>
> --- In [email protected], "authfriend" <jstein@> wrote:
> >
> > Totally fascinating article (long) in the New York Times
magazine. A
> > few excerpts:
> >
> >
> > My Pain, My Brain
> >
> > By MELANIE THERNSTROM
> > Published: May 14, 2006
> >
> > Who hasn't wished she could watch her brain at work and make
changes
> > to it, the way a painter steps back from a painting, studies it
and
> > decides to make the sky a different hue? If only we could spell-
check
> > our brain like a text, or reprogram it like a computer to
eliminate
> > glitches like pain, depression and learning disabilities. Would
we
> > one day become completely transparent to ourselves, and fully
> > conscious of consciousness consciously create ourselves as we
> > like?...
> >
> > Over six sessions, volunteers are being asked to try to increase
and
> > decrease their pain while watching the activation of a part of
their
> > brain involved in pain perception and modulation. This real-time
> > imaging lets them assess how well they are succeeding. Dr. Sean
> > Mackey, the study's senior investigator and the director of the
> > Neuroimaging and Pain Lab at Stanford, explained that the results
of
> > the study's first phase...showed that while looking at the brain,
> > subjects can learn to control its activation in a way that
regulates
> > their pain. While this may be likened to biofeedback, traditional
> > biofeedback provides indirect measures of brain activity through
> > information about heart rate, skin temperature and other
autonomic
> > functions, or even EEG waves. Mackey's approach allows subjects
to
> > interact with the brain itself.
> >
> > "It is the mind-body problem right there on the screen," one of
> > Mackey's collaborators, Christopher deCharms...told me later. "We
are
> > doing something that people have wanted to do for thousands of
years.
> > Descartes said, 'I think, therefore I am.' Now we're watching
that
> > process as it unfolds."...
> >
> > How does it work? I want to ask. Just as people were once puzzled
by
> > Freud's talking cure (how does describing problems solve them?),
the
> > Stanford study makes us wonder: How can one part of our brain
control
> > another by looking at it? Who is the "me" controlling my brain,
then?
> > It seems to deepen the mind-body problem, widening the old
Cartesian
> > divide by splitting the self into subject and agent....
> >
> > The area of the brain that the scanner focuses on is the rostral
> > anterior cingulate cortex (rACC). The rACC (a quarter-size patch
in
> > the middle-front of the brain, the cingular cortex) plays a
critical
> > role in the awareness of the nastiness of pain: the feeling of
> > dislike for it, a loathing so intense that you are immediately
> > compelled to try to make it stop....
> >
> > ...Patients who have undergone a radical surgical treatment
> > occasionally used for pain (as well as for mental illness) called
a
> > cingulotomy, in which the rACC is partly destroyed, report that
they
> > are still aware of pain but that they don't "mind" it anymore.
Their
> > emotional response has receded....
> >
> >
> > Really worth reading the whole thing at:
> > http://tinyurl.com/noo5e
> >
> > (That last bit reminds me of what MMY says about Jesus not
suffering
> > on the cross. Pain isn't suffering if you don't *mind* it--if it
> > doesn't overshadow you?)
> >
>
> Probably not due to the same mechanism --not even remotely.
Witnessing waking,
> dreaming and sleeping likely don't have any effect on the
functioning of the rostral
> anterior cingulate cortex. Any in CC "not minding" of pain isn't
due not feeling or "caring"
> about the pain, but simply due to the strength of the connections
that give rise the CC
> state in the first place.
I'm not sure what you're referring to by "connections,"
but I don't know why shutting down the rACC couldn't be
a side effect of CC. I wasn't suggesting that disabling
the rACC somehow invoked CC, but rather the reverse.
To subscribe, send a message to:
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Or go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/
and click 'Join This Group!'
SPONSORED LINKS
| Maharishi university of management | Maharishi mahesh yogi | Ramana maharshi |
YAHOO! GROUPS LINKS
- Visit your group "FairfieldLife" on the web.
- To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
- Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service.
