Vehicle Traffic Metaphor

Which came first, the chicken or the egg? Recently a friend and I were discussing the various theories about that question. Then we wondered, which came first, the brain or the mind? Does the brain create the mind or does the mind create the brain? Is the mind an organ of the brain much as the stomach is an organ of the digestive system? What is your take on this?
 

There will likely never be 100% consensus, seeing as every brain on the planet is different. There is some emerging consensus, however, that the brain creates the mind and that this process can begin quite early in gestation. For purposes of discussion, let’s say that the brain creates the mind; but then the mind can impact and even change the brain. I like the ‘vehicle-traffic metaphor’ to describe that phenomenon. Vehicles create traffic. In turn, the vehicles can be hampered or impeded by the traffic—something the vehicles created to begin with. More tomorrow.

Brain Size & Household Chores

Researchers found that doing household chores can improve the brain health of older adults. Household physical activity was positively associated with larger gray matter volume in older adults. The more time people spent on household chores, the larger their brains. Household chores translate as a light workout, which is known to be beneficial to the brain. Participants doing household chores are less likely to be sedentary, which is linked with poor brain health. Shrinkage of brain tissue has been linked with a higher risk for developing dementia. The first author said, “Scientists already know that exercise has a positive impact on the brain, but our study is the first to show that the same may be true for household chores.” At the end of the 10-year study, researchers concluded that regular moderate exercise—including doing household chores—was enough to slow brain aging by the equivalent of 10 years. You might view household tasks as an anti-aging strategy that is helping you to have a larger brain and better cognitive health. Watching TV hour after hour? Maybe not so much. Just saying.

Household Tasks & Brain Aging

Researchers followed 876 people over age 65 for more than 10 years. The study was designed to identify links between household physical activity and brain health in older adults. Participants were asked how much time they spent cooking, shopping, cleaning up, caregiving, and doing housework and yard work, etc. After five years, participants were given tests of memory and thinking skills along with brain scans. Participants who were at least moderately active could remember more words from a list and could perform simple tasks more quickly. Regardless of how much exercise they did, people who did more household chores had larger brains. The study was designed to identify links between household physical activity and brain health in older adults. Participants who were at least moderately active could remember more words from a list and could perform simple tasks more quickly. Regardless of how much physical exercise they did, participants who did more household chores had larger brains. This was identified in the hippocampi, the brain’s two search engines, vital to learning and memory—and in the two frontal lobes of the brain, involved in many areas of critical thinking including executive functions such as making decisions, solving problems, accessing willpower, etc. More tomorrow.

Cognition & Household Tasks

I am so tired of doing all the household chores for six people. Exhausted, really. None of the other family members are inclined to help—usually they are on the edge of their seats in the family room watching sports on TV. I can’t force them to help. What can I do?

 Part of successful and healthful living involves knowing what you can and cannot control. It appears you cannot control their failure to help with household tasks. What can you control? Your decisions about household chores and your mindset. I suggest that you can evaluate the chores and decide which ones are absolutely essential to family life and those that are not completely essential—and stop doing those. If family members complain, kindly say that you have reached your max and they will need to do those chores. Then, stick to it. Next, I suggest you could  reframe your perception of doing household chores. Think differently about the household chores you have decided to do. More tomorrow.

Gray & White Matter & Brain Damage

According to the first author on the study, they found that damage to gray matter hubs of the brain that are really interconnected with other regions did not show much about how poorly people would do on cognitive tests after brain damage. Conversely, study participants with damage to the densest white matter connections did much worse on cognitive tests. Apparently, this is a rather revolutionary finding since in the past, both scientists and clinicians have tended to focus almost exclusively on the role of gray matter in traumatic brain injuries including stroke. According to the researchers, the take-away from this study is that the connections between brain regions might matter as much if not more so in terms of cognitive ability post brain trauma than the brain regions themselves. Bottom line:  Damage to highly connected regions of white matter in the brain following injury is more predictive of cognitive thinking impairment than damage to highly connected gray matter hubs.
 

Gray or White Brain Matter

The results of a study by researchers at the University of Iowa have challenged the commonly held idea that when it comes to brain health and function, gray matter (the neurons that form the cerebral cortex) is more important than white matter (the myelin covered axons that physically connect neuronal regions in the brain) This new study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in the US reported on the analysis of brain scans and cognitive or thinking-function tests from over 500 people with localized areas of brain damage caused by forms of brain injury, including strokes. Looking at the location of the brain damage, also known as lesions, the UI team correlated the level of connectedness of the damaged areas with the level of cognitive or thinking disability the patient experienced. Their findings suggest that damage to highly connected regions of white matter is more predictive of cognitive or thinking impairment than damage to highly connected gray-matter hubs. More tomorrow.

The Brain's Gray Matter

 

The left hemisphere of the brain contains more gray matter. Gray matter is brain tissue that has fewer of the neuronal axons wrapped with the whitish insulation known as myelin. This contributes to the slightly pinkish-gray color of the left hemisphere. Gray matter sends messages at a slower rate than white matter. Some estimates are that gray matter transmission speeds in the left hemisphere are up to 275 mph approximately, while white matter transmission speeds in the right hemisphere can reach 600 mph. Convention wisdom has been that when it comes to brain health and brain function, gray matter (the neurons that form the cerebral or thinking  cortex) is more important than white matter (the myelin covered axons that physically connect neuronal regions in the brain)—perhaps because left-hemisphere functions are more valued in many industrial societies over right-hemisphere. More tomorrow.