Healthy Brain, Happy Life (41 page)

TAKE-AWAYS: THE EFFECTS OF MEDITATION ON BRAIN FUNCTION

•  A major difference in the brain of expert meditators relative to novice meditators is a much higher level of gamma wave oscillations. Gamma wave oscillations have been linked to certain measures of consciousness.

•  Expert meditators also have more efficient processing in brain areas important for attention.

•  Eight weeks of meditation practice in novices has also been shown to be associated with strong EEG signals in the anterior part of the brain.

•  Long-term meditation has been reported to increase the size of various brain areas.

•  Meditation improves mood in subjects with social anxiety disorder (SAD).

•  Meditation enhances attention during emotional situations in subjects with SAD.

FINAL NOTE

I
n this book, I’ve shared with you the most meaningful insights from my ongoing experiment with my own brain plasticity. One thing I know for sure is that brain plasticity endows us with an enormous capacity to change into the very best version of ourselves that we can be. I’ve learned, largely through the process of writing this book, that deep down inside I am the same little girl that loved Broadway and math equally well. I’ve been through many different phases in my life, from secret Broadway diva to painfully shy but hardworking high school student to world-traveling college student to total workaholic adult with no outside activities. All of those phases, every one of them, were all me—just different versions of me. I used to hate the shy high school nerd and the chubby workaholic assistant professor about to get tenure. Now I own them all. Today, I am a balanced, joyful, intentional, and optimistic woman. But just because I own them all doesn’t mean that I don’t want to continue to change and grow. In particular, I know now that the last big shift in my life from completely unbalanced neuroscientist to happy and balanced woman happened because of (1) my clear desire to improve myself; (2) hard work and perseverance, including a large dose of exercise; and (3) my own brain plasticity.

The most exciting news is that anyone can follow this program to transform his or her life. It starts with the innate desire to change. The other key ingredient you need in this mix is a little neuroscience know-how to point you in the right direction. With this book, I have tried to give you the tools that you need to start to improve your memory, attention, mood, and overall zest for life with aerobic and intentional exercise that will serve to kick-start your brain plasticity. What you do with that brain plasticity, including exactly how you apply it to different parts of your life, will be your own personal and unique creation.

Today, I am the best version of me that I have ever been. Exercise started me on the path that has allowed me to align my mind, body, and spirit in a way that I have never been able to do before. And I see the effects of those changes every day as I continue to explore how best I can serve in the world. And I’m not done changing and transforming—not by a long shot. I know I will continue to explore, grow, and change as I continue to express my own unique form of creativity for the rest of my life.

My wish is that my readers will use this book to inspire an exploration of their own remarkable brain plasticity and in doing so become the very best versions of themselves that they can be.

Wishing you all a healthy brain and a very happy life,

Wendy Suzuki

January 28, 2015

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I thank my coauthor Billie Fitzpatrick for her generosity, guidance, support, and superb writing skills. I could not have written this book without her amazing ability to find the heart of the story.

To Yfat Reiss Gendell, the very best book agent I could have ever asked for. I am so grateful for your knowledge, skill, and savvy regarding all things publishing. It’s been a privilege to work with you.

I thank Carrie Thornton for her superb editorial skills. Every suggestion you made helped bring the book into better focus.

I thank and acknowledge my wonderful network of friends, my students, and my teachers who have supported me and inspired me throughout this process.

And I thank spirit for showing me my path of service.

REFERENCES

1: How a Geeky Girl Fell in Love with the Brain: The Science of Neuroplasticity and Enrichment

Anderson, A. K., and Phelps, E. A. “Lesions of the Human Amygdala Impair Enhanced Perception of Emotionally Salient Events.”
Nature
411 (2001): 305–309.

Bennett, E. L., Diamond, M. C., Krech, D., and Rosenzweig, M. R. “Chemical and Anatomical Plasticity of Brain.”
Science
146 (1964): 610–619.

Bennett, E. L., Rosenzweig, M. R., and Diamond, M. C. “Rat Brain: Effects of Environmental Enrichment on Wet and Dry Weights.”
Science
163 (1969): 825–826.

Blood, A. J., and Zatorre, R. J. “Intensely Pleasurable Responses to Music Correlate with Activity in Brain Regions Implicated in Reward and Emotion.”
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences U.S.A.
98 (2001): 11818–11823.

Cao, F., Tao, R., Liu, L., Perfetti, C. A., and Booth, J. R. “High Proficiency in a Second Language Is Characterized by Greater Involvement of the First Language Network: Evidence from Chinese Learners of English.”
Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience
25 (2013): 1649–1663.

Diamond, M. C., Krech, D., and Rosenzweig, M. R. “The Effects of an Enriched Environment on the Histology of the Rat Cerebral Cortex.”
Journal of Comparative Neurology
123 (1964): 111–120.

Diamond, M. C., Law, F., Rhodes, H., Lindner, B., Rosenzweig, M. R., Krech, D., and Bennett, E. L. “Increases in Cortical Depth and Glia Numbers in Rats Subjected to Enriched Environment.”
Journal of Comparative Neurology
128 (1966): 117–126.

Diamond, M. C., Rosenzweig, M. R., Bennett, E. L., Lindner, B., and Lyon, L. “Effects of Environmental Enrichment and Impoverishment on Rat Cerebral Cortex.”
Journal of Neurobiology
3 (1972): 47–64.

Globus, A., Rosenzweig, M. R., Bennett, E. L., and Diamond, M. C. “Effects of Differential Experience on Dendritic Spine Counts in Rat Cerebral Cortex.”
Journal of Comparative Physiological Psychology
82 (1973): 175–181.

Hamann, S. “Cognitive and Neural Mechanisms of Emotional Memory.”
Trends in Cognitive Science
5 (2001): 394–400.

Harrison, L., and Loui, P. “Thrills, Chills, Frissons, and Skin Orgasms: Toward an Integrative Model of Transcendent Psychophysiological Experiences in Music.”
Frontiers in Psychology
5 (2014): 790.

Hu, H., Real, E., Takamiya, K., Kang, M. G., Ledoux, J., Huganir, R. L., and Malinow, R. “Emotion Enhances Learning via Norepinephrine Regulation of AMPA-Receptor Trafficking.”
Cell
131 (2007): 160–173.

Klein, D., Mok, K., Chen, J. K., and Watkins, K. E. “Age of Language Learning Shapes Brain Structure: A Cortical Thickness Study of Bilingual and Monolingual Individuals.”
Brain and Language
131 (2014): 20–24.

Koelsch, S. “Towards a Neural Basis of Music-Evoked Emotions.”
Trends in Cognitive Science
14 (2010): 131–137.

Krech, D., Rosenzweig, M. R., and Bennett, E. L. “Effects of Environmental Complexity and Training on Brain Chemistry.”
Journal of Comparative Physiological Psychology
53 (1960): 509–519.

Kuhl, P. K. “Brain Mechanisms in Early Language Acquisition.”
Neuron
67 (2010): 713–727.

Kuhl, P. K. “Early Language Acquisition: Cracking the Speech Code.”
Nature Reviews Neuroscience
5 (2004): 831–843.

Kuhl, P. K., Stevens, E., Hayashi, A., Deguchi, T., Kiritani, S., and Iverson, P. “Infants Show a Facilitation Effect for Native Language Phonetic Perception between 6 and 12 Months.”
Developmental Science
9 (2006): F13–F21.

LaBar, K. S., and Cabeza, R. “Cognitive Neuroscience of Emotional Memory.”
Nature Reviews Neuroscience
7 (2006): 54–64.

Maguire, E. A., Gadian, D. G., Johnsrude, I. S., Good, C. D., Ashburner, J., Frackowiak, R. S., and Firth, C. D. “Navigation-Related Structural Changes in the Hippocampus of Taxi Drivers.”
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences U.S.A.
98 (2000): 4398–4403.

Maguire, E. A., Spiers, H. J., Good, C. D., Hartley, T., Frackowiak, R. S., and Burgess, N. “Navigation Expertise and the Human Hippocampus: A Structural Brain Imaging Analysis.”
Hippocampus
13 (2003): 250–259.

Maguire, E. A., Woollett, K., and Spiers, H. J. “London Taxi Drivers and Bus Drivers: A Structural MRI and Neuropsychological Analysis.”
Hippocampus
16 (2006): 1091–1101.

Phelps, E. A. “Emotion and Cognition: Insights from Studies of the Human Amygdala.”
Annual Review of Psychology
57 (2006): 27–53.

Phelps, E. A. “Human Emotion and Memory: Interactions of the Amygdala and Hippocampal Complex.”
Current Opinion in Neurobiology
14 (2004): 198–202.

Phelps, E. A., and Anderson, A. K. “Emotional Memory: What Does the Amygdala Do?”
Current Biology
7 (1997): R311–R314.

Rochefort, C., Gheusi, G., Vincent, J. D., and Lledo, P. M. “Enriched Odor Exposure Increases the Number of Newborn Neurons in the Adult Olfactory Bulb and Improves Odor Memory.”
Journal of Neuroscience
22 (2002): 2679–2689.

Rochefort, C., and Lledo, P. M. “Short-term Survival of Newborn Neurons in the Adult Olfactory Bulb after Exposure to a Complex Odor Environment.”
European Journal of Neuroscience
22 (2005): 2863–2870.

Rosenzweig, M. R., Krech, D., Bennett, E. L., and Diamond, M. C. “Effects of Environmental Complexity and Training on Brain Chemistry and Anatomy: A Replication and Extension.”
Journal of Comparative Physiological Psychology
55 (1962): 429–437.

Rosselli-Austin, L., and Williams, J. “Enriched Neonatal Odor Exposure Leads to Increased Numbers of Olfactory Bulb Mitral and Granule Cells.”
Brain Research. Developmental Brain Research
51 (1990): 135–137.