Archive for July, 2017

Mind body connection has traditionally meant positive thinking & meditation. Perhaps tai chi or some other psycho somatic therapy. Later in the 20th century biofeedback technologies became popular.

In the 21st century advances in brain imaging have been linked to studies of brain function & cognition.

I saw a recent study last week where specific activities and thoughts were mapped and stimulated the exact same brain regions in all subjects regardless of culture and language. These were abstract concepts such as “the car is blue” or even more complex.

So while the brain is neuroplastic – it does have a genetically determined optimal configuration.

This means that there is a cognitive map for all human thought & behavior.

It means that patterns of thought & behavior entail patterns of brain region activity that are the same every time & in all people.

It means that people with special talents have duplicable brain activation patterns. Athletes & academic geniuses for example.

Currently western research into training these patterns into other people involve neurofeedback and tDCS. However MRI studies of acupuncture have revealed that stimulation of acupuncture points also triggers specific brain areas unrelated to the sensory experience of the acupuncture.

This means that deliberate stimulation of acupuncture points can be more effective at modulating cognitive protocols than tDCS.

It also means that cognitive activity will show a signature in the body.

What is required to do this is an extensive cognitive MRI map of the brain & its protocols and a similar map of acupuncture effects upon the brain.

In the mean time therapies such as tapping & qigong claim to do similar things but without the MRI & brain mapping we have no quantification.

http://www.pnas.org/content/95/5/2670.figures-only