Brain Protein linked to Learning Disabiliies

We are learning so much more about the brain these days. A Toronto research team has spent 8 years studying a link between a crucial brain function and the "power" to learn. What they have discovered is that this single protein called Neto 1, which facilitates communication between brain cells, can result in learning impairment if it is dysfunctional.

So far, the study has been performed on mice.Mice missing Neto1 had difficulties learning new skills. However, when doctors injected them with a drug currently being tested for Alzheimer's patients, they found that the Neto1 deficient mice improved in their learning capacity. In fact,their brain cell connections were strengthened so well that they could perform cognitively as well as normal mice.

For years parents, educators and researchers have labored under the assumption that learning disabilities are genetically fixed. This urban legend of the hard and indelible brain is getting another kick out the door.

What researchers are discovering is that the brain and disabilities are malleable. Brain function and intelligence are not finite entities. Indeed, we humans have never been finite entities.

Leading geneticist at the Hospital for Sick Children, Dr. Ronald McInnes, says that drug treatment might be possible in the future for treating such disabilities.

We might even go a step further. A drug dispensary for Smart Drugs. How smart do you want to be?

Facetiousness aside, I think this discovery is exciting indeed!

Full story here.

Running, Brain Fitness and Anger

Just came across an article by Dr. Adrian Preda M.D., Assistant Professor of Psychiatry and Human Behavior in UC Irvine School of Medicine. He has written an article that answers this question: Are the benefits of physical exercise on the brain dependent on other factors like intellectual stimulation, healthy living, socializing with family and friends? Specifically, is the production of new neurons ( neurogenesis) in the brain due to exercise alone or to all these factors combined within an enriched environment ?

Recent experiments at the Gage Laboratory at UCSD have produced some startling results. Researchers placed mice in various enriched environments--a learning environment where they had access to a maze, a physical exercise environment where they had access to a running wheel, a standard environment which was essentially an empty cage without intellectual or physical stimulation. The groups of mice were compared in terms of behavioral performance. Their brain tissues were examined as well.

The conclusion was surprising: "while both enrichment and wheel running led to improved spatial memory function, only physical exercise in a running wheel also promoted neurogenesis and enhanced the survival of newborn neurons" in the brain. Running is an activity that promotes brain fitness. You can read the entire article here.

What does brain fitness mean?

For one thing, brain fitness means better control of our emotions, better executive control over anger issues.

In his book, Spark: The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain, John J. Ratey links exercise to emotional control. Exercise like running releases endorphins ,"feel good" compounds that regulate mood, pleasure and pain. Exercise also elevates levels of dopamine, norepinephrine and serotonin in the blood. These neurotransmitters regulate the focus, attention and the reward centers of the brain.

Exercise is a natural and effective remedy for depression and anger. It develops the executive functions of the brain which exercise anger control. It releases natural mood-regulating brain chemicals that can help your child with anger. Ratey insists that these effects can only be generated by consistent activity – daily exercise for 45 minutes to an hour six days a week.

The interesting thing is that children nowadays seem to be having problems with anger control. Can this situation be due to TV and video games becoming a large part of a child's lifestyle? Yet when we think about this situation, we cannot help but see that running is a natural inclination in children. Children are naturally addicted to running. Running is in their blood when they are between two and six, when they are allowed the freedom to tear their way through yards and fields. Many stop running because of the lure of television and video games. By the time they get to be teens, running is as alien to them as a trip to space.

Let's get our children back on track. Let's get them outdoors as much as we can. Let's give them the opportunity to fall in love with motion, fall in love with the breathing cadence that sustained running brings. We will not only make them physically fit, we are allowing their brains to grow and develop the way they are meant to with new neurons that continue to sprout and live because physical motion has enhanced their survival rate. We are also showing them a natural and effective way to control anger.

We have to get back to our genetic running roots. We are born to run. As Bernd Heinrich writes in Why We Run, "for millions of years, our ultimate form of locomotion was running."

When we run, we are returning to the experience of ancient man, when every muscle and fiber of our being is in sync with the movement of the earth, when our breathing becomes meditative and sustained, and when we move to the rhythm of a universal current. Nowhere can we get a more fundamental and primitive appreciation of wholeness than in a good, steady run. Nowhere else can we get a better handle on our emotions and temper.

If you want to help your child with anger, take him on a hearty run!