Review: Changing Brains Lecture
By Roger Parker
Yesterday evening I attended a lecture at the University of Auckland titled Changing Brains. It was about recent research and developments in Neuroscience and in particular Neuroplasticity. Neuroplasticity is the ability of our brains to change.
The lecture was given by Professor Winston Byblow, who is a pioneer in brain stimulation techniques to help people recover from strokes. Strokes are the number one cause of adult disability in the world, the second largest killer of people in New Zealand and the third largest in Australia. Professor Byblow has published over 100 peer reviewed articles, and runs a research laboratory in Auckland.
What Professor Byblow did was walk the audience through some of the latest research he and his PHD students are doing, and discussed some of the recent research being done in Australia.
He started the lecture by discussing what organisms actually have brains. Typically those that don’t have them, like a tree, are organisms that don’t move. And organisms that do move, like people, animals and so on, have brains. The point he led up to was ‘much of our brains are dedicated to controlling movement.’
What he and his researchers focus on is a kind of reverse of this. They look at relationship between movement and the development of the brain, so how movement can change our brains.
One of the experiments he discussed was with stroke patients and using passive movement. With patients, where a person can’t move their hand on one side of their body, they built a machine to move the hand back and forth.
They found this passive movement of the stroke affected hand altered the brain. Then they combined this with the person moving their good hand at the same time, in certain patterns and found bigger effects – that this could “produce lasting benefits” in people’s brains.
After these findings they then built a device for patients that will move the hand from the stroke affected side. He showed a picture of it, a kind of a sandwich shaped thing with two sides which they can slip the hand into, with padding on it that will gently grab that hand and make the movements.
Another series of experiments Professor Byblow went through was non-invasive brain stimulation using magnetic and other devices, where a device can administer stimulation to the brain from the outside.
With this he showed the results of a test for people lifting a glass. For someone that’s had a stroke this can very difficult, even to grip the glass. After repetitive magnetic brain stimulation techniques they found people lifting the glass had better hand and arm performance than before.
He also mentioned the reason for the development of these passive applications for neuroplasticity is that with stroke patients people are weaker and become easily fatigued with movement. There were also a range of technical issues he discussed, such as how treatments need to be individualized (as opposed to a certain treatment having blanket effects for all).
Another of the other developments from one his PHD students is a new screening procedure for when people come in to be assessed after having a stroke. This work, which is still ongoing, enables a low cost screening to see which patients might have a full recovery, partial recovery, or no recovery.
They tested the screening by applying it from where people had a stroke, and then over time looked at the accuracy based on how they recovered, finding it was a very accurate predictor the different paths people recover or don't recover on. This should enable doctors to direct treatment, like these therapies, to the right people, from the outset.
Some of the more startling research he discussed was out of Australia, and done by Allan Snyder, the Director of the Centre for the Mind at the University of Sydney.
Professor Byblow showed a puzzle, one where you have to move one match stick to solve an equation, which is very hard to work out if you haven’t seen it before. He then discussed that to have the ability to solve this type of puzzle, you need insight.
In some of Allan Synder’s experiments he’s shown that with direct stimulation of the left temporal lobe, it can – increase people’s insight, decrease false memories, and can temporarily produce savant like abilities in people (like remembering long lists of numbers). Jeepers.
Professor Byblow then discussed this knowledge, may become new technology we use. I’m not sure I’d want to be passing magnetism or light electrical currents through my brain, but then again, it could awesome to have some savant like ability for a little while.
It is absolutely fascinating what is currently being uncovered in this field.
Near the end of the lecture, one the Doctors from the Auckland University Medical School that works with stoke patients, talked about how they work with Professor Byblow to help improve treatment of stroke patients.
This brilliant lecture ended with a quote, “You can change your brain all the time – make the most of it”.
Please note: much of the research in New Zealand was sponsored by the Neurological Foundation. To join as a member or a sponsor is low cost and simple to do. As part of this, they'll keep you updated on the latest research in the field with a regular newsletter and also kindly invite you to these types of events.
Roger Parker is a director of New River Limited