Eureka! Café Crêpes de Paris

A DNA marker supposedly indicates I'm descended from Helena, a woman who reportedly marked the beginning of my mitochondrial type, Haplogroup H, and believed to have inhabited an area now in modern-day France.  (If accurate, one of the more famous of my Haplogroup H ancestors would be the French queen Marie Antoinette. Hmmm.) Fast forward. Ancestors of my maternal grandmother, Rosealba Champagne, reportedly moved to Canada from the Champagne-producing region of France. So what with a maternal French background plus my grandmother's fabulous French cooking, I'm sure I have cellular (as well as real-time) memories for crepes. I have eaten my way across France, Normandy, and Brittany more than once, truth be told. Problem: it's been a very long time since I've found any crêpes on this side of the pond that taste really "authentic" to me. Well, while presenting a series of seminars in Bakersfield, I hit the proverbial gourmet jackpot in a tiny cafe among a collection of tiny European-flavored shops. Martin and Marina Flores have the flavor down cold. (He says he's from Mexico but he easily could pass for a French cousin of mine. Smile.)  I had a mini-birthday-party brunch there with friends earlier this month.  If you like crêpes (they do have other options, as well), it is so worth the 5-10 minute drive from the 99 S freeway:  Café Crêpes de Paris at 1028 Truxtun Avenue in Bakersfield, CA 93301 (661.374.4946). They're open 9am to 2pm seven days a week. Tell them I sent you! All I need now is another reason to pop down to Bakersfield... 

Outliers and Innate Giftness

The topic of "outliers" raised its head over lunch recently, Malcom Gladwell having popularized that term. It sparked a lively conversation! We even started identifying examples of individuals that our brains considered to be outliers in their field whether it be sports, music, science, literature (to name just a few). Then the question to me was, "In terms of brain function, who do you think become outliers?" In a general sense I perceive three factors to be inter-related:  1) The person's innate giftedness;  2) An environment that helps the innate giftedness flourish; 3) A personal interest and commitment that devotes the requisite effort and time (e.g., 10,000 hours minimum) to hone the innate giftedness. Some have talent and never hone it. Perhaps because they never unwrapped their giftedness (as Shannon Chadwick put it) or never caught a vision of what was possible or found the environment not conducive. However, there are those who identiy their innate gifatedness find a way to hone their talent in spite of the environment or they find a new environment. My brain's opinion is that the world could use more outliers . . .

Whale Brains and Spindle Cells

VENs or Spindle cells, named after their long, spindle-shaped bodies, are neurons that are credited with allowing you to feel love and to suffer emotionally. According to Jon Allman, who spends a lot of his time counting cells in the brain, spindle cells may be the cells that "make us human." Think of VENs as the express trains of the nervous system. They bypass unnecessary connections, enabling you to instantly process and act on emotional cues during complex social interactions. They exist in parts of the human brain that are thought to be responsible for social organization, speech, intuition about the feelings of others, empathy, and rapid "gut" reactions. Now they have been discovered in the brain of whales, which means that at some level whales may share some of the cells that “make us human.” According to Patrick Hof of the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York, and co-discoverer of the whale spindle cells with Estel van der Gucht of the New York Consortium in Evolutionary Primatology:  “They (whales) communicate through huge song repertoires, recognize their own songs and make up new ones. They also form coalitions to plan hunting strategies, teach these to younger individuals, and have evolved social networks similar to those of apes and humans.” No surprise, this is stimulating some debate both on the level of whale intelligence and on the ethics of hunting them.

Spindle Neurons (von Economo)

Spindle neurons are also known as VENs or von Economo neurons, named after Constantin von Economo who described them in 1929. These unusual-shaped neurons form a specific class and come in clusters of only 3-6. Unlike most other types of neurons that have multiple dendrites, VENs have a single axon that goes in one direction with a single dendrite facing the opposite direction. VENs have been identified in the anterior cingulate cortex, the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, and the fronto-insular cortex of the human brain. Studies have shown that the brains of some Super Ages had four times as many of these spindle neurons compared to the brains of other older individuals. VENs  are believed to impact higher-order thinking. Interestingly enough, these neurons have also been discovered in some other species:  whales (e.g., killer, sperm, fin, humpback, beluga); dolphins (bottlenose, Risso’s); African and Asian elephants; great apes. According to Wikipedia, scientists have implicated spindle neurons as having an important role in many cognitive abilities and disabilities generally unique to humans (e.g., savant perceptiveness, perfect pitch, dyslexia, autism).

The Flu and the Flu

Studies have shown that when a male and a female each come down with the flu, all things being equal, the male will generally feel much worse (because his body doesn't handle fluid fluctuation in muscle tissue as effectively as does the female body). No doubt you’ve heard about this phenomenon, if you haven’t experienced it personally. He is splayed out on the couch, certain he won’t live through the evening much less the night. Groaning, he says, “Could you bring me some 7-Up?” She responds with, “What? I’m trying to put dinner on the table and I’ve got the flu, too. Get your own 7-Up!” Okay, there are many women who are not this unresponsive, but you get the idea. Even if she doesn’t say anything, however, she may still be thinking it! Knowing this is no license for you guys to milk your flu episode for all it’s worth. On the other hand, some of you gals might want to cut the males in your circle a bit more slack. Truly, many of them do report feeling as if they’re dying!

Brain and Culture

According to Gazzaniga, author of Who’s in Charge, “social organization affects cognitive processes indirectly by focusing our attention on different parts of the environment and directly by making some social communications patterns more acceptable than others.” Researchers flashed pictures of simple scenes to Americans and to East Asians and then asked them what they recalled. The East-Asian participants tended to pay attention to the entire overall scene while the American participants tended to recall main items in the picture. This appeared to reflect some cultural differences. Asians are more likely to see themselves as an interwoven part of a big picture, whereas Americans tend to see themselves as having more individual power.

Active vs Passive Stress

Someone asked the other day about the difference between active and passive stress and the resulting impact of each on the body's immune system. My brain's opinion is that active stress involves something that you are actively involved with (e.g., you are meeting a deadline of some type, you are choosing to exercise, you are taking a class at the Junior College). If the outcome is successful and your life is in balance, that type of short-term active stress can actually boost immune system function.  On the other hand, passive stress (e.g., watching a scary movie--which is the reason I never do--, a situation that you can't do much about such as the 9-11 disaster, or chronic and prolonged stress) can suppress immune system function. You can always do something about almost anything. And when you do something, it helps to moderate the stress of feeling passively helpless. For example, when bad things happen you can acknowledge what happened and then try to identify something you can learn from the experience or something for which you can be grateful.