Exactly how is your doctor going to test for this and then give you a stroke protocol to increase your brain integration?
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/277806.php?tw
Creativity may depend on greater brain integration, according to a new study published in Creativity Research Journal by Maharishi University brain researcher Fred Travis and University West quality management researcher Yvonne Lagrosen.
Scientists refer to brain integration as mind-brain development. People
with high mind-brain development are alert, interested in learning new
things and disposed to see the whole picture. They think in wide circles
and are emotionally stable and unselfish.
"It's a simple fact that some people stand out, and we're trying to
tease out why," says Dr. Travis. "We hypothesized that something must be
different about the way their brains work, and that's what we're
finding."
Dr. Travis uses a measure he developed called a Brain Integration Scale.
He uses EEG recording to assess frontal brain wave coherence (a measure
of connectedness among the various areas of the brain) and alpha power
(a measure of inner directedness of attention). He also assesses the
brain's preparation response, which measures how efficiently the brain
responds to a stimulus.
In all of his studies so far, top-level performers consistently show
higher levels of brain integration. Previous studies by Dr. Travis and
colleagues have found that greater brain integration is present in
world-class athletes, top managers, and professional musicians.
This current study was conducted on 21 product-development engineers in
Sweden - a group that would be expected to have high levels of
creativity. Drs. Travis and Lagrosen assessed their level of creativity
using standardized Torrance measures and found them to be in the 70th to
90th percentile. They also looked at their levels of brain integration,
speed of processing information, speed of executive decision-making,
and Sense-of-Coherence.
A canonical correlation analysis of these data yielded strong
correlation between higher flexibility and originality in verbal and
figural creativity tests and higher levels of brain integration, faster
brain processing, faster speed of decision making, and a sense of being
in control of one's situation.
"Our empirical findings highlight that creativity, in the form of
flexibility and originality, is connected to whole brain functioning and
psychological development," says Swedish research collaborator Dr.
Lagrosen. "Since creativity is highly important for individual success,
optimizing brain functioning should be a priority for every student."
"While there's a common notion that 10,000 hours of practice is
necessary for high achievement, some people put in long hours and do not
excel," adds Dr. Travis. "This work and other work with my Norwegian
collaborator, Dr. Harald Harung, and Dr. Yvonne Lagrosen suggest that
brain integration may be the inner factor that leads to outer success."
"This then raises a question," asks Dr. Travis. "Is it possible to
increase one's level of brain integration, or is it simply a matter of
genes (nature) or a supportive environment (nurture)?"
Regular practice of the Transcendental Meditation technique has been
found in random assignment studies to increase levels of brain
integration. "People who want to excel in any field should consider
learning Transcendental Meditation," says Dr. Travis, "and see for
themselves the effect of regular transcending on inner happiness and
outer success."
>Exactly how is your doctor going to test for this and then give you a stroke protocol to increase your brain integration?
ReplyDelete.
Fred Travis specializes in research on Transcendental Meditation (TM). He originally developed the scale they refer to by examining the EEG and other physiological/psychological measures of extremely experienced practitioners of TM since it turns out that the main effect on the brain from doing TM is exactly the kind of brain integration that is associated with creativity in this new study.
Ironically, this kind of integration is exactly the opposite of what happens with most other forms of meditation, as this paper shows:
Reduced functional connectivity between cortical sources in five meditation traditions detected with lagged coherence using EEG tomography
http://www.amaye.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/med-connectivity-EEG-tomog.pdf
Last year, the American Heart Association issued a statement (a guidance to doctors on what treatments might legitimately be recommended to their patients) concerning alternate therapies for treating high blood pressure, and found that TM was the only meditation practice with consistent enough effects to allow them to recommend it as a secondary treatment for high blood pressure.
Beyond Medications and Diet: Alternative Approaches to Lowering Blood Pressure: A Scientific Statement From the American Heart Association
http://hyper.ahajournals.org/content/early/2013/04/22/HYP.0b013e318293645f.full.pdf
"..TM may be considered in clinical practice to lower BP. Because of many negative studies or mixed results and a pau- city of available trials, all other meditation techniques (including MBSR) received a Class III, no benefit, Level of Evidence C recommendation Thus, other meditation techniques are not recommended in clinical practice to lower BP at this time."
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For heart disease and stroke, a recent study found that TM reduced incidence of new strokes by 24%, and reduced all-cause mortality by 48%:
Stress Reduction in the Secondary Prevention of Cardiovascular Disease
http://circoutcomes.ahajournals.org/content/5/6/750.full
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As far as whether or not someone recovering from a stroke could learn TM, I would say the majority could. TM is taught verbally, but even someone with severe autism and exceedingly low verbal skills, has learned to do TM, and thrived from its practice:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D8VgM-jKXN8
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for more info, you can contact the TM organization through its website:
http://www.tm.org
If the fee to learn is too much, the local TM center offers scholarships and grants to reduce it to more manageable levels. If that is still too much, the David Lynch Foundation has been known to respond to paper letters (not email) explaining financial hardship, by contacting the local center and arranging further fee reductions. http://www.davidlynchfoundation.org
Good luck.
>Exactly how is your doctor going to test for this and then give you a stroke protocol to increase your brain integration?
DeleteThat is exactly the question for your doctor to answer, a stroke survivor is too f*cking stupid to know these petty details.