Neurosurgeon Reflects on the Awe and
Mystery of the Brain
June 11, 2015
Story at-a-glance
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British neurosurgeon Henry Marsh describes the fear
and uncertainty that comes with brain surgery along
with the sense of excitement and wonder
-
Marsh is honest in his assessment of how little is
actually known about the brain and how it
coordinates what is the essence of being human:
breathing, movement, memory, thoughts, feelings,
consciousness…
-
He admitted that even after decades of work as a
neurosurgeon, much of the brain is still beyond his
grasp
By Dr. Mercola
Who better to explore the mysteries of the brain than a
neurosurgeon, a person who has delved into the jelly-like matter of
the organ itself using forceps, suctions and a scalpel.
As British neurosurgeon Henry Marsh wrote in his book Do No
Harm: Stories of Life, Death, and Brain Surgery, “I often
have to cut into the brain and it is something I hate doing.”1
His dislike stems from the fact that brain surgery is so dangerous.
Even under the best circumstances, there is a risk of leaving a
person severely disabled if even a small area of the brain becomes
unintentionally damaged. As technology has improved, surgeons now
have a sort of GPS for the brain known as computer navigation.
This involves a brain scan taken just before the surgery, which
allows the surgeon to see where his instruments are located in the
person’s brain. The patient may even be awake at the time of
surgery, performing simple tasks to ensure no damage is caused as
the operation progresses. Marsh wrote:2
“Despite all this technology neurosurgery is still
dangerous, skill and experience are still required as my
instruments sink into the brain or spinal cord, and I must know
when to stop.
Often it is better to leave the patient's disease to run
its natural course and not to operate at all. And then there is
luck, both good luck and bad luck, and as I become more and more
experienced it seems that luck becomes ever more important.”
The Wonder of the Human Brain
Beyond the fear and uncertainty that comes with brain surgery is
also a sense of excitement and wonder. Marsh is honest in his
assessment of how little is actually known about the brain and how
it coordinates what is the essence of being human: breathing,
movement, memory, thoughts, feelings, consciousness…
He admitted that even after decades of work as a neurosurgeon,
much of the brain is still beyond his grasp:3
“The idea that my sucker is moving through thought
itself, through emotion and reason, that memories, dreams and
reflections should consist of jelly, is simply too strange to
understand.”
In an interview with NPR,4
which you can listen to above, Marsh also shared how, oftentimes,
what we think is “real” is actually an illusion. He used pain as an
example, because when you feel pain in your hand, for instance, it’s
not actually in your hand at all …
“If I got pain in my hand the pain is not actually in the
hand, the pain is my brain.
My brain creates a three-dimensional model of the world
and associates the nerve impulses coming from the pain receptors
in my hand with pain in the hand and it create this illusion
that the pain is actually in the hand itself, and it isn't. The
more you look into neuroscience the more strange and confusing
it becomes.”5
We ‘Can’t Even Begin to Explain’ How Consciousness Works
Your body is capable of generating electricity, and this allows
your nervous system to send signals to your brain. These signals are
actually electrical charges that are delivered from cell to cell,
allowing for nearly instantaneous communication.
The messages conducted via electrical signals in your body are
responsible for controlling the rhythm of your heartbeat, the
movement of blood around your body, and much more. So it’s not a
stretch to consider yourself an
electrical being.
Marsh even describes his thoughts as “electric chemistry,” but
even though we understand cells are transmitting electrical charges
and signals back and forth… we’re nowhere near understanding the
complexities of human brain function. Marsh told NPR:6
“I find it quite a consoling thought that our modern
scientific view of the world which has explained so much, we
can't even begin to explain how consciousness, how sensation
arises out of electric chemistry, but the fact of the matter is
it does...
The sense of awe and mystery, for some reason, has gotten
greater as I've got older. I'm not sure why.Maybe because many
of us, as we get older, we start thinking more about the fact
our life is going to come to an end, and we become a bit more
religious and philosophical.
If you don't have conventional religious belief, as I
don't, I think in a way thinking about the mystery of one's own
consciousness and the universe is a sort of compensation for
that in some ways.”
Top 5 Mysteries of the Mind
Your brain contains billions of neurons. No one knows exactly how
many, but it’s estimated there may be about 86 billion (for
comparison’s sake, there are thought to be 200-400 billion stars in
the Milky Way). About half of those neurons are located in
your brain’s cerebellum, which is about half the volume of your
central nervous system.7
How these neurons interact with each other, forming trillions
of connections, forms the basis for how your brain works, but
there are more questions than answers. Some of the biggest unsolved
mysteries of the mind include:8
- Consciousness: You are aware of your
surroundings, capable of self-evaluation, thoughts, emotions,
and other experiences. How consciousness works, in particular
how the brain leads to subjective experiences that are unique to
each of us, is a mystery.
- Personality: How do personalities develop?
Are they a result of your environment or are you born with one?
Personalities can be drastically altered by brain surgery or
trauma, but the brain’s role in personality is poorly
understood.
- Memories: How your brain creates, stores,
and retrieves memories is largely a mystery, particularly how
you’re able to recall a memory at will.
- Intelligence: How your brain’s neurons work
together to solve problems, and why people have different levels
of intelligence and styles of learning is another mystery.
- Sleep and dreams:
Sleep loss results in the loss of neurons, and proper sleep
is important for
brain detoxification. During sleep, your brain cells
actually shrink by about 60 percent, which allows for more
efficient waste removal. However, what exactly occurs in your
brain while you sleep, and why you have dreams, is not well
understood.
There is so much yet to be discovered about the mind that the US
government launched the BRAIN Initiative in 2013 to “revolutionize
our understanding of the human mind.”9
Among the goals of this program are to help:
- Uncover patterns of neural activity that produce cognition
- Understand how brain activity leads to perception,
decision-making and ultimately action
- Understand how information is stored and processed in neural
networks
- Unlock the mysteries of normal and abnormal brain function
- Uncover the mysteries of brain disorders such as Alzheimer’s
and Parkinson’s diseases, depression, post-traumatic stress
disorder (PTSD), and traumatic brain injury
It’s Now Known Your Brain Is Malleable and Constantly Changing
It used to be thought that your brain was static, except during
some critical developmental periods, but today, we know this isn’t
true. This is one area of brain research that has come a long way in
recent decades. This concept is called
neuroplasticity, or brain plasticity—meaning, you are literally
reforming your brain with each passing day. Your brain possesses the
remarkable ability to reorganize pathways, create new connections
and, in some cases, even create new neurons throughout your entire
lifetime.
There are two types of brain plasticity—functional plasticity
(your brain's ability to function moves from a damaged area to
undamaged areas) and structural plasticity (its ability to actually
change its physical structure as a result of learning).10Think
about what happens when you’re learning a new skill. The more you
focus and practice something, the better you become, and this is a
result of new neural pathways that form in response to your learning
efforts.
At the same time, your brain is undergoing “synaptic
pruning”—elimination of the pathways you no longer need. Until
recently, it was believed the human brain could not generate new
neurons. The old model assumed that you were born with a finite
number of brain cells, and when a cell died, no new cell grew in its
place. This old model is no longer relevant, as it’s been proven
that certain areas of your brain can generate new cells
(neurogenesis), as well as creating new neural pathways.
Environment plays an essential role in the process, but genetics
can also have an influence. These neural processes have been well
documented in people recovering from stroke-related brain damage,
for instance. This phenomenon even applies to emotional states. For
example, if you have a history of anxiety, your neural pathways
become wired for anxiety. If you develop tools to feel calm and
peaceful more of the time, those anxiety pathways are pruned away
from lack of activity—“use it or lose it” really applies here. As
explained by neurologist David Perlmutter:
"We interact with our genome every moment of our lives,
and we can do so very, very positively. Keeping your blood sugar
low is very positive in terms of allowing the genes to express
reduced inflammation, which increase the production of
life-giving antioxidants. So that's rule number one: You can
change your genetic destiny. Rule number two:
you can change your genetic destiny to grow new brain cells...
You are constantly growing new brain cells
into your 50s, 60s, 80s, and 90s – throughout your lifetime –
through a process called neurogenesis."
Brain ‘Hacks’ to Keep Your Mind Strong
While much of your brain remains a mystery, there are some
factors that are known to be good for brain health. If you
want to learn more about the mysteries of your mind, check out “The
English Surgeon” documentary, which goes into even more detail about
Henry Marsh’s fascinating career. However, if you’re wondering what
you can do, starting to day, to make the most of your brainpower and
mind, use the tips below:
Stimulate Your Mind
In a study of people aged 85 and older, those who engaged in
artistic, craft, and social activities in mid- and late life,
and who used a computer late in life, had a lower risk of mild
cognitive impairment (MCI).11
Another study, published in 2014, found that taking part in
"cognitively demanding" activities was also beneficial. This
would include learning to quilt or take digital photography,
which researchers found enhance memory function in older adults.12
Get Regular Exercise
During exercise, nerve cells release proteins known as
neurotrophic factors. One in particular, called brain-derived
neurotrophic factor (BDNF), triggers numerous other chemicals
that promote neural health, and directly benefits cognitive
functions, including learning. A 2010 study on primates
published in Neuroscience also revealed that regular
exercise not only improved blood flow to the brain, but also
helped the monkeys learn new tasks twice as quickly as
non-exercising monkeys.13
This is a benefit the researchers believe would hold true for
people as well. In a separate one year-long study, individuals
who engaged in exercise were actually growing and expanding the
brain's memory center 1 percent to 2 percent per year, where
typically that center would have continued to decline in size.
To get the most out of your workouts, I recommend a
comprehensive program that includes
high-intensity interval exercise, strength training
(especially
super slow workouts), stretching, and core work, along with
walking about 10,000 steps a day.
Eat a Proper Diet
The foods you eat – and don't eat – play a crucial role in
your memory. Fresh vegetables are essential, as are healthy fats
and
avoiding sugar and grain carbohydrates. You can
find detailed information about
nine foods for brainpower here. Increasing your animal-based
omega-3
fat intake and reducing consumption of damaged omega-6 fats
(think processed vegetable oils) in order to balance your
omega-3 to omega-6 ratio is important.
In addition, there is a close connection between abnormal gut
flora and abnormal brain development, and just as you have
neurons in your brain, you also have neurons in your gut --
including neurons that produce neurotransmitters like serotonin,
which is also found in your brain and is linked to mood. Along
with avoiding sugar, one of the best ways to support gut health
is to consume beneficial bacteria. You can use a probiotic
supplement for this, but I'm particularly fond of using
fermented vegetables, because they can deliver
extraordinarily high levels of beneficial bacteria.
Consider Intermittent Fasting
If you really want to jumpstart your brain health, you might
want to also try
intermittent fasting. Contrary to popular belief, the ideal
fuel for your brain is not glucose but ketones, which is the fat
that your body mobilizes when you stop feeding it carbs and
introduce
coconut oil and other sources of healthy fats into your
diet. A one-day fast can help your body to "reset" itself and
start to burn fat instead of sugar. Further, it will help you to
reduce your overall calorie consumption, which promotes brain
cell growth and connectivity.
Get Proper Sleep
Sleep and sleep loss modify the expression of several genes
and gene products that may be important for synaptic plasticity.
Furthermore, certain forms of long-term potentiation, a neural
process associated with the laying down of learning and memory,
can be elicited in sleep, suggesting synaptic connections are
strengthened while you slumber. Among adults, a mid-day nap was
even found to dramatically boost and restore brainpower.14
As with most aspects of health, it’s not one factor
but many that create or destroy a healthy brain. Just
like your physical health, your mental health will flourish with
a balanced healthy lifestyle of eating right, exercising,
tending to stress, stimulating your mind and, last but not
least, sleeping well. For the latter, you can find
33 tips to help you get the shut-eye you need here.
© Copyright 1997-2015 Dr. Joseph Mercola. All Rights Reserved.
http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2015/06/11/brain-mysteries.aspx
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