Comments for "On the Brain" with Dr. Mike Merzenich, Ph.D.

Comment on Promising Results in Controlling Tinnitus with Brain Training by isak3

isak3 — Tue, 26 Feb 2013 02:54:31 +0000

My husband suffers from tinnitus, and I would like to help him with this information. Can you give more details, or tell where more details can be found, about how to use the Brain Fitness product to achieve some relief from the tinnitus? Or should he simply use the product in the usual way? Where can I get info about the number of hours participants used the product, or any area they focused on to achieve these results?

Many thanks!

Comment on The brain plasticity revolution by richguymiller

richguymiller — Mon, 16 Jul 2012 19:48:42 +0000

To me, this explanation of how we develop a sense of self is brilliant and helps explain to me why meditation is such a huge facilitator in developing compassion (for others and other points of view) and some control over their own ego. By spending significant amounts of time in mental focus (essential to learning new skills), away from the sensory input of the body that is constantly defining the self-experience,and by dropping attachments to self-confirming thoughts, meditators develop the ability to think outside of the usual input. They become more free from selfish (not meant in a derogatory sense) behavior and choices. Their “self” is less “real” and thus, less “important” to the brain.

Comment on What underlies the documented increase in autism incidence? Results of a new study. by Don

Don — Wed, 11 Jul 2012 16:28:23 +0000

It was over five years ago that Dr. Merzenich said, regarding serious adverse effects of PCBs on neurological development of rat pups, as studied by him and Drs. Kenet, Pessah and others: “This is a red flag. The impact of this class of chemicals… must be studied in human populations, and fast.” Yet a web search for that kind of study yields essentially nothing for the years since Dr. Merzenich raised that red flag. It’s time to look at whatever we can find in data about what has been going on in the world that is related to this matter. A central concern for Dr. Merzenich and colleagues was the transmission of PCB’s to infants via breast milk, in which PCBs and other neuro-developmental toxins are often highly concentrated. Note the following, for which sources are indicated below:
a) In every advanced country in which breastfeeding is known to be very high, autism has also been found to be very high, if autism data are available for that country. In the European countries with low breastfeeding rates, autism rates are either known to be comparatively low or (where no data are available) there is good reason to believe they are low;
b) The three U.S. states that are highest in autism are also among the highest in breastfeeding rates; of the seven U.S. states that have the lowest rates of breastfeeding, EVERY one of these seven also has an unusually low rate of autism;
c) There is a 50% higher rate of breastfeeding among U.S. whites than among blacks, corresponding with a roughly 50% higher rate of autism among whites than among blacks;
d) Older mothers are more likely to breastfeed, and to do so for longer periods, and toxins built up in their bodies (and therefore in their milk) increase with their years of exposure to the environment; and there is a 20% increase in risk of autism with EACH 10-year increase in parent’s ages;
e) The Mormon Church is apparently the only major Judeo-Christian church to specifically teach its members that they should breastfeed their infants; in the most in-depth study yet of autism prevalence at various locations in the U.S., the white (almost all-Mormon) children in a group of over 2000 Utah children were found to have an autism rate that is over THREE TIMES as high as the average white (mostly NON-Mormon) groups in the other thirteen U.S. locations studied.
f) 65% of the children diagnosed with autism in a study area had received substantial breastfeeding, in what is apparently the only study published with such data as of May, 2012; by contrast, only 28% of children in that area’s general population as a whole had received that much breastfeeding.
g) Developmental toxins are many times higher in human milk than in cow’s milk, because those toxins bio-accumulate up the food chain, particularly via staying with meat and fat. Cows don’t eat meat. Vegetarian women typically have low toxins content in their breast milk.
(Sources — mostly government agencies and academic researchers, especially the EPA — for all of the above, plus more of interest, can be found at http://www.pollutionaction.org.)

Note that the U.S. Surgeon General is vigorously promoting breastfeeding, while saying nothing about the possibility of adverse effects associated with breastfeeding.

Comment on Promising Results in Controlling Tinnitus with Brain Training by shjlavel

shjlavel — Wed, 27 Jun 2012 14:37:32 +0000

I am a patient and in sheer desperation because there were no treatment opportunities left, I developed my own kind of personal brain training method. It was in no way professional, but became a great success for me. Here is my story:
I first experienced “my” tinnitus several years ago. It took me a couple of nights to grasp, that the disgusting buzzing noise, that disturbed my sleep and threatened my health, was an “inside-me-incident” and not an outside environmental noise event. The subsequent medical treatment (anticoagulants, steroids) made it even worth and the otolaryngologist and the neurologist soon dismissed me from therapy as an imaginary invalid, suffering from a kind of nothing, that could not be recorded in a sustainable way and therefore might not exist.
The only left alternative for me was to help myself, and really hard thinking about the nature of my symptoms and their disastrous consequences brought me up to the idea, that I had two problems, first the disturbing noise itself and second the lost of control which demoralized me.
Following this I tried to imagine a method to get back into control first. I didn’t expect that I would be able to control the noise itself, but besides all the suggestions about relaxation training because tinnitus is/was seen as a stress related problem, I tried out to drown the awful buzzing sound from inside my head with a an even louder and worse, but coherent radio noise (with no adjusted program but the frequency noises) from outside. To accomplish this I plugged my radio enabled Mp3-player into my tinnitus ear. This wasn’t comfortable either, but there was nothing for me to loose. My first success was to get back into control. As a second idea I tried to fix this sound with a comfortable imagination: I told to myself that this noise is a really heavy summer rain behind my open window and that I was very lucky to stay in my secure house and lie in a cozy bed. My motivation for salvation from my tinnitus despair was high enough for this to succeed very fast. I was able to sleep for more than two hours at a stretch and I soon recovered from a very bad mental and healthy state to a much better one. I had to sleep with this radio noise and summer rain association for some month. After that time the tinnitus disappeared slowly, but reappeared several times within the following two years. But with the same “method” immediately applied, it vanished even sooner and longer until now I have not noticed it for more than a year: Eureka!
I think my brain was involved in all this, the cause as well as the development of the method as well as the cure. Amazing! I would like to tell this story to other tinnitus patients who are distressed and have no idea how to solve their very hard problem.

Wíth this personal experience I can easily imagine that the here proposed brain training has high potential for success too.

I wish you the best of luck with your recovery.

Comment on Promising Results in Controlling Tinnitus with Brain Training by Dr. Michael Merzenich

Dr. Michael Merzenich — Wed, 06 Jun 2012 16:36:03 +0000

I love your phrase “this step is (to) revalue the tinnitus”. As we work iteratively to strengthen the effects of our training, we have been focussing more and more on assisting the individual in their recognition that their tinnitus is NEVER important, ALWAYS meaningless and insignificant, NEVER to be granted the exaggerated attention that does not deserve. You’re a wise advisor to your patients; to a large extent, we are trying to implement another version of your strategy in our program.

Comment on The wider face of PTSD. by War Is Over: Ending and Paying For the Iraq War | FavStocks

War Is Over: Ending and Paying For the Iraq War | FavStocks — Sat, 31 Dec 2011 08:28:02 +0000

[...] as a result of their service in Iraq, so do many iraqis almost certainly suffer from PTSD — about 5 million, if rate of incidence parallels that of U.S. soldiers, including a huge percentage of Iraqi [...]

Comment on Autism and early oxygen deprivation 2 by Shamsudin

Shamsudin — Sun, 20 Nov 2011 09:18:55 +0000

Hello there,
My name is Shamsudin ABIKAR, originally from Somalia and since 2004 I have been working in Bristol (UK) primary schools as learning support and as a High Level Teaching Assistant. Couple of months ago I have submitted my MA Ed (Bilingualism).
Part of my job involves me assessing and supporting the English as Additional Language (EAL) pupils. This experience rouse my interest in Special Educational Needs (SEN) which in turn led me to interest in how the brain works.
I found the forum really interesting especially the title: Autism and early oxygen deprivation. From last year to months back, I have been working with a Somali Autism child. To establish some of reasons I sought advice from the child’s mother. She elaborated two aspects: she was anaemic during pregnancy and prior to the delivery and that the child was heavy and born much later than anticipated.

Comment on Promising Results in Controlling Tinnitus with Brain Training by mamikoglu-b

mamikoglu-b — Sat, 05 Nov 2011 17:37:30 +0000

I am an otologist in practice little outskirts of Chicagoland. I am one of your great admirer. This is what I tell the patients about their tinnutus, of course it is largely affected by knowledege cummulated by neuroplasticity, mindfulness exercises and research on OCD. I tell my patients with normal hearing first this the sound you hear is not different from a thought comes to your mind or a dream you see while sleeping. You can not control what you will see at night for dream and your tinnutus is the same way. I tell them this is not a sign of a disease or organic problem. This helps them to relabel and reatribute the tinnutus. I remind them also they can not turn on or off this sound too. Only thing they can do is not let them nervous when they hear the sound. I go back the dream example, if you see a bad dream you usually not think about it constantly, you can always remember it if you want but most you will prefer to not remember and contrary if you want to learn something new you keep repeating until becomes a talent. So I tell patients please knot that you heard that part of your brain making this sound and acknowledge but also tell yourself “so use your own will” this sound do not mean anything. This step is revalue the tinnitus, For the last step tell them shift your mind to something more pleasant such as nice music or talk show or relaxing songs. This step refocus. And ask them try to do this at least three weeks ( I think this was your opionion that at 3 weeks needed for new connections in brain establish) and assure them the sound will not be as bad as used to but if they really wanted to find out it will be always there, like a old friends name may not come to your mind when you first see him/her years later but will pop up later. I wonder what you think about my tinnutus retraining method, thank you

Comment on Lessons from the Hand and Mind Symposium by bshams

bshams — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 14:23:52 +0000

As a pediatric occupational therapist I am constantly asked why I am working on handwriting especially cursive. Explaining to parents how it is not only about the handwriting but coordination between hand and eye, visual motor, attention and as you have stated improving brain associations between the written word and mental associations. Thank you for having stated it so well! This blog must be shared with parents and educators as well!

Comment on Promising Results in Controlling Tinnitus with Brain Training by ginescapote

ginescapote — Thu, 23 Jun 2011 10:39:09 +0000

Dr Mezernich, I have great faith in you, and I would to know your opinion of Robert Sapolsky on his studies that steroids damage the hippocampus. I have 55 years and suffer from tinnitus since I was between 10 and 15. It has recently been made ??permanent and it sounds very high. I could never sleep. Also I have no memory, and I think that it is because I was subjected to steroids since I was 3 years because of my allergies. Can you tell me something please.