Brain Plasticity as a Social Justice Issue

So, I found an interesting article on how some preliminary research being done by students at UC Berkeley is showing that children doing certain types of play that require strategy or quick thinking are actually able to increase their IQ from 10-20 points. Old thinking about IQ was that it was a set number that really couldn't be significantly altered. For the last decade, there has been a lot of research devoted to the discovery of the brain's plasticity. While more research is necessary--and planned!--these initial results are exciting to me. The researchers are teaming up with the Law and Neuroscience Project, an initiative funded by the MacArthur Foundation,

that was created to address the issues of criminal responsibility in light of modern understanding of the human brain. "There are all kinds of things that we're thinking about in terms of frontal lobe immaturity potentially being a mitigating factor for sentencing," says [researcher] Bunge.

Ever since my brain function journey began, I have been pondering the implications of mental illness, brain trauma, addiction cycles and their impact on brain function, and the over-arching theme that much of what creates brain function challenges has many, many ways of being mitigated, interrupted, and altered. For me, this is one of the central aspects of brain function that makes it a social justice issue.

Using EEG measurements, the researchers recorded electrical activity in the prefrontal cortex. Responses to visual stimuli were found to differ between kids from low versus high socioeconomic status (SES) in ways that suggest differences in attention, one established function of this brain region. Kishiyama observed that the reduced responses in low SES children were similar to those seen in some stroke patients, but was quick to point out, "that's where the similarity is, but that's where the similarity ends. Stroke patients will have a certain amount of recovery because the brain is plastic, but they're not going to get complete recovery. The thing with these kids is that because there is no structural brain damage, just a functional disruption, it's something that can be reversed. (emphasis mine)

The idea isn't to give criminals another way of escaping justice, it's to recognize that the first injustice is the one perpetrated on so many of our children who, by misfortune and through no fault of their own, come from low SES or abusive or addictive backgrounds and, as a result, have compromised brain funtion. Compromised brain function that is CHANGABLE.

UPDATE:
Also, this.

External vs. Internal Motivations

Yesterday's class went well. It's clear to me that I need to have some further instruction on the neural science part of the curriculum; I'm only working with the barest wisp of understanding of that complex dynamic. However, I am confident that I can get more clear on it with time and the right person explaining it to me. Having tried to teach it, I can see much more clearly where my own gaps are. Part of the curriculum dealt with the leverage that is required when using behavioral interventions such as a token economy or a response cost method. The concept of degree of interest as a source of motivation is really important because people with AD/HD and other brain function challenges struggle with finding motivation and keeping it over time. Interest can wax and wane according to the chemistry in the brain, the diminishing value of something that was once of interest but through repetition of use has become less valuable (ie; boring), or for more complex and harder to read reasons.

Here is what interests me: in my life, I have no end of things about which I am passionate and interested. They are topics and issues I spend time on, in learning about, thinking about, discussing, and, in some cases writing about. They are not all magical motivators for me. Sometimes something of interest was not ever available as a motivator. I've found external motivation (in a positive way as opposed to negative--shame, punishment, loss of reputation) to be extremely unreliable. I wonder about this. Why are so many things I find pleasurable and interesting not a source of motivation to me? Is this what we see play out with a lot of children for whom the reward in one of the previously mentioned behavioral strategies becomes singularly focused on the inadequacy of the reward? Or the ever shifting value assigned to those external rewards? Why are some children so much more easily able to be motivated by rewards and others (like myself both in childhood and in adulthood) find the reward system a temporary distraction from their otherwise very internal negotiations about what they want to do/need to do/ are willing to do.

I'll write more on this later. This is just my first brain dump on external motivations.

Parent 2 Parent

For the first time since I was certified last fall via CHADD (Children and Adults with AD/HD), I'll be teaching the Parent 2 Parent class. This class was the gateway for me to begin to understand the role of brain function in all aspects of life, from school to relationships to navigating change across a lifetime. I was transformed by the information I got, initially from taking the class, and the subsequent training to teach it. I hope others have some version of their own transformative experience tomorrow. I hope I can do justice to this information and the curriculum. The class was designed to be taught by parents with lived experience, so it isn't meant to be a giant thought exercise. Its potency is not just in the information but in the coming together and sharing of stories that leads to a realization that we are not alone in this journey and that we are not imagining the intensity of our struggles. The struggles are real, the fault is not ours, and sharing our stories while getting informed is the best antidote for the insanity that we face raising children with AD/HD in a world that is still badly misinformed about brain function challenges.

Why have I avoided blogging about the brain for so long?

It's a mystery to me why I haven't made this a supreme area of focus on my other blog. Perhaps I don't feel qualified, but to that I say f*ck it! I am KUNG FU PANDA, I DON'T dream about noodles and I'm blogging about this stuff anyway!