Posted by SLS on August 5, 2000, at 9:27:13
In reply to Brian fog or Brain cloud?, posted by Jennifer on August 4, 2000, at 5:22:16
Hi Jennifer.
Just a few more cents of nonsense...
> As far as the brain fog...my feeling is that since the chemicals are out of whack in your brain; and your brain is the central control of your body, it's kind of like having too little RAM on your high speed computer.
This makes some sense to me.
In 1992, I was a research patient at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). P.E.T. scan brain imaging (Positron Emission Tomography) was relatively new. I was privileged to have my picture taken. Unfortunately, I was not very photogenic. The results of the images were portrayed as a sort of weather map displaying temperatures. The colors red and orange represented areas of great brain activity, while blue represented areas of inactivity. My cerebral cortex was almost entirely blue. In severe depression, it seems that there is a rather global shut-down of higher brain function. Less RAM I guess. (The occipital lobes containing the visual cortex are almost always lit-up due to relatively continual visual activity).
The RAM analogy may run into problems as it represents a static number of specific registers available or affected. I think that brain activity remains dynamic in that specific areas may become less suppressed and more suppressed over time. Regions of activity and inactivity may shift. Perhaps this is why someone can remember easily those things that they were unable to remember the hour before.
> Even though the capability is there, it's too busy using whatever is available to maintain homeostasis throughout the body, and some sense of stability in itself at the same time. It doesn't have the time to concurrently look for things you are "thinking" about. It's too busy.
My guess is that there is not so much a competition or apportionment of function between different pathways in the brain as there is simply a change or lack of function in specific areas.
> I know whenever I lose total thought of what I was thinking I just say my brain is rebooting!
I think rebooting my brain would solve my problem. Let it reset and initiate function in its originally designed default mode. Perhaps, without having to go through a childhood of chronic psychosocial stress, things will remain nominal.
> Now...since you do develop additional neural pathways each time you learn something new...and this is why those who continually exercise their brain do better after strokes....maybe reading and learning new things will help to give you more "RAM", and help unveil that IQ you have hiding in there.
I think that some gains can be made, but they would remain relative to the limitations exacted by the impairments present.
Opinion:One can think of the impairment of learning produced by depression as being analogous to a relative lack of road-building equipment and/or the fuel to run them. By contrast, a stroke might be more analogous to the destruction or barricading of specific roadways. A stroke victim can build new roadways or perhaps repair the old ones using his healthy road-building crews. The depressed brain is slow or perhaps unable to build new roads because the equipment is damaged and may not have the fuel to run it. In both scenarios, I imagine exercising the brain can help. But in the case of endogenous depression, its associated dementias probably remain relatively constant as there is simply not enough energy being supplied to run the message transportation system. Existing roads remain infrequently traveled. New roads are slow to build.
> I'm sure it will take time. The less you use it, the more you lose it...and vice versa. Proof positive is that I used to be fairly fluent in spanish, and now I can only say "Hola, coma esta?" "Tiene dolor?" "Esta embarazada?" "Yo soy enfermera" and "Punga sus manos en la cabeza" (Hi, how are you?...Are you in pain?...Are you pregnant...I'm a nurse....and... Put your hands on your head!(always important during a robbery!) Next thing you know I'll ask someone if they're pregnant, have them put their hands on their head, and tell them they're about to be in pain!
Doesn't this happen sometimes?
You would be amazed to see how much my Spanish improves as my depression improves. I thought my loss of fluency was due to my lack of usage over the past 20 years. Of course, I have lost some. However, much of it returns startlingly when I experience even an hour of improvement of my depressed state. Amazing. Tragic.
> Have fun! Jen
I always try. Que tú te disfrutes también.
- Scott
poster:SLS
thread:42107
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20000729/msgs/42216.html