First Mind Over Matter, Then Matter Over Mind
By Dr James LeFanu

The human brain poses the profound philosophical question of how the "spiritual" can control the physical. Specifically how our immaterial thoughts can directly influence the very material electrical impulses of our billions of neurons and trillions of interconnections - how, at its simplest, does my desire to hammer that nail cause the necessary movement of muscles in the arm?

We are, for the most part, so preoccupied with the activities of our daily life that we have little time to reflect on how these activities happen. But occasionally something brings the conundrum into focus, such as the intriguing story in this newspaper last week of the beneficial effect of positive thinking on the behaviour of the inmates of Stafford prison.

They were, no doubt, typical of the prison population in general, which contains a disproportionate number of young men who find great difficulty in concentrating on any task for more than a few minutes. They would now be labelled as having Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, with all its many undesirable adverse psychological and educational consequences.

The precise nature of the defect in ADHD remains elusive, although, as is well known, the drug Ritalin can influence the balance of chemical neurotransmitters leading to a marked improvement in symptoms. But, as we learnt last week, so do a couple of daily mind exercises designed to train the patterns of thinking. Nearly 90 per cent of those taking part reported improvement in reading, writing and coordination. Thanks to modern brain scanners, it is possible to observe that these mind exercises produce changes in the physical structure of the brain.

This is particularly well shown in a study of a dozen patients affected with compulsive disorders, such as repeated hand-washing, whose scans showed markedly increased activity in the pathways leading from the primitive brain stem to the "higher" frontal cortex.

Following 12 weeks of cognitive therapy, during which they learnt to associate their intrusive thoughts with some other pleasant image, they were not only much improved, but their brain scans' appearances had returned to normal. As psychiatrist Jeffrey Schwarz suggested: "We altered the physical structure of their brain by changing the way they thought about their thoughts." It makes you think, as it were.
The Sunday Telegraph, 11th June 2006