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Mind Over Matter – Regaining Movement

Mind Over Matter – Regaining Movement

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Daily brief research updates from the cognitive sciences

movement brain mind

This is the type of study and insight I like. Kind of amazingly simple but effective. Though my headline may seem like promising the world, it isn’t. It simply focused on research into amputees and how they regain movement with artificial limbs of all sorts.

Simply a matter of training you may say. Kind of, but it is a painful and slow process because the body and brain are wired to work with the limbs you had and when they are gone it is a long frustrating process to regain functional movement.

And recent research by Szu-Ping Lee of the University of Nevada, is showing that attentional focus, an issue of the mind, is key to getting this right. This is grounded in sports kinesiology research particularly that of Professor Gabrielle Wulf.

The general approach is to focus on what muscles or joints need to coordinate to make a movement this is similar to what happens in sport. For example, in golf you will be focused on getting the right movement to make your swing, or in baseball, or soccer, or whatever sport it is.

This is an internal focus whereby you are trying move specific muscles or limbs in a complex coordination. The idea of course sounds logical: to get a specific movement you should coordinate your body internally.

However, external focus is different, it focuses only on the outcome. So, in the case of using prosthetics for amputees rather than focusing on the internalised processes you focus on the external: just move, just balance. For example, in golf when putting, you may focus on all internal cues, or simply focus on getting the ball in the hole.

Internal focus can lead to higher frustration with the prosthetic feeling like an additional lump and therefore inhibiting effective usage, whereas external focus focuses on outcomes and so integration of everything to achieve that outcome.

The paper just out focuses on rehabilitation of 21 patients and shows that most of the verbal instructions in therapy are focused on internal cues. Whereby Wulff’s research shows that external cues are more effective. This is by the way also the specialists curse – physical therapists are specialists in how movements connect together so can fall into the trap of getting to internalised rather than just focusing on the simple external cue.

But for now, it is not really mind over matter but changing mind focus to move more effectively – we know that focusing on outcomes rather than internal cues is more effective. This could be true in many areas in life.

Andy Habermacher

Andy Habermacher

Andy is author of leading brains Review, Neuroleadership, and multiple other books. He has been intensively involved in writing and research into neuroleadership and is considered one of Europe’s leading experts. He is also a well-known public speaker, speaking on the brain and human behaviour.

Andy is also a masters athlete (middle distance running) and competes regularly at international competitions (and holds a few national records in his age category).

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References

Szu-Ping Lee, Alexander Bonczyk, Maria Katrina Dimapilis, Sarah Partridge, Samantha Ruiz, Lung-Chang Chien, Andrew Sawers. 
Direction of attentional focus in prosthetic training: Current practice and potential for improving motor learning in individuals with lower limb loss
PLOS ONE, 2022; 17 (7): e0262977
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0262977

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Do We Lose Brain or Muscles First?

Do We Lose Brain or Muscles First?

Quick Hits
Daily brief research updates from the cognitive sciences

As we age things start to decline, we all know that – happens to the best of us. We know that cognitive ability starts to decline after about 30 though different abilities decline at different ages: some research has shown that some cognitive abilities stay healthy for a long time (mental speed notably) as I reported here.

We also know that muscle strength decreases in later years, and this also therefore impacts mobility and simply staying healthy.

Then we also know that both physical and mental ability help each other. There is plenty of research to show the positive impacts of exercise on cognitive ability and aging. We also know that cognitive ability impacts the desire and motivation to exercise – with muscle anyhow losing strength as we age.

This also interests me greatly, as some of you readers may know I am a competitive masters athlete – running internationally on the track. And at these competitions we see people up to the age of 100 competing and some mightily impressive performance at all ages – but everyone gets slower and weaker with age – despite training.

So, this sounds like a bit of a chicken and egg conundrum. We know they both influence each other but is one more influential than the other? Enter Cheval et al. from the University of Geneva in Switzerland.

They analysed data from 105’206 adults in a European-wide database and compared cognitive abilities with a verbal fluency test and self-reported physical activities. They they fed this into different statistical models to see if it was exercise that influenced cognitive ability, or cognitive ability that influenced exercise, or if it was a mutual impact.

The results were what I have also reported on, that it does indeed seem to be that cognitive capacities influence physical ability. It Is not that physical ability doesn’t influence cognitive capacity it just that this is not the most influential.

So, the jury seems to be in. Brains go first.

However, that said this is looking at a general population group and general exercise – I would wonder how this is in a group of competitive masters athletes like myself?

Nevertheless, this does mean that looking after our brain and therefore cognitive capacity is really important (I write regularly about this here).

But irrespective of what comes first – the advice is still: look after your brain…and do keep (or start) exercising.

Andy Habermacher

Andy Habermacher

Andy is author of leading brains Review, Neuroleadership, and multiple other books. He has been intensively involved in writing and research into neuroleadership and is considered one of Europe’s leading experts. He is also a well-known public speaker, speaking on the brain and human behaviour.

Andy is also a masters athlete (middle distance running) and competes regularly at international competitions (and holds a few national records in his age category).

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References

Mengtong Li, Hwei-Ee Tan, Zhengyuan Lu, Katherine S. Tsang, Ashley J. Chung, Charles S. Zuker. 
Gut-Brain Circuits for Fat Preference
Nature, 2022
DOI: 10.1038/s41586-022-05266-z

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Cravings for Fatty Food and the Gut-Brain Connection

Cravings for Fatty Food and the Gut-Brain Connection

Quick Hits
Daily brief research updates from the cognitive sciences

Ihave written multiple times about the gut-brain connection in multiple ways including the impacts of the microbiome and gut-brain axis on various cognitive, physical, and mental health factors. But this latest research is also a surprise.

When it comes to unhealthy eating many of us would assume it is down to taste and natural biological desire for certain types of foods. But researchers at Columbia University have discovered an entirely new connection – not in the mouth but in the gut.

This comes from research into mice and feeding them with different liquids. Firstly, one that had dissolved fats in it and one another that included sweet substances but that were known not to affect the gut. Under normal circumstances one would assume that both would drunk in equal quantities but the one with fats in it was preferred.

When this was then tested on mice that had no sense of taste (genetically modified, yup, weird I know). They also preferred the liquid with dissolved fats in it showing that taste had nothing to do with this desire.

The researchers then searched for the mechanisms by scanning the brains of the mice while or after drinking the fatty liquid. They found an area in the brain that responded to fats with neurons in an area called the caudal nucleus of the solitary tract (cNST) activating to the fat. This area is also involved in sugar preference.

They then looked at the connections to the gut and found that two types of cells in the lining of the intestines that responded to fat. One seems to be general cell responding to fat, but also sugar, and proteins, the other only responding to fats. These then connect to the vagus nerve which relays the messages to the brain.

This obviously opens up new avenues of research to deal with things like cravings for fatty, or high-calories foods, and other avenues to fight obesity.

It is also another one to show that the gut is extremely important and that the gut-brain axis is not to be underestimated. And now you can also just blame your gut – and your brain for your cravings.

Andy Habermacher

Andy Habermacher

Andy is author of leading brains Review, Neuroleadership, and multiple other books. He has been intensively involved in writing and research into neuroleadership and is considered one of Europe’s leading experts. He is also a well-known public speaker, speaking on the brain and human behaviour.

Andy is also a masters athlete (middle distance running) and competes regularly at international competitions (and holds a few national records in his age category).

twitter / LinkedIn

References

Mengtong Li, Hwei-Ee Tan, Zhengyuan Lu, Katherine S. Tsang, Ashley J. Chung, Charles S. Zuker. 
Gut-Brain Circuits for Fat Preference
Nature, 2022
DOI: 10.1038/s41586-022-05266-z

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How to Form Optimal Groups for Learning

How to Form Optimal Groups for Learning

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Daily brief research updates from the cognitive sciences

education learning school brain

There has been a long-standing debate and discussion in learning contexts for what is the best way to form groups for optimal learning when there are different abilities in those groups.
The two classic strategies are one, put those of similar ability together so that everyone can operate at a similar level and hopefully benefit from more targeted learning. And two, put differing abilities together so that the peers can also benefit from each other and those with stronger ability can also pull along the weaker ones.

This applies to many scenarios, from sports training, to educational contexts, and even in business.

However different research has pointed to different things – for example in peer learning differences, if not too large seem to be beneficial. But if differences are too large, it becomes detrimental. So, to answer this question enter mathematicians from the University of Rochester.

They analysed this using mathematical principles which included multiple assumptions such as: multiple groups would be formed; the individuals involved would have different skill levels; an optimal teaching environment would be one in which a student is taught at a level that matches his or her skill level; and the optimal grouping system would maximize the collective benefit for all students.

They then analysed three grouping scenarios. Tiered grouping according to ability, balanced grouping of different abilities, and random groupings.

And what were the results?

The results showed that according to this mathematical model tiered-grouping, grouping according to ability was best.

It should be noted that this is, as we would expect, best for the group on average. For an individual however, it might not be best. For example, an individual might benefit more from being in a group of people with higher ability (probably not too much higher).

But for the moment, though I am sure the debate will continue, mathematics shows that grouping people into similar ability groups is best for learning…on average.

Andy Habermacher

Andy Habermacher

Andy is author of leading brains Review, Neuroleadership, and multiple other books. He has been intensively involved in writing and research into neuroleadership and is considered one of Europe’s leading experts. He is also a well-known public speaker, speaking on the brain and human behaviour.

Andy is also a masters athlete (middle distance running) and competes regularly at international competitions (and holds a few national records in his age category).

twitter / LinkedIn

References

Peter D. Wiens, Christine Zizzi, Chad Heatwole.
Instructional Grouping Theory: Optimizing Classrooms and the Placement of Ranked Students.
Educational Practice and Theory, 2022; 44 (1): 5
DOI: 10.7459/ept/44.1.02

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Extreme Temperatures Increase Hate Speech Online

Extreme Temperatures Increase Hate Speech Online

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Daily brief research updates from the cognitive sciences

I am sure we all know that feeling of getting more irritable when temperatures rise. Well, now we have some fascinating research to show that that irascibility is also measurable in the amount of hate speech online.

We may assume that hate speech is simply the language of a number of opinionated and disagreeable folk. Sure, it is, but this shows that, seemingly, local temperatures magnify this effect.

So, what was this fascinating study?

This was conducted by Annika Stechemesser,  et al. of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research by analysing over 4 billion tweets in the US using AI algorithms.  From this they identified about 75 million English phrased hate tweets. They were then mapped to local temperatures and lo and behold a correlation was found.

What they found is that there is feel good window which corresponds to the minimum of hate tweets. That feel good window is between 12 and 21°C with the absolute minimum between 15 and 18°C. Temperatures either above or below, interestingly, led to an increase in hate tweets. Temperatures above 30°C are consistently linked to an increase in hate tweets across climate zones and socioeconomic differences including income, religious beliefs, or political preferences.

This is fascinating because it shows that local environmental conditions also impact hate behaviour – previously only considered as an attitude, personality, or belief problem. It also shows that changing climate dynamics with a global increase in extreme weather will likely also drive an increase in bad behaviour online and on social media.

Note also that this is not US specific with the same group of researchers also finding similar patterns in Europe.

This is important to note because this behaviour will likely occur in all social situations, in business and in society. We seem to have an optimal window and out of this things get, well, heated.

Andy Habermacher

Andy Habermacher

Andy is author of leading brains Review, Neuroleadership, and multiple other books. He has been intensively involved in writing and research into neuroleadership and is considered one of Europe’s leading experts. He is also a well-known public speaker, speaking on the brain and human behaviour.

Andy is also a masters athlete (middle distance running) and competes regularly at international competitions (and holds a few national records in his age category).

twitter / LinkedIn

References

Annika Stechemesser, Anders Levermann, Leonie Wenz. 
Temperature impacts on hate speech online: evidence from 4 billion geolocated tweets from the USA
The Lancet Planetary Health, 2022; 6 (9): e714
DOI: 10.1016/S2542-5196(22)00173-5

A Stechemesser, L Wenz, M Kotz, A Levermann. 
Strong increase of racist tweets outside of climate comfort zone in Europe
Environmental Research Letters, 2021; 16 (11): 114001
DOI: 10.1088/1748-9326/ac28b3

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