Session 14 and not yet in the teens! Panic!

For completion of basic IM, I set a soft goal of getting every child in the teens on at least one task of over 1000 reps for 3 days in a row. Why? Read this mental processing post and this emotional response post.  But, obviously, not all children reach this goal in 15 sessions. This does not mean your child did not gain from IM, nor that your child is deficient is some way, nor that you or I didn't put enough carrots in front of them. IM trainnig is simply a process and every child walks their own path at their own pace to get there.

Synchronized Brain is Important

This is a collection of recent finds on the importance of synchronization with in the brain. This extremely significant mental process is where IM impacts the brain. 

New Research for IM significance!

How do we know the fried eggs need turned right when we are about to butter the toast? Timing..... but how does our brain actually tell time?  We know when the light should change to green, we wake up with in a minute of the alarm clock going off, we worry when our teen in 5 minutes later than we expected them, but never look at the clock. Fascinating brain! A new theory has just surfaced, and it is using the success with IM as one of it's starting points as to how we keep track of time. Read more here.   How cool could that be!

Time: Attending to duration triggers specific anticipatory activity

Time processing requires the estimation of events' duration per se, but also seems to trigger attentional and memory processes. (MEG) activity was recorded in fourteen healthy right-handed volunteers. We report an increase of gamma-band oscillations over right fronto-central and parietal regions when subjects are prompted to attend to duration. Our results support the hypothesis that the right fronto-parietal network observed repeatedly in time estimation imaging studies is indeed involved in attentional control rather than stimulus processing. Moreover, they underline the supramodal property of time dimension that goes beyond purely perceptive features.

Authors: Marco Sperduti^a; Catherine Tallon-Baudry^a; Laurent Hugueville^a; Viviane Pouthas<sup>a


Just cut and pasted part of an abstract about Time in the brain.</sup> 

I feel like one of those moms who brags that her baby turned over for the first time.

Just wanted to say thanks for yesterday. I am so encouraged by K----- and his behaviors lately. I don't think it has ever been this good for our family and I know it's because of YOU. Last night continued to be good. I threw my back out so B----- (adult daughter) came over and made dinner. K----- was in the kitchen wanting to read the labels. B---- is usually grouchy to him but because he was so nice she was in a good mood and she showed him how to read them. It was really fun watching them.
This morning he was playing outside and D---- (K's sister one year older) came in and said she couldn't find K----. I figured he went in the neighbors shed to help that man so I told her where to look and have K----- come home. K------- came home and I told him it was not okay to go anywhere without telling me. I am telling you Lori, normally K------ would not have been able to handle it and go right into melt down mode. This time he said, "okay mom I will next time. Sorry, can I go back over?" That never happens!! I feel like one of those moms who brags that her baby turned over for the first time. This would seem ridicules to most but its huge for us. Gains! Again, so cool and thanks so much. I really appreciate you so much, thanks for all your work because ITS WORKING!!

Areas of the brain used to tell time

What does research tell us about how the brain keeps track of time and time related tasks? We are learning more every day. Read more.

Exploring Time: The Brain's Basal Ganglia

Using an MRI, a Team from Duke University is studying timing and the basal ganglia lights up. This set of nuclei is responsible for monitoring ALL of the brain. The basal ganglia is our timing center, our brain's conductor. See this short clip from the Science Channel here. 

"I didn't know I could be this happy!"

Words from one of my students today - "I didn't know I could be this happy!"

For neurons to work as a team, it helps to have a beat

Berkley has published some very interesting research showing that rhythm throughout the brain may be as important as rhythm within individual areas of the brain. IM trains the brain rhythmically, each task synchronizing different areas of the brain.  Here's the article.

One analogy that this paper uses is: "It is like the radio communication between emergency first responders at an earthquake," Canolty said. "You have many people spread out over a large area, and the police need to be able to talk to each other on the radio to coordinate their action without interfering with the firefighters, and the firefighters need to be able to communicate without disrupting the EMTs. So each group tunes into and uses a different radio frequency, providing each group with an independent channel of communication despite the fact that they are spatially spread out and overlapping."

Amazingly low IM Scores

The scores you make on IM are huge indicators of your basic mental functioning, but they fall short in telling the whole picture. Yes, if a child comes in averaging over 100 ms, I know this child is working far harder than they need to in this world. Basic timing is a huge issue. But on the other end of the spectrum, some students can have AMAZINGLY low numbers and can still be lacking in some very basic mental processes. More IM can lead to significant mental processes still coming on line. The numbers don't tell the entire picture.

Brain Balance

Dr. Melillo has recently published an excellent book called Disconnected Kids.  His website  has a couple of wonderful videos on the right side of his website. I strongly encourage parents to make an effort to watch the second one, Dr. Melillo on Everyday with Marcus and Lisa.  Dr. Melillo covers key aspects of brain imbalance on this video.  As you watch the first video, KCAL9 Features Brain Balance,  you will notice that part of the brain balance program seems to implement Interactive Metronome.  At IM Focused, brain balance has for years been a focus of  IM training in addition to connecting various pathways and improving the timing and synchrony of the neuronal activity in each pathway.

IM Presentation from Dr. Kevin McGrew

This 3 year old presentation from Dr. McGrew was presented at an IM conference several years ago. It's Dr. McGrew's attempt to explain what he believes in happening in the brain during IM that results in so many varied gains, including physical, mental, social, emotional, and academic. If you want very in depth information, view this - it will take some time and is not for those who are seeking quick information!

Metronome: Whats happening under the hoodInteractive Metronome: Whats happening under the hood

View more presentations from iapsych.

Research from 1951 suspected children with dyslexia had a poorer sense of rhythm.

Read Dr. McGrew's recent post about reading/dyslexia and it's relationship to timing here.

Re-wiring the Brain - It's possible!

Michael Merzenich, a neuroscientist specializing in neuroplasticity discusses the cause and cure for children with language  delays. Most children with learning impairments have a brain that has specialized for "noisy" speech. The brain processes in a defective form because early in life the process was noisy. Causes vary from noisy environments, to ear infections, to a 'noisy' brain. That is, a brain that has different time concepts and different space concepts!

How IM might impact sleep patterns and night terrors.

Washington University just published some fasinating research discussing how ones 'master clock', a specific region of the brain, helps us keep track of our 24 hour sense of time. This master clock seems to talk with various other 'clocks' with in our body.

My child has above average timing, now what?

Would you recommend IM if my son scored in the above average or superior range on his IM pretest?

Though it is true that the child's general timing is above average it's important to note that IM impacts more than timing. Quality of movement, connectivity in different brain regions, distractibility, and stamina are a few of the other significant factors to consider.

Can We Fine Tune Our Brain Clocks?

Dr. McGrew has a particularly infomative post about timing, a good overview of all research he's collected. Check it out. This image of timing in the brain I particularly like too. If you could draw a picture of what I believe IM can do in the brain, that is, line up those hills and valleys in our brains electrical signaing during sensory processing so as to 'calm' the storm or organize the brain, this might be what it looks like. Read his post. Great information.

20 Milleseconds - Can your child score this low?

Dan Feldman, from the UC Berkley,  recently discovered that rats brains synchronize for optimal learning at about 20 milliseconds.  Early in my IM career, I discovered that when students work the ms average down to about 20 milliseconds (ms), magic occurs.  Not real magic of course, just mental processing becomes extremely efficient, high quality, in the elite range on the IM charts and most of all, it feels great! People love to get into the teens in IM.

Neurons that "sing with the choir" help quiet brain noise.

IM seems to be impacting in the brain in a couple of different ways. One is that the neuronal tracts that fire in IM may be increasing in mylination, speeding up the signal. Another way is these tracks may be synchronizing together.   Jernigan from the UC San Diego spoke at the TDLC All Hands meeting this past February (2009) about these two processes.

Neural Synchrony and Selective Attention

Neurons that fire in synchrony, have a greater impact on neuroplasticity (learning) than those neurons firing alone. This technical lecture about Neural Synchrony and Selective Attention tells us that by aligning the firing of neurons up in time, you get a big bang for your buck in terms of efficient processing in the brain.