Sometimes life can be simple. Like in times when we are having fun. Surrounded by family and friends engaged in laughter. But most of the time, life is demanding and complex. It involves many moving parts that require a sense of order. Patterns that will lead to an anticipated result. Cause and effect… black and white. Or in the case of our brain, gray and white.
Our brain is comprised of many interactive cells tightly woven together. They are described and understood by the neuroscientific research community by their various regions. Each specific brain region is responsible for certain tasks which impact our emotional, physical, sensorial, psychological and behavioral health.
For many years, neuroscientists agreed that the gray matter of the brain is where the real work was done. It is known to be the active, thinking portion of the brain. Responsible for processing information. The white matter is relegated to connecting the gray areas together.
But, what we all learned in school about “regions” of the brain may not be entirely true.
The roles of the amygdala, hippocampus and pre-frontal cortex for example, may all have less distinctions than previously thought. Or at least to these neuroscientists, based on an analysis of a peer reviewed journal that was recently published.
The authors of a new study at the Donders Institute of Radboud University in the Netherlands, give more credit to the white matter in how it connects the information that defines how we act, feel and think.
Based on scanning techniques developed decades ago, brain injuries don’t always match with their designated region from classical brain maps.
Stephanie Forkel, one of the three authors of the study said, “ I work a lot with stroke patients who lose the ability to use language, I realize that there is a mismatch. You can have a lesion and not have the symptoms or have a lesion somewhere else, but have the symptom. So, that didn’t match the textbooks.”
This new analysis suggests the maps of the brain regions may be too restrictive.
Personally, I recall reading about how war vets who have had serious brain injuries, would improve in the surrounding brain areas when doing LENS neurofeedback therapy. It seemed that in an effort to survive, the brain under extreme conditions would adapt and take on the role of the damaged region. It would stretch the limits of its normal assignment.
Think of the idea of a baseball team with each player having their designated role. Each comprised of individual strengths and weakness. But, regardless of the players ability it was the coaching and game plan that won the games.
Thiebaut de Schotten, professor of neuroscience at the French National Centre of Scientific Research said, “ We are now thinking that it is the association between the brain regions that is doing the stuff and we have some solid arguments in this favor.”
Our brain and body is very adaptable to change. It has to be in order for us to survive when confronted with threatening conditions.
The one example of how white matter connects regions in unexpected ways. Is taken from an accident that happened to Phineas Gage a railway worker, in 1848. When an explosion unexpectedly happened while packing explosives in a boulder with gunpowder that suddenly shot an iron rod into his skull. He survived though it dramatically changed his behavior for the rest of his life. He went from a mild mannered agreeable person to an irritable short-tempered one.
“The connections that were interrupted in Phineas Gage between the bit of frontal cortex and the amygdala actually explained very well the change in behavior”, said Thiebaut de Schotten. “ He was not able to inhibit his emotions as well as he used to. And that is because the cables between the two regions have been interrupted.”
He went on to make the supportive argument that the same damaged connections seen in Gage’s condition were also the ones less pronounced in the brain scans of psychopaths, according to a 2009 study.
Forkel, makes sense out of this viewpoint by stating that may be the reason, complex behaviors like language are spread all over the brain. “Language is so complex we don’t think about it because we just use it everyday. You need to talk and you need to understand. And ideally those two centers are connected and talk to each other. But when you think about it, language is so much more, it is humor, intonation, emotional effect.”
Could it be possible that white matter directs the information to activate the gray matter regions?
Scientists, took this idea and in a 2000 study, rewired the brains of young ferrets. In the experiment, they connected the white matter that received signals from the eyes. Then connected them to what would normally be used for the hearing centers of their brains. What they found was that the ferrets could adapt and learn using the auditory region of the gray matter.
Many other neuroscientists don’t agree with the findings conclusions, after such a long history of using classical brain maps to explain brain functioning.
I find this information a refreshing new way to utilizing a more global and comprehensive understanding of how we are cerebrally wired. My belief is that there is much more to the story of how our brains process and communicate information within its delicate and complex structures. Further research and discovery will hopefully lead to better treatment options for those who could benefit the most.
-A Balanced Brain is a Better Brain for a Happier Life-