The Neurology of Calm
Gayatri Devi, MD
Clinical Associate Professor of Neurology
New York University School of Medicine
President
National Council on Women’s Health
President-Elect
American Medical Women’s Association
The Neurology of Calm
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Overview
Modern Deterrents to Calm
The Anatomy of Calm
The War of the Brains (Top vs Bottom)
Vagal Tone and Calm
Parenting and Calm
Gender Alarms: Body Image in Girls
Getting to Calm/ Practical Suggestions
Modern Deterrents to Calm
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Urban environments
Information / Forgetting
Multi-tasking
Sleep
Choices
Digital Interaction
Constant Availability
Role of Women
Lives of Children
Frontal lobe in skull
The brain in the skull
The
Neuroscience
of
Anxiety/Fear
The Calm of Children
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Choices
Scheduling
Fear
Parenting
Powerful Children
The Gifted Child
– Story of Elena
The Calm of Children
• Jerome Kagan
• 43 children
• Age 21 months, videotaped
• shyness, behavioral inhibition & vagal tone
• Two years later, 22 confident kids as confident, 21
anxious kids more anxious
• 104 two year-olds and parenting style
• Children more irritable & fearful (low vagal tone) had
more anxious moms
Children
at School
ADHD & environmental factors
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267 families, low socioeconomic status
Followed from 6m - 42 m
Child and maternal variables rated
34 hyperactive kids, 34 controls (24 boys/gp)
Correlates of ADHD in kindergarten:
• 2/3 maternal variables
– Overstimulation- advanced play (42 months)
– Maternal interference- (6 months)
• 1/30 child variables
– late motor maturation
Brain Changes in Anxiety
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Infants of depressed mothers-low vagal tone
Massage, music in adolescent mothers/ infants
Increased right frontal activation with depression
Present even when behavior ceases
Neurological and physiological change
Every change/ experience/ memory associated
with changes in brain connections
• Girls’ education and teacher strategies
Girls, Body
Image and
the Media
Adolescent Girls: Body Image
The Neuroscience of Body Image
• Univ. of London study- 111 boys and 124 girls
– ages 16-18, in school
– mean body wgt of girls 57 kgs (125 lbs)
– mean body wgt of boys 69 kgs (152 lbs)
• EAT, self esteem, reason for exercise, contour
drawing surveys completed.
• Furnham et al, J Psychol 2002
The Neuroscience of Body Image
The Neuroscience of Body Image
• 80% of girls AND boys dissatisfied with their
weight.
• However, nearly as many boys wished to be
heavier (36%) as thinner (43%)
• Only 9 girls wished to be heavier; 75% chose
an ideal figure thinner than theirs
• Girls/women exercise to lose weight,
boys/men not necessarily.
The Neuroscience of Body Image
• Face recognition vs body recognition
• Right frontal cortex, insula and cingulate gyrus
main regions in self recognition.
• Posterior sensory areas versus more anterior
(evolved, neocortex) association areas.
The Neuroscience of Body Image
• Self versus other images
• 10 AN women, 10 normal controls.
• Difference: no activation of the insula and the
attentional areas of brain when viewing self
• Prior study showed activation of amygdala in AN
patients
• Role of the amygdala and insular cortex
• AN suppress emotional & perceptual processing
The Neuroscience of Body Image
The Neuroscience of Body Image
• 13 men and 13 women
• left amygdala activated only in women
• left prefrontal cortex and hippocampus activated only in men
Shirao et al, 2005
The Neuroscience of Body Image
The Neuroscience of Body Image
• 1998 metanalysis of 222 studies over 50 years
Feingold & Mazella, 1998
• Pre-1970, 70s, 80s, 90s
• Ages 12-14, 14-16, 16-18, 18-23, 23-35, >35
• N= 37,627
• Results:
– body satisfaction: men vs women
– Men vs women, self assesment on looks
• “The analysis shows dramatic increases in the numbers of women
among individuals who have poor body image. Moreover, these
trends were found across multiple conceptualizations of body
image, including self-judgments of physical attractiveness.”
The Neuroscience of Body Image
The Neuroscience of Body Image
The Neuroscience of Body Image
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The plastic brain
Shaped by experiences and memories
The phantom limb syndrome
Change the brain, control the eating disorder
Change the brain, change society
“I am the Change” Film Festival
• The National Council on Women’s Health’s
– Screenings in NYC schools
– Panel, Screening, Small Group Discussion
– Short Film Competition
• School Wide Competition
• City Wide Competition
– WE are the Change!
Getting To Calm
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Disconnect from The Cell Phone
Sleep without alarms and sleeping aid
Parent without too many choices
Promote relationships and face to face contact
Engage the vagus!!
Take breaks from multitasking
Upcoming book on Calm
The Neurology of Calm
AMAZON.COM
Available June 2012