Mind Matters

Around thirty or more years ago I was involved with a number of people dealing with the placement and education of youngsters with significant learning and behavioural problems. It was not an easy business. Our psychologists were firmly wedded to their tests.

That these had been published and were based on their own data etc. did not help because any questions or added considerations in relation to placements could make a dent in the income they derived from the sales or even destroy the findings of their research.

Meanwhile our elderly local consultant psychiatrist was a devoted Jungian. This was all very well but unhelpful and a cause of recrimination when I was suggested other medical issues could be involved. He was as resistant to other medical investigations as were the psychologists.

For both these what had really got their backs up was when with other doctors we had put in hand extensive vision and hearing tests for every child at the bottom end of the ability range. Even we were shocked by the numbers who were found to have a clear problem to one extent or another.

What was a particular worry to me was how little anybody knew at that time about what exactly was going on in the brain, a highly complex organ about which there were may theories but few real facts. What put the cap on it was when a senior official from Whitehall came round our region telling us how many youngsters with a particular rare problem we should have.

He was a classicist wholly ignorant of the science of statistics and its more intricate implications. As the problem in my view was a brain problem and unusual I felt we had to deal with them on a case by case basis and not just apply a rubber stamp dictated by officials.

Time has moved on and mercifully we are beginning to learn more. The first link concerns how scientists can now find more information from modern methods of looking into the brain.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/08/110809184153.htm

This deals with the increase in numbers given CT scans in hospitals in America and these are increasing regarded there as necessary to dealing with a wide range of conditions.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/08/110810101604.htm

This one refers to the importance of people diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease to be seen by neurologists as well as or rather than other disciplines:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/08/110810163408.htm

What a pity it is that it is so difficult in the NHS for even severe stroke victims to have the benefit of all this. Unless, of course, you are a professional footballer with significant toe damage.

My Brain Hurts

Below is a link to another Science Daily article. It is this web site that supplies most of the traditional media with summaries on which they base their news items.  These may or may not reflect the real content nor may the interns who mostly do the work have much understanding.

However, whilst the link is all about insect sense of smell and brain function the scientists involved believe that it gives us some insight and guidance into the way the human brain may work.

Some of us are coming to believe that in our modern world the human brain seems to working a lot less well than in the past and perhaps wonder why.

It could be that the scale of the disruption now in ordinary lives together with the loss of basic sense functions such as smell, taste and perception may have the answer.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/05/110513112248.htm

Ask your nearest locust, or failing that the spider in the bathroom.

Brain Games

Checking out my mail listings, I came across this one from 2009. I may have made use of it before and sent it on to others. Also it came from a contact.

The article is a summary of a complex research paper. The basic premise is that MCS is a brain (neurological) issue that is chemical in effect. Chemicals may impact on the brain in various ways.

They may enter the bloodstream by one means or another. They may come through the skin, despite the protestations of cosmetic and personal product makers. They may come via the lungs, in that humans breath.

Breathing in humans is something else heavily discounted by makers except for those of fragrances.

They need breathing humans to sell their stuff. But the makers insist that the sense of smell in breathing cannot impact adversely on the brain or if it does only in a way that conveys either pleasure or the release of the urge to mate.

Or something.

Quote:

Pro Health Library

Brain dysfunction in Multiple Chemical Sensitivity.

Source: Journal of the Neurological Sciences, Oct 2, 2009

by Ramon Orriols, et al. - October 13, 2009

Multiple Chemical Sensitivity (MCS) is a chronic acquired disorder of unknown pathogenesis.

The aim of this study was to ascertain whether MCS patients present brain single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) and psychometric scale changes after a chemical challenge.This procedure was performed with chemical products at non-toxic concentrations in 8 patients diagnosed with MCS and in their healthy controls.• In comparison to controls, cases presented basal brain SPECT hypoperfusion [decreased blood flow] in small cortical areas of the right parietal and both temporal and fronto-orbital lobes.• After chemical challenge, cases showed hypoperfusion in the olfactory, right and left hippocampus, right parahippocampus, right amygdala, right thalamus, right and left Rolandic and right temporal cortex regions.• By contrast, controls showed hyperperfusion in the cingulus, right parahippocampus, left thalamus and some cortex regions.• The clustered deactivation pattern in cases was stronger than in controls (p=0.012) and the clustered activation pattern in controls was higher than in cases (p=0.012).• In comparison to controls, cases presented poorer quality of life and neurocognitive function at baseline, and neurocognitive worsening after chemical exposure.Chemical exposure caused neurocognitive impairment, and SPECT brain dysfunction particularly in odor-processing areas, thereby suggesting a neurogenic [nervous system] origin of MCS.Source: Journal of the Neurological Sciences, Oct 2, 2009. PMID: 19801154, by Orriols R, Costa R, Cuberas G, Jacas C, Castell J, Sunyer J. Servei de Pneumologia, Hospital Universitari Vall d' Hebron, Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain; CIBER Enfermedades Respiratorias (CIBERES), Spain. [E-mail: rorriols@vhebron.net]

Unquote.

The increased power of many products in the last few years and with more to come must mean many more people will be affected. Any who are already affected will have more problems.