Working in Movement

On Acting Without Thinking

I've sometimes thought of myself as uncoordinated: you know, two left feet, that sort of thing. Yet I remember driving down an icy road a few years ago when a car pulled out right in front of me. Somehow I managed simultaneously steer the car out a skid to avoid the other car, reach over to keep my wife in place on the passenger side, and throw the other car the finger. All of this in an instant, without thinking about being coordinated, uncoordinated or anything else.

What happened to make this possible? New Scientist Breaking News - Watching the brain 'switch off' self-awareness suggests one explanation based on a small research project in Israel. Looks like your nervous system can react quite quickly, without self-awareness, thank you very much.

The team conducted a series of experiments to pinpoint the brain activity associated with introspection and that linked to sensory function. They found that the brain assumes a robotic functionality when it has to concentrate all its efforts on a difficult, timed task — only becoming "human" again when it has the luxury of time.

Ah, yes, there is the "luxury of time" again. And yet, when time's very short, the thinking part of the brain takes a siesta.

“The regions of the brain involved in introspection and sensory perception are completely segregated, although well connected,” says (study author Ilan) Goldberg, “and when the brain needs to divert all its resources to carry out a difficult task, the self-related cortex is inhibited.”

The brain’s ability to “switch off” the self may have evolved as a protective mechanism, he suggests. “If there is a sudden danger, such as the appearance of a snake, it is not helpful to stand around wondering how one feels about the situation,” Goldberg points out.

Doesn't seem like driving without thinking is a good idea, but sometimes it gets you by.

So whad'ya call that attention thing?

Edward Hallowell talks eloquently about Attention Deficit Disorder or ADD. In fact, I understand that he's the one who coined the term in the first place in 1995. Now he's written a new book, CrazyBusy: Overstretched, Overbooked and About to Snap! Strategies for Coping in a World Gone A.D.D.

According to Overly Wired? There's a Word for It Hallowell sees the idea spreading far and wide:

The frenzy of our wired world, he argues, is giving nearly all of us the symptoms of attention deficit disorder.

Playfully, Hallowell suggests some names for this harried condition. Screensucking, Email voice, Frazzing and Gemmelsmerch among them.

Columnist Lisa Belkin is not content to stop there, suggesting her own ideas: Spammified, Cellopain, Regurgimailer, Reverberon, Telamnesia, and Bluetooth fairy.

Probably if you can think up terms like these, you don't have the underlying condition.

More on the Official Syndrome

The official brain syndrome of our age earlier on this blog focused on how the human brain can get overloaded and the undesirable results of that.

Why can't you pay attention anymore? takes it a bit further with an interview with ADD expert Edward Hallowell, author and psychiatrist. In this interview, Hallowell talks about something different from ADD, a work overload that ain't any good for you either. Hallowell makes a distinction between this and ADD:

In ADD--the true ADD--it doesn't go away, wherever you go. So I realized that these people were having it induced by their work world. When they got to work, then symptoms would start to occur. So that meant that something was going on at work. That something is this overload.

He also put a different slant on the idea of multitasking: mainly, there's no such thing:

No one really multitasks. You just spend less time on any one thing. When it looks like you're multitasking--you're looking at one TV screen and another TV screen and you're talking on the telephone--your attention has to shift from one to the other. You're brain literally can't multitask. You can't pay attention to two things simultaneously. You're switching back and forth between the two. So you're paying less concerted attention to either one.

Overall, an interesting read - if you're paying attention.

Public Radio Podcasting

Broadcasting involves production and distribution, whatever the medium - radio, tv, internet, whatever. There's always been a certain dynamic between producers and distributors. According to Wired News: Podcasting Roils NPR Fund Raising that dynamic is changing rapidly.

Podcast distribution of public radio programming has upset some local public radio stations: it could eat into their fund raising, many think. If you can get your favorite program direct from the 'net, then maybe you don't need your local station for a delivery vehicle anymore. Effectively the producers can bypass the station and distribute straight to the web savvy listener.

I can't see this is making a huge dent in local fund raising, at least not yet. Podcasting, RSS and all that stuff is still pretty well unknown among the general public. But the day might come when it could.

But the other side of this is the immense distribution opportunities the internet opens to content providers. Why settle for a tiny potential audience in Podunk when you can open up your programs or blend of programming to the world?

We'll have to see where this will take us. But for now the rock seems to be rolling down the producers hill and gathering momentum.

Feldenkrais Video Demo

Trying to explain the Feldenkrais Method isn't always easy. The best way is to experience it, but that's tough on a blog. I give it a shot in words on my blog in the About Feldenkrais page.

A short well-produced video explaining one approach to the Method is available here.

Also available is a remarkable series of audio lessons on the Open ATM Project.

Sixth Sense in Worms?

Can you close your eyes and then touch the tip of your nose with your right index finger? No big deal there for most of us. The nervous system function behind that ability is called proprioception. It's the sense of where you are in space, and how all the parts of you coordinate together to do the stuff you need to do.

It's tempting to think of proprioception as a sense unique to humans, or at least to mammals. But would you believe that tiny worms have it too? The sixth sense your place in space summarizes some recently published research about finding neurons in the tiny worm that probably regulate stretch receptors that regulate movement.

Ultimately, this sort of finding could have benefits for dealing with movement disorders like Parkinson's disease:

They (the researchers) have recently discovered some neurons that possibly regulate stretch receptors which tell the body how to move. For patients with Parkinson 's disease, these stretch receptors are thought to be involved in the loss of movement control, so finding a neuron that can tweak these signals could be a step towards developing new Parkinson 's treatments.

On the other hand, I've never seen a worm touch its nose. (Do worms have noses?)

Teaching the Brain to See Again

A previous post here mentioned how brain plasticity is being tapped in developing therapy applications like constraint-induced movement therapy. Teaching the brain to see -- Newsday.com takes this idea into another sort of rehab. Dr. Randolph Marshall, a neurologist at Columbia University Medical Center is testing a computer program on people who have lost some of their eye sight to stroke or other brain trauma. It's a natural follow on to the movement stuff:

The idea of strengthening the visual areas of the brain was born out of work done on stroke patients to strengthen weakened limbs. By tying down the stronger arm, the patient's weaker arm was trained to move more robustly. The brain's motor system was actually repairing itself.

The computer program works by having patients focus on an on-screen dot, and pressing various keys in reaction to shapes that move around the screen. They spend lots of time doing this, twice a day six days a week. And they have to do it for six months.

Time spent with the computer seems to be helping. Marshall reports 65 percent show improvement, with blind fields reduced by 20%.

This is plasticity at work again.

We are now trying to figure out what is going on in the brain," said Marshall, who is working with the makers of the device, Nova Vision, to design ways to measure brain plasticity or ability to self-repair. "We think that parts of the brain are taking over for the damaged areas."

Living on Impulse

Is impulsiveness always a bad thing? It doesn't serve (or not serve) everybody the same way, according to Living on Impulse in New York Times. Many find the destructive part of it, while others can act spontaneously without going overboard. What's the difference? It seems to have something to do with an ability to hedge:

The people who can binge, gamble or try hard drugs and get away with it have a native cunning when it comes to risk, this and other studies suggest. They are prepared for the dangers like a mountain climber or they sample risk, in effect, by semiconsciously hedging their behavior — sipping their cocktails slowly, inhaling partly or keeping one toe on the cliff's edge, poised for retreat.

This is somewhat reminiscent of the mountain climber in The Practice of Slowness post earlier. It seems to me not only an ability to hedge, but a willingness to do it; to take the risk but also know the quick way back to safe ground.

Those who are upended by their own impulses, by contrast, are more likely to trust their first impressions implicitly and absolutely, the studies suggest.
Maybe sticking a toe in the water before wading in isn't such a silly thing.

Slowing Down But Not Giving Up

In The Practice of Slowing Down on NPR's This I Believe, mountain climber Phil powers presents a way of slowing down (briefly but firmly) without giving up. Powers learned the principle from a mountain climbing mentor who taught him to rest fully between each step during high altitude efforts. Powers talks about applying the idea fruitfully to his life away from the mountain:

The awareness of pace I owe to my teacher has served me whether I am seeking the world's highest summits, sharing my love for the mountains with others or kneeling to look my son, Gus, in the eye when he has a question.

AppZapper

The developer of AppZapper for the Mac is running a promo today. Mention the app on your blog, post it to the comment section on their site, and they take 5 cents off the price. The idea is to get 259 mentions today so the software will be free.

I've been using the demo version that gives you 5 free zaps before you have to pony up the US $12.95 price. It's pretty useful; a real time saver. And the cool icon alone is worth having.