Just remember the benefits of exercise

Michael Greenberg, who wrote a memoir recently about his daughter's experience of bipolar disorder, has now written a fascinating review in the New York Review of Books (NYRoB) of a new tome on memory "Can't Remember What I Forgot: The Good News from the Front Lines of Memory Research" by Sue Halpern.

As with so many reviews in the NYRoB, Greenberg's account gives you a wonderfully informative snapshot of Halpern's book - providing a glimpse of how she subjected herself to psychological experimentation; the tragedy of Alzheimer's disease; and the desperate scientific hunt for an effective medical treatment.

Oh and in case you are wondering, the optimism in the book's title, Greenberg explains, comes from the discovery of the power of exercise:

"During the years that she was writing this book, one incontrovertible means of neurogenesis came to light: aerobic exercise. The mechanics of the process couldn't be simpler: exercise promotes new cell growth in old brains by increasing their blood volume, and cell growth improves memory. It was true for mice with cognitive impairment and it was true for humans with MCI [mild cognitive impairment]. It didn't take away amyloid plaque [a neuropathological hallmark of Alzheimer's], but it improved cognition anyway. 'In addition,' explains Halpern, 'exercise...increased the amount of the chemical BDNF (brain-derived neurotrophic factor) circulating in the brain, and it was BDNF that stimulated the birth of new brain cells.... BDNF also enhanced neural plasticity, which was to say that it enabled the brain to prosper. In diseases like Alzheimer's, depression, Parkinson's, and dementia more generally, BDNF levels were low. In people who exercised, BDNF levels rose.'

Link to NYRoB review of "Can't Remember What I Forgot: The Good News from the Front Lines of Memory Research" by Sue Halpern.

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Consciousness is a crazy mess, so why don't novels portray it that way?

The portrayal of conscious thought in novels has about as much resemblance to the reality of our mental lives as stick men have to true anatomy. That's according to celebrated novelist and essayist Will Self who gave the opening lecture at this year's BBC Radio 3 Free Thinking Festival (Link is to free video; UK access only).

If you haven't encountered Will Self before, you should prepare to be dazzled by his mastery over the English language. Each of his words feels as though it's been selected with all the patience and delectation of an expert sommelier choosing a fine wine.

This is an intense, must-see lecture for anyone who is interested in the nature of thought (made all the more atmospheric by the filming that renders Self as though disembodied). Self attacks the novelistic conventions that mean many of our most cherished authors present a kind of cartoon version of what it is like to be a conscious being.

Challenging his audience to consider what they're thinking "RIGHT NOW" - it becomes clear how inadequately language is able to capture the "clotted and crazy" reality of our mental lives. Indeed, it's only by attempting to report what we were thinking that we shoe-horn our thoughts into the unrealistic, list-like structure so frequently found in novels.

Self goes further and argues that readers enjoy lapping up this unreal version of conscious thought because we find it reassuring in the face of the more chaotic reality. Psychotic thought is comfortingly presented as something experienced by unwell people, safely sectioned away from the rest of us.

What's more, Self says this diet of unnatural "naturalistic fiction" has affected our ability to think freely. Those who present thought as "scumbled, psychotic and deeply irrational" as it really is are condemned as "elitist, wilful obscurantists with inclement mental hygiene". By contrast, those who present an exaggerated fantasy of "sagacity, lucidity and perspicacity are lauded as the greatest humanitarians of all."

I wonder if popular cognitive neuroscience, the "blobs on the brain" approach that makes the front pages of the newspapers, might well be guilty of a similar charge to that which Self levels at novels - what do you think?

If you enjoy this lecture you might also enjoy audio files available from the same festival, including Susan Blackmore on free will and Ben Fletcher on turning thoughts into action.

Link to Will Self Lecture "Naturalism and Sanity: Is the Mind Really as it's portrayed?" (Link is to free video; unfortunately UK access only)

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