Introduction to developments in Brain Science, which can inform and support our clinical practice

1. Brain science Graz Amber, Manaia PHO, May 2013 • Introduction to the brain • The 21st Century tautoko’sTeWhare Tapa Wha • The Triune Brain – a reptilian discovery – Polyvagal theory • The Triune Brain – a discovery at the mammalian level – affective systems • The Triune Brain – the neocortex in action – willpower Introduction to developments in Brain Science, which can inform and support our clinical practice

2. Introduction to the Brain • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9UukcdU258A • 6.45mins reasonable summary

3. Synaptic gap Left and Right hemisphere: the Master and his Emissary Neuroplasticity Unconscious Hormones Evolutionary approach : triune brain Research Diet and the brain Coherence therapy Exercise Willpower Polyvagal Theory Epigenetics Affective neuroscience Brain Training

4. So some good multimedia follow-up • http://shrinkrapradio.com/ • http://brainsciencepodcast.com/ • http://www.neuropsychotherapist.com/ • http://www.nicabm.com/ • http://www.npsa.cz/ • http://www.viruscomix.com/floorplan.htmlYoutube – look up any of the key authors, ideas, book titles, researchers such as polyvagal, Dan Siegel, Bruce Lipton, Norman Doige, Kelly McGonigal, Bruce Ecker, +++

5. The 21st Century tautoko’sTeWhare Tapa Wha Orange writing = Model developed by Mason Durie Black writing = Mason Durie translation of Model Blue writing = How Western neuroscience is now acknowledging mental health is best understood from a holistic and interdependent perspective Interdependence, attachment Socialisation Culture, learn by copying, regulation by primary figures Mirror Neurons Purpose, Mind, Emotions, Feelings, Narrative, Mindfulness, Purpose, motivation, Exercise, diet, somatics, Brain, nervous system, movement, Values, Beliefs, Soul, intention,

6. Cortex: complex social interactions and advance planning Limbus = girdle Feelings, mood, hormone control, memory Just the basics: hunger, temperature control, fight-or-flight fear responses, defending territory, keeping safe -- that kind of thing. 

7. A link to our reptilian ancestry Polyvagal theory Porges • In the context of trauma, Porges notes that we may be ‘scared to death’ This takes us back to our reptilian brain and body, via the oldest reptilian vagus circuit. Our nervous system includes a part we control, to allow us to move, for instance, and a part that is autonomous. The vagus is like a tube for three neural circuits, one for each triune brain section.

8. A link to our reptilian ancestry Polyvagal theory Porges Neuroception: A Subconscious System for Detecting Threats and Safety At A Glance • Neuroception describes how neural circuits distinguishwhether situations or people are safe, dangerous,or life threatening.• Neuroception explains why a baby coos at a caregiverbut cries at a stranger, or why a toddler enjoysa parent’s embrace but views a hug from a strangeras an assault.• The Polyvagal Theory describes three developmentalstages of a mammal’s autonomic nervous system:Immobilization, mobilization, and social communicationor social engagement.• Faulty neuroception might lie at the root of severalpsychiatric disorders, including autism, schizophrenia,anxiety disorders, depression, and ReactiveAttachment Disorder.

9. A link to our reptilian ancestry Polyvagal theory Porges

10. A link to our reptilian ancestry Polyvagal theory 3 Porges http://www.nexuspub.com/articles_2006/interview_porges_06_ma.php

11. Sharing primary emotions with animals JaakPanksepp – the limbic system JaakPanksepp wanted to be a psychologist and study emotional basis of human distress. He was fascinated that Walter Hess in Switzerland, back in the ‘30s, did an experiment showing you could stimulate a cat brain with electricity with an indwelling electrode deep in the hypothalamus, and the cat would show an anger display. Hess realised behaviourists fanatically denied we can say anything about an animal having feelings, and so did not look at the cat’s subjective experience of anger. Panksepp did look. He shifted to biology and studied animal physiology. He asked the question do animals like being angry? I.E will they choose to turn on their angry circuits if they are given an opportunity in an experiment. And he found that no, they avoided turning on MOST kinds of anger, only liked predatory anger: then they attacked—in a predatory, quiet biting attack, stalking way, even if they were not a predatory species, they found a prey species. So, reward and punishment only work because an animal has feelings; it makes choices on the basis of feelings.

12. Sharing primary emotions with animals JaakPanksepp – the limbic system 2 Panksepp decided to map the systems of affect. They come in different categories. There are sensory feelings like taste and cold. There are bodily feelings—homeostatic feelings—like hunger and thirst. And then the greatest mystery is the internal feelings of the brain, which are emotional feelings of anger, fear, loneliness. Those emotional feelings do not have a clear pathway from the body or the periphery—the external senses. Those can modulate it and trigger things, but the actual feeling emotional state is built into the brain in some way. This is the primary level of emotions – and across all animals there are seven systems he has found, in the same parts of the limbic brain.

13. Sharing primary emotions with animals JaakPanksepp – the limbic system 3 • the seeking system: Animals engage with the world and need to find the resources for survival, and to chase these with enthusiasm, sometimes maybe even euphoria. • Now often you have to compete for resources with other animals and one good way to compete is to get angry so we have a rage system that allows us to protect our resources. • 3. As other animals often want us as a resource, so we have to protect ourselves, and the fear system produces a very characteristic fear response. • 4. To be a mammal is to reproduce, and you don’t leave reproduction to chance so there has to be lust systems, rather different in males than females but also many shared components. • 5. The function of lust is to bring forth babies and continue into the future generations, so the brain has to be prepared to take care of the babies, so there’s a care system. • 6. But once you have babies the babies also have to communicate to the mother how desperately they need them, especially if they are lost. So we found a separation distress system, which we also call the panic or grief system. • 7. And finally, there is play, which takes us into the social terrain, to learn about the social world. All mammals cannot have all the social rules built in by genetics, but they should have a system that allows them to joyously learn about the social world when they are young, and play seems to fulfill that function.

14. Sharing primary emotions with animals JaakPanksepp – the limbic system 4

15. The neocortex in action Kelly McGonigal - willpower • 3 different types : I Will Power, I Won’t Power, and I Want Power. • I Won’t Power : the classic kind of willpower that most people think of: the ability to resist temptation. E.g. I care about my health so I wont have that dessert. • I Will Power is the ability to find the energy and the motivation to do what is overwhelming. That might be what we find boring; it could be what we find uncomfortable, it could be what makes us anxious, whether it’s being willing to comply with a medical treatment that’s uncomfortable and painful, or whether it’s the ability to get out of bed early in the morning to exercise. It’s really saying yes when some part of you is stressed out or tired, and you’d really just rather not. • I Want Power is the willpower to consider the possibility of knowing what you really want, what your goals are, what your values are, the relationships that matter to you – to have that big picture vision of your life. We want to recognize that as a strength. That gives us the ability to say no when we want to give into temptation. It’s also what gives us the ability to find our strength and our courage when we’re feeling stressed out or anxious or overwhelmed

16. The neocortex in action Kelly McGonigal– willpower 2 • Willpower lives in the prefrontal cortex and it communicates with an area of the brain right behind the prefrontal cortex, the interior cingulate cortex. You can think of the interior cingulated cortex as a monitor of what’s going on inside. • The interior cingulated cortex is keeping track of what’s going on in your body, where your attention is, and how to recognize if you’re moving away from your goals. This turns out to be a really important aspect of willpower, too. • one brain two minds wise and PIG

17. The neocortex in action Kelly McGonigal – willpower 3 • one brain two minds wise and PIG • The prefrontal cortex dominates the system that is ideal, wise, rational – makes smart choices We’re thinking about our long term goals. We’re very good at predicting the consequences of our behaviors. We tend to think about ourselves in relationship to other people and within a bigger context – the roles that we care about. • In the mid-brain system are structures like the amygdala that is responsible for very quick emotional responding and also the stress response, areas of the brain that produce the promise of reward and the overall reward system of the brain. • When we’re operating from this mode, the amygdala and stress response, we tend to be focused on the very short term – the small picture. We’re driven by immediate gratification. We are desperate to avoid pain and conflict in the short term. • What’s really important as we start to think about behaviour change – motivating people to get through very difficult experiences – is that anything with the flavour of shaming or judging or criticism tends to push us back into that system of the brain which is very self-protective, even though we have this intuition that it’s motivating and might motivate us toward our higher self. This system of the brain will drive us to make choices that might seem like a good idea right now, because we’ll get pleasure or we’ll avoid pain, but it tends to lead us to avoid doing the things that are actually in our best interest in the long term.

18. The neocortex in action Kelly McGonigal – willpower 4 • 2 ways to train the brain: • 1. willpower as a biological response. focus meditation, which is a five minute willpower workout. focus your attention on the breath just by sitting still, noticing that you’re breathing, and noticing that when your mind wanders, which of course it will, it’s not a problem at all. You’re noticing that your mind wanders and comes back to the breath. it’s better if you’re bad at meditation: You have to notice what your mind is doing and come back to the task at hand. Research is showing even 10 hours of practice over some 2 weeks can change the structure of the brain, increasing white matter density and grey matter density, specifically in the areas of the brain that pay attention to what you’re doing – helping to control attention and behaviour. • 2. Suzanne Segerstrom has developed a body/brain system for willpower training: pause and plan. Opposite of fight/flight. When threat is internal and your brain recognises it, eg a craving, or a distraction, it shifts you into a mode that is very different from the fight or flight response. Your heart starts to slow down rather than speedup. Your heart rate variability increases as a way of helping to balance the autonomic nervous system between these two sides: trying to pause and slow down (so you don’t do something stupid), and at the same time, preparing for action. • Pause and plan is right between the classic relaxation response and the classic flight or fight response. We’re going to be very balanced in the middle. • Also, the pause and plan response helps you send energy to the prefrontal cortex as opposed to the flight or fight response which tends to shutdown the prefrontal cortex and mobilize energy to your muscles to help you flee or fight. • It’s a very specific kind of biological response, and you can see it unfolding in people when they’re making a choice that requires willpower. • Studies have shown that you can see this unfold in the heart rate and in the brain, whether people are resisting temptation or whether they’re persisting through difficult tasks.

19. Pick the willpower challenge to which you’d most like to apply McGonigal's ideas and strategies in this book. The following questions can help you identify the challenge you’re ready to take on: “I will” power challenge: What is something that you would like to do more of, or stop putting off, because you know that doing it will improve the quality of your life? “I won’t” power challenge: What is the “stickiest” habit in your life? What would you like to give up or do less of because it’s undermining your health, happiness, or success? “I want” power challenge: What is the most important long-term goal you’d like to focus your energy on? What immediate “want” is most likely to distract you or tempt you away from this goal?

20. References • Panksepp, J; Biven, L (2012) The Archaeology of Mind: Neuroevolutionary Origins of Human Emotions. New York: Norton. • Porges, S (2011) The Polyvagal theory : Neurophysiological Foundations of Emotions, Attachment, Communication, Self-regulation. New York: Norton. • McGonigal, K. (2012) The Willpower Instinct: How Self-Control Works, Why It Matters, and What You Can Do To Get More of It. New York: Avery Penguin. • Durie, MH (1998) Whaiora: Mäori Health Development (2nd Edition), USA: Oxford University Press • Siegel, D.J. (2012) Pocket Guide to Interpersonal Neurobiology: An Integrative Handbook of the Mind New York: Norton