10/10/06
“Life
is but a series of preludes to an unknown song
whose first notes are tolled by death. “
“I
love life, and I want to live,
to glory in the sunshine, and revel in the rain,
to enjoy wandering in the dark, and stumbling into light.
On Brain-Mind Phenomena
The understanding of natural phenomena and the origin
and mystery of life has been an ageless human concern. Many millennia ago, long
before written historic records and language, the human species evolved,
survived natural catastrophes, and formed a minimal social life by
communicating with one another via grunts and signs. In Western Europe, Asia
and
Human belief patterns stem from intimately related
mind phenomena emanating from thought, memory, and emotion processes within a
complex physical structure --the human brain. At birth our brain is
almost not present. Brain growth during childhood is rapid and depends markedly
on environmental exposure, particularly to parents and schools. Cerebral
perceptions of external and internal sensory events, frequently lead to
creative thoughts derived from memories of these events. Beliefs are derived
either from experimentally verifiable thought patterns or from diverse
spiritual thinking, both of which have a profound affect on individual and
collective human behavior. Some individuals have a passion for understanding
how to base their beliefs on scientific thinking while others do not abide by
this requirement. Understanding our thought processes has become a focus of
psycho-biological, neurological, and molecular-biological cognitive studies
relating mind excitations to specific physical areas within the brain. These
studies offer the hope of discovering the scientific essence of mind phenomena
and of suggesting novel methods for learning to improve the quality of human
life at all ages. Relatively simple meditative techniques exist for controlling
thought and memory patterns which permit the learning of meaningful belief
patterns.
Meditative control of thought and memory
Awareness of one’s mental state is a quintessential requirement for improving
the thinking, learning, and remembering processes that form the basis of our
belief systems. Involuntary stray thoughts, however, are major impediments to
willful control of awareness, and are genetically inherent in the human
psyche. They often play an important role in creative thinking but may
also give rise to obsessive (semi-conscious) beliefs that cause fatigue,
especially if associated with unpleasant emotional states. Meditative methods,
of which there are many, afford an effective means to break the clutch of
discomforting mindsets.
Meditation comprises a mix of intentional and non-intentional mental processes
that can be correlated gainfully with the natural autonomic rhythm of breathing
environmental nutrients. A prime intent of meditation is to remove
disconcerting mindsets by intentionally creating a relaxed state of awareness.
An effective first step is to focus on the rhythm of one’s breathing,
until annoying mindsets are submerged via this act of concentration. One can then
shift, to simply observing one’s natural breathing. A troublesome task if the
mind is being buffeted by emotionally charged feelings! Interrupting and
removing discomforting mindsets can also be achieved by mantra-like (eyes
closed) meditative breathing. One focuses rhythmically on an in
breath and out breath for a sufficient, but not an extended time,
which should permit a gradual shift into a natural breathing state of relaxed
awareness. Very individual and not simple tasks, but very rewarding if
successful!
On achieving (eyes open) awareness, one can progress
to intentional thought tasks that set off a pleasurable meditative flow
of mental activity. Meditation requires periodic practice in moving smoothly
and quasi-simultaneously between rhythmic breathing and focus on pleasurable
tasks. One must guard against drifting into an intensive non-flowing mental
state that breeds mental fatigue. Meditation is best pursued by experimenting
with either a visual or verbal flow of pleasant thought patterns.
Potential creative elements may emerge if the flow evolves into a
semi-intentional free wheeling sequence linked to a novel view of a task.
One of the benefits of meditation is its ability to
induce sleep. One can set a natural base for transition to a sleep state,
especially when tired, by concentrating solely on the rhythm of one’s natural
breathing. This should permit a gradual drift into an unfocussed flow of
pleasant thoughts and ultimately into a sleep state.
The ability to control thought and memory flow and to
relax into simple awareness is indicative of successful meditation. Overall,
meditative exercise serves to improve mental life and, as we shall document
below, can defer the aging atrophy that results from lack of mental exercise.
On Psychobiology of Thought and Memory
Within the vast spectrum of life forms, the human
species possesses a unique ability to think and remember. Thinking represents a
unique interplay of thought and memory, captured by the aphorism: thought
begets memory, and memory begets thought. Thoughts are mental processes that
arise either from a complex of direct sensory perceptions or from abstract higher-level
mental associations. Direct thought perceptions are associated with cerebral
activity in the outer human neo-cortex and in the mid-brain, whereas abstract
emotional thoughts are primarily associated with activity in the brain stem and
thalamus; lower animal species do not have a neo-cortex and hence display minor
mental capability.
An omni-present mix of
thought and memory patterns reflects a pleasurable or troublesome state of
mind, depending on one’s ability to learn how to control the flow of thinking.
Controlling the flow of abstract thoughts and memories is a quintessential
human asset that requires intentional mental effort. Cognitive science studies
reveal that the ability to learn stems both from specific inherited areas of brain structure as well as from environmental
experience.
In our conscious state the natural autonomic flow of
mental activity is frequently interspersed with a pestering miscellany of
non-intentional thoughts. The latter, a rather chaotic activity, often prompted
by emotional instincts, complicates volitional mind flow, engenders mental
distractions, but plays an important role in human creativity. Instinctual
moderated free-wheeling streams of consciousness utilize a non-intentional mix
of states that link the many verbal and visual associations characteristic of
creative mental states. Recent mathematical developments in chaos theory
suggest that free associative thinking is a random nonlinear mental process
from which self-organizing activity representative of creativity emerges.
One relevant aspect of free association is that it is
less exhausting for the mind to wander freely within a forest of ever-changing
thoughts than to fix on embedded thoughts. Obsessive thought fixation and
resulting mental blocks are evident sources of psychobiologic mental fatigue.
Psychological studies of individual and collective behavior have long been
subjects of extensive efforts to document experimentally the laws that govern
our behavior. In recent years these studies have begun to explore behavior in
terms of the cerebral electro-chemical network being developed in the cognitive
sciences. Related developments in pharmacological medications, affecting
properties of the cerebral electro-chemical network, are currently sparking
effective methods for modifying human behavior.
An open psycho-biological problem revolves about
measuring the physical nature of thought and memory excitations generated by
structures within the brain. In physics the concept of a field suggests an interesting
and metaphorically related clarification of the problem of measuring mind
phenomena. Current neuronal research on the molecular structure of the
brain and its mental properties represents an important step along the road to
understand how to deal with our mental beliefs about religion and ethics.
On the neuronal view of Thought and Memory
The human body is composed of sensory organs, a
central neuronal-nervous system, and an autonomic circulatory blood system that
provides nutrients essential to life. The electro-chemical neuronal network
within the brain conveys
sensory stimuli to a complex of cerebral cortical areas from which thought and
memory excitations originate. Animal and human studies have shown that the act
of learning initiates growth in the number of dendrite and synaptic
constituents of cerebral neurons in areas specific to the learning process.
This growth process appears to be subject to willful control. Distinctive
thought and memory excitations involve a complex of distinctive neuronal areas.
Since each area has a distinctive neuronal packing topography, it suggests that
topography may distinguish these areas as sources and receivers of measurable
mind excitations. As evidence for this suggestion, reentrant and oscillatory
neuronal electric firing patterns in brain areas have been observed and
correlated with memory excitations in a number of recent studies. These suggest
the possibility of using ultra-sensitive (sonar or piezoelectric) spectral
analysis techniques for physical measurement of the essence of thought and
memory excitations. Sensory stimulated electro-chemical events are propagated
throughout a neuronal network at approximately 100 meter per second speeds
depending on the local topography of the network and on whether these signals
are of an electrical or a diffusive biochemical nature. Differences in the
arrival time of such signals from a sensory source to different locations in
the visual, verbal, etc cortex give rise to different thought patterns that
help to clarify phantom limb and blind sight phenomena.
Biochemical and electrical activity, associated with
neuronal signals, are observable and measurable at neuronal synapses. Neuronal
electric potentials, measurable as alpha, delta, and theta waves by
electroencephalograph (EEG) techniques, furnish information on cognitive as
well as diseased (epileptic) areas of the brain. Functional magnetic resonance imagings (FMRI), positron emission tomography (PET), as
well as optical brain imaging and microscopic needle cranial methods, provide
information on areas of cerebral activity that correlate with different mental
excitations. In particular, left or right brain activity, associated with
analytic or artistic abilities, is linked to cortical areas whose locations
vary markedly from individual to individual. Recent magnetic encephalography
(MEG) has shown that complex sensory stimuli result in coherent electrical
oscillations, but it is unclear as to whether these are indicative of signaling
activity within the neuronal network or of mind excitations.
A weeklong patch over one eye of a young kitten causes
dendrite atrophy in its visual cortex and permanent retinal blindness in the
patched eye. Learning experiments on birds and animals, using invasive
techniques, indicate an increase of dendrite numbers in cortical areas
associated with learning. Many recent observations appear to show neuronal
replication in animals and humans, especially in the young, but also at all
ages. Studies of areas of neuronal atrophy caused by cortical injuries and
organic disease have shown that mental and physical exercises can invigorate
neuron growth in neighboring cortical areas. This plasticity of cerebral
neuronal structures is a major reason for mental and physical exercise at all
ages.
Fast functional magnetic resonance scans and optical
brain imaging have shown that electro-chemical blood activity in specific areas
of the cortex is correlated with specific types of thinking and learning.
Related neurological research on memory imprinting and forgetting has led to an
awareness of important neurotransmitters
and receptors, released by electro-chemical processes generated within
neuronal synapses. A vast body of research on electro-chemical activities at
dendrite and axonal synapses has led to an era of pharmacological chemical
development that has had a profound effect on medical treatment of mental
disorders. Cell research at the molecular genetic level, a deeper
level of neuronal study, offers further promises of correcting many mental and
physical diseases.
In Summary
The developing understanding of the cerebral neuronal
network, and of the diversity of dendrite structures involved in higher levels
of conceptual reasoning, is one of the exciting open areas of neurobiological
research. Current neuronal experiments show that learning and physical exercise
engender neuronal plasticity by increasing dendrite and synaptic growth in
different areas of the cortex. These observations add credibility to the
importance of the nurture side of the “nature versus nurture” debate and thus
emphasize the importance of mental exercises that heed the “use it or lose it”
paradigm. Increased knowledge of the neuronal structure of the brain and of the
nature of mind field excitations points a way for the modern exercise of the
Socratic dictum “Know thyself”. The end of the road is
not clear but the effort involved in traveling the cognitive science road,
which leads to methods for control and flow of thoughts and memories, merits
the journey.