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The Brain and Emotional Self-Control
Different brain areas are activated when we choose to suppress an emotion, compared to when we are instructed to inhibit an emotion, according a new study from the UCL Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience and Ghent University.
In this study, published in Brain Structure and Function, the researchers scanned the brains of healthy participants and found that key brain systems were activated when choosing for oneself to suppress an emotion. They had previously linked this brain area to deciding to inhibit movement.
“This result shows that emotional self-control involves a quite different brain system from simply being told how to respond emotionally,” said lead author Dr Simone Kuhn (Ghent University).
In most previous studies, participants were instructed to feel or inhibit an emotional response. However, in everyday life we are rarely told to suppress our emotions, and usually have to decide ourselves whether to feel or control our emotions.
In this new study the researchers showed fifteen healthy women unpleasant or frightening pictures. The participants were given a choice to feel the emotion elicited by the image, or alternatively to inhibit the emotion, by distancing themselves through an act of self-control.
The researchers used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to scan the brains of the participants. They compared this brain activity to another experiment where the participants were instructed to feel or inhibit their emotions, rather than choose for themselves.
Different parts of the brain were activated in the two situations. When participants decided for themselves to inhibit negative emotions, the scientists found activation in the dorso-medial prefrontal area of the brain. They had previously linked this brain area to deciding to inhibit movement.
In contrast, when participants were instructed by the experimenter to inhibit the emotion, a second, more lateral area was activated.
“We think controlling one’s emotions and controlling one’s behaviour involve overlapping mechanisms,” said Dr Kuhn.
“We should distinguish between voluntary and instructed control of emotions, in the same way as we can distinguish between making up our own mind about what do, versus following instructions.”
Regulating emotions is part of our daily life, and is important for our mental health. For example, many people have to conquer fear of speaking in public, while some professionals such as health-care workers and firemen have to maintain an emotional distance from unpleasant or distressing scenes that occur in their jobs.
Professor Patrick Haggard (UCL Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience) co-author of the paper said the brain mechanism identified in this study could be a potential target for therapies.
“The ability to manage one’s own emotions is affected in many mental health conditions, so identifying this mechanism opens interesting possibilities for future research.
“Most studies of emotion processing in the brain simply assume that people passively receive emotional stimuli, and automatically feel the corresponding emotion. In contrast, the area we have identified may contribute to some individuals’ ability to rise above particular emotional situations.
“This kind of self-control mechanism may have positive aspects, for example making people less vulnerable to excessive emotion. But altered function of this brain area could also potentially lead to difficulties in responding appropriately to emotional situations.” -
mistakes
“You must learn from the mistakes of others. You can’t possibly live long enough to make them all yourself.” Sam Levenson
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Movement Group with Preschoolers
There have been more than a few times in workshops when I have jumped between being a participant and some level of facilitator. I have been involved with preschoolers through senior citizens in groups that featured some aspect of the Halprin Method/Motional Processing/Life Art Process. I get invited to lead/teach in a variety of settings that always requires sensitivity to how people react/respond to direction given. Here is an example (out of possible hundreds) that demonstrate how I have applied some aspects of the life art process in group of kids.
In 1997 I decided to change pace from only working with adults to working with children at the local YMCA in their after-school and preschool programs. I applied, and they were quite happy to hire me being a man, and having group experience (abet with adults). I would show up twice a week, and the teachers would bring a group of kids down to the gym, and I would do my thing while one or two teachers watched and the others took a break. I brought a hand drum, some percussion instruments, a bamboo flute, and some music. I also brought a bag of scarves that I used as props for the kids to move with.
The kids really loved this class, they were told at the beginning by their teachers that it was a special treat/class and I was often used as a tool for discipline. In other words, if you did not listen or obey, then no class with “Mr. Richard!” So, for eight dollars an hour, I put my decade and a half of experience working with adults to the test by doing more or less the same thing with kids.
The two-year-old group averaged nine kids in a class, and occurred once a week for about thirty minutes. I decided to use the name game to meet the three basic intentions I had developed for the two-year-olds. The intentions were, to get the kids to sit still in a circle, listen and follow directions, and increase the possibilities of play/movement within that structure.
In the name game, a person says his or her name, and uses movement to express something in relation to his/her name. In most circumstances, the group mirrors back the person’s name and the movement. This is a very simple exercise, and an easy way to begin movement in a group, and to have participants express with their bodies in front of others. It’s also, the beginning of making a connection between what you are thinking and feeling, your body, and how you are expressing yourself through your body.
The two simple directions, say your name and do a movement, can be opened and expanded in a variety of ways. For instance, you could direct the person to create a movement based on a theme, such as what they are feeling. You can expand further by having the group echo back the name and/or the movement of the person with the same qualities, or with the qualities that are experienced when the name and movement is mirrored back. You could also have the name expanded by using a nick-name or a name that each person wants to use for that moment. There are many ways to expand dependent on the dynamic of the group and/or the intention/theme of the class.
The first obstacle I faced with meeting the intentions was the location. My classes took place in the gym where the teachers would get to the door of the room and literally unleash the kids. All the children, with a great amount of glee, would run forth and play with some abandon as soon as they stepped into the room.
In order to create a smoother transition and to maintain some control, I asked the teachers to bring the kids into the gym in a line (which they used to get them from their class room to the gym). From there they proceeded to chairs which were in a row placed against the wall of the gym. It only took a few times for this new way of entering the room to become the standard.
Having two-year-olds sit for fifteen minutes in a circle on the ground seemed to be something that all of the teachers thought of as a bit daft. As one later confided in me, they thought of me as some hapless expert who had no real life experience in the field. I knew that I had some distinct advantages: I was a man in a facility of all women, and I had a never-ending bag of group process experiences. Granted, these process experiences were designed for adults but I figured I could follow Anna Halprin’s words of advice from years earlier; “….with the life art process you can take any theme and expand or contract it at a moment’s notice to an hour, day or week-long experience.”. Using that bit of advice, I simplified the name game and other process experiences and kept them to their core themes.
In using the name game with the two-year-olds, I decided to keep the options for expression fairly closed. For the beginning of each class, I would have the kids enter the room and sit on the chairs. I would sit on the floor and when everyone was present and focused, I would have them come to me and sit in a circle around me. For the first few months or so, I had the teachers join in the circle.
For the first month, I talked about voices and sound and level of sound, what a whisper is, what being really loud is, and what using your voice in-between is. I asked the kids, one at a time, to say their name in a normal/regular voice. I repeated their name and mimicked their movements/mannerisms that were expressed.
For instance, one child was very shy and cocked her head to the right side when she said her name. I echoed her immediately after by saying her name (with the same voice quality) and cocking my head to the right.
After everyone had a chance to go, I repeated the exercise, but this time I had them whisper their names. The last round was shouting their name and raising their arms up. A few kids chose to stand when they did this and I did not discourage it. I repeated this exercise (amongst others) every week, sometimes expanding it to include the group echoing back, sometimes having them create their own movement.
As the weeks went on, I expanded it further, by including holidays and how that might be reflected in voice and movement quality. From that point I expanded to feelings, staying with happy and tired. Not being a therapist and this not being therapy, I did not want to go too deeply.
The first time in September when I worked with the two-year-olds I had three teachers helping me, sitting on the floor and corralling the kids from running away. By December I had just one teacher helping when needed, but who basically sat on the side and watched. I met my intentions with just the name game. The kids learned about following directions and appropriate behavior with voice and movement modulation requests. I engage them in such a manner that they did not feel a need to jump up and run around (or away from the circle). I helped them to noticed and create connections between voice, movement and feelings. I even had one child, who the teachers had literally never heard talk, one day suddenly stand up and say her name when it was her turn.
Reprinted from my unpublished manuscript: Renewal and Rediscovery of the Self in the Life Art Process
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Afgan Hound Coloring Page
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Dance Movement Therapy Association of Australia
The Dance Movement Therapy Association (DTAA) is the recognized professional body for dance movement therapy in Australia. It sets the standards for Professional and Associate levels of membership, training and supervision. The DTAA also warmly welcomes General and Student members.
The DTAA promotes the growth, development and recognition of the dance-movement therapy profession in Australia by:
- establishing and maintaining standards for training, research and professional practice
- providing a means of communication, education and networking between dance-movement therapists, other health professionals, employers and clients
- liaising with other relevant peak and professional bodies
- providing information and resources for dance-movement therapy practitioners, students and the wider community
- offering Professional Membership status to applicants who meet the training criteria, and Associate, Student or Overseas membership to others interested in dance-movement therapy.
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Yoga may boost your brain power
Yogis may be enjoying a surprising benefit when they unroll their mats and strike a pose. A new study finds that just 20 minutes of hatha yoga stimulates brain function.
Researchers from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign enlisted 30 subjects to take tests of working memory and inhibitory control, two measures of brain function associated with the ability to focus, retain, and use new information, the researchers said.
Subjects who took a single, 20-minute yoga session were significantly faster and more accurate on their tests than subjects who walked or jogged on a treadmill for 20 minutes.
Participants on the treadmill exercised with the goal of maintaining 60 to 70 percent of their maximum heart rate throughout the exercise session. “This range was chosen to replicate previous findings that have shown improved cognitive performance in response to this intensity,” the researchers said.“Yoga is an ancient Indian science and way of life that includes not only physical movements and postures but also regulated breathing and meditation,” said study lead Neha Gothe. “The practice involves an active attentional or mindfulness component but its potential benefits have not been thoroughly explored.”
Subjects who practiced yoga performed a 20-minute sequence of seated, standing, and supine yoga postures, with the class ending in a meditative posture and deep breathing.
“It appears that following yoga practice, the participants were better able to focus their mental resources, process information quickly, more accurately and also learn, hold and update pieces of information more effectively than after performing an aerobic exercise bout,” Gothe said.
“The breathing and meditative exercises aim at calming the mind and body and keeping distracting thoughts away while you focus on your body, posture or breath,” she said. “Maybe these processes translate beyond yoga practice when you try to perform mental tasks or day-to-day activities.”
Findings, announced June 5, appear in the Journal of Physical Activity and Health.
A separate study published last month finds that twice-weekly yoga sessions can reduce high blood pressure. In the study, researchers led by Dr. Debbie Cohen of the University of Pennsylvania tracked 58 women and men, aged 38 to 62, for 24 weeks.Another study published earlier this year in the journal Frontiers in Psychiatry found that the practice may soothe depression and help sleep problems.
Read more:A 20-minute yoga session may boost your brain power – The Denver Post
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Balsam Root Coloring Page
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Body image and the sound of our own heart
This interesting article from Science Daily:
A new study, led by Dr Manos Tsakiris from Royal Holloway, University of London, suggests that the way we experience the internal state of our body may also influence how we perceive our body from the outside, as for example in the mirror. The research appears today in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B.
Psychologists measured how good people are at feeling their body from within by asking them to count their heartbeats over a few minutes. They then measured how good people are at perceiving their own body-image from the outside by using a procedure that tricks them into feeling that a fake, rubber hand is their own hand. Click the link above for more.
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Isis Coloring Page
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Redefining “Mental Illness”
I came across an interesting article from SeedMagazine.com (now defunct) about the changes in thinking about mental illness and its organic origins. A short clip from the article: Redefining “Mental Illness”
“British psychologist and editor Christian Jarrett answered the question by citing an editorial published in January in Psychological Medicine. The editorial’s writers, led by Dan Stein, argued that a “mental disorder” has five primary factors: It’s a behavior or pattern occurring in an individual, causing clinically significant distress or impairment, reflecting an underlying physical dysfunction, and is not primarily the result of social deviance or conflicts with society. It’s also not just a response to a stressful event like a friend or family member’s death, where it’s normal to expect someone to appear “depressed” or otherwise disturbed for a period of time. Stein’s team is part of the working group for the DSM-V, so clearly their arguments will carry significant weight in forming the new definition.”
If that will be the new definition than it suggests that all bases of mental illness are organic in nature, which is more or less the current theory in treatment using pharmacological intervention. Another factor in all this is, as I recently learned from another article is that genes can be “turned on and off” by how we interact with our environment.
A short clip from the BBC News Magazine article: Is there a genius in all of us?
“They now know that genes interact with their surroundings, getting turned on and off all the time. In effect, the same genes have different effects depending on who they are talking to.
“There are no genetic factors that can be studied independently of the environment,” says Michael Meaney, a professor at McGill University in Canada. It would be folly to suggest that anyone can literally do or become anything. But the new science tells us that it’s equally foolish to think that mediocrity is built into most of us”
“And there are no environmental factors that function independently of the genome. [A trait] emerges only from the interaction of gene and environment.” This means that everything about us – our personalities, our intelligence, our abilities – are actually determined by the lives we lead. The very notion of “innate” no longer holds together.”
So, I assume that it is possible that a person in a state of say, depression, produce (or not) chemicals in the body which in turn activate/turn off genes which increases the depression to a clinical level. That clinical level of depression can and is typically treated with a pharmacological (medication). The pharmacological reproduces a missing chemical in the body, which the body in turns stops producing altogether, thus continuing the need for the med. However if the body and its genes respond to the environment could one not engage a person in therapeutic treatment, with minimal med intervention and achieve the same result?
The institution where used to work used to have patient stays of months and used less medications and had fewer repeat visits from patients; suggesting that long-term therapeutic treatment works. Which is something that we could continue to do … that is if the public/private insurance companies did not demand that psychiatric patients be stabilized and released in a short a time as possible.
CreativeTherapyTools 