neuroscience, Samuel Sanabria

New Year, New Goal

For the new 2020 year, I have decided to forgo my usual resolutions to work out more and eat healthier. Like many people, I see the New Year as a new opportunity to make positive changes and improve my physical health. I start with great intentions and enthusiasm. It begins with a commitment to going to the gym three times a week, drink more water, and cut back on sweets. However, like every year, I start strong and begin to peter out around the beginning of March, and by the end of April, I am back to my old habits. But not this time! This time I have decided to try another resolution and one that I believe will be easier to keep and with equal, if not better, health results. This year I have decided to improve my brain and mental health.

To accomplish this, I plan to use The Healthy Mind Platter as my daily guide. Much like our food pyramid, The Healthy Mind Platter is a model developed by two neuroscientists, Drs. David Rock and Dan Siegel, for optimizing your brain and mental health. The model consists of seven daily mental activities necessary for engaging different parts of the brain, which improve brain integration. By being mindful of these activities and balancing your daily activities, you are working on strengthening your brain’s functions and connection with other people.

These are the daily activities (from https://www.drdansiegel.com/resources/healthy_mind_platter/)

Focus Time

When we closely focus on tasks in a goal-oriented way, we take on challenges that make deep connections in the brain.

Play Time

When we allow ourselves to be spontaneous or creative, playfully enjoying novel experiences, we help make new connections in the brain.

Connecting Time

When we connect with other people, ideally in person, and when we take time to appreciate our connection to the natural world around us, we activate and reinforce the brain’s relational circuitry.

Physical Time

When we move our bodies, aerobically if medically possible, we strengthen the brain in many ways.

Time In

When we quietly reflect internally, focusing on sensations, images, feelings and thoughts, we help to better integrate the brain.

Down Time

When we are non-focused, without any specific goal, and let our mind wander or simply relax, we help the brain recharge.

Sleep Time

When we give the brain the rest it needs, we consolidate learning and recover from the experiences of the day.

After assessing my daily lifestyle, I realized there are a few activities that I am lacking, and other activities I may be overdoing. For example, as an academic and writer, I have plenty of focus time built in my day. I also have no problem with down time – after my daughter goes to bed, I naturally collapse into a comfortable position on my sofa and do nothing. This is one of my favorite times. On the other side, I am a creature of habit and have a daily routine, which does not include enough play time or connecting time. These areas need my attention the most. I hope that they will not be too challenging to incorporate. After all, it involves increasing fun, creativity, and socializing. How hard can that be? Let’s see.

What’s This About Dueling Neurosurgeons?

Chance, luck, or misfortune has played an essential role in scientific advancements. Approximately 30 to 50% of all scientific discoveries are in some way the result of accidents or what opportunistic scientists call serendipity. This phenomenon is especially true for the mental health fields. For example, any denizen who partook in the psychedelic scene of the 1960s counterculture owes some level of gratitude to an accidental discovery. In the 1930s, Albert Hoffman, a Swiss chemist interested in the chemistry of plants and animals, was experimenting with a chemical found in ergot, a fungus that some historians believe was associated with the hysteria present during the Salem witch trials of 1692. The primary purpose of his experiment was to develop a treatment for women experiencing respiratory depression and other symptoms due to complications during pregnancy. In his experiment, Hoffman combined the nucleus common in all ergot alkaloids (lysergic acid) with a derivative (dimethylamine) and created what we now know as LSD. Hoffman was not aware of the powerful hallucinogen effects of LSD until he accidentally absorbed the drug through his skin. He continued to use the drug throughout his life and never gave up the hope of finding a medical purpose for the drug.

This tale is one of the many stories of accidental scientific discoveries highlighted in Sam Kean’s book, The Tale of the Dueling Neurosurgeons. Kean is a writer and contributor to Psychology Today, The New York Times Magazine, Slate, and The New Scientist. He has also published five books, which focus on various scientific discoveries. In this book, Kean takes the reader on a historical journey of accidents and misfortunes that have led to critical neurological advancements. One of the fundamental questions about the brain that underlines this book is whether specific regions affect certain thoughts and perceptions. We know the answer to this question now; however, it is quite interesting to read about how these discoveries happened.

Each chapter was fascinating and easy to comprehend. Kean avoids technical details about brain functioning but instead relies on good storytelling. Anyone who is interested in neuroscience or is just curious about science and history will find The Tale of the Dueling Neurosurgeons a must-read. I know I did. Just don’t plan on taking LSD before embarking on this journey through history.