Assembly of the Executive Mind: Evolutionary Insights and a Paradigm for Brain Health PDF
Preview Assembly of the Executive Mind: Evolutionary Insights and a Paradigm for Brain Health
Assembly of the Executive Mind Assembly of the Executive Mind Evolutionary Insights and a Paradigm for Brain Health Michael Hoffmann University of Central Florida University Printing House, Cambridge CB2 8BS, United Kingdom One Liberty Plaza, 20th Floor, New York, NY 10006, USA 477 Williamstown Road, Port Melbourne, VIC 3207, Australia 314–321, 3rd Floor, Plot 3, Splendor Forum, Jasola District Centre, New Delhi – 110025, India 79 Anson Road, #06-04/06, Singapore 079906 Cambridge University Press is part of the University of Cambridge. It furthers the University’s mission by disseminating knowledge in the pursuit of education, learning, and research at the highest international levels of excellence. www.cambridge.org Information on this title: www.cambridge.org/9781108456005 DOI: 10.1017/9781108589246 © Cambridge University Press 2019 This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place without the written permission of Cambridge University Press. First published 2019 Printed in the United Kingdom by TJ International Ltd. Padstow Cornwall A catalogue record for this publication is available from the British Library. ISBN 978-1-108-45600-5 Paperback Cambridge University Press has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of URLs for external or third-party internet websites referred to in this publication and does not guarantee that any content on such websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate. Every effort has been made in preparing this book to provide accurate and up-to-date information that is in accord with accepted standards and practice at the time of publication. Although case histories are drawn from actual cases, every effort has been made to disguise the identities of the individuals involved. Nevertheless, the authors, editors, and publishers can make no warranties that the information contained herein is totally free from error, not least because clinical standards are constantly changing through research and regulation. The authors, editors, and publishers therefore disclaim all liability for direct or consequential damages resulting from the use of material contained in this book. Readers are strongly advised to pay careful attention to information provided by the manufacturer of any drugs or equipment that they plan to use. For Bronwyn, Jenna Leigh, and Michael. Contents Acknowledgments ix Introduction 1 8 Neurological Diseases as Networktopathies with 1 The Evolution of Larger Brains Disconnection Phenomena 137 since the Vertebrate–Invertebrate Divide 15 9 The Sensitivity and Vulnerability of the Prefrontal Cortex to Changes in 2 The Profound Increase in Primate Daily Rhythms 144 Gray Matter Growth 27 10 Implications for Treatment and 3 Exponential White Matter Growth Management: A Network-Based and Major Fiber Tract Systems Approach 154 Assembly 51 11 Sense of Self Disorders 192 4 Cellular and Molecular Changes 70 12 Implications for You and Society 205 5 The Core Frontal Systems 87 6 Enhanced Working Memory 107 7 Unraveling of Brain Networks in Index 219 Neurological Conditions: Nature’s Reductionism 124 vii Acknowledgments The singling out of individuals for thanks no doubt will leave out many others that were instrumental in my training and conceptualization of brain health and fitness, and for this I apologize in advance. The evolution of my thinking and ultimately this book is a tribute to many friends and colleagues that helped me in my formative years. I was very fortunate to have Professor Phillip Tobias as my anatomy professor and Dean of the medical school at the University of Witwatersrand. He taught us human anatomy from not one, but three large books called Man’s Anatomy, Parts 1, 2, and 3, but more importantly enkindled in his students a fascination for human origins that he was so famous for. Professors Pierre Bill and John Cosnett of the University of Kwa-Zulu Natal, Durban for their patient and expert teaching in clinical neurology, guiding my early career development. Professor John Robbs, head of surgery and vascular surgery, University of Kwa-Zulu Natal, Durban for his enthusiastic support and promotion of my early forays into cerebrovascular medicine and helping form the Durban Cerebrovascular Group. Professor Bill Pryse-Phillips helped land my first neurology job at Memorial University, Canada while he researched and wrote his book, Neurology Dictionary. Professors J.P. Mohr and Ralph Sacco enthusiastically guided me through my stroke fellowship and instilled the fervor for computerized registry analyses at Columbia University, New York. I am very fortunate to have continued guidance and mentorship in cognitive neurology and cognitive neuroscience from Professor Frederick Schmitt of the Sanders Brown Aging Institute at the University of Kentucky and Professor Ken Heilman of University of Florida. I am grateful to Dr. Fiona Crawford and Dr. Michael Mullen for providing me with a platform for launching neuro-archeological seminars at the Roskamp Institute in Sarasota and promoting clinical cognitive neurology to flourish side by side with their high-level neuroscience research. The Cambridge University Press team, Noah Tate, Gary Smith, Anna Whiting, and Emily Jones, that so enthusiastically guided this book to fruition, were exceptional in their efficiency and professionalism. At the center of my life are my family, Bronwyn, Jenna Leigh, and Michael, whose support is inestimable. Registry data used Clinical examples and radiological images were sampled from the following IRB-approved registries of which the author was the principal investigator. These registries pertained to the collection of clinical investigative, radiological, and management data of consecutive stroke and cognitive impairment patients, aged 18–90 years, accrued through prospec- tively coded dedicated stroke and cognitive disorders registries in tertiary referral cent- ers. These were approved by the relevant University Institutional Review Boards and the latter two registries were also in compliance with HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) regulations when this was enacted. 1. The NIH-NINDS Stroke Data Bank (New York) Under the following contracts: N01-NS-2-2302, N01-NS-2-2384, N01-NS-2-2398, N01-NS-2-2399, N01-NS-6-2305. Status: Stroke Research Fellow (1990–1991) ix x Acknowledgments 2. The Durban Stroke Data Bank IRB approval: University of Natal, Durban, South Africa (approved by the Ethics Board of the University of Kwa-Zulu Natal). Status: Principal Investigator (1992–1998) 3. The USF-TGH Stroke Registry IRB #102354 (University of South Florida). Status: Principal Investigator (2002–2006) 4. The USF-Cognitive Stroke Registry IRB #106113 (University of South Florida) Status: Principal Investigator (2007–2010) Consent All patients signed informed consent for the evaluation and the collection of the their neurological, medical, and neurocognitive data. Cover Image Cover image designed and drawn by Michael S. Hoffmann, MS ISOM, Washington DC, USA, adapted from artwork © Can Stock Photo Inc. / woodoo. Introduction Deciphering the natural environment, including human form and function, is best achieved by interdisciplinary study. The differing sciences inform each other and there is often two- way or bidirectional information exchange between disciplines. For example, evolution informs neuroscience and neuroscience has the power to inform evolution. This was well described by David Lewis- Williams in his interpretation of cave rock paint- ings in which certain artistic depictions reflected different stages of hallucination in the human mind. In his elegant overview of how ancient art helps understand the neuro- science of our minds, presented in his book The Mind in the Cave, he describes how the intensified trajectory of altered consciousness level of visual hallucinations (fully fledged hallucinations) in ancestral humans was recognized as being identical to migrainous for- tification spectra (jagged lines), familiar to contemporary neurology [1]. The Nobel prize- winning physiologist Eric Kandel eloquently portrayed how neuro- science and art inform each other, detailed in his two exceptional books, The Age of Insight [2] and Nature’s Reductionism: Bridging the Two Cultures [3]. The parent field of medicine, biology, is often instrumental in the understanding of human brain mechanisms, such as theories of how we developed superb color vision. Isbell’s snake-d etection theory helped inform current- day neurology and psychiatry about snakes having acted as a primary selective pressure operating on primates and expanding their visual systems. In brief, evolutionary exposure to venomous snakes, which are usually patterned and colored, induced trichromacy in the African primates, as opposed to the mere dichromacy of the South American primates, the latter having had minimal venomous snake exposure. The third component of the theory, the Madagascar lemur, which has the worst color vision of the primates, had no exposure to venous snakes at all [4]. Many arts and sci- ences are therefore valuable in helping to understand the evolution of the human execu- tive mind. From my perspective, the discipline of clinical neurology, which is concerned with brain lesions and their consequences, or fractured brain circuits, can inform the discipline of archeology that deals with the analysis of fractured skulls. Hence, fractured minds and brain circuits can similarly be regarded as a two- way process in the study of neuro- archeology. As can be seen from Figure 0.1, many disciplines helped inform the assembly of our frontal lobes and our minds. There are, of course, numerous disciplines in the arts and sciences. Perhaps increased interaction among them will lead to ever- greater insights. Clinical medicine just happens to be a discipline that is among the least interdisciplinary at the present time, as we shall see in Chapter 12. The great visionary and biologist Edward Wilson coined the term consilience in his book of the same name, emphasizing the unity of all knowledge and disciplines, and conceived of all the arts 1 2 Introduction Clinical Sciences: Neurology, Neurosurgery, Psychiatry, Psychology, Psychopharmacology, Speech/Language Earth Sciences: Geology, Philosophy, Art, Music, Paleoclimatology, Literary Arts, Sociology Volcanology Neuroimaging: Archeology, functional, anatomical, Anthropology, resting state Paleobiology Neuroscience: Genetics, Epigenetics, computational, cognitive, Molecular Clocks and laboratory Figure 0.1 Science, art and clinical disciplines inform our brain functions. Piecing together the components from Piecing together the components from fractured skulls fractured minds Figure 0.2 The unravelling of the human mind: a method of studying human cognitive evolution. Reprinted by permission from Springer Nature from Wood B. Hominid revelations from Chad. Nature 2002;418:133–135. and sciences as being innately bound by a small number of natural laws in physics and chemistry [5]. One can either gather fractured skulls and bones or study fractured brain circuits in deciphering brain function and how it evolved (Figure 0.2). Similar to the approach of Vilayanur Ramachandran and Oliver Sacks, individual case reports and sometime case series can be very illuminating, as have the recent spate of n-of-1 trials that are gaining
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