Traumatic Brain Injury Centers

By Amy Price PhD

One simple way we can sort out what choice is best is to create a plus and minus column. Put in the advantages and disadvantages of your proposed choice. Number each choice on an “important to me” scale of one to ten. Add up both columns or get a friend to help.

Still undecided? Separate your thoughts into three sections I feel this way, I think this about this and I sense or remember this could happen. The first method gives you the “what” of the story while the second method gives you the “why.”

Now you need the “when.” This you can get by asking your self “Why is this a good time for this choice?” What can I gain by waiting, deciding immediately or not choosing at all”? For the where of this story consider if this is the best place or would a change of location make a difference. Also ask your self is there any knowledge missing I need to make this choice.

Sleep on your decisions and listen to the voice on the inside. Many genius minds got their inspiration after napping or a good night’s sleep. Often you will sense a green light, a red light or a yellow proceed with caution.

Our minds have amassed countless categories and can assess in a moment of time what you could take months to think about actively. Many genius minds got their inspiration after napping or a good night’s sleep. It can work for you too!

Mathematicians have determined we can make informed choices by following what are called axioms. They use numbers to explain things but we will use life examples to share these ideas.

There are 5 principles or axioms for making decisions.

1.Comparability

2.Transitivity

3.Dominance

4.Independence

5.Invariance

The first principle is called “comparability.” For this you need to know you prefer apples to bananas or banana to apples or that you dislike or like both bananas and apples.

Axiom two is called “transitivity,” which means if you prefer apples to bananas and bananas to carrots you must prefer apples to carrots.

“Dominance” is axiom three. Here is how it works, a choice is dominant and must be preferred if when it is compared to an alternate choice it is best in at least one respect and better in all other respects. Dominated or lesser choices are not to be preferred.

Axiom four is called “independence.” This says “no outside data should affect your choice.”

The last axiom, number five, is “invariance.” Different scenery involving the same choice scenario should not affect the choice. Another way of saying this is your choice preference should remain independent of how it is described.

When any of these axioms are not met there are several possibilities. The choice was not yours to make. In this case move on. You can not take responsibility for other peoples’ choices.

Zig Ziglar says ‘Life is like the movies …You produce your own show!”

Happy people live nineteen percent longer. Make a good investment. You can invest in worry or you can invest in you.

There was not enough information available to make an informed choice or you were not given the power to make the choice. Life happens and life cycles, what goes around comes around. Think out a strategy for next time or watch for something effective another individual is using to negotiate the issue.

You are a champion. Experience and coaching will help you win. Experts practice and watch for doors of opportunity. Novices give up because they see an event as defining them.

Failure is an event and not an identity.

Any novice can become an expert. Failure is an event and not an identity. Failure looks for servants, refuse to serve it!

Your choice was clouded by a cultural mindset or political manipulation and does not represent you.

For this scenario you will feel dissatisfied even when the choice is beneficial to you because you can not own it without changing your identity.

■Think about how you can change your world one step at a time.

■The way you see yourself is the way others will treat you.

■Change your words and determine your destiny.

■Your words will build you or destructure (destroy) you.

■Go back to the chapter that suggests you decide what you would do if only you could. Find a way to take one step towards your destiny and do it!

Thoughts are Seeds of Destiny

By Dr Rohn Kessler

In The Art of Power, Thich Nhat Hahn writes about five spiritual powers that are the foundation of happiness—faith, diligence, mindfulness, concentration and insight. Let’s focus on diligence, the notion that can train ourselves to come back to our best and highest self.

Imagine that we have seeds in our consciousness such as joy, forgiveness, peace, anger despair and hate. These seeds can be awake or asleep. If you live in a positive environment seeds like anger, fear, despair, violence and craving are sleeping and not touched. If you live in a negative environment these seeds are touched, watered and begin to grow.

“So it is wise for you to choose a good environment that will prevent these negative seeds from being touched often. You should not allow other people around you to touch these seeds, and you should not allow yourself to water them.” This is diligence.

“When you read an article full of violence or watch a violent television program you turn on the seed of violence. The first step of diligence is not to turn on these negative seeds and not to allow the environment to turn them on…Try not to expose yourself to sights and sounds that stimulate the seed of craving or the seeds of anger in you…You need diligence to practice this, and you may need a community or group of friends with similar values to help you create a good environment.”

I was thinking of this while reading The Paranoia Switch, a book about how terror rewires our brains by Harvard psychologist Martha Stout. She asks one question: What were you doing on the morning of September 11, 2001?

Dr. Stout claims we all have immediate and vivid memories of 9/11 that we will carry to our graves. “We will be able to recall small details—the weather where we were, what we had been up to but stopped doing, exactly which telephone we picked up—as if we had had tiny videotapes in our heads.”

She also claims that, based on neuropsychological research, the 9/11 attack turned on our “fear switch” by traumatizing our brains and causing overreactions to the reality of life.

The following is some of the information presented:
1) Immediately after the attack eight out of ten women and six out of ten men were depressed.
2) Three to five days after the attack, 44% of Americans reported at least one symptom of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
3) Two months later 31% of respondents to a L.A. Times poll felt their personal sense of security was still “a great deal” shaken.”
4) One year later, 30% of Americans said they still thought about 9/11 every single day.
5) A study published in 2005 that followed the infants of 38 mothers who had been at or near the World Trade Center attack reported that at one year old the babies of mothers who had PTSD showed low cortisol levels —linked to being vulnerable to post-traumatic stress. In other words, “…maternal post-traumatic stress disorder may have transgenerational effects beginning when the child is in utero…”

What’s the point? The point is that “When you read an article full of violence or watch a violent television program you turn on the seed of violence.”

Diligence is the practice of training ourselves to come back to our best and highest self.

Dr Kessler is the CEO of Sparks of Genius in Boca Raton Florida.

By Amy Price PhD

Predictive medicine can change our tomorrows today. Regenerative medicine can replace artificial body parts with lab grown technologies while genetic breakthroughs can save families from generations of genetic disability. It is possible that new knowledge of human genetics and cell biology is likely to transform medical practice. Three likely scenarios could evolve:

•Genetics will lead to the classification of diseases on the basis of the underlying genetics or biochemistry, rather than by symptoms alone leading to preventive rather than crisis orientated treatments.
•Genetic information will identify people who are likely to respond to drugs, or to be harmed by them (pharmacogenetics). This is already possible with certain psychotropic drugs on an experimental level but has not trickled down into mainstream medicine.
•Genetic variation will be a new ‘susceptibility factor’, permitting monitoring and early treatment or, perhaps prevention, of an increasing proportion of common, multifactorial diseases, such as coronary heart disease, hypertension, stroke, cancer, diabetes and Alzheimer’s disease. Even stress management can be amplified with knowledge of individual genotypes

It is the genetic variation susceptibility factor which is considered to be the change maker for the advent of predictive medicine. This could lead to regenerative medicine on a cellular (somatic) level or even in vitro gene manipulation (germ line therapy) which could prevent intergenerational transfer of genetic disabilities.
Predictive medicine, when it comes, will be based on a much wider use of genetic testing, at present the gap between what the healthcare system is geared up and trained to deliver and what is scientifically viable is huge. For example there are treatments approved for traumatic brain injury that are effective but most be given within a couple of hours of trauma. This can’t happen now because emergency room personnel are not adequately trained or equipped to diagnose MTBI… As with any new technology applied to health in the context of a complex delivery system, implementation is not going to be simple.

First, of course, there needs to be demand from medical personnel and the general public. Typically wide spread change will only take place after the following criteria are established:

•Demonstration of clinical effectiveness and patient safety – through statistically valid clinical trials
•Cost-effective for general use – through economic analysis of trials and other data;
•Standardization of technology, and quality control – generally through outside regulation of suppliers and laboratories;
•Allocation of resources;
•Recruitment and education and training (or retraining) for health workers – including specialists, MDs, nurses, counselors and technicians. For instance a surgeon who makes a good living performing spinal fusions and cervical repairs will need significant convincing, retraining and motivation to become an early adopter of treatment that makes the previous way of doing business obsolete.

Predictive, regenerative medicine may be the wave of the future. History teaches us that the way to greatness is to find a way to serve many. My dream is to witness a generation of scientists and medical professionals join in unity with a foundation of integrity to build a tomorrow for the patients and public who have make their careers possible.

References:

Materials adapted from Open University Course Materials (accessed july,2009)

By Amy Price PhD

Adult stem cell viability is on many minds. I have had queries from UN ambassadors to children of only nine asking me about stem cells. The curiousity is international but the questions are the same. People are not sure who to trust and they need stem cells now. Many can not travel to other countries because they are too ill and others lack funding for private stem cell clinics. Some of these feel the FDA or the NHS is unreasonable in thier demands for testing while others feel patient testimonials should be outlawed. My own training is in mental health/psychology so patient to patient information is all I can offer.

I personally like patient testimonials especially when they are accompanied by forums where people discuss how and if the treatment worked and what the hurdles were in getting treatment. I have often learned more from groups of patients with an experience than from professionals with just a theory. Forums are not meant to be professional research, they are peer to peer information only. Google stem cell or regenerative medicine forums and you will get many choices.

I agree clinical trials and time are important to assess treatments but realistically it will be 15 or 20 years before long term results are on the table for clinical trials. There are some companies that have obtained FDA approval for trials, others are listed at clinicaltrials.gov It may be useful to look at this Doctor’s description of FDA off label drug use for drugs to understand how the rules were set up and to get an inkling of how this could all translate to cell biology.

My concerns are that engineering any living object is not a simple process and what looks simple from the outside in a needle in/needle out sort of process is very complex from a laboratory perspective and all the answers may not be in. Some clinics are reputable, give good patient care and patients are reporting good long-term results. Some patients are fortunate enough to get into a university sponsored trial that is tied to a major research hospital. Other clinics are still using methods that were proven ineffective many years ago. Patients are vulnerable and need protection sometimes even from themselves. I can no longer count the number of friends I have lost to questionable therapies after spending family fortunes in a quest for a cure. There are no easy answers…

Having said this and knowing from personal experience the agony of chronic unrelenting pain and the sadness of life lost because of disability I would not likely wait until the votes were in but would join in the age old clamor of patients trapped by pain “Just fix me!” The International Society for Stem Cell Research has released guidelines which are helpful to use when considering any new therapy. The PDF is available here

By Amy Price PhD

With spinal injuries and head injuries it is often the secondary damage to the neurons that causes big problems especially when that swelling and inflammation is in the spinal cord or the brain. The worst damage shows up several hours to many days later. Now, scientists in Rochester, New York, have discovered a simple way to stop a lot of this secondary damage in its tracks…at least in mice by using that old familiar blue food dye that gives M&Ms, blue bubble gum and blue raspberry popsicles their color. Patients with spinal injuries could escape with vastly reduced loss of function if this works in people but they’ll turn bright blue in the process.

Much secondary damage is caused by adenosine triphosphate, or ATP. This chemical can go into overkill with trauma and cause neurons to fire until they burn out and die leaving inflammation and sludge to trip up the neurons behind them causing an unhealthy destructive cycle. With spinal trauma, the area around the injury is flooded with ATP, which causes otherwise healthy neurons to fire out of control until they die of exhaustion. It also increases the swelling around the wound. Swelling around an injury site is a positive healing factor in many parts of the body, but because the spinal cord is encased in a narrow column blood supply gets cut off and cells die. But a study published in July 28′s Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) seems to show that it’s possible to block the actions of ATP and greatly reduce the severity and permanence of spinal injuries – using the same type of food dye that gives blue M&Ms their color, a food dye called Brilliant Blue G, or BBG.

BBG can be administered intravenously with no need to inject directly into the injury site. It has the ability to cross the blood-brain barrier, which then gives it access to the spinal cord. BBG binds to the same neuroreceptor (P2X7) as the ATP binds to but it has a stronger affinity for the receptor than ATP has and gets there first so it effectively blocks the action of the ATP at the injury site.
Only one problem….patients turn blue ! It is temporary and is sure better than having a serious injury. You wear the injury but the blue die wears off…..All I can say is color me blue for spinal injury.

See the full method of the experiments here (PDF). BBG has been a food dye approved by the FDA since the 1920s but would this be considered off label use like the cholesterol lowering of Cheerios cereal. While all the rats were severely injured, the BBG-injected rats showed a greatly improved ability to support their bodyweight on their hind legs, control their bladders, and even walk in some cases. The blue skin coloring eventually faded as well, and no side effects were noted.

Human testing would be required before BBG can be moved forward into clinical use. It would be a terrific tool for ambulance drivers and paramedics. They could begin treatment right at the site of the incident, It is cheap and easy, even hospitals can use the blue stuff as soon as they get the patient hooked up and ready to go.

The kids must have known best when they told me blue ice cream was good for me …As for me…I will stock up on blue Gatorade and drink it down just in case it could make a difference!

Brains, Music and Learning (Web Weaver Clip Art 2009)

By Amy Price PhD

In 2007 colleagues and I conducted a 42 participant study as part of a research school experiment on working memory and cognitive loading. We explored using music as a strategic intervention to alter working memory loads. The premise was music could aid in more effectual encoding to increase learning potential.  As we learn extraneous or intrinsic cognitive load is invoked. Extraneous working memory loading is experienced by learners as they interact with instructional materials. Intrinsic cognitive load is the inherent level of difficulty associated with instructional materials (Chandler and Sweller 1991). More learning cues such as using pictures as well as words, learning with a song or even allowing student’s hands on instruction helps decrease this load. The more unnecessary information it takes to deliver your point the more extraneous cognitive load is produced. This is where a picture is worth a thousand words!  (Ayres 2006) states that when intrinsic or extraneous cognitive load is high, working memory is overloaded and learning is adversely affected.

This process happens as we learn new skills that we later do with some automaticity such as driving, riding a bike, learning a musical instrument or even doing algebra. The forming of efficient categorization and schemas is called germane load (Paas et al 2003, Sweller et al 1998).  

We considered that since music aids in efficient categorization perhaps learning and music together could decrease cognitive loading and increase germane ability by lightening the load. We tested this by having participants first listen to music designed to entrain concentration. According to (Doman 2007) entrainment can occur in as little as one minute. Music with specific timbres and rhythmic structure has demonstrated an increase in effectual category formation, (Ostrander1994, Rose1997) and can aid visual spatial perception, (Ruvenshteyn and Parrino, 2005) (Orel, 2006) Music is shown to aid in hemispheric transfer or communication between both halves of the brain (Taut et al 2005). We felt participants in the auditory condition would increase germane load and decrease extraneous load. The decrease in extraneous load is expected because of the neuronal changes evoked by entrainment (Pouliot 1998) (Carter and Russel 1992)

 What were our findings? Approximately 50% of our participants immediately increased their ability to sustain cognitive load by 150%. The other 50% decreased in this ability however many of these reported greater clarity of thought later in the day and improved their testing scores considerably. The lesson we learned from this is that for music to be effective at least for ½ the population consistency is the key. Many individuals need a consolidation period where learning is categorized and music is internalized.  

In fact, there are long term benefits of listening to music, notes Dan Levitin in This is Your Brain on Music.

“Music listening enhances or changes certain neural circuits, including the density of dendritic connections in the primary auditory cortex…The front portion of the corpus callosum—the mass of fibers connecting the two cerebral hemispheres—is significantly larger in musicians than non-musicians, and particularly for musicians who began their training early…Musicians tend to have larger cerebellums than non-musicians, and an increased concentration of grey matter…responsible for information processing.” In the end music is like exercise, starting later in life is better than not starting at all and may confer neuroprotective benefits…but that is another study!

References

Ayres, P.L (2006) “Impact of reducing intrinsic cognitive load on learning in a mathematical domain”, Applied Cognitive Psychology, vol.20, 99 287-298.

Carter, J & Russell H. (2002) A Pilot Investigation of Auditory and Visual Entrainment of Brain Wave Activity in Learning Disabled Boys Stanford University USA

Chandler, P. & Sweller, J. (1991). “Cognitive Load Theory and the Format of Instruction”. Cognition and Instruction 8 (4): 293–332. doi:10.1207/s1532690xci0804_2. 

Clark, R., Nguyen, F., and Sweller, J. (2006). Efficiency in Learning: Evidence-Based Guidelines to Manage Cognitive Load. San Francisco: Pfeiffer. ISBN 0-7879-7728-4. 

Conway, A. R. A., Jarrold, C., Kane, M. J., Miyake, A., & Towse, J. N. (Eds.). (2007). Variation in working memory. New York: Oxford University Press

Doman A, (2007) ABT conference Miami Fl. Advanced Brain Technology 5748 South Adams Avenue Parkway Ogden, Utah 84405, USA

Naish, P. 2005, Perceptual Processes ‘Attention’, Cognitive Psychology, Braisby and Gellatly, (eds) Open University in association with Oxford University Press UK

Orel, P., (2006) ‘Music Helps Students Retain Math’, Rutger’s Focus, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, New Jersey USA

Ostrander, S., Shroeder, L., and Ostrander, L. (1994) Super Learning New York, Delacorte Press, (1994)

Paas, F. Tuovinen, J., Tabbers, H., and Van Gerven, P., (2003) ‘Cognitive load measurement as a means to advance cognitive load theory’, Educational Psychologist, Vol 38(1), 63-71.

Pike and Edgar (2005) Perceptual Processes ‘Perception’, Cognitive Psychology, Braisby and Gellatly, (eds) Open University in association with Oxford University Press UK

Price A, Kessler R, 2006 “Sparks of Genius Recovered?”, Thinking Pays Boca Raton FL USA

Price A, Kirkpatrick M, Groszek M, “ 2007, Just practise? Or can ergonomic brain instruction or musical entrainment lighten the cognitive load to increase working memory performance and working load stamina?” Open University, Milton Keynes UK

Sweller et al (1988, 1989, 1993) Sweller, J., and Chandler, P., (1994) ‘Why some material is difficult to learn’ Cognition and Instruction, vol.12, pp185-233.

 Thaut, M., Peterson D., and McIntosh G. (2005) ‘Temporal Entrainment of Cognitive Functions: Musical Mnemonics Induce Brain Plasticity and Oscillatory Synchrony in Neural Networks Underlying Memory’, The Center for Biomedical Research in Music, Molecular, Cellular, and Integrative Neuroscience Programs, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado 80523, USA

 Tomatis, A. (1991) The Conscious Ear, Station Hill Press, Paris, (1991)

Price A, Kessler R, 2006 “Sparks of Genius Recovered?”, Thinking Pays Boca Raton FL USA

Price A, Kirkpatrick M, Groszek M, “ 2007, Just practise? Or can ergonomic brain instruction or musical entrainment lighten the cognitive load to increase working memory performance and working load stamina?” Open University, Milton Keynes UK

Rose, C. & Nicholl, M. (1997) Accelerating Learning for the 21st Century. New York: Dell Publishing (1997)

Roure, R., et al. (1998) Autonomic Nervous System Responses Correlate with Mental Rehearsal in Volleyball Training. Journal of Applied Physiology, 78(2), 99-108

  Ruvinshteyn M and Parrino L, (2005) Benefits Of Music In The Academic Classroom

Relationships: Making changes in how you relate

By Amy Price PhD

Above is a blog link to an excellent way to see relationships and make changes. Often the best ideas are the simple ones which lay out the facts so we are free to make changes in life. The link above shows you how…try it! Sometimes no matter how much you care or grieve there is no power in your hand to make changes, ultimately the only person you have power to change is yourself. Changes in others can only be decided by them. In the end the only possible response after we have done all we know to do is silence and time. Love and kindness are not always reciprocal and justifying or proving our case when wronged can become a waste of time when those choosing not to believe in us or see our side just do not care or believe a lie.

Friends can say you are casting your pearls before swine, they are not worth it or some day they will pay. In those days be a friend to yourself, never pretend it doesn’t matter but discipline the amount of time you think about it. Hint: If you are trying to fix it in your heart and mind 24 hours a day 23.5 hours could be a starting place. Remember all things pass, when I look back to people who hurt me 20 years ago I can no longer remember the feeling, how they smelled or what they said yet people who have done small kindnesses I have remembered for ever. So consider each day is one step closer to healing and be kind to yourself so you in turn can be kind to others…Remember happy people live 19% longer and each day you can choose joy or sadness…choose joy

Brain, Music and Memory (Dr Janata 2009)

Brain on Music (Dr Janata)

By Amy Price PhD

We have found in our practice that music can trigger powerful memories even for people that have sustained brain damage and have lost the ability to speak. Sometimes stroke or TBI victims can sing fluently because the path to music is stored in a different area of the brain than the one used for recalling words. As a culture we understand the power of music and now a brain-scan study reveals where music makes its mark.
The part of the brain music activates is known as the medial pre-frontal cortex and sits just behind the forehead. “What seems to happen is that a piece of familiar music serves as a soundtrack for a mental movie that starts playing in our head.” said Dr. Janata, a cognitive neuroscientist at University of California, Davis. “It calls back memories of a particular person or place, and you might all of a sudden see that person’s face in your mind’s eye.”
Janata noticed the medial pre-frontal cortex showing the same kind of activity when In Janata’s study this area responded quickly to music rhythm and chord changes, but also reacted when tunes were autobiographically relevant. In addition music provoked the strongest activity in the brain when it was combined with autobiographical memories.

This latest research could explain why even Alzheimer’s patients who endure increasing memory loss can still recall songs from their distant past. It is thought that medial portion of the prefrontal cortex is less susceptible to atrophy according to Janata.
Music does not cure Alzheimer’s or fix TBI but can help patients recover precious memories, help with thought organization and improve quality of life.
Maybe the Apple a day for Alzheimer’s is the IPOD. Dr. Janata has a project underway to make that happen

References:• Janata, P. The neural architecture of music-evoked autobiographical memories. Cerebral Cortex. Advance Access published February 24, 2009, doi:10.1093/cercor/bhp008. For supplementary information, go to the Advance Access page and search for the article.
• Janata, P., Tomic, S. T., & Rakowski, S. K. (2007). Characterization of music-evoked autobiographical memories. Memory, 15(8), 845–860.