BBC Claims That Brain Retraining Can Alter MRI Scans

[DigitalDrifter]

 

[Chandelier]

An AI summary for those who can’t watch or want to cite passages.

Summary
This transcript presents a journey exploring neuroplasticity, the brain’s remarkable ability to adapt and change its structure throughout life. The speaker investigates how modern life challenges our brains and highlights neuroplasticity as a key driver of learning, healing, and adaptation. A focus is placed on mindfulness meditation as a method to reduce stress and promote neuroplastic rewiring. The speaker undergoes brain scans before and after six weeks of daily meditation, revealing measurable positive changes in brain regions linked to emotional processing and mind wandering control. The findings suggest regular mindfulness practice can visually and functionally enhance brain plasticity, demonstrating a promising way to keep the mind younger and healthier. The transcript ends with anticipation of exploring other neuroplasticity-boosting methods in future episodes.

Detailed Summary with Time Markers
00:04 Intro
Modern life—the school run, work, holidays, inflation. Scientists conduct pioneering research; our brains never evolved for this, yet we manage thanks to our brain’s incredible ability to adapt and grow. Neuroplasticity is the brain’s capacity to change its structure and function, once thought limited to youth but now known to be lifelong. This plasticity shapes who we are and is fundamental to learning and recovery. The speaker embarks on a journey to understand and boost neuroplasticity with three hacks to keep the mind younger.
01:41 Brain Scan Introduction
A science journalist visits Royal Holloway, University of London, for a brain scan before starting a six-week meditation course aimed at altering brain function.
02:04 Mindfulness Study
Thorsten Barnhofer, a Clinical Psychology professor at Surrey University, studies mindfulness’s effects on stress management and shows it promotes neuroplastic rewiring by reducing stress. The participant is prepared for an fMRI brain scan to observe baseline brain activity before meditation.
03:09 What is Neuroplasticity?
Neuroplasticity is the brain’s ability to change in response to stimuli—a basis for learning and memory. It involves neuron connections strengthening when fired together. Although plasticity is greatest in early life, it continues throughout life affecting brain network functions and structure. Neuroplasticity enables brain repair and can be harnessed to aid recovery from neurological disorders. It also delays degenerative diseases and helps rewire the brain after psychological trauma.
05:00 Mind and Stress
During a working memory test in the scanner, mind wandering is discussed. While mind wandering can foster creativity, excessive rumination and worry increase stress hormones like cortisol, which inhibit neuroplasticity, especially in highly plastic brain regions.
06:06 First Brain Hack: Mindfulness
Mindfulness is introduced as a method to manage stress and enhance plasticity. It helps buffer stress by increasing awareness and choice in response to challenges. The practice involves focusing attention on the breath, accepting mind wandering as natural, and gently returning focus to cultivate attention and mental flexibility.
08:21 After Six Weeks of Meditation
Post-meditation brain scan results show the brain is constantly changing. Positive changes align with existing scientific literature. The amygdala, involved in emotional processing, shows a small volume reduction indicating stress reduction. There are also changes in the posterior cingulate cortex, associated with controlling mind wandering and rumination, showing increased size reflecting improved control.
10:56 Continued Practice
Consistent meditation boosts the brain’s ability to prevent excessive mind wandering, illustrating neuroplasticity’s dynamic nature. Ongoing practice is recommended to observe more significant brain changes over time.
11:30 Conclusion and Next Steps
The speaker is amazed by visible brain changes after just six weeks of meditation but notes that practical constraints may prevent everyone from dedicating time to meditation. Future episodes will explore additional ways to harness and boost neuroplasticity in daily life.

 

[Tia]

I'm sure that meditation does change your brain, I feel like it's changed mine. I guess this has been posted because of all the claims that you can re-wire your brain to cure ME, for which there is no evidence.

 

[wabi-sabi]

Yes, this doesn't seem beyond the realm of possibility. Isn't there a study somewhere that London cabbies have a larger hippocampus due to memorizing the streets of London?

I think what's confusing here is how our mind and our brain interact. There's a long tradition in Western philosophy that the mind is immaterial (not made of matter). That creates a problem of how something that's not matter can interact with the chunk of mushy oatmeal inside our skull, and the rest of our bodies for that matter. If we adjust our concept of the mind, we can stop being shocked at what mushy oatmeal can do. Then we can get on with figuring out how the mushy oatmeal and all the rest of it gives rise to the sensation of thinking, emoting, and sensing.

Like, what is the difference between a mental and physical illness, when the mind is made of meat? When the mind is organic? Mental illnesses respond to therapy via words and human interaction. Physical illness (including neurological illnesses) don't respond to words. Can you talk down a panic attack? yes. Can you talk down a thyroid storm? no.

There's a lovely sci-fi story that gets at the uncomfortable idea that our finest feelings, Shakespeare, Moliere, Brahms, Picasso, everything, just comes from a chunk of meat.

They're Made out of Meat

 

[MrMagoo]

They even said on the film that there are fluctuations at different times though. Also stress makes the amygdala bigger and mediatation made it smaller but she didn’t think she was stressed at all to start with.
Why does everything have to be a binary opposition and a quid pro quo.

 

[wabi-sabi]

I'm reading a medical text from 1941, A History of Medical Psychology, by Zilborg and Henry. They give an example in the writings of Cicero, the ancient Roman guy, on early concepts of the mind and psychology. According to Cicero, "A mental disorder is a disease by itself, a disease of the mind. Therefore, Cicero objected to the term 'melancholia' on the ground that it suggested black bile as a causative agent" (p66).
Here we see the idea that mental illnesses are separate from physical illnesses- a disease by itself- and not part of physical illness, but of the mind. Cicero rejects physical, biological, organic (all the words we might use today) explanations of mental illness. In his day that was black bile, (an idea that turned out to be wrong), but we could substitute any more up to date physical explanations of today, to see the point he is trying to make: a mental illness does not admit of biological, fleshy, interpretations or causes. A mental illness is about the mind, not the body, whether we are talking about brains or bile.

Or course, this idea is incorrect, then and now, but boy does it hang around. Our minds are created by our physical bodies so out physical bodies must affect our minds, perhaps visibly in an MRI. But this idea that the mind isn't physical or affected by physical things goes back a long way. That's why we are still so shocked when our habits of mind affect MRIs of the brain.

This is why philosophers have mostly moved on from talking about minds and the mind-body problem to taking about consciousness and free will and how our brains create the impression that we have them. Medicine is still (unconsciously) stuck on the idea that minds are immaterial and then gets surprised when they turn out to be fleshy brains instead. Cicero was wrong- our humors do affect our minds, possibly because they affect our brains.