The Breakthrough Blog

A January article in the online Journal, Behavioral Medicine Report and a study published in the Journal “Nueron” describe new understandings about the synaptic connections that underlie what we commonly call “neuroplasticity.” In an informative article, Study Shows Map of Brain Connectivity Changes During Development, Christophey Fisher, PhD, points to two important issues: “Connected highways [...]

How juggling rewires your brain | COSMOS magazine. PARIS: Neuroscientists have discovered that learning to juggle causes changes in white matter, the nerve strands which help different parts of the brain communicate with each other. University of Oxford researchers recruited 48 healthy young adults who were unable to juggle and put them in a functional [...]

When the cognitive paradigm became dominant, inattention became the focus of ADHD, and disorder was renamed attention deficit disorder (ADD). Two subtypes would later appear in the literature, which correspond to ADD with or without hyperactivity. The diagnostic nomenclature reflects the notion that the primary problem was an attentional (and thus, cognitive) one and not primarily behavioral. The attentional problems had to do with the ability to shift attention from one stimulus to another (something that Jonah Lehrer has called an attention-allocation disorder, since it isn’t really a deficit of attention). The hyperactivity symptoms were also reformulated as cognitive: connected with an executive processing deficit termed “freedom from distractibility.”

Preliminary findings from a study of children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) show that sensory intervention — for example, deep pressure and strenuous exercise — can significantly improve problem behaviors such as restlessness, impulsivity and hyperactivity. Of the children receiving occupational therapy, 95 percent improved. This is the first study of this size on [...]

Auditory processing disorder in relation to developmental disorders of language, communication and attention: a review and critique – International Journal of Language & Communication Disorders. This article describes the vagaries of diagnosis of auditory processing issues and shows how important work is being done to help make proper evaluations and treatment research widely available. It [...]

via The Role of Brain Fitness in Self Help Programs: All of those programs involve regular practice of certain behaviors, and there are three behaviors we humans can hope to manage or control, our thinking, our feelings, and our behaviors, or how our body moves. If you have read Mihalyi Csikszentmihalyi’s book FLOW, which is treatise [...]

Here’s another great example of neuroplasticity impacts derived from motor skills training. Cortical expressions of proprioceptive responses over time are around us every day and form the basis of the EXPERIENTIAL part of neuroplastic changes. The implications for athletic performance and rehab are tremendous and the article below gives some good insight. Motor Learning and [...]

Dr. Edward (Ned) Hallowell, ADHD expert and best-selling author, announces making the Learning Breakthrough Program available at the prestigious Hallowell Centers in both Massachusetts and New York. Dr. Hallowell’s inclusion of Learning Breakthrough’s proven balance and sensory remediation program is a welcome addition to the therapy options offered at his US centers. Learning Breakthrough will [...]

Use It or Lose It: The Theory and Practice of Brain Exercise and Fitness for Cognitive Health – 1252th Edition | Health Blog. When we exercise our brains, we put our Neurons and connections between neurons in action. Given the diversity of functions outlined above, it is clear that different activities are going to activate [...]

This video shows Dr. Frank Belgau relating the connection between neural network efficiency and resolution of neurons being mathematically connected to the number of neurons involved in the difficulty of a task. This concept is at the core of Learning Breakthrough’s “variable difficulty balance platform” which Dr. Belgau credits as his most important single contribution to the world of learning treatments. It is the main reason that Learning Breakthrough has succeeded where other treatments have not. Don’t get confused that the exercises of imitators is what makes a program like this work. Its the balance challenge, delivered over time and in a precise manner that generates the sought after neuroplasticity gains.