[Source: FlickR CC Photographer: TheAlieness GiselaGiardino]

ScienceDaily (Jan. 9, 2009) — The International Research Institute of Stavanger (IRIS), which is based in Norway, have studied which leadership qualities could help employees return from sick leave early. Being considerate, understanding and able to maintain contact with the sick-listed are the most important leadership qualities, according to the study.

“The manager has a key role when it comes to sick leave. He or she is often the best available measure for promoting health in these cases. A manager with good qualities can have a great impact on how long the employee is off sick”, says senior researcher Randi Wågø Aas, at IRIS, which is owned by the University of Stavanger and Rogalandsforskning.

Norway has the highest sick leave figures in Europe, and the authorities are constantly looking for new measures to get numbers down. The latest research effort from IRIS on the topic studied the relationship between the employees who are signed off sick, and their managers. Part of this work has now been published in the Journal of Occupational Rehabilitation.

Previous research has revealed a strong link between management and sick leave.

The risk of long term sick leave rises proportionally to the lack of support from the manager.

“That is why we think it is interesting to look at which qualities in managers are considered important”, says Ms Wågø Aas. Researchers followed 30 people on long term sick leave over the course of eight months. Both the employees and their managers were asked which management qualities they felt were the most important in the follow-up work. Researchers got 345 descriptions of important qualities, which were naturally grouped in 78 specific management qualities. The three most often mentioned were Ability to make contact, Consideration and Understanding.

In other words, the study shows that people on sick leave first and foremost need to feel cared for.

“The employees find it important that their managers are understanding, supportive, attentive, empathetic, warm and friendly. When they are on sick leave, people are in a position of vulnerability. Many of them talk about feeling suspected, and say their problems are not taken seriously”, says Ms Aas.

The 78 manager qualities which emerged from the investigation were divided into seven categories, which each represent a given type of manager. The one mentioned the most frequently, is nicknamed The Protector, who has caring qualities. Number two is The Problem Solver, who is the best at adapting. The third most important is The Contact Maker, and then it is The Trust Creator, The Recognizer, The Encourager, and The Responsibility-maker. Each of these types contains groups of qualities which emerge in the interviews. Ideally, managers with staff responsibilities should have a bit of each of the seven in them, but what is the most important will vary.

“The perfect manager can take steps which are tailored to the individual’s needs. The survey shows that there are great differences in what the individual considers good follow-up. It is also clear that a combination of different management qualities is needed. A great many people need both a pat on the shoulder, and to be welcomed back to work”, says Ms Aas. According to her, it also seems that contact ability is a necessary quality in order to achieve the combination of protection and problem-solving.

Researchers also found age differences in the individual’s needs while on sick leave. Younger employees had the greatest need for protection and recognition, while those over 45 were more concerned with problem solving and being held responsible.

“Older people are probably more concerned with adaptation of their work environment, to make sure they can get back to work. Younger employees are possibly more vulnerable, and need more encouragement”, she says.

A third important find in the study, is the difference in what the employees and the managers thought was important. The employees emphasised recognition and encouragement more than the managers, who were more concerned with accountability, and problem solving.

“If employees have different needs from what the managers are aware of, and this is not communicated, there is a big problem. It is easy to view management as mainly about adapting all practical and formal matters for the employee. For most employees however, it is more important to be understood and included. For instance, many managers think they are protecting the employee by telling them that they do not need to work. In reality, they are simply extending the sick leave, since the employee does not feel included. After all, many are able to do things even though they are ill”, says Senior researcher Ms Wågø Aas.

IRIS will continue to study the interview material. They also wish to develop a feedback tool, which aims to improve communication between managers and employees on sick leave.

Here are the types of managers identified in the study:

1. The Protector

Protects the employee, understands the situation, helps and includes. Shows compassion, is discreet, warm and friendly.

2. The Problem Solver

Professional, solution oriented and creative. Can, among other things, change the tasks or in other ways adapt them so that the employee can continue to work. Takes responsibility, and gives individual treatment.

3. The Contact Maker

Gets in touch with the employee to inform of what is happening in the workplace. Is also interested in how the employee is doing, and proves a listening and able conversationalist.

4. The Trust Creator

Is discreet, predictable, attentive, honest and open. Creates trust and a feeling of safety.

5. The Recognizer

Behaves acknowledging, confirming and without prejudice towards the employee.

Shows respect and confidence.

6. The Encourager

Has a positive attitude, and is generous and happy. Motivates, inspires and is available. This type of manager has a sense of humour, as well as being just, patient, and encouraging.

7. The Responsibility-maker

Assertive, fearless, challenging, and direct. Is honest, to the point and not afraid to establish boundaries or confront. Gives the employee challenges and responsibility for his or her own situation.

Adapted from materials provided by The University of Stavanger.

Leonardo Da Vinci - View Of A Skull c.1489 (Pen and Ink), Galleria dell’Accademia, Venezia

I spend a lot of time talking at schools about life, money, careers, and yes, health. I know it is next to useless to say to a teenager “Don’t Do Drugs!” - however, show then MRI scans of damage to the hippocampus from ecstasy use, or current statistics of early onset Alzheimer’s in chronic cannabis users, or psychiatric statistics of drug involvement in teenage schizophrenia and manic / depressive behaviour, or finally, amputees testimonies from collapsed veins cutting off circulation and how they just got started with gateway drugs, and yes, you get some interest.

So a little science regarding the incredible dangers of anorexia on the system is justified occasionally. The research lead by Dr Miriam Bredella, and presented at the Radiological Society of North America last weekend is compelling. Bone isn’t just there to hold up the muscle and stop us looking like a big pancake; it is essential for disease management, renewal of red and white blood cells, and for posture.

The damage to looks as well as the immune system is seriously dangerous, and even irreversible. Given that the largest source of fat in the human body is not our behinds but our brains. The body must have fat to survive and grow. It will take it from the last available source: the brain. Teenage brains are plastic; this means they are growing and changing, depriving the brain of its base composite has horrific effects on intelligence, IQ, careers, and emotional lives. Awful. Now we are seeing that the same is true for bone structure.

We need to find a way to get beyond media imaging into pictures of health and that starts with education. Hope it helps.

Children and teenagers with even mild cases of anorexia exhibit abnormal bone structure, according to a new study appearing in the December issue of Radiology and presented at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA).

“Adolescence is the most critical period for growth of bone mass, and the onset of anorexia interferes with that process,” said Miriam A. Bredella, M.D., musculoskeletal radiologist at Massachusetts General Hospital and assistant professor of radiology at Harvard Medical School in Boston. “Impairment of bone development may permanently alter bone structure and increase the risk of fractures and osteoporosis in adult life.”

Anorexia is an eating disorder characterized by emaciation, distorted body image and intense fear of gaining weight. People with the disorder are obsessed with weight control and often perceive themselves as overweight, even when they are dangerously thin. The disorder primarily occurs among young women and affects one in 100 adolescent girls, according to the National Women’s Health Information Center.

Among the many health problems associated with anorexia is bone loss. Typically, dual energy x-ray absorptiometry (DXA) is used to test bone mineral density in adolescents with anorexia.

Dr. Bredella and colleagues set out to determine if alterations in bone structure occur before significant decreases in bone mineral density become evident.

The researchers used high-resolution, flat-panel volume computed tomography (CT) and DXA to study 10 adolescent girls, age 13 to 18, with mild anorexia and 10 age-matched girls without the disorder. The new, high-resolution CT exam allowed the researchers to identify differences in bone structure between the patients with anorexia and the healthy controls, whereas bone mineral density measurements obtained using DXA did not.

The results showed that while there was not a significant difference in bone mineral density between the anorexic patients and the healthy control group, there were significant structural differences, indicating that changes in bone structure begin to occur in anorexic patients well before decreases in bone density.

“Our data suggest that reassuring values of bone mineral density obtained using DXA may not reflect the true status of bone structure in this undernourished population,” Dr. Bredella said. “In patients with anorexia, bone structure should be analyzed to detect abnormal bone health. Flat-panel volume CT allows the examination of bone at high resolution with relatively low radiation exposure making it a suitable technique for evaluation of bone structure in adolescent patients.”

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Article adapted by Medical News Today from original press release.
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“Distal Radius in Adolescent Girls with Anorexia Nervosa: Trabecular Structure Analysis with Very High Resolution Flat-Panel Volume CT.” Collaborating with Dr. Bredella on this paper were Madhusmita Misra, M.D., Karen K. Miller, M.D., Ijad Madisch, M.D., Ammar Sarwar, M.D., Arnold Cheung, M.D., Anne Klibanski, M.D., and Rajiv Gupta, M.D., Ph.D.

Yes, this is a blog about the brain and work, but as I was going through the medical sites I cam across this fascinating piece from Oxford University and a team led by Professor Thomas Helleday that hasn’t appeared on Digg or other aggregate sites.

Here is the article by Jonathan Wood from the OxSciBlog site:

A new concept for cancer therapy could lead to treatments personalised to each patient’s tumour without any side effects, says Professor Thomas Helleday, who is pioneering the idea at Oxford University [watch a video describing this work].

He believes cancer may have an ‘Achilles’ heel’: The genetic damage that builds up in cancer cells and the subsequent escape from the body’s normal controls on growth may also make them very susceptible to treatments that block repair of DNA.

‘DNA damage is a prerequisite for most cancers,’ explains Professor Helleday of the Gray Institute for Radiation Oncology and Biology at Oxford University. ‘Whether that damage is a result of the tar in cigarettes, toxins or genetic and environmental factors, it can result in mutations that alter genes. That genetic instability drives cancer.’

Normal cells have many pathways and mechanisms to correct and repair DNA breaks and damage as they occur. These are crucial to maintain the normal functioning of the cell. If the damage is too great, the cells are either killed by a process called apoptosis or their growth and division is arrested so that the damage doesn’t go any further.

Many cancers have defects in one or more repair processes which enables them to sidestep these controls. ‘We can exploit these defects,’ says Professor Helleday. ‘If we can block the remaining repair systems, the body will knock out the cancer cells. Normal cells with a full set of repair kits will be fine.’

Such treatments, designed to each patient’s individual cancer, should mean patients experience few, if any, side effects from the treatment. It would be a great advance over standard chemotherapy techniques which are toxic to all dividing cells.

Professor Helleday’s group have studied defects in the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes which predispose women to developing breast and ovarian cancer. In these cancers, a pathway that repairs mistakes when DNA is replicated no longer works, and the cancer cells are reliant on a different process based on a protein called PARP for survival.

The researchers showed that these breast and ovarian cancers could be targeted using an existing drug that inhibits the PARP protein. The idea has now been licensed to Astra Zeneca and phase II clinical trials of the drug involving a few hundred patients began in May 2007.

‘The results are better than expected,’ says Professor Helleday. ‘I thought we might see the cancers in these people stop growing. But in many cases the drug is killing off the cancer cells. The tumours have shrunk substantially and the patients report no serious side effects.’

Professor Helleday is sure this can be a general concept for tackling many cancers: ‘If there are two possible pathways for repairing damage and one is lost in a cancer, we can target the second one. This is called synthetic lethality as the drug is not toxic on it own – only for the cancer cells with this extra defect.’

‘In the future, you could imagine screening a patient’s cancer for defects, picking out the precise inhibitors to target the remaining DNA repair pathways, and treat that person’s tumour in a very targeted way.’

‘We know of thousands of these pathways in yeast. We want to extend this knowledge into humans so we can exploit them and come up with selectively toxic therapies with no side effects and no damage to normal tissue,’ he says.

Truly amazing stuff!

From Wired.com

By Alexis Madrigal

Scientists used a modified version of the n-back test, which is schematized above, to achieve gains in fluid intelligence previously thought impossible. The image shows how users were forced to remember both visual and auditory information streams.
Courtesy Martin Buschkuehl

Brain researchers for the first time claim to have found a method for improving the general problem-solving ability scientists call fluid intelligence, otherwise known as “smarts.”

Fluid intelligence was previously thought to be genetically hard-wired, but the finding suggests that with about 25 minutes of rigorous mental training a day, healthy adults could improve their mental capacities.

The method, if commercialized, could be a boon to the growing, multimillion-dollar market for “brain fitness” software like Nintendo’s Brain Age.

“The most important point of our work is that we can show that it is possible to improve fluid intelligence,” said Martin Buschkuehl, a psychology researcher based at the University of Bern, Switzerland. “It was assumed that fluid intelligence was immutable.”

Fluid intelligence measures how people adapt to new situations and solve problems they’ve never seen before. Fluid intelligence differs from crystallized intelligence, which takes into account skills and knowledge that have been acquired — like vocabulary, grammar and math.

It’s not hard, for example, for students to improve their IQ scores by taking lots of IQ tests.

Trouble is, learning how to take IQ tests doesn’t improve the underlying smarts. The students just get better at taking tests. In practical terms, people can get better at taking tests, but in daily life, don’t have a blazingly quick new brain.

And that’s where Buschkuehl’s research, which appears today in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, claims to be groundbreaking.

In a limited trial, he and his team were able to make 34 test subjects significantly better at answering IQ test questions after training them on a completely separate memory task.

David Geary, a professor at the University of Missouri and author of The Origin of Mind, who was not involved with the study, said training in one test generally doesn’t generate gains on a different test.

“Transfer is tough to get,” Geary said. “Training in task A doesn’t typically improve performance on task B.”

But in this case, subjects trained on a complex version of the so-called “n-back task” — a difficult visual/auditory memory test — improved their scores on a set of IQ questions drawn from a German intelligence measure called the Bochumer Matrizen-Test. (The Bochumer Matrizen-Test is a harder version of the well-known Ravens Progressive Matrices).

Initially, the test subjects scored an average of 10 questions correctly on the IQ test.

But after the group trained on the n-back task for 25 minutes a day for 19 days, they averaged 14.7 correct answers, an increase of more than 40 percent. (A control group that was not trained showed only a very slight performance increase.)

Buschkuehl’s team postulates that the n-back task improves working memory — how many pieces of information subjects can keep in their head — as well as the ability to control the brain’s attention. Fluid intelligence tests require those types of thinking, and the training improved performance in these underlying skills.

“These are intriguing results,” Geary said. However, Geary noted that to claim actual increases in fluid intelligence, the subjects would have to show the performance gains over a long-term period — or even permanently.

The Michigan researchers are now engaged in studying the long-term effects of training. They are also working to increase the amount of training that users undergo. In the experiment reported in PNAS, the researchers did not find the upper-limit for improvement, suggesting that more training could yield even better mental performance gains.

“The improvement seems to be dosage dependent,” Buschkuehl said. “We saw a linear increase in performance with increase in training time.”

In the simplest version of the n-back task, a sequence of images is presented every few seconds and subjects are asked to match a picture to an identical one that came previously, say two pictures before it. (For example, in the picture above, the blue square should be in the same location.)

Buschkuehl’s subjects, however, also heard a second stream of letters and had to match the sounds at the same time as they matched the visuals. This makes the task very challenging. And as the subjects got better, the gap between matching pictures and letters got bigger, making the task progressively more difficult.

The team has developed a new n-back computer program called Brain Twister, which they have translated into English, but is not available online.

They do not plan to commercialize the software, but with mental gyms like Vibrant Brains in San Francisco springing up, and brain training software companies like Posit Science drawing big-name investors, you can bet you’ll be seeing the n-back task on sale sooner rather than later.

In fact, revenue from “brain-fitness software” reached $225 million in 2007, according to SharpBrains, a market-research firm.

Neurobehavioral Sciences also offers a 45-day free trial of their neuroscience stimuli program presentation, which is primarily a research tool, and only available for the PC.

You may think that you’re a pretty positive person. But we’re betting no matter how hard you try, you wouldn’t be able to out-happy Matthieu Ricard, a French Buddhist monk who’s been nicknamed “the happiest man on earth.”

Seem like a stretch? We’re not just claiming that title based on the fact that Ricard is never seen without a smile, or that monks are generally a pretty beatific bunch – he’s got science on his side, too. In 2004, researchers at University of Wisconsin conducted a study on the brain patterns of hundreds of volunteers from different walks of life. The bell curve of the MRI measurements fell between +0.3 (a Sylvia Plath acolyte, no doubt) to -0.3 (Richard Simmons, perhaps?). But Ricard alone achieved an astonishing score of -0.45 – a level of joy so far above the others that his score was nearly off the chart.

So how did Ricard become the world’s happiest man? The 60-year-old monk didn’t always live a quiet life in the Himalayan mountains – as a young man, he was lauded as one of the world’s most promising biologists. But in 1972, he dropped out of the stressful world of French academia, trading in his laboratory for a monastery in Darjeeling, India, where he studied under Tibetan master Kangyur Rinpoche. In the years since, he has become well known as an author and photographer, and he serves as the Dalai Lama’s personal translator in France. He has devoted his life to the study of Buddhist philosophy and the art of happiness – and he firmly believes that the rest of us can achieve his incredible level of joy, too.

“The mind is malleable,” Ricard told The Independent. “Our life can be greatly transformed by even a minimal change in how we manage our thoughts and perceive and interpret the world. Happiness is a skill. It requires effort and time.”

To fill your life with joy, he said, you must recognize what already makes you happy, and work to change your mental balance. “You have to identify what it is in that situation that makes you happy. It’s as though you’re making a journey, and you look in your rucksack to find it half filled with provisions, half with stones. You need to take out the stones and put in more provisions.”

In his new book, Happiness, Ricard serves as your own personal cross-trainer in the art of happiness, with advice on meditative exercises to increase peace of mind, and his own philosophies on how to fill your life with joy. With his help, you might just be able to tune out your noisy neighbor’s Metallica cover band for a few minutes, and imagine you’re relaxing on a private beach instead. If you can’t make it out to visit a Buddhist monastery any time soon, his book might just be the relief you need.

<a href=http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/191>Here</a> is video of Ricard speaking at the 2004 TED conference.

Bridge, Fog, And Tai Chi - Flickr (Creative Commons License)

Sedentary people who regularly complain of fatigue can increase their energy levels by 20 percent and decrease their fatigue by 65 percent by engaging in regular, low intensity exercise, according to a new University of Georgia study.

“Too often we believe that a quick workout will leave us worn out - especially when we are already feeling fatigued,” said researcher Tim Puetz, who recently completed his doctorate at UGA and is the lead author of the study. “However, we have shown that regular exercise can actually go a long way in increasing feelings of energy - particularly in sedentary individuals.”

Puetz co-authored the study with professor Patrick O’Connor, co-director of the UGA Exercise Psychology Laboratory, and former UGA student Sara Flowers. The team’s results appear in the February issue of the journal Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics.

O’Connor said previous studies - including one that he and Puetz co-authored in 2006 - have shown that exercise can significantly improve energy levels and decrease fatigue. Those studies, however, primarily looked at patients with medical conditions such as cancer, heart disease and mental health problems. In this latest study, the researchers studied volunteers who had fatigue that was persistent yet didn’t meet the criteria for a medical condition such as chronic fatigue syndrome. O’Connor said about 25 percent of the general population experiences such fatigue.

“A lot of people are overworked and not sleeping enough,” O’Connor said. “Exercise is a way for people to feel more energetic. There’s a scientific basis for it, and there are advantages to it compared to things like caffeine and energy drinks.”

The researchers recruited 36 volunteers who did not exercise regularly and had reported persistent fatigue based on a commonly used health survey. The volunteers were divided into three groups: The first engaged in 20 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic exercise three times a week for six weeks; the second engaged in low-intensity aerobic exercise for the same time period; the control group did not exercise.

The low- and moderate-intensity groups had a 20 percent increase in energy levels over the control group. Surprisingly, the low-intensity group had a greater reduction in fatigue levels than the moderate-intensity group, 65 percent compared to 49 percent, respectively.

“It could be that moderate-intensity exercise is too much for people who are already fatigued,” O’Connor said, “and that might contribute to them not getting as great an improvement as they would had they done the low-intensity exercise.”

He adds that energy and fatigue aren’t exactly opposites of each other. A student who stays up late to finish a term paper may feel fatigued, for example, but may also feel energized as she nears the end of the paper.

The volunteers in the study used exercise bikes that allowed the researchers to control their level of exertion so that low-intensity exercise was defined as 40 percent of their peak oxygen consumption and moderate-intensity exercise was defined as 75 percent of peak oxygen consumption. For comparison, O’Connor said a leisurely, easy walk is low-intensity exercise, while a fast-paced walk with hills is moderate-intensity exercise.

The team’s analysis also found that the improvements in energy and fatigue were not related to increases in aerobic fitness that the exercisers experienced. Puetz said the finding suggests that exercise acts directly on the central nervous system to increase energy and reduce fatigue.

“Exercise traditionally has been associated with physical health, but we are quickly learning that exercise has a more holistic effect on the human body and includes effects on psychological health,” Puetz said. “What this means is that in every workout a single step is not just a step closer to a healthier body, but also to a healthier mind.”

 Wynton Marsalis with the Lincoln Jazz Orchestra, De Bijloke, Ghent
Source:  Flickr (Creative Commons License)

A pair of Johns Hopkins and government scientists have discovered that when jazz musicians improvise, their brains turn off areas linked to self-censoring and inhibition, and turn on those that let self-expression flow.

This keyboard was specially designed for a study to assess brain activity in jazz musicians during improvisation. Because fMRI uses powerful magnets, the researchers designed the unconventional keyboard with no iron-containing metal parts that the magnets could attract.

The joint research, using functional magnetic resonance imaging, or fMRI, and musician volunteers from the Johns Hopkins University’s Peabody Institute, sheds light on the creative improvisation that artists and non-artists use in everyday life, the investigators say.

It appears, they conclude, that jazz musicians create their unique improvised riffs by turning off inhibition and turning up creativity.

In a report published Feb. 27 in Public Library of Science (PLoS) ONE, the scientists from the University’s School of Medicine and the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communications Disorders describe their curiosity about the possible neurological underpinnings of the almost trance-like state jazz artists enter during spontaneous improvisation.

“When jazz musicians improvise, they often play with eyes closed in a distinctive, personal style that transcends traditional rules of melody and rhythm,” says Charles J. Limb, M.D., assistant professor in the Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and a trained jazz saxophonist himself. “It’s a remarkable frame of mind,” he adds, “during which, all of a sudden, the musician is generating music that has never been heard, thought, practiced or played before. What comes out is completely spontaneous.”

Though many recent studies have focused on understanding what parts of a person’s brain are active when listening to music, Limb says few have delved into brain activity while music is being spontaneously composed.

Curious about his own “brain on jazz,” he and a colleague, Allen R. Braun, M.D., of NIDCD, devised a plan to view in real time the brain functions of musicians improvising.

For the study, they recruited six trained jazz pianists, three from the Peabody Institute, a music conservatory where Limb holds a joint faculty appointment. Other volunteers learned about the study by word of mouth through the local jazz community.

The researchers designed a special keyboard to allow the pianists to play inside a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) machine, a brain-scanner that illuminates areas of the brain responding to various stimuli, identifying which areas are active while a person is involved in some mental task, for example.

Because fMRI uses powerful magnets, the researchers designed the unconventional keyboard with no iron-containing metal parts that the magnet could attract. They also used fMRI-compatible headphones that would allow musicians to hear the music they generate while they’re playing it.

Each musician first took part in four different exercises designed to separate out the brain activity involved in playing simple memorized piano pieces and activity while improvising their music. While lying in the fMRI machine with the special keyboard propped on their laps, the pianists all began by playing the C-major scale, a well-memorized order of notes that every beginner learns. With the sound of a metronome playing over the headphones, the musicians were instructed to play the scale, making sure that each volunteer played the same notes with the same timing.

In the second exercise, the pianists were asked to improvise in time with the metronome. They were asked to use quarter notes on the C-major scale, but could play any of these notes that they wanted.

Next, the musicians were asked to play an original blues melody that they all memorized in advance, while a recorded jazz quartet that complemented the tune played in the background. In the last exercise, the musicians were told to improvise their own tunes with the same recorded jazz quartet.

Limb and Braun then analyzed the brain scans. Since the brain areas activated during memorized playing are parts that tend to be active during any kind of piano playing, the researchers subtracted those images from ones taken during improvisation. Left only with brain activity unique to improvisation, the scientists saw strikingly similar patterns, regardless of whether the musicians were doing simple improvisation on the C-major scale or playing more complex tunes with the jazz quartet.

The scientists found that a region of the brain known as the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, a broad portion of the front of the brain that extends to the sides, showed a slowdown in activity during improvisation. This area has been linked to planned actions and self-censoring, such as carefully deciding what words you might say at a job interview. Shutting down this area could lead to lowered inhibitions, Limb suggests.

The researchers also saw increased activity in the medial prefrontal cortex, which sits in the center of the brain’s frontal lobe. This area has been linked with self-expression and activities that convey individuality, such as telling a story about yourself.

“Jazz is often described as being an extremely individualistic art form. You can figure out which jazz musician is playing because one person’s improvisation sounds only like him or her,” says Limb. “What we think is happening is when you’re telling your own musical story, you’re shutting down impulses that might impede the flow of novel ideas.”

Limb notes that this type of brain activity may also be present during other types of improvisational behavior that are integral parts of life for artists and non-artists alike. For example, he notes, people are continually improvising words in conversations and improvising solutions to problems on the spot. “Without this type of creativity, humans wouldn’t have advanced as a species. It’s an integral part of who we are,” Limb says.

He and Braun plan to use similar techniques to see whether the improvisational brain activity they identified matches that in other types of artists, such as poets or visual artists, as well as non-artists asked to improvise.

This research was funded by the Division of Intramural Research, National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders, National Institutes of Health.

For additional information, go to:
http://hopkinsmedicine.org/otolaryngology/limb.html
http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/otolaryngology/
http://www.peabody.jhu.edu/
http://www.peabody.jhu.edu/jazz

Day Five: Conclusions and Optimism: A Biology Of Stress?

Over the course we’ve looked at the biology of stress: how the HPA axis releases hormones, how cortisol affects us, how neurotransmitters influence out behaviour and so on.

In wrapping up, I want to ask two questions: does an understanding of the biology and neuroscience of stress help? And, if we understand the biology of stress can we understand or begin to define a biology of success.

The first question is more complex than it initally appears. Yes, the more we understand the more we can have control, both physiologically and psychologically - one of the cornerstones of cognitive psychology is how we think about an isuue tends to be how we experience it - and understanding the physical effects of stress may help us to feel more in control. But does it help us control what makes us stressed? The little irritations, the pointed conversations, how we react when time is at a premium, or we are criticized unfairly and so on. This is a fair question. Obviously pharmaceuticals like Alprazolom - well-known commercially as Xanax and Nirvam - and Fluoxetine Hydrochloride - or Prozac marketed as Zoloft, Celexa, Luvox, and Paxil are one way to go, and can be very beneficial, but better, for most mild cases, would be a real understanding of what well-being entails.

Well-being is all looking after ourselves well: diet, exercise, unplugging our world, and learning to thrive, to be optimistic, rather than struggling to survive all are proven now to have a real impact on stress. When we consider that stress is a major contributory factor in both atherosclerosis, ischemic, and chronic obstructive heart disease, cerebrovascular (stroke), neoplams (cancer), and may have an influence on Alzheimer’s (Though this is not fully understood yet), the idea of well-being should not be dismissed lightly.

The second question is a fascinating one: the more we concentrate on what makes us ill, can we reverse that, and say what makes us and keeps us well. And morever, is there a biology of success?

As Richard Lazarus pointed out in 1974 not all stress is bad. Eustress, as he called it, is the feeling of achievement that we get when we succeed depsite the odds - when we fufill our ambitions. The Praeger Handbook On Stress And Coping which he edited with Alan Monat and Getchen Reevy is still considered the standard work on the subject. One clue to a biology if stress is better coping, but is t possible to talk about definite biology?

These process are not fully understood: yes, we understand about the reward pathways and the limbic system and it’s effects on us: when we are successful our bodies do learn new behaviours. More interestingly, the basal ganglia, which lies at the hinend of the brain and is one of the brain organ’s responsible for memory formation, together with the orbital frontal cortex produce a combination of signals that indicate behaviour we like and dislike. Dr Edmund Rolls of Oxford University did excellent research in this area in the 1980s.

Our brains are wired to react to environmental stimuli in a chemical fashion, yet more and more eivdence, from Quantum effects in neurons, to the effects of positivity and clarity in thought are showing empirically in fMRI and QEEG (Quantitive electroencephalography - measuring brain waves) that the effort required to change ingrained habits pays off. Depressingly, studies consistenly show that, on average, only one in nine people after a heart attack will adopt a halthier lifestyle - it seems old habits, literally, die hard. And that success and healthy living have to be incalculated into us at an early age.

I have say, from my own experience, Sweden as a whole is good at this. There is an expectation that people do not eat junk food, do take exercise, and generally health has a marked priority.

I hope that this course has been beneficial and I hope as the Decade of the Mind, launched in 2007, continues we will learn far more about how to undo the harmful effects of stress.

Day Four: Neurotransmitters and Cognitive Strategies

So far we have looked at the biology of stress. The hormones, and physical effects of stress. On day three we looked at emotions. Today we will look a tthe neuroscience of motivation and some tools associated with cognitive psychology that are beneficial.

I remember one of the biggest surprises for me when I began learning about the brain was that there is a physical center of motivation in the brain. While this now seems entirely logical, I had imagined it was all psychological, if the will and I wanted to then I would motivate myself.

Not so.

We need to start with an overview of neurotransmitters.

Neurotransmitters are the chemical powerhouse of the brain. Made from amino acids synthesized from the proteins found in food intake. The two crucial amino acids are tryptophan and tyrosine. Tryptophan helps us feel calm, tyrosine helps us feel alert. Converted into neurotransmitters, they enable the brain’s neurons to fire. Different neurotransmitters perform different tasks. Though some 100 neurotransmitters have been identified, for our purposes we will focus on the four most common ones.

The first we’ll look at is the one most affected by stress: dopamine. Dopamine is responsible for us feeling active , lively, having a good immune response to disease, sexual arousal, and helps us face up to, and feel prepared for challenges. It is also responsible for a feeling of reward, and finally and significantly, it is, in part responsible, for addictive behaviour when it comes to drugs and alcohol. Without dopamine not only do we feel physically sluggish, we also start to lose attentiveness. Diet plays a crucial part in all neurotransmitters’ synthesis. Dopamine likes fresh fruit, and dislikes alcohol, and caffeine.

The second: serotonin. Serotonin makes us feel calm, promotes normal sleep, keeps blood pressure normal, promotes learning, and helps memory. Lack of serotonin disrupts sleep, makes us aggressive, and can lead to obssesive-compulsive eating disorders. Serotonin is the tryptophan neurotransmitter. Foods that help include brown rice and cottage cheese, as well as meat, and cheeses.

Thrirdly, norepephrine. Also called norandrenalin. Synthesized from tyrosine it is the brain’s andrenaline, and helps us feel alert. It plays an important part in memory. Foods that help include fruits and nuts, especially bananas, alsmonds, and pumpkin and sesame seeds.

And fourthly, acetylcholine. Acetylcholine (ACh) is essential for memory. It is not made from amino acids but from choline. Choline, discovered by Andreas Strecker in 1864, is an organic compound, noramlly classified with the vitamin B group. ACh is essential for brain plasticity - the ability to adapt, grow, and change, and helps the brain concentrate. Supplements of vitamin B5, C, and phosphstidyl choline all help ACh.

Obviously, one of the most under-rated keys to reducing stress is a good diet. This couple with exercise, and good cognitive strategies dramatically help us to reduce stress.

This brings us to cognitive strategies. I want in particular to look at Appreciative Inquiry (AI).

AI and Appreciative systems are used in organization development to find the positive values of the organization. Essentially it asks “What do we do well?”, rather than focusing on mistakes. Handled well it is a very powerful lever to produce real change in organizations.

M ixing AI and cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) can be applied in a coaching model. CBT asks “Why do you think and act they way you do?”

Challenging ourselves to say “How can we do more of what we do well?” is powerful. Complementing the positive psychology of Seligman, and developed by David Cooperider, AI asked a fundamentally important question “Why do we focus our energies on what goes wrong, rather than what is right?”

We might well ask the same in medicine: how do we develop the good habits that produce a healthier brain and body.

Final Day: Conclusions And A Strategy For Stress