Brain Games

Last week I went to a Cognitive Neuroscience Conference at my alma mater, Temple University, on the topic of Working Memory and Working Memory Training. In addition to discussing the areas of the brain (e.g., pre-frontal cortex, parietal lobe) and neurotransmitters (e.g., dopamine, GABA) involved in Working Memory, the presenters discussed the difference between maintaining something in working memory (for example, recalling a phone number or a shopping list verbatim), and manipulating something stored in Working Memory (such as performing mathematical calculations on numbers stored in memory).  In terms of attention, it seems that attention does not affect the former, Working Memory maintenance, but may affect the latter, Working Memory manipulation.

As far as the efficacy of Working Memory Training programs, such as Cogmed and Lumosity, there was some disagreement among the presenters, but all presenters believed that these trainings are imperfect as they are currently designed. In the end, it seems that there is not enough transfer from a trained task in one of these programs to a new task in terms of working memory improvement. As one presenter put it, "Practice the skills you want to acquire. If you want to learn to play the piano, practice on the piano, not the violin."

One thing several presenters did agree on is that these Working Memory Training programs seem to help individuals learn strategies to use in similar Working Memory tasks. I'm sure this came as no surprise to anyone involved with children or education today. The best thing you can do for children is to teach them HOW they learn.

Saved by my Kindle

Since my son has required reading for school, I've found it helpful to read the same book as him while sitting alongside him (he reads the paperback and I read on the Kindle) and we discuss the chapters after we finish them. Yesterday, my son's allergies were bothering him and his eyes were tearing, so I used the Text to Speech feature on my Kindle and the text was read aloud to us as we followed along. The Kindle has a computer generated voice, which had unnatural pauses and accelerations, along with some mispronunciations, which we found quite humorous. It was a great solution for a night in which I didn't know how effective reading was going to get done, and I didn't have to buy an audio book, which I had considered. Caveat emptor: you have to follow along by reading the text or it would be close to impossible to understand everything!

A Fine Balance

Yesterday, two minutes after I dropped my son off  IN FRONT OF HIS SCHOOL, I received a phone call from his school saying my son had fallen and hit his head. How? He said he tripped on the sidewalk. Because of all the current concerns about concussions, I took my son to the pediatrician to have him checked out (he was fine), and he rested for the remainder of the day.

 Interestingly, during a web search about something unrelated, today I came across information on the web about a doctor, Harold Levinson, who for decades has been treating children with dyslexia, dysgraphia, ADHD and related dysfunctions under the theory that these symptoms are related to a type of dizziness or motion sickness, and can be treated with inner-ear enhancing medications in combination with other treatments.

Levinson theorizes that certain disorders "are due to a simple signal-scrambling disturbance of inner ear (and cerebellar) origin, In other words, the inner-ear and its supercomputer, the cerebellum, act as a 'fine-tuner' for all motor (balance/coordination and rhythmic) signals leaving the brain and all sensory and related cognitive signals entering it. As a result, normal thinking brains will have difficulty processing the scrambled or distorted signals received." (dyslexianonline.com)

I am not sure of the efficacy of this theory, but it sounds like an interesting one to explain my son, who struggles with many of the things Levinson discusses including balance, coordination, dysgraphia, spelling, and processing speed, and who spent the first year and a half of his life with middle ear (not inner ear) infections. Is there a relationship? I don't know. Something new to consider.

Super Tasters vs. No Tasters

My son came home the other day talking about a science experiment they had done in class in which every student put a small piece of paper in his or her mouth and determined whether he/she was a "Super Taster," a "Taster" or a "No Taster." My son was in the group who found the paper taste aversive and spit in out immediately, putting him in the "Super Taster" category (which may at first seem counterintuitive).  Like many Super Tasters, who cannot tolerate strong tastes, the food my son likes tends to be quite "boring" or  bland: chicken, potatoes, hamburgers, tacos, cheese quesidillas, soup, pizza, peas, soft green beans, and corn. In contract, my daughter and I, the "No Tasters," like olives, pickles, calamari, escargot, mussels, clams, capers...and the list goes on and on. Often the stronger the taste, the better.

My son's story gave me the opportunity to talk to him about "hypersensitivity" and "hyposensitivity," and how someone can be "hyposensitive" in one area and be "sensory seeking" in another. For example, he might be super sensitive to taste and texture in his mouth, thus not like the touch and taste of many vegetables (especially broccoli!) and yet be "sensory seeking" in his sense of touch, and enjoy touching a variety of textures, which he also does. This is something I learned a long time ago when providing early intervention speech therapy services to babies and young children, which often involved feeding therapy with preemies who had difficulty tolerating different textures. For some children we needed to gradually increase texture and taste in the food. For others, who hated the bland baby food, we needed "big tastes" to be added to the food, like pickle juice or barbecue sauce.

This reminded me to go back to serving my son a variety of vegetables again and offer him ketchup on the side if that is what he needs to tolerate it. I also remembered that you sometimes have to eat a new food 20 to 25 times (or more) before you like it. Time to start that clock again!

Carb loading

I am always aware of the change in light in September, and how the days seem to get precipitously shorter. Many scientists have postulated that the decrease in light in the Fall leads to humans increasing their carb intake, as people unconsciously seek to add to their fat stores for winter.  I am always on the look out for that in my own behavior.

In terms of parenting, I find nutrition especially hard, specifically with my son, who does not like any vegetables that are not high in starch and who has a somewhat limited palate. In addition, with my son back in school and homework starting, I find there is less time to prepare food, especially as he often needs prompting to stay focused during homework.

One thing I did set into action a month ago is the promise that our family will give up fried food for 30 days starting Monday, September 8. I heard again today the statistic that it takes 45 days to start a new habit. Here's hoping that 30 days is enough!