20. Seminar on the Brain
Another Sunday and seminar. Professor John Edwardes stands. On his right sitting at the long, oval table, Eddie, in soldier uniform, poised to speed-write. Across, on Professor's left, Stan sits looking down at notes. The other chairs are taken by the usual seminarans - Brenda and Joe; next, the light-skin super's helper Sam and on his right the darker Xenia Green; also, the pizza/pasta chef Nicola and Sister Barbara in her black nun's garb. 1 PM on the wall clock. Eddie shakes the small liberty hand-bell, the room quietens, and the Professor stands.
"Hello, seminarans. Today Dr Stan will oversee new knowledge on the brain." the Professor sits; Stan looks up. "Thank you, Professor; this is Seminar so interrupt. It is future stuff. But don't think it is speculative. Start at a human conception. The development of brain and connections we call the nervous system makes me nervous when I think what long odds oppose its healthy development. From the moment of conception, it takes up to twenty years to complete the connections. The brain is fully formed at birth, but the trillions of neurons are still at work to complete each one's connections to destination targets in the other parts of the brain, the spinal cord and the rest of the body. Many of these connections are dead ends and get deleted. And it takes till a child's seventh birthday before most targets have been connected to the cerebral cortex."
Brenda interrupts. "So how can a newly pregnant woman make sure these neurons connect fibers to their targets? Seems to me, the more connections that succeed the smarter and more physically coordinated your kid will be. And the more the connections fail, the dumber and clumsier. Ain't it so?"
"Yes. Various factors determine intelligence and physical dexterity - education, study, training are important. But the basic material is the neuron connections to targets. The lower the success rate, the worse the outcome."
Brenda exclaims: "Wow! You better not advertise this, Doc. We'll be nervous wrecks in pregnancy. But, in a practical way, advice, please."
He does not detect the plea in her please.
"Agreed. The process of connection is iffy if you consider a neuron near the surface of the brain's cortex atop the head sending a fiber to connect with a neuron-target a foot or more down the line and that neuron sending its fiber out to a muscle in the foot. And multiply that a billion times. So errors must occur and we want to minimize the errors. On a practical level, women who are about to get pregnant should take daily supplements of vitamins C, B12 and folic acid, since low levels in a woman's blood increase the errors."
Brenda interrupts "Why not just take a multi-vitamin?"
"Because not all vitamin supplements are safe to take in pregnancy. Particularly beware of vitamin A which has caused abortions and malformations when taken early in pregnancy. And retinoic acid which is a form of vitamin A is an agent that can cause havoc in the early embryo. "
"Oh, I see, Doc. 'Scuse me"
He continues, "Then, during pregnancy avoid all medical or other x-rays, do not live in a basement - high radon gas there -, avoid industrial chemicals like benzene and paints in one's environment, and do not travel to exotic places especially in airplanes, where you get exposed to cosmic radiation."
At the word paints Brenda glances towards Joe.
Nicola interjects: "Whatta mean exotic? Italia?"
Stan laughs. "Yes sir. Any place outside USA except Canada. Remember, I say practical. If the woman lives in Italy, exotic includes U.S.A. I mean no foreign travel. Then after birth, the surroundings should not subject the child to x-ray or industrial chemicals."
Brenda says, "Gotcha, Doc. Thanks."
Professor Edwardes moves Stan along by saying, "Now tell about how we as adults may preserve brain power?"
"OK. Imagine yourself - age 20. I choose that age because by then the nervous system has completed development from conception - the last fiber has reached its target and got its sheathing. From age 20 the problem is maintenance of the system, the aim to prevent bad effects. The average person knows nothing of prevention. He smokes cigarettes, drinks too much alcohol, eats too much food and salt and accumulates fat in arteries. Then there are the unnecessary x-ray tests near the brain, the little & big bangs to the head. Result is, starting near age 35, a destructive process in brain occluding arteries from high fats in blood, blowing out blood vessels from high blood pressure, and destroying precious irreplaceable neurons by repeated bangs and x-ray and toxins."
"So what can we do?" asks Sam.
Avoid all these toxic effects in a sensible way."
"Is that all there is?" Brenda almost shouts. "My mom told me that!"
"Your mama was right!" Says Sam, with a laugh, alluding to the song lyrics Blues in the Night.
"She certainly was," says Stan. "I could add one thing she did not tell you. On top of the preventives just listed, exercise the mind."
Professor Edwardes interrupts "By doing seminars."
Joe says, "I'm a painter - not just wall painter but art. My mamma just started getting the shakes - you know, Doc, 'cause you examined her - that hand tremor even when she don't use it. And you diagnosed Parkinson's Disease. I'm sure you're treating her well - you're the top - and I hope for the best but what I ask now is Will I get it? For a painter, it's the end. I gotta have perfect control a my hands."
Stan replies, "We have some very new knowledge. First, simplifying for you all, Parkinson's is a brain disease that causes hand tremor at rest. There is more but that's the main part. It comes from a destructive process in groups of neurons in the brain we call the basal ganglia. Those neurons are like the controls of a car - the gas pedal, the brake, the gear shift. The basal ganglia gives you smooth control. But in Parkinson's an important set of these cells starts getting destroyed and it causes the controls to start to fail so the smooth muscle movements become jerky and cause tremor and it gets worse with aging. For a painter, of course, it's the end."
"So how to prevent, Doc?"
"The new discovery is that the destructive process is being caused by a mix of toxic stuff like industrial chemicals, pollutants like lead from the gasoline in the air, even substances in your paints.
"I am not telling you to stop your life and get off but here is practical advice. Take a lot of vitamin C every day. It protects against the toxins. Drink at least 2 liters of purified water a day - it dilutes the toxins and flushes out. Use a good face & nose mask - like our surgical masks - whenever you are painting. And live a healthy life - no smoking, moderate alcohol, moderate eating so you keep that trim torso you have now, and so the fats in your blood stay low. And absolutely no marijuana, cocaine, amphets. If you can follow all that advice, you won't get Parkinson's."
"Thanks, Doc." Actually Joe knows all this from Stan but he is asking the questions because Stan asked him to. It's called being a shill in slang.
At that moment the door opens and everyone turns to see the great Leo Davidoff enter. This time there is no secretary following, only Dr. Irving Goldberg. He nods and sits at opposite end of table from Professor Edwardes, and Goldberg sits in the empty chair on left. Davidoff speaks: "Good afternoon, all. We are rather busy but thought to stop by. I know the subject and have one question for Dr Pelc." He looks to Stan. "What does your latest research tell you about the cerebellum?"
Stan knew he would be coming and asking the question.
"For everyone here, the cerebellum looks like a piggy-back brain behind and under the main brain." He lifts his right hand to back of neck. "Now, everyone follow me. Grab the back of your head, just below where it meets your neck. Like this." He does it and all copy him. "Your hand is now cupped over your cerebellum.
"It's been a bit of a mystery what it does. Everyone agrees it's responsible for muscle coordination. You may test your own cerebellum right now. Close eyes and try to touch left and then right index fingertip to tip of nose."
Everyone does it perfectly.
"If you could do these two actions perfectly you have a perfect cerebellum. If anything is wrong with your cerebellum you'll fail. And left cerebellum causes left-side problems and right, the right-side; which is opposite of the main brain, the cerebral cortex, where left brain controls right-side and vice versa."
"Wow!" Exclaims Brenda. "What an easy test for such a complicated organ! Look ma, no bad cerebellums in this room!"
Stan continues, "The cerebellum is also involved in memory. Not the kind of memory we recite back to each other or ourselves - like secret numbers or poems. But muscle control memories we do not think the details of. Like riding a bicycle - the way we do it, or stick shifting in a car or pressing combination lock numbers. We need to learn these memories by training the usual way. But once we learn them we forget the thought details - like the actual spoken or written numbers of a combination press lock. Our fingers just know. That is cerebellar memory. That's useful if you have the habit of saying a combination number in your mind before pressing the digits on the combination lock or door. If one day you forget in your mind, as inevitably happens, just empty your mind of numbers and let your finger do the remembering and the finger will automatically press the right numbers. Also it may become important in improving training techniques and rehabilitation after strokes. Especially training a right handed person to use left hand after a left-side of brain stroke."
The seminarans are now rather in a daze. It is a bit much for them. They are rescued by Eddie picking up the small liberty hand bell, shaking it, and announcing "Time!" At once, the professor's secretary appears at the door wheeling in the pizza & pasta spread and beverages which Nicola immediately helps her with.
The subject of the seminar continues in groups as everyone bites off the ends of the pizza slices, twirls the tomato-sauced spaghetti's on forks, and swills the Coca Cola or pure water. Brenda does the pure water.
To keep on reading, now click 14.21 Menage a Trois New member Problem
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