‘The aging brain: Through many lives’

 This essay was written for my Abnormal Psychology Course taken on-line through the community college.  This article has some interesting information about overcoming limitations after a stroke, and information about how stem cells may help regenerate brain tissue.   At the end is one of my favorite poems....

PSY-170
Chapter 14 Written Report
Videos on demand, ‘The aging brain: Through many lives’
Quotes: All quotes are from the video unless otherwise noted.

The video walks the consumer through a series of scientific studies and discoveries on the aging brain, which has surprising powers of renewal. Aging does come with a normal slowing down of neurocircuits, and for some people “memory and thinking changes become much more severe as they age” (Ch 14, pg 420). In this video, we learn how scientists have “begun to unlock the secrets of the aging brain”; for starters, neurons are designed to last about 120 years!

A study at the University of Alabama at Birmingham demonstrated the ability of the brain to rebuild circuitry by using patients who have had strokes and lost the use of a limb.  This method of physical therapy has shown amazing results.  Stroke patients are generally told that the use they have of a disabled limb within 6 months to one year of the stroke is as good as it will ever get.  Kent Miller suffered a stroke and lost the use of his left arm and hand.  He was frustrated because he was unable to do the things he used to, from combing his hair to tying his shoes to mowing his lawn.  Like many stroke patients, Kent is struggling with feelings of uselessness.  This study demonstrated that the neurons in injured areas of the brain can recover by overcoming non-use of the limb through repeating use, and over and over and over....  One of the exercises Kent was given was to use his left hand/arm to pick up and flip over a domino; from watching the video one can see it was quite exhausting.  Over time however, he did show improvement in the use of his limb and with repetition of tasks he will continue to see improvements; in this way the brain is like a muscle, the more you use it the better it gets.

The affects of aging begins once our bodies have fully matured; approximately age 20.  Over time, our bodies decline inside and out.  Cognitive effects include memory loss, impaired ability to “recall information after a reminder is given”, frequent forgetfulness, forgetting “how to do simple things like tying a shoe-lace or using a microwave oven”, “trouble learning new tasks”, “the need to repeat oneself or to constantly ask the same question to get information and remember it”, “personality changes, loss of social skills”, and “loss of interest in daily activities” (Ch 14, page 420). However a study at University of California at Irvine found that the same things that work to keep our bodies healthy also work to keep the mind healthy. Physical exercise is at the top of the list because it helps to rejuvenate the brain by “boosting production of vital brain proteins”. The study exercised rats consistently, with a control group that did not exercise; the brains of the rats that exercised had doubled in levels of a protein that help neurons grow in areas “critical to memory”.  In fact, exercise induces many different molecules that keep neurons healthy.  For Stanley Kunitz, the activity is poetry, “What makes the engine go? Desire. Desire. Desire.” As long as you exercise your spirit and your vitality with something that we care about (poetry, art, family, etc.). Another preventative measure is to eat the ‘Mediterranean diet’ consisting of fish, fruit and vegetables with moderate intake of red wine. 

For a long time, neuroscientists have believed that “neurons in a fully developed brain never reproduced themselves and can never be replaced” however, neuroscientists are now studying stem cells, which become more dormant with age, and how they might be used to stimulate the production of new neurons and thus repair damaged brain tissue. In laboratory experiments at Harvard Medical School, researchers first killed many neurons in the brains of mice, then several days later injected stem cells.  Jeffrey Maklis was amazed at the results, “They moved to exactly the right location, they turned into the right kind of neurons, and most strikingly some of them could send long connections to the correct targets.  In other words, they rebuilt circuitry in the brain.”     This research may eventually help people with Parkinson's, a disease that slowly kills neurons in the brain.  The only thing doctors can do at this time for people suffering from Parkinson’s disease is to try to help relieve symptoms such as a stiff body, trembling hands and trouble walking for as long as possible, but death is the eventual outcome of this disease.

Alzheimer's is a disease marked by “impaired ability to plan or organize daily activities, engage in abstract thinking, or understand the sequence of events, such as maneuvering driving turns to get to and from a grocery store”.  It gradually “robs a person of the qualities of being human” due to the “slow and irreversible progression of dementia” (Ch 14, page 424) and there is no way to test for it. Instead diagnosis must be made by examining the patient and interviewing family and friends close to the patient.  Examples of questions asked of family or friends: What has changed? What have you noticed? Do they depend more on you for help than before?  Exam of the patient includes questions to establish whether the person knows what year and month it is, questions about favorite sports teams or significant dates such as birthdays.  All of these help determine whether there is cognitive loss or just normal cognitive signs of aging.

Specific to alzheimer's are tangles and plaque, which scientists first thought were the ‘tombstones’ of the disease only to later realize they are the disease in action. Tangles (neurofibrillary tangles) are caused by neurons (consisting of “a microtubule, or skeleton structure held together by a protein substance called tau”) that have collapsed after twisting and tearing apart, leaving only broken strands. “Fragments from these neurons eventually collect in spheres and other shapes” (Ch 14, page 432).  Plaques (neuritic plaques or beta amyloid) are a sticky protein in the cell that clumps together and attaches itself to a neuron; this causes the brain to react in a protective manner by releasing chemicals to kill the ‘invader’.  Sadly, these chemicals end up destroying the neuron in the process, so the brain is actually killing itself.  Scientists are researching ways to protect tau, by interfering early to prevent the progression of Alzheimer's;  a protein called Pin-1, a known trigger for the formation of tangles, may be able to stop Tao from becoming abnormal.  Another hypothesis scientists are working with is using beta amyloid itself to as part of a vaccine to prevent stickiness and clumping in the first place; in one study, mice vaccinated with Pin-1 showed almost no plaque formations while the control group was riddled with them.  Being able to use this type of treatment on humans will obviously take some time, but discoveries like those covered in the video give us hope for a cure.

Finally, weaved throughout the video were parts of a poem dictated by Stanley Kunitz (included below) who is 95 at the time of the filming is still writing and reading poetry. One fan, obviously a doctor, says to Stanley, “If all of my patients were like you I’d be starving.”  Stanley stated that his poetry is his exercise of the soul at what keeps his mind young.  When asked for advice for those who don’t write poetry, he offers, “To care about life, to care about others, to remain active. For example you plant a seed, you cultivate the soil, you watch it flower; you’re participating in an ancient ritual of life itself”.  If you pay attention when watching the video, selected phrases from the poem subtly introduce the coming segment.


The Layers
BY STANLEY KUNITZ

I have walked through many lives,
some of them my own,
and I am not who I was,
though some principle of being
abides, from which I struggle
not to stray.
When I look behind,
as I am compelled to look
before I can gather strength
to proceed on my journey,
I see the milestones dwindling
toward the horizon
and the slow fires trailing
from the abandoned camp-sites,
over which scavenger angels
wheel on heavy wings.
Oh, I have made myself a tribe
out of my true affections,
and my tribe is scattered!
How shall the heart be reconciled
to its feast of losses?
In a rising wind
the manic dust of my friends,
those who fell along the way,
bitterly stings my face,
Yet I turn, I turn,
exulting somewhat,
with my will intact to go
wherever I need to go,
and every stone on the road
precious to me.
In my darkest night,
when the moon was covered
and I roamed through wreckage,
a nimbus-clouded voice
directed me:
“Live in the layers,
not on the litter.”
Though I lack the art
to decipher it,
no doubt the next chapter
in my book of transformations
is already written.
I am not done with my changes.