Meditation Reduces the Feeling of Pain | Lens Neurofeedback Training

 Mindfulness meditation can help ease your pain.

The technique can reduce pain intensity by as much as 32 percent, a new study has discovered—and even people who haven’t meditated before can quickly achieve these benefits.

The key is in not associating with the pain, but instead observing it as if it was happening to someone else, say researchers from the University of California at San Diego.

They tested the benefits of mindfulness on a group of 40 volunteers, half of whom were taught the technique and the others were told just to relax.

When a painful heat was applied to the leg, the mindfulness group reported a 32 percent reduction in pain intensity and a 32 percent reduction in unpleasant feelings about the Pain, Compared to the relaxation group.

Brain scans endorsed the findings. Transmissions between different areas of the brain were reduced in the meditators. “For many people struggling with chronic pain, what often affects their quality of life most is not the pain itself but the mental suffering and frustration that comes with it,” said lead researcher Fadel Zeidan.

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Protein linked to brain rejuvenation | Biofeedback Treatments Engelwood

 Mouse studies hint at a way to treat age-related decline

A single molecule may play a central role in rejuvenating aging brains, albeit in multiple ways, new research suggests.

Studies in mice of three different techniques for combating the cognitive decline that accompanies aging found that they all increase levels of a protein called platelet factor four, or PF4. This in turn improved cognitive performance and biological signs of brain health, three research groups report August 16 in Nature Aging, Nature and Nature Communications.

“PF4 may be an effective factor, and this kind of work will help bring it toward a therapeutic agent” for age-related cognitive decline, says bioengineer Michael Conboy of the University of California, Berkeley, who wasn’t involved in the work.

One of the research groups, led by neuroscientist Dena Dubal of the University of California, San Francisco, was studying klotho, a hormone linked to longevity. Injecting the hormone into mice boosts cognition, but since klotho is too large to cross the blood-brain barrier, it must act on the brain indirectly via a messenger.To search for this intermediary, Dubal’s team injected mice with klotho and measured changes in the levels of six proteins in the blood. PF4 increased the most, the team reports in Nature Aging.

Platelets are known for their role in wound healing and clotting, and they release proteins — including PF4-called platelet factors into the blood. “My first reaction was, what do platelets have to do with cognitive enhancement? This is crazy,” Dubal says. Follow-up work in mice found that PF4 enhanced neural connections in the hippocampus, a region crucial for memory.

Another UC San Francisco team, led by neuroscientist Saul Villeda, had previously shown that blood plasma from young mice rejuvenates the brains of elderly mice. A look at how young plasma differs from old revealed that young plasma contains much more PF4, the team reports in Nature. Injecting PF4 into old mice returned the immune system to a more youthful state, lowering levels of inflammatory proteins and reducing inflammation in the brain.

Separately, neuroscientist Tara Walker, of the University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia, and colleagues found that exercise boosts PF4 in mice. Delivering PF4 directly to mice’s brains spurs new nerve cell growth in the hippocampus, the team reports in Nature Communications.

The new studies all show that PF4, on its own, improves cognition. More and more research is pointing toward a link between the immune system, cognitive decline and diseases like Alzheimer’s,” Villeda says.

The main limitation of these studies is that few findings in mice translate into safe and effective therapies in people. But in humans, as in mice, PF4 declines with age.

In July, Dubal and colleagues reported that klotho improves cognition in aging monkeys, whose brains are much more similar to ours. But whether that improvement involves PF4 is not known.

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Scientists make waves in awake brains | Biofeedback Ridgewood

Controlling spinal fluid might help treat neurological diseases.Waves of cerebrospinal fluid that normally wash over brains during sleep can be made to pulse in the brains of people who are wide awake, a new study finds.

Previous research has suggested that the clear fluid may flush out harmful waste, such as the sticky proteins that accumulate in Alzheimer’s disease (SN: 7/21/18, p. 22). So being able to control the fluid flow in the brain might have implications for treating certain brain disorders. I think this [finding] will help with many neurological disorders,” says Jonathan Kipnis, a neuroscientist at Washington University in St. Louis who was not involved in the work. “Think of Formula One. You can have the best car and driver, but without a great maintenance crew, that driver will not win the race:’ Spinal fluid flow in the brain is a major part of that maintenance crew, Kipnis says. But he and other researchers, including the study’s authors, caution that any potential therapeutic applications are still far off.

I think this [finding] will help with many neurological disorders,” says Jonathan Kipnis, a neuroscientist at Washington University in St. Louis who was not involved in the work. “Think of Formula One. You can have the best car and driver, but without a great maintenance crew, that driver will not win the race:’ Spinal fluid flow in the brain is a major part of that maintenance crew, Kipnis says. But he and other researchers, including the study’s authors, caution that any potential therapeutic applications are still far off.

In 2019, neuroscientist Laura Lewis of Boston University and colleagues reported that strong waves of cerebrospinal fluid wash through our brains while we slumber, suggesting that sleep may give the brain a deep clean (SN: 11/23/19, p.11). The slow neural oscillations that characterize deep, non-REM sleep occur in lockstep with the waves of spinal fluid, the team showed. These flows are far larger than the rhythmic influences that breathing and heartbeat have on spinal fluid.

As brain activity during sleep causes blood to flow through the brain, spinal fluid flows in behind the blood. Such fluid infusions clear out toxic proteins and maintain constant pressure in the skull, experiments in mice have shown.

In the new study, “the first question we wanted to answer is, can you manipulate [blood flow] enough to also drive [fluid] flow when someone’s awake?” says Stephanie Williams, a neuroscientist also at Boston University.

To stimulate blood flow in the brain, Williams, Lewis, and colleagues showed six healthy adults a flickering checkerboard pattern. A mix of techniques, including functional MRI and electrodes, confirmed that the intense stimulation affected blood flow in the brain and allowed the team to see the order of events.Neural activity increased when the flashing pattern was turned on, followed by increased blood flow. Cerebrospinal fluid flow was suppressed while blood flow increased, and then surged into the brain as blood flow ebbed when the stimulation stopped, the team reports March 30 in NOS Biology. Longer stimulation produced larger spinal fluid flows, suggesting it was possible to maximize the response.

The effect of brain activity on spinal fluid flow is separate from the influences of heartbeat and breathing, the team found. The brain has a way to control its own fluid flow; Lewis says.The team did not measure whether the waking flows cleared waste from the brain. However, previous studies in mice have found that certain audiovisual stimuli reduce levels of toxic proteins linked to Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s. Testing of the technique in humans is underway.

“It’s a beautiful study, but wouldn’t draw therapeutic conclusions from this; says neurologist Steven Goldman of the University of Rochester Medical Center in New York. The brain’s fluid flow system is optimally set up for cleaning during sleep. “It would be more effective to just ensure a good night’s sleep; Goldman says. “Any manipulations over and above that would be best employed during sleep; Lewis’ team acknowledges that the induced flows were smaller than those seen during sleep. But the change in flow was still ‘pretty substantial; Lewis says. The technique could help scientists figure out how the process might be disrupted in diseases like Alzheimer’s, she says.

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This Year, Try Spring Cleaning Your Brain | Biofeedback Therapy Piermont

 Five ways to soothe a mind fixated on anxiety, stress, and streams of information.

Coronavirus cases are receding across the United States, and face masks are coming off. Little green shoots are finally poking through the earth, signaling the arrival of warmer weather. The pandemic has not been declared over, but after living in survival mode for the past two years, some would say we are emerging into a new normal. Though that doesn’t mean our minds are at ease.

Many have endured illness, economic upheaval, climate crisis, grief, and racial inequities. Add to that inflation, supply chain issues, and the ripple effects of Russia’s war with Ukraine – three of the biggest sources of stress among people in the United States right now, according to a recent poll for the American Psychological Association.

Perhaps, experts say, the arrival of spring can serve as a natural point to take stock of our mental well-being and reconnect with the things that bring us purpose and joy, offering our brains a respite when possible.

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