The Mind and the Brain: Neuroplasticity and the Power of Mental Force Paperback – October 14, 2003

The Mind & The Brain: Neuroplasticity and the Power of Mental Force was a very tantalizing read. This review is to highlight points of the book so that you will pick it up and take a look yourself. Overall, I enjoyed this book. I learned a great deal about neuroplasticity and its implications in treating certain disorders such as OCD and depression. The book is split into 12 sections: an introduction, 10 chapters, and an epilogue. All are very interesting and successfully carry on into the next section, creating a continuous, enlightening learning experience. Within the chapters, Schwartz also adds intriguing anecdotes about other researchers and scientists that helped him to produce his 4 Step regimen, a program that greatly assisted his OCD patients in their quest for control of their chronic urges.The Introduction of the book starts with a brief explanation as to why Schwartz decided that Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) would be his model for neuroplasticity and the reason as to why he thought prior methods for treating OCD. He describes how the current treatments for OCD involved Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP) that could include very unusual methods and were mildly successful in the patients that tried them. In addition to the initial story, Schwartz gives stories about other treatments for OCD and how dangerous they could be for the patients. He goes on to discuss Bare Attention, mindful awareness, and mindfulness which together are ways of perceiving what is going on around and to you without being directly influenced by it. He leads into the book by introducing his 4 Steps: Relabeling, Reattributing, Refocusing, and Revaluing that each help the patient overcome their OCD. They are discussed further in the coming chapters.The first part of the book, Ch.1 -The Matter of Mind, compares and contrasts the differing of opinions about how the mind and brain are related. It begins the debate on the reality of the ability of the mind to have an effect on the brain. An intriguing alien short story by author Terry Bisson ponders "the utter absurdity of the situation" when an alien scout reports on a trip from our planet. Next, the human conscious and its uniqueness are dissected. To conclude the chapter, the author concludes that there must be a "mental force" that connects the mind and the brain.Ch.2 - Brain Lock goes back to OCD and discusses how it locks the brain into consumingly compulsive thoughts which take over the patient's attention, hence the title of this chapter and another of his books. The chapter also discusses how OCD takes over the mind ("OCD circuit") and how the therapy that the author proposes will change the mind of the patient. The creation of the counteracting "Therapy circuit" and the 4 Steps are also elaborated on in this chapter.The downfall of the notion that the adult brain cannot change is the purpose of Ch.3 - Birth of a Brain. It had been documented previously that that there are many changes in the brain from the fetal to adolescent ages, but not the adult human brain. The vast complexity of the brain, with a large number of neurons and synapses, is also discussed. The way that the perfect steps to create this large complex of neurons and synapses that created an intricate network that controls the body occur took a great amount of time and will, whether divine or one of chance.The infamous tale of Edward Taub and the 17 monkeys with which he was charged for animal cruelty discussed in Ch.4 - The Silver Spring Monkeys is possibly the most interesting story of the book. It is possibly because this was my first time hearing about the story of Taub and his research on "deafferentation in monkeys" and his run-in with PETA that I was enamored by this chapter. Learning that he was exonerated of his crimes and that his findings led to some very compelling research dealing with plasticity helped in enjoying this chapter. Taub and his research are mentioned throughout the rest of the book as well.Ch.5 - The Mapmakers reaches into the brain to focus on the sensory and motor cortices to discuss how they relate to neuroplasticity. The chapter discusses that the more a part of the body is used, then the more that is represented in the two cortices or "maps" as they are described. It elaborates on how the sensory and motor "mapping" takes hours of time and how much the researchers put towards determining that the brain maps changed when the subjects were put through experimental trials.The next chapter Ch.6 - Survival of the Busiest compels the reader to take note that only neurons and synapses will survive the changes of the brain. This "cortical remapping" of the brain can have positive or negative results, as indicated in the book. This chapter also gives a formal definition of what neuroplasticity is and is not. Attention is brought forth as the key to plasticity at the end of the chapter.Ch.7 - Network Remodeling discusses how the brain attempts to adjust to functional setbacks by changing itself. This remodeling can be self-initiated, shown by research revealed in the chapter. The chapter focuses on OCD and specific language impairments like dyslexia and how the attempts to fix them and their roots results in a program called Fast ForWord being put on the market. This chapter also discusses a program similar to the author's that involves using comparable steps to assist subjects with Tourette's syndrome.The most powerful lessons of the book come from Ch.8 - The Quantum Brain. The chapter gives a tutorial in the fundamental differences between classical physics and the much more recent quantum physics. The chapter then goes into how lessons learned in this book are much more readily reinforced by the theories of quantum physics than classical physics. The ability for researchers to completely confirm the concreteness of quantum physics, even though they cannot fully discover the reasoning behind it, leads to a compelling argument as to why there is a "mental force" that connects the mind to the brain. Be prepared to expand your mind with this chapter.Ch.9 - Free Will, and Free Won't describes how humans have some sort of control over the daily choices that we make. The "mental force" that is described in the chapter is "the physical expression of will." This same "mental force" allows our minds to control our brains. If we did not have control, then we would be the same as automatons and would not be able to be punished for our crimes since they would not be our fault.The last chapter is Ch.10 - Attention Must Be Paid. As the title suggests, attention is the focal point of this section. The culmination of the research put forth and discussed in this book. It states that a person cannot change their brain if they are not paying attention. Attention serves as the vehicle for true neuroplasticity in humans. It creates our conscious and is also our focusing point in our perceived "reality."The Epilogue compiles the information from all of the previous chapters and brings the book to a close. Attention, as well as its place as the power behind human will, is given a second look. It also discusses how the author plans to further research into the mind, its awareness and true relation to the brain, and how all of that could be used to help treat certain disorders.Although I tried to convey all of the great aspects of this book, I, in no way, did this book the complete justice that it deserves. I would greatly recommend this book for a novice with a basic knowledge of the field of neuroscience or anyone else that is interested in learning more about true plasticity of the brain. I will definitely suggest buying the book to anyone that seems to be interested in the neuroscience community.Interesting Quotes from the Book"...through mindful awareness, you can stand outside your own mind as if you are watching what is happening to another rather than experiencing it yourself.""The will, I was starting to believe, generates a force.""Consciousness is more than perceiving and knowing; it is knowing that you know.""The rise of modern science...reduced human beings to automatons."...when the mind changes, so does the brain""...cognitive therapy alone seemed to lack what OCD patients needed.""...the Silver Spring monkeys also changed forever the dogma that the adult primate brain has lost the plasticity of childhood""...most believed that learning physically alters the brain.""the cortical representations...reflect the history of use of the motor system""The amount of cortical territory assigned to a given part of the body reflects not the size of that body part by its sensitivity""Neuroplasticity...refers to wholesale remapping of neural real estate""...brain plasticity follows an increase or decrease in sensory input""...both quantum physics and classical Buddhism give volition and choice a central role in the workings of the cosmos.""A quantum theory of mind, incorporating the discoveries of nonlocality and the Quantum Zeno Effect, offers the hope of mending the breach between science and moral philosophy."

Neuropsychiatrist Jeffrey Schwartz stood at the precipice of a great divide: a divide between classical physics and quantum physics, between behaviorism and cognition, between physiological determinism and free will, between John B. Watson and William James.Behaviorist John B. Watson, an adherent to the philosophies of classical physics, functionalism, and determinism believed that consciousness is nothing more than the product of causal events in the brain. These notions implicitly deny the ideas of consciousness and free will, and his writings served as the guiding philosophy for the behaviorists who were providing therapy for obsessive/compulsive (OCD) patients in the 1980s."In the United States, therapists in the forefront of developing these techniques have had patients rub public toilet seats with their hands and then spread...whatever they touched all over their hair, face, and clothes. They have had patients rub urine over themselves...They have had patients bring in a piece of toilet paer soiled with a minuscule amount of their fecal material and rub it on their face and through their hair during therapy sessions...In other cases patients are prevented from washing their hands for days at a time, even after using the bathroom"(3).Jeffrey Schwartz was appalled at this inhumanity. A student of Buddhism, Schwartz believed that mindfulness or "bare attention" might be more suited in helping his obsessive/compulsive patients than the cruel and unnecessary treatment at the hands of the behaviorist therapists, and decades of research backed us his ideas that the mind is not immutable. These experiments conclusively showed that the adult brain has the ability to form new connections as well as grow entirely new neurons from stem cells in the hippocampus of the brain. These finding were largely ignored by behaviorist therapists treating patients with obsessive-compulssive disorder.Schwartz began to recuit his own OCD patients. He convinced them that the obsessive thoughts were the result of the faulty functioning of their brains. In a four step prcess of "relabeling", "reattributing", "refocusing", and "revaluing", he was able to instill in his patients a method of self-induced therapy. Over time these procedures altered brain chemistry, brain function, and produced long term favorable and measurable changes in the physical structure of the brain.These successes were not limited to OCD patients. Similar procedures, which rely upon focused attention, produced equally successful therapies for patients of stroke, depression, turrets syndrome, and autism.Schwartz coined the term "mental force" implying that the mind affects matter and he states: "Mental force affects the brain by altering the wave functions of the atoms that make up the brain's ions, neurotransmitters, and synapic vesicles"(318).Seeking a more rigorous quantum mechanical description of his idea, it seemed only fitting that in the spring of 1988 he would meet quantum physicist Henry Stapp. Both he and Stapp had been profoundly influence by the writings of William James.Stapp, like James, believed that a materialist view of the mind was untenable. The brain, Stapp insists, is a quantum mechanical system subject to all the properties of quantum mechanics such as non-locality, quantum tunneling, and the principle of uncertaintly.In particular, the ion channels, which are the chemical gateways that connect neurons across the synaptic gaps, are extremely narrow providing a large amount of uncertainty. As a result a quantum superpositon of states is created in which the neuron both fires and does not fire, both possibilities existing simultaneously. At the moment of observation, the superposition of states of the brain and of the aspects of nature being probed, collapse into a definitve state in which informtion or meaning is gained. The dualistic boundary between mind and matter collapses.The role of the observer, Stapp suggests, is to decide which questions to pose. The mind chooses which deterministic thoughts welling up in the brain should be held in consciousness in what William James called the "stream of consciousness" and what physicists call the "quantum Zeno effect", named after the Greek philosopher Zeno of Elea.The quantum Zeno effect, describe what happens when certain quantum attributes exist in a superposition of states. An observation will collapse the superposition into one particular state and hold it there indefinitely.This then is the essence of free will, and this is what gave OCD patients the choice not to act upon the unwanted thoughts that welled up in their brains as a result of deterministic processes.Schwartz' effort was a triumph of quantum physics over classical physics, of cognition over behaviorism, of free-will over determinism, and of the ideas of William James over the ideas of John B. Watson. This was a masterful and well researched book that documents many years of Jeffrey Schwartz's professional career, from his early influence by William James to his groundbreaking work with OCD patients and culminating in his fortuitous meeting with physicist Henry Stapp. This book had an influential affect on my philosphy of the nature of [email protected]