How is it that we intend to not eat that chocolate, yet when it appears before us, we drop it into our mouths? What is intention's connection to action? Dr. Ann Graybiel's UC Davis MIND Institute's October, 2008 Distinquished Presenter discusses this question. During her 6 pm presentation, my mind was firing wildly on how this new research is deeply connected to IM. The Basal Ganglia, shown by Dr. Neil Alpiner to be one of the deep structures in the brain activated by IM, has long been known to be the area of release and inhibition of movement.
When the substantia nigra (a specific area of these deep brain structures) is damaged in the Parkinson's patient, though they intend to move, they cannot. Intention and action disconnect.
The Basal Ganglia and Striatum, deep with in the brain, known as the lower brain, are much more important to learning and memory, the development of habit, than anyone ever realized. Dr. Graybiel's team is the first to look at huge numbers of neurons in action while learning a habit. Much of what we do each day is not conscious, frontal lobe activity or higher level thought, but it's subconscious habit, lower brain level activity. What arm did you put first into your shirt this morning? Did you think how to move the brush up towards the top of you head, or di you just move it? Those are signs of the basal ganglia at work.
There seems to be a cortico-basal ganglia loop that is a necessary part of the equation for learning. Without the basal ganglia's role, learning doesn't happen the same. One major area that the deep brain is connected to is the frontal lobes of the brain. Frontal lobes seem to be connected to executive functioning (EF) tasks including many of the behaviors that we see gains in with IM - attention, initiation, planning, higher level thought processes. Dr. Graybiel said the basal ganglia is the root of learning and memory. Different pathways in this cortico-basal ganglia loop seem to be implicated in Tourette's, OCD, Depression, Austism and ADHD, as well as movement based disorders such as Parkinson's and Huntington's.
Lori's Thoughts - Why is early IM training so exhausting?
Dr. Graybiel's research shows that the learning stage of the task is when mental activity is greatest. After the 'habit' is learned, neurons at the beginning and the end of the task fire as if check points, begin chunk of action, end chunk. In IM, students are exhausted during the learning stage of IM, once the 'habit' is solidly learned, the energy level used seems less. This makes sense functionally. Learning the task involves an immense number of neurons. Once learned, the information is chunked together and a simple start and stop action is required.
Could this be an important network for "motivation"?
Another interesting thought: The reward center, discussed by Dr. Graybiel, seems to be deeply connected to the dopamine path in the substantia nigra, a specific part of these deep brain structures. The very neurons that take dopamine up to the striatum also sends reward or anticipation of reward signals. This is another amazing finding, that this pathway that dies back in Parkinsons, causing so many movement issues, has something to do with 'feeling rewarded'. It's the part of the brain that lights up when we eat chocolate.
I see a small percentage of children that I try to figure out how to fire that reward center. It is as if no matter what carrot I put in front of them, that intention center, the desire for a reward, functionally one might call it the 'motivation' center just doesn't seem to fire well. These children seem to share other identifiable traits as well. They are usually well liked, kind hearted, easy going children, and a larger percentage of them are female. They never just 'give up' in IM, they keep trucking along, but don't seem to care much if they gain or not. Their body language never says, "I WANT IT!" Often they struggle in school, too. The type of struggle seems to be "slow" learning and difficulting picking up the concepts. These are just generalities, but I see so many children that I begin to notice patterns of behavior. Possibly these young people are so well liked because they don't feel competitive at all, they don't threaten anyone. They are not motivated to be the "best" or "win". That drive, internal motivation center seems to be disconnected almost. Is this type child having difficulty firing a specific cortico-basal ganglia loop particularly connecting to the substatia nigra? Is dopamine connected in some way? Is there a task I can have these individuals do that could build that loop? A task that works that particular pathway? Would that affect this lack of drive that I seem to see in this small subset of individuals? And if so, would that play out in real life as increased internal motivation/personal drive?
What do you mean by a "disconnect" syndrome?
Dr. Graybiel commented, "This place in the striatum is the sensory motor part of the brain. If the circuits are in disarray, maybe you can't get out of a chair, or you repeat doing something again and again." These spectrum disorders, many different disorders along the same spectrum (Autism, PDD, Aspergers, ADHD, and some would add Tourette's and OCD) may actually be disconnect syndromes. Disconnection with the lower brain structures and the higher level executive functions. A disorder resulting from one region of the brain failing to connect well with another region. The cortico-basal ganglia loops are no longer thought of as just for movement, but for thoughts and emotions as well. The question is, Can we improve connectivity? "If you have a very high degree of specificity, you might be able to," was Dr. Graybiel's answer.
We see lots of gains in "executive functions" during IM. Do we see gains because we are connecting regions of these deep brain structures to the frontal lobe? Are we building connections with the frontal lobe, or are neurons specifically in the basal ganglia just improving in function? What actually is IM's impact at the neuronal level?
Why do we do so many repetitions of the same movement?
In IM, we do movements, initiation and inhibition of movement after movement after movement, thousands of times. One IM lecturer said 10,000 repetitions develops an expert level in any one pathway, whether it's rolling cigars or clapping your hands. With each movement, you send the signal, myelinate this path. The myelin sheath, a the fatty covering over neuronal pathways, makes the neuronal signal move faster and more efficiently. I find that at about 10,000 repetitions on both hands, the child usually ends with scores in the teens, looking smooth and like an expert! When in the teens, focus seems to be at a subconscious, almost deeply meditative level with significantly less effort than it took 15 sessions earlier to be 3 times less accurate. Other tasks take about 10,000 reps to get down to that level too. Different tasks seem to impact different thought processes (That's a huge interest of mine). Will we ever get to the point where we can say, "This child struggles in this cognitive skill so let's work these motor pathways..."? Would that be so cool! Time will tell. My neurons are firing.
