Prefrontal Cortex

[damask-rose]

Can some kind (and knowledgeable) person explain the role of the prefrontal cortex in the AR process? Ashok mentions it regularly, but I don't quite get it!

Many thanks!

[Recovery Soon]

The Pre frontal Cortex is the actual thinking/decision making part of the brain. So when you use the STOP technique your Prefrontal Cortex is consciously overriding your subconscious reactions (from the amygdala) which operate independent of your conscious thought.

He is making is the point that you can use your intention (PC) to retrain the subconscious patterns (Amygdala) that were previously not under your control.

The PC is basically the YOU, that you think of when you think of yourself,

Here's how Wikipedia defines it:

This brain region has been implicated in planning complex cognitive behaviors, personality expression, decision making and moderating correct social behavior. The basic activity of this brain region is considered to be orchestration of thoughts and actions in accordance with internal goals.
The most typical psychological term for functions carried out by the pre-frontal cortex area is executive function. Executive function relates to abilities to differentiate among conflicting thoughts, determine good and bad, better and best, same and different, future consequences of current activities, working toward a defined goal, prediction of outcomes, expectation based on actions, and social "control" (the ability to suppress urges that, if not suppressed, could lead to socially-unacceptable outcomes).

[damask-rose]

Thank you RS!

It's interesting that Ashok says how research shows that people with CFS have less "grey-matter volume in the bilateral prefrontal cortex" than healthy people. Is that because we stop exercising this part of our brain, as the amygdala takes over? And we can sort of exercise it back again.

[Recovery Soon]

I'm confused about that too. Not sure why or how would that could happen.

[neverpartyagain]

I've read studies that meditation on a regular basis leads to growth of grey-matter especially in the frontal cortex. That's why I have started meditation some months ago.

If you are interested in this you should google about Richard Davidson. He did studies with Tibetian monks who have most long time experience with meditation. He found out that they have a lot more grey-matter than others in specific areas, unusual activated left side of the brain and they also show up with the highest measured gamma waves Davidson had ever seen before.

[niaholt]

If anyone has any doubt about this program working, they might like to read "The Brain that Changes itself" by Norman Doidge.. It is about neuroplasticity...how the brain can constantly change and take on another role to heal itself.....like stroke cases and other crippling illnesses. This book has given me tremendous encouragement to know that Ashoks program is definitely on the right track to re training our brains to heal us.

In one chapter it talks about Obsessive Compulsive Disorder and the treatment he uses to cure people is very similar to Ashoks program. The checking compulsions is similar to our body scanning...tension builds when they try to resist the compulsion to wash off germs.

Although he believes the OCD develops in a different part of the brain, the orbital front cortex, it sends a damming signal to the cingulate gyrus deep in the cortex to be hyper. These brain structures get locked into a certain position...stuck...a faulty circuit develops sending crazy signals similar to us from the Amygdala.

He believes in exposure to the very thing you are afraid of....response prevention....moving the gearshift into another pleasurable thought pattern immediatley after a negative thought. He emphasises "it is not what you feel while applying the technique that counts, it is what you do"

Like our AR training this neuroplastic technique, does not change the brain over night, but lays the groundwork by exercising the brain in a new way...changing the channel to a new activity,, changing transmission, forming new circuits in the brain, releasing more dopamine which rewards new activity and consolidates and grows new neuronal connections.. By not acting on compulsions, worries etc the link is weakened over time.

After treatment over several months he did PET scans on his patients and found their brain patterns had changed markedly just through changing their thinking and doing the technique.

This is an amazing book to read as it analyses all kinds of happenings in the brain like phantom pain in amputees and what is behind it. Many of the champion researchers who made these discoveries have had to face a lot of criticism from within their own professions....enough said.
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