding. However, even the feeding process is automated; the infant is turned on its side, a bottle is placed on a towel, and the child is left to suckle. The bottle is removed when empty. A study performed on these infants performed by Wayne State University, Detroit, found that Romanian orphans had dysfunction in a number of brain regions that caused both short-term and long-term detriments. It clearly demonstrates that nature and nurture play significant roles in brain development. Lack of stimulation actually affects the architecture of the brain – its fundamental wiring does not develop appropriately.

Appropriate stimulation affects the brain positively

Recent research suggests that appropriate stimulation affects the brain positively. In a study performed by psychology professor, Frances Kuo of the University of Illinois, and reported in the American Journal of Public Health children with ADHD were placed in an outdoor ‘green’ environment. Researchers wanted to explore the possibility that exposure to nature and challenges presented by being outdoors could mitigate attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder symptoms. The results, reported by parents, showed that children who spent a few hours playing outside in green, natural settings showed a significant reduction of symptoms compared with children who had spent time indoors or surrounded by asphalt and pavement. These results were reported regardless of whether the children in the study were on medication. The study did not indicate the degree by which symptoms were reduced; it reported only that the symptoms were reduced. The author of the study, Dr. Kuo, says, “Unfortunately, all we can say is that (the effect of nature) is a real effect that is big enough that parents were noticing it, and they were not looking for it.”

Taxi drivers’ brains ‘grow’ on the job

Another noteworthy study performed by University College, London and reported by BBC News, compared the brains of London taxi cab drivers with non-taxi drivers. London is a very old city. Its buildings were built around very old streets and closes. Thus, navigation in London is more challenging than a city like New York whose streets have been laid out in a grid or matrix. London taxi drivers must apprentice for at least two years and then pass rigorous police examinations before they can be licensed. This period is colloquially termed ‘Being on the Knowledge.’ The driver must develop extraordinary spatial navigational skills to be able to accommodate his passenger’s requests. Most drivers can not only find the most arcane location, but can describe the scenery and history of the sites en route. Brain scans of the taxi drivers pre and post apprenticeship and over long terms of duty revealed that their brains had changed from their peers. A region of the hippocampus, center of memory, emotion, and learning, had nearly doubled in size compared to others who had not undergone training. As I’ve noted previously, the constant reorganization and changes in the connections between linked neurons in the brain is termed neuroplasticity. New neural connections are actually made through the mechanism of axonal sprouting where axons grow new nerve endings to reconnect the neurons. Particular to the hippocampus, the center of memory, emotion, and learning in the brain, axons can also sprout nerve endings and connect with other neurons to form new neural pathways. While new connections can form quickly, the process must be initiated by appropriate challenge/stimulation. The extraordinary challenge provided to the taxi drivers during their apprenticeships resulted in the increased development of posterior sections of their hippocampi. The study suggests that the growth became greater in correlation to the time spent on the job or ‘On the Knowledge.”

Rethinking ADHD

Two significant conclusions can be drawn from this research. The first is that the brain is always changing and reorganizing (neuroplasticity), and due to this, it can actually change its fundamental architecture. Secondly, such fundamental changes come from external challenges and can result in behavioral changes like finding one’s way through a city or mitigating ADHD symptoms. The ramifications of this are significant because at this time ADHD is considered to be a neurobiological disorder. If mitigation of ADHD symptoms can be induced by external challenges, we may very well have to rethink its etiology or concede that it a normal characteristic on the spectrum of human traits which can be dealt with, at least in part, by external challenges.

PDF