News & Notes from Larry's Laptop

The other day I overheard two people talking about neuroplasticity while waiting in line at Peets Coffee & Tea in San Jose. Talk about coming a long way!

When I was studying Psychobiology—aka, the neurological basis of behavior—at UC Santa Cruz back in the early 1980s, the structure of the brain was understood to be given and unchangeable. The homunculus—the representation of the physical body on the sensory and motor cortices based on Wilder Penfield's research—provided a physical basis for Feldenkrais' idea of the self-image. However, the homunculus was taken to be fixed, like a map that was hardwired into the brain at birth.

This presented a problem. If Feldenkrais was right—that we move according to our self-image and not our structure AND that our self image changed—that implied that the sensory homuculus, at least, would have changed as we learned. This idea was unacceptable to the orthodoxy at the time, which lead to some pointed conversations with some of my professors and fellow students.

At one point, I remember reading an article about research into the development of the nervous system of dogs done by Russian neurophysiologists. Following Penfield, they stimulated the motor cortex of puppies through the first days of life and they were able to show that the projection of the body onto the brain (since they were canines, does that mean we'd have called it the "canunculus?") changed over time. This was a breakthrough: the first evidence that the brain changed with learning that I had stumbled upon.

While teaching at the Fourth Melbourne Feldenkrais Teacher Training last January, I had the pleasure of meeting Michael Cann. Besides being one of the trainees in the program, Michael is a technologically savvy young man. The following is his appeal (reprinted here with permission), for others to join him in creating an improved listing about the Feldenkrais Method on Wikipedia...

In the last 30 days, the Feldenkrais Method article on Wikipedia has received nearly 13,000 visitors.

When it comes to public opinion of our method, this article is likely to be the most influential document in the English-speaking world. You can see it for yourself here:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feldenkrais_Method

Many of the people who think of coming to see us as practitioners will read this page before they make their decision. It is therefore critically important that this article be outstanding.

Will you join me in improving this crucial document?

The first module of Mastering the Method began in Melbourne as scheduled—even though it was only two days after the accident where I had broken my right arm and sprained my left knee. Those few days were haunted by one question: "How can I teach a course that highlights hands-on technique with my arm in a sling?" 

When I spoke to colleague Anastasi Siotas about my dilemma, he acknowledged the challenge, pointing out that my favorite response when someone asks a technical question is “let me show you.”

Of course, there is much more to this advanced Feldenkrais training than specifying hand position & shape, clarifying the reason for each technique, and refining self-use. The five-day module takes on one Functional Integration composition, and this time it was a lesson for developing length and support done with the student lying on the side.

Examining the FI as if it were an Awareness Through Movement lesson, I unpacked the learning logic step-by-step, revealing the overarching strategy and detailing how the lesson unfolds. The technical, hands-on aspect plays a larger role in understanding the how and why of each technique. I know if the techniques don’t make sense and aren’t comfortable then the participants won’t incorporate them into their practice.

After a bit of worry, and considerable reflection, I managed to come up with several approaches—some tried-and-true, others novel & untested:

"We have a brain for one reason and for one reason only...and that's to produce adaptable and complex movement. There is no other reason to have a brain."

That's how neuroscientist Daniel Wolpert, who calls himself a movement chauvinist, begins his beautiful TED talk: The real reason for brains. He updates classic movement science themes, such as muscles being the final common pathway of the brain's activity and the idea of corollary discharge, bringing them to life with vivid, understandable examples.

What's particularly wonderful is how Dr. Wolpert touches on some of the basic concepts in Feldenkrais pedagogy. Let me tell you how the concept of self-image and the strategy of decreasing effort find new scientific foundations:

Wolpert introduces the sea squirt, a creature distinguished by its ability to eat its own nervous system. Then he's off and running, illustrating how to reverse engineer the way humans move, taking examples from control in tennis, tickling, and children's fights. Along the way Wolpert points out that the sensory signal the mover receives is noisy and, therefore unreliable.

Considering how the brain deals with noise and with unpredictability—or variability—in the world leads him to a presenting of the role of memory in perception. By doing so, Wolpert offers another way of understanding the importance of self-image in the coordination action. Here self-image isn't a static picture in the brain, instead it's what dynamically arises as the brain compares a prediction of the action with the sensory consequences of that same action.

One of the first things that people ask when they see my right arm in the sling is: "Are you right-handed?"

Sure enough, my right hand is dominant. It has been ever since grade school in France nearly fifty years ago. Ambidextrous when I started school, the teachers allowed me to write and draw only with my right hand.

Now, not being able to use my right arm meant that I'd need to depend on my left arm and hand. While I haven't learned to write with my left hand, I have gotten better at using my left hand in other ways. At first, I used a spoon for eating. I was clumsy, but my coordination gradually improved enough to use a fork fairly skillfully. Using chopsticks with my left hand is still a challenge. However finger-spelling, which I'd never done with my left hand, was immediately easy and fluid.

It didn't take me long to realize that the challenge of having my arm in a sling wasn't that I had suddenly become left-handed. No, this was about becoming one-handed. So many activities require both hands: one hand holds the dish, the other cleans; one hand holds the check while the other signs it; one hand holds the jar so the other one can open it. The sound of one hand clapping? Indeed.

The cold truth was I couldn't take the world with only one arm. I needed help.

Look! Just in time for the holidays:

The super cool Interactive Functional Anatomy 2nd Edition DVD from Primal Pictures provides wonderful interactive 3D animations of anatomical action.

Load this software onto your computer and then use your mouse to manipulate the virtual skeleton to learn the anatomy of bones and muscles. It's a great way to improve your ability to understand—and visualize—movement from the inside out. The animations can be played, rotated, and even exported as short movie files!

Between now and November 30th, 2011 receive a 20% discount off the online purchase of this product, as well as the rest of Primal Pictures DVD-ROMS and personal subscriptions by entering discount coupon code THX11 at checkout.

(Hmmm, I wonder, who might you want to forward this email hint to...?)