The Mind-Body Connection Is Real - Science Says So!

Have you ever found yourself pacing when you feel nervous?

Anecdotally many people have found vagus nerve stimulation helps alleviate depression and breathing exercises reduce anxiety.

Now a new research study has found a physical link that integrates parts of the brain responsible for planning, thinking, purpose, behaviour, physiology and movement.

This means that if you calm one area down, it should absolutely have an effect on the others.

This is the first tangible evidence that the mind-body connection is real and is actually a part of the structure of the brain.

The peer reviewed study published in April 2023 initially aimed to verify the long-accepted map of the motor regions of the brain that control movement.

In the 1930's eminent neurosurgeon Wilder Penfield, MD, applied small jolts of electricity to the exposed brains of people undergoing brain surgery and noted which parts of the body responded.

He found that stimulating a narrow strip of tissue on each side of the brain caused different parts of the body to twitch, with the feet at one end of this strip, hands in the centre and the face at the other end, 

This is the motor cortex of the brain. 

Just behind the motor cortex is another strip of tissue. This is the somatosensory cortex and is responsible for gathering and processing information from your external environment and internal signals from your tissues and cells.

Immediately we can see from the close proximity of the motor cortex and somatosensory cortex that our movement is absolutely influenced by our external environment and the internal signals from our receptors and cells.

The new 2023 study used modern imaging techniques to verify this long-established map of the movement centres of the brain.

Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) the researchers constructed individual brain maps for each of the study participants, and then they verified their results against 3x large, publicly available fMRI databanks, which collectively hold scans from around 50,000 people.

They found something that surprised them.....

The original map by Dr Penfield wasn't quite complete!

His map was correct, but there were 3x other areas interspersed within the motor cortex that didn't appear to be directly involved with movement, even though they were located in the brain's movement centre.

In addition, intriguingly these non-movement areas looked thinner when compared to the movement areas and became active when the participants thought about movement.

These areas also had strong connections to each other, and to other parts of the brain involved with planning, thinking, mental arousal, pain and involuntary physiological functions, such as heart rate and blood pressure.

The researchers called these newly seen areas the Somato (Body)-Cognitive (Mind) Action Network (SCAN). Catchy, eh?!

To understand better the development of this network the researchers scanned the brains of a new born baby, a 1 year old and a 9 year old.

They couldn't detect the network in the new born, but it was definitely evident in the 1 year old and 9 year old.

The presence of this body-mind network in the motor cortex opens up exciting and important insights into how our thoughts, physiological processes and the way we interact with our environment influences our perception of pain and how we move.

I do believe that only working at the structural level of joints, muscles and soft tissue, and ignoring the nervous system, our mindset and core beliefs, is one reason why so many people become stuck in a repeat cycle of pain, injury and loss of mobility.

Then, sadly they give up and write their pains off as "getting old" or "wear and tear". They might be told that they have to live with their condition or take painkillers for life.

The discovery of this body-mind network in the motor cortex should give more people hope that they have way more power and influence over their pain and movement than previously thought by science and medicine. 

Useful Links

1. Washington University School of Medicine. "Mind-body connection is built into brain: Findings point to brain areas that integrate planning, purpose, physiology, behavior, movement." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 19 April 2023. <.">www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/04/230419125052.htm>.
2. Evan M. Gordon, Roselyne J. Chauvin, Andrew N. Van, Aishwarya Rajesh, Ashley Nielsen, Dillan J. Newbold, Charles J. Lynch, Nicole A. Seider, Samuel R. Krimmel, Kristen M. Scheidter, Julia Monk, Ryland L. Miller, Athanasia Metoki, David F. Montez, Annie Zheng, Immanuel Elbau, Thomas Madison, Tomoyuki Nishino, Michael J. Myers, Sydney Kaplan, Carolina Badke D’Andrea, Damion V. Demeter, Matthew Feigelis, Julian S. B. Ramirez, Ting Xu, Deanna M. Barch, Christopher D. Smyser, Cynthia E. Rogers, Jan Zimmermann, Kelly N. Botteron, John R. Pruett, Jon T. Willie, Peter Brunner, Joshua S. Shimony, Benjamin P. Kay, Scott Marek, Scott A. Norris, Caterina Gratton, Chad M. Sylvester, Jonathan D. Power, Conor Liston, Deanna J. Greene, Jarod L. Roland, Steven E. Petersen, Marcus E. Raichle, Timothy O. Laumann, Damien A. Fair, Nico U. F. Dosenbach. A somato-cognitive action network alternates with effector regions in motor cortex. Nature, 2023; DOI: 10.1038/s41586-023-05964-2