Neuropsychology has gained an entirely new
perspective with extremely detailed research done through MRI, FMRI and PET
scans. However, from the viewpoint of clinical psychology, one question will
always remain: ‘Is it in the brain or in the mind?’’
One of the most difficult questions in neuroscience
and medicine, isn’t it?
The answer remains equally ambivalent. It is a
double-edged sword. It depends on the intensity and type of a disorder with
which the person is afflicted. However, one thing is absolutely clear: Just as
human beings are ‘’social’’, so is the human brain.
By the eighth week of
conception, the zygote experiences 250,000 neuroblasts (nerve cells per
minute). Cells in brain show a particular behaviour. They all perform different
functions. Cells that perform similar function, gather together in a place. For
example, cells that are to perform verbal functions would gather in a place and
relate to that function only.
Cells migrate all the time. Even after birth.
However, the process of moving of cells from one place to another is called
migration. Visual neurons become visual neurons, not because they are born
visual, but because they migrate to a particular part of the brain to perform
that activity.
Psychological disorders like schizophrenia, autism,
dyslexia and many more are caused mostly because of some defect in migration.
And then comes the time to talk about behaviour.
These cells, while migrating, and otherwise too,
come in contact with genes and when this happens, behaviour (response)
activates. Over a period of time, if the neurons are not medicated or trained
to change response, that behaviour becomes ingrained and thus, as a result, you
get many complaints!!!
‘’He’s got an anger issue, right since his
childhood!!!!!’’
‘’She always gets anxious, no matter what the
situation is. She has always been like this’’.
Whose gone inside her head would know what took to
make her ‘anxious’’ since ‘forever’?
And there, when research so clearly proves that
there are lots of substances that inhibit the healthy migration process.
Mothers who smoke are shown of have children who suffer ADD. Alcohol also
inhibits healthy migration causing FAS (Fetal Alcohol Syndrome).
Let us come to the second part. Pruning.
Before that, let’s make it clear. The world and ‘life’
(each organism) lives and dies in a state of ‘competition’. Charles Darwin’s
term ‘Survival of the fittest’ strikes me first as I think about Pruning.
Think of an office where you’ve got nothing but
utter competition. Employees who do not perform are thrown out and those who
become incapable to perform because of old age, they retire. Same is the case
with neurons.
Why does an 83 year old woman face so much of
difficulty in seeing? One reason is that the speed with which neurons
regenerate in her occipital lobe is very slow. More and more neurons lose their
capacity to function; this problem as a result!
Life, movement, regeneration, organization,
destruction is more than just a part of nature. It inhabits every cell!
Please let me know if this explanation answers the
question:
‘Brain or mind?’ sufficiently
With many clients, I don’t buy into their talk when
they use the term ‘’hereditary’’ so loosely. That’s layman talk. Except a very
few cases of Huntington’s disease or color blindness or phenylketoneuria, very
few disorders are completely governed by one single ‘gene’. It’s so easy to
blame ‘genes’.
One epic joke: ‘Sorry darling, I misbehaved. My dad
did it this way. It’s in genes!!’
The darling is going to understand the shit behind
sophisticated neuropsychology.
Now let’s take the example of diabetes. It is highly
genetic, but if the person who is pre-disposed to it takes care not to become
over-weight, it can be avoided. Never blame genes fully for anxiety, depression
or schizophrenia. It’s always a dual process.
I am not sitting on the fence by speaking on both
sides, but I do feel the complexities leave us with no other option.
No comments:
Post a Comment