Leg Power Equals Brain Power

by Nina

Bhavani Cooper, Age 56

“Leg power predicts both cognitive ageing and global brain structure, despite controlling for common genetics and early life environment shared by twins. Interventions targeted to improve leg power in the long term may help reach a universal goal of healthy cognitive ageing.” —Steves, CJ, et al.

I have to say that even I always repeat to myself what Ram wrote about the brain “what is good for the heart is good for the brain,” I am so used to thinking about the brain as somehow being separate from the rest of the body, I was flabbergasted to read about a recent study of aging twins that showed that powerful leg muscles resulting from physical exercise correlates with sharper minds. Yes, even though the brain is just another organ in your body, like your heart or your liver, we’re so used to being told that doing mental exercises, like, God forbid, crossword puzzles, is the best way to keep our brains healthy as we age, that is hard for a lot of us—me included—to take in that something like doing yoga standing poses could actually be much more effective.

In a recent study Kicking Back Cognitive Ageing: Leg Power Predicts Cognitive Ageing after Ten Years in Older Female Twins. scientists at Kings College London set out to test whether muscle fitness (measured by leg power, since the thigh muscles are the largest muscles in the body) could “predict cognitive change” in a healthy older population over a 10-year time interval. Twins were used in the study so genetic factors could be ruled out. And leg strength was measured as a more objective indicator of exercise patterns than self-reporting (since self-reporting is notoriously unreliable). 

The study was performed on 324 female twins (average age 55, range from 43-73) at two time points ten years apart. The scientists performed cognitive testing on all the study participants, and for 20 pairs of identical twins, they also conducted brain-imaging scans. According to the New York Times, the scientists found that those who had had the sturdiest legs a decade ago showed the least fall-off in thinking skills, even when scientists controlled for factors such as fatty diets, high blood pressure, and shaky blood-sugar control. The Times reported that the differences in thinking skills were particularly striking within twin pairs:

“If one twin had been more powerful than the other 10 years before, she tended to be a much better thinker now. In fact, on average, a muscularly powerful twin now performed about 18 percent better on memory and other cognitive tests than her weaker sister.

“Similarly, in the brain imaging of the identical twins, if one genetically identical twin had had sturdier legs than the other at the start of the study, she now displayed significantly more brain volume and fewer “empty spaces in the brain” than her weaker sister.”

So this is very dramatic evidence about how important exercise is for maintaining cognitive health! The funny thing is that even the main author, of the study, Dr. Steves, was surprised by the results. The New York Times quoted her:

“I was quite surprised by the strength of the findings,” Dr. Steves said, “because to be honest, I am someone who has always in the past prioritized work of the mind over work of the body. This study brings home to me that the brain needs exercise to keep fit.”

For more information about the study, see Brawn and Brains (only the abstract for the study is available to general public).

Now we’ve been recommending exercise in general for cognitive health for some time now (see 6 Ways to Foster Brain Health with Yoga and Featured Sequence: Brain Health Practice). But if you’re interested in working on leg strength in your yoga practice, my post The Importance of Yoga for Strength had some basic recommendations for lower body strength. In general, though, the following are strengthening for your legs:

• Standing poses where you stand one or two bent knees, such as Powerful pose (Utkatasana), Warrior 2 pose (Virabradrasana 1), Extended Side Angle pose (Utthita Parsvakonasana), and Lunge pose 
• Standing poses where you balance on one leg, such as Tree pose (Vrksasana), Half Moon pose (Arda Chandrasana), and Warrior 3 pose (Virabradrasana 3)
• Backbends where you lift your legs up away from the floor, such as Locus pose (Salabasana) and Hunting Dog pose
• Stretching poses for your legs, such as Reclined Leg Stretch (remember, stretching is also strengthening—see Just Stretching is Not Just Stretching)

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The Biochemical Basis for a Gratitude Practice

by Nina

In a Meadow by Melina Meza

II.33 Upon being harassed by negative thoughts, one should cultivate counteracting thoughts. —translated by Edwin Bryant

For some time now, I’ve been intrigued by Facebook posts from certain friends that simply list things the person is grateful for. I particularly like the ones by my friend Liz because her lists include very simple things, mostly free and available to almost everyone.

Today's good things:

1. Walked six miles;
2. Dog therapy on campus today, in particular the golden retriever puppy;
3. Watching the bushtits (birds) flit in and out of the trees on campus;
4. Got a lot of items off my 'to do' list at work, moving forward with several work projects and learning new things.

I also happen to know this gratitude practice is a very serious one for Liz, because she suffers from a serious, chronic illness that affects her quality of life and requires quite a bit of time spent in the hospital. She says, “It’s been bumpy, but I saw research that said gratitude practice helps. And I set intentions at the beginning of each day and have seen improvement.”

Today's good things:

1. Three mile walk at lunch, great watching the hawks circle;
2. Very productive day at work, a lot of weeding and organizing;
3. Ran into a lovely friend whom I haven't seen in a while, always great to catch up;
4. Gluten-free ice cream sandwiches

So I was very intrigued when I learned that neuroscientist Alex Korb’s book The Upward Spiral: Using Neuroscience to Reverse the Course of Depression, One Small Change at a Time actually provides a scientific explanation of why this practice works. Apparently, cultivating gratitude actually has a beneficial chemical effect on the brain, boosting dopamine (a neurotransmitter that helps control the brain's reward and pleasure centers) and serotonin (a neurotransmitter that affects our mood) levels.

“The benefits of gratitude start with the dopamine system, because feeling grateful activates the brain stem region that produces dopamine. Additionally, gratitude toward others increases activity in social dopamine circuits, which makes social interactions more enjoyable …”

“One powerful effect of gratitude is that it can boost serotonin. Trying to think of things you are grateful for forces you to focus on the positive aspects of your life. This simple act increases serotonin production in the anterior cingulate cortex.” —Dr. Korb

When I was thinking about how this practice related to yoga (haha, I figured it must!), I came back to this sutra by Patanjali about cultivating the opposite (pratipaksa-bhavanam).

II.33 Upon being harassed by negative thoughts, one should cultivate counteracting thoughts. —translated by Edwin Bryant

Bryant explains in his commentary on this sutra that the “negative thoughts” being referred to are those that counter the yamas and niyamas. So thoughts that are the opposite of contentment (the niyama santosha), such as dissatisfaction, displeasure, and unhappiness, would count as negative thoughts that you should counteract. And the practice of being grateful for what you have, which is cultivating contentment, is indeed the practice of cultivating thoughts that counteract dissatisfaction, displeasure, and unhappiness.

Of course, when you are being “harassed by negative thoughts,” it often isn’t easy to find and focus on things you are grateful for. But Korb says, the effort alone provides the benefits.

“It’s not finding gratitude that matters most; it’s remembering to look in the first place. Remembering to be grateful is a form of emotional intelligence. One study found that it actually affected neuron density in both the ventromedial and lateral prefrontal cortex. These density changes suggest that as emotional intelligence increases, the neurons in these areas become more efficient. With higher emotional intelligence, it simply takes less effort to be grateful.”

Fascinating, isn’t it? Just like strengthening a muscle, a regular gratitude practice makes you stronger at being grateful over time. So that means getting better as it as you age, and eventually more time spent in a state of contentment. And those brain density changes? That sounds to me like the gratitude practice is improving brain strength—always a good thing.

And by the way, thank you Liz for agreeing to share your story with us. I'm grateful for your friendship and your honesty.

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Friday Q&A: Listening to Books

Contrasting Sounds by Kandinsky

The following question was left as a comment our article Svadhyaya, Reading, and Brain Strength.

Q: “I wonder when you listen to a book - say from audible.com, does it have the same effect”?

A: Listening to a book on an audio device is not the same as actually reading the book. There is a real distinction between these two activities. The latest scientific research studies suggest that changes in the brain structure and function depends on our mode of engaging the book, as it radically alters the manner in which we absorb the material. With audio devices, our eyes and sense of sight are not engaged, so there is every chance of the eyes to get distracted, which in turn dilutes the concentration of the mind. 

Just over a year ago a team of psychologists investigated the response and alertness of the mind after three different reading exposures in a study published in Frontiers in Psychology The way we encounter reading material influences how frequently we mind wander. A total of 235 volunteers enrolled in the study that involved reading Bill Bryson's A Short History of Nearly Everything. One group read one of the excerpts silently from a computer screen, the second group was asked to read loudly off the screen, and a third group just listened to the audio recording. The researchers then tested the individuals on several cognitive aspects including mind wandering, memory, and content recognition.

Reading silently, reading aloud, and listening provided dissimilar cognitive experiences. The minds of participants who read the book aloud wandered the least while the minds of those listening to the excerpt resulted wandered significantly. Listening was also associated with the poorest memory performance compared to the reading groups. Listening also led to least interest in the material as compared to reading aloud. Interestingly, the reading aloud group did better in all three tests suggesting that reading as opposed to listening is more physically engaging and readers are less likely to be distracted and disengaged. 

So if you are one of those who believe in listening and completing a chore simultaneously, you might want to rethink your reading habits.

—Ram

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Svadhyaya, Reading, and Brain Strength

by Ram

Woman Reading by Pablo Picasso

In the Sadhana Pada of the Yoga Sutras by Patanjali we are introduced to the eight rungs/limbs/steps of Yoga, whose practice helps us to develop attention as a tool to discriminate between ignorance and awareness, and truth from illusion, which is the means for liberation or enlightenment. The niyamas constitute the second of the eight rungs or limbs and are “to do” practices, which serve as personal observances/practices of self-training. There are five niyamas, which I have already described in my previous post The Second Branch of Yoga: The Niyamas.

Svadhyaya is one of the five niyamas and translates as: Sva=Self; Adhyaya=reading, chapter, self-study, education, knowledge, wisdom. I interpret svadhyaya as education of the self, introspection, and self-realization. One of the ways by which you educate your self is through self-study or reading. According to the Yoga Sutras, reading brings about clarity of the mind and paves the way for deeper mind-body awareness. A clear mind is not affected by stress and a clear mind produces a healthy body, thus creating a greater connection with one's own pure, essential nature. Reading helps us to introspect and contemplate life’s lessons. Introspecting about our emotions, thoughts, actions, and reactions helps us to recognize our true nature. By turning a witness to our own self, we begin to notice what’s happening within us—our sensations, thoughts, emotions and feelings. So through the process of self-study and reading we empower ourselves. 

Being a neuroscientist, I was naturally curious as to what exactly happens to the structure and function of the brain when an individual is deeply immersed in a book. To understand this better, let us familiarize ourselves with few areas of the brain: 

Left Temporal Cortex. The temporal lobe is one of the four major lobes of the mammalian brain and is part of the cerebral cortex located on the lower side of each cerebral hemisphere. The temporal lobe is located beneath the lateral fissure on both hemispheres of the mammalian brain. It is associated with a plethora of functions, including auditory perception, long-term memory, and emotional responses. The hippocampi, which are involved in consolidating memory and recall, are located in the temporal lobe. 

Central Sulcus. This is the region of fold of the brain that separates the frontal lobe from the parietal lobe, and divides the sensory and motor areas of the brain. Thus, one of the primary functions of this area is to convert sensory inputs into physical sensations. 

Broca’s Areas. This is the region of the brain that is involved in the control of speech, and is located in the frontal part of the left hemisphere of the brain. Its main function is linked to speech and language production. Injury to this area impairs the ability to speak together with a deficit in language production.

Wernicke’s Areas. Also called Wernicke's speech area, this is another area of the cerebral cortex that is linked to speech. In particular, Wernicke’s area is involved in the production of written and spoken language. Damage caused to Wernicke's area will result in the individual fluently connecting words but that lack meaning. 

Reading requires focus (dharana) and attention (dhyana). When you read mindfully without any distraction, several areas of the brain undergo transformation. The Broca’s and Wernicke’s areas are constantly firing signals to interpret the words and language. Additionally, other areas of the brain may get involved. For example, if you are reading a text that has odor words, such as coffee, rosemary, or lavender, the word automatically evokes that specific odor. So not only are the word processing areas stimulated, but so are the areas of the brain responsible for the smell sensation. In a landmark study published in the journal NeuroImage Reading cinnamon activates olfactory brain regions, participants were tested on words that had strong odor associations or that were neutral (words that had very weak or nil odor association). As they kept reading, the researchers scanned their brains with a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) machine. When subjects encountered words like “perfume, garlic, or jasmine,” the olfactory areas of their brain brightly lit up. However, none of the brain areas lit up when subjects encountered neutral or odorless words like “chair” or “key,” suggesting a close neural network connection between the language areas and olfaction centers of the brain. 

Similarly, another team of researchers showed a link between reading and empathy. Individuals who frequently read fiction seem to understand other people better and empathize with them. The authors concluded that reading fiction triggers neuronal associations between the language centers and the insular cortex region (a portion of the cerebral cortex folded deep within the central sulcus area) that help the reader better understand human sentiments, values, and emotions. Reading fiction stimulates a myriad of neuronal network connections because it requires the reader to contemplate cause and effect. In the process it reinforces and strengthens those areas of the brain. 

In a recent study Short- and Long-Term Effects of a Novel on Connectivity in the Brain, a group of neuroscientists at Emory University in Atlanta reported that reading has a significant physical effect on a reader’s brain that is long lasting. The researchers carried out a 19-day study on students who were asked to read a book. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was carried out on the students’ brains before and throughout the reading process. After completing the book, the subjects underwent the fMRI examination for another five days. The researchers noted a significant impact on brain connectivity in the left temporal cortex of the brain, which is responsible for processing sensation, emotion, visual memory, and meaning. Additionally, firing of neurons was also observed in the central sulcus, which is associated with sensations and movement. What this meant was that readers of the fiction put themselves in the protagonist’s shoes. It was as though they were acting out the central character’s role. Furthermore, the neural changes were not just immediate reactions as the changes lasted in the subjects’ brains even after they had finished the novel, suggesting that a daily dose of reading could certainly have a bigger and longer-lasting effect on structure and function of the brain. 

Now we realize why Patanjali declared in the Yoga Sutras:

2.4 svadhyayat ishta devata samprayogah 

From self-study and reflection on sacred words (svadhyaya), one attains contact, communion, or concert with that underlying natural reality or force —trans. by Swami  Jnaneshvara 

Brain research shows that Patanjali’s declaration is not a tall claim but the truth. So why wait? If you wish to see long lasting and favorable improvements in your brain structure and function, following your routine yoga, meditation, and pranayama, pick up a good book and experience the numerous benefits that come from reading. 

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Meditation: A Bench Press for the Brain?

by Nina

Two recent articles in the NY Times suggest that practicing meditation may increase our cognitive abilities. The first article, How Meditation Might Boost Your Test Scores, discussed a study published last month in the journal Psychological Science  by University of California, Santa Barbara researchers. The UCSB researchers found that after a group of undergraduates went through a two-week intensive mindfulness training program, their mind-wandering decreased and their working memory capacity improved. They also performed better on a GRE reading comprehension test. Students in the control group had no similar improvement.

Granted, this study was on young adults, but increasing memory capacity in general sounds real good to me! Richard J. Davidson, a professor of psychology and psychiatry at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, who has studied brain function in long-term and novice mindful meditators, explained it this way, “You can improve the signal-to-noise ratio by reducing the noise. Decreasing mind-wandering is doing just that.”

The second NY Times article, In Sitting Still, a Bench Press for the Brain, discussed the many possible benefits of meditation in older people, citing several different studies. One study that intrigued me was The unique brain anatomy of meditation practitioners: alterations in cortical gyrification published in the Frontiers in Human Neuroscience journal in February, which looked at the extent to which meditation may affect neuroplasticity (the brain’s ability to make physiological changes) Previous studies found that the brains of long-term meditators had increased amounts of gray matter—believed to be involved in processing information and white matter—believed to be the “wiring” of the brain’s communication system.

In the recent University of California, Los Angeles study, M.R.I. scans were used to measure the features of the subject’s brains and compare them to a control group of non-meditators. The meditators had a median age of 51 and had all been practicing meditation of various types for an average of 20 years. The oldest subject was 71 and the longest practitioner had been meditating regularly for 46 years. The study concluded that “the degree of cortical gyrification appeared to increase as the number of years practicing meditation increased.” The Times quotes the lead scientist of the study:

“We used to believe that when you were born, your brain would grow and reach a peak in the early 20s and then start shrinking,” Dr. Luders said. “It was thought there was nothing we could do to change that.”

Now it appears that we can! Although this study does not provide conclusive proof that meditation caused the brain adaptations or that the increased folds meant improved cognitive performance for these older adults, the results were certainly intriguing and I’m sure there will be more research in this area to come.

I don’t know about you, but keeping my cognitive abilities in good shape as I age is pretty high on my priority list! And these two articles at least give me some hope that there is something that I can actually do about it—something completely free, with no dangerous side effects, mind you.

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Meditation and Brain Strength

by Nina

Tide Between Rocks by Brad Gibson

Recently I read an article on Science Daily called “Evidence Builds That Meditation Strengthens the Brain.” Naturally I was hoping that Brad would comment on the article (see here) and the original research (see here). But until then—oh, I live in hope!—I thought I’d share the links with you and let you know some of my own thoughts about it.

According to the article on Science Daily, Eileen Luders, an assistant professor at the UCLA Laboratory of Neuro Imaging, and her colleagues, have found that long-term meditators have larger amounts of gyrification (“folding” of the cortex, which may allow the brain to process information faster) than people who do not meditate. They also found a direct correlation between the amount of gyrification and the number of meditation years, possibly providing further proof of the brain's neuroplasticity (its ability to adapt to environmental changes).

Particularly interesting was the positive correlation between the number of meditation years and the amount of insular gyrification. Luders said:

The insula has been suggested to function as a hub for autonomic, affective and cognitive integration. Meditators are known to be masters in introspection and awareness as well as emotional control and self-regulation, so the findings make sense that the longer someone has meditated, the higher the degree of folding in the insula.

The intriguing idea that your thoughts can affect the physiology of your brain is not a new one, however. Reading this article immediately made me think of the way Stephen Cope described samskaras in his book Yoga and the Quest for the True Self.

Yogis discovered that consciousness is dominated by highly conditioned patterns of reactivity—patterns that are deeply grooved, and very difficult to change once established.

Every action based on craving or aversion leaves a subliminal impression on the mind. These impressions are called samskaras, or literally, “subliminal activators.” Yogis sometimes think of these subliminal activators as being pressed into the “hot wax of the mind.”

Samskaras are like little tracks, little vectors, little ruts in the muddy road. The next time the car travels that road, these muddy ruts will have hardened into permanent fixtures, and the car wheels will want to slide into them. Indeed it’s easier to steer right into them than to try to avoid them.

Cope believes that with tapas, which he defines as “the energy of restraint,” we can start to avoid some of our harmful patterns of reactivity or samskaras.

I have said that samskaras are like ruts in a road, and that as the ruts deepen through repetition, it becomes inevitable that the car will slide into them unawares. Any intentional effort to restrain the car from slipping into the rut is called tapas.

Tapas requires a particular kind of attention—precisely the kind required when driving on a rutted road. We need to be awake. We need to be concentrated in order to avoid the edges of the ruts. And sometimes we need to pull the car wheels—with considerable effort—out of the ridges in the road.

And tapas, which is also a “burning effort,” is exactly what we need to establish and maintain a regular meditation and yoga practice, the very practice that may help us strengthen our brains as well as our bodies. To be continued....

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