The Attention Deficit Disorders or: pay attention!

The idea that made me write this entry arose over a photograph that I took of a cardinal bird, honestly I just saw the cardinal but my good friend Roberto Estévez made me a comment: it seems the bird is looking at you!.

My response to that comment was that surely the bird was watching paying attention to every detail since they are being a wild creature there are around several predators, also because it has to compete for food.

Two days later, my husband went to a meeting to another city and when he called explained me he was surprised and upset with so many people around, because it looks like everybody was absorbed by sending messages on their cell phones and they seemed not to look at who was at their side, making any walk a struggle for space and attention. Even drivers seemed to not be pay attention or remember that there was a  junglearound them.

An extra element to write this was the constant news about how more and more children are diagnosed with Attention-Deficit Disorder all of them highlighting that is alarming the number of cases submitted.

What "experts" don’t know

Ok, who am I to say experts don’t know something?, Maybe they don’t say this because to much complexity don’t sell enough magazines, but the thing is the attentional process is given to the survival of the species (not a school term) to provide tied sensory mechanisms to protect themselves from the dangers of the environment or to provide the capacity of food and caring for the offspring.

Imagine a rabbit focused on its inteligent phone screen or just looking at the female bunny front him without paying attention to the smell of possible predators, without looking at if something strange moves around, without listening to the movement of the wind and the leaves. While you are reading this, the rabbit was already attacked byyour cat, a hawk, a more attentive rabbit fornicated with the beautiful rabbit it was trying to conquest and our rabbit lost the chance of eating and of course, it  lost its cell phone in the confusion. 

What happens when a species loses its capacity of adaptation to the environment or they are unable to respond to the warning signs?, simple, extinguishes!. Therefore the capacity of attention to the environment is so important.

Now let’s return to the attention deficit deficit issue, psychologists and teachers believe that children do not have the ability to pay attention, just because does not see me as I speak them or have no view stuck on the Board or on the display, and also dare to be multitasking! that sounds, what do  these children believe?.

Let`s go by steps: attention is not an action, it is a process which involves all the senses and other superior processes such as working memory. 

Although someone can have their eyes focused on a screen, that person can hear the click, click of the keys, other noises of the environment, as the television or Spotify, or even  he or she can smell the environment, for example if something is burning, and we can’t  forget is feeling  the position of  his or her body over the chair. 

So I am sorry but even if someone ask me to pay attention to only onething, there is no way to disconnect the cranial nerves or sensory areas and even less the information flowing between the areas of association or biochemical information flow, or erase years of evolution, that is foolish.

What you have is selective attention, which is captured naturally if a stimulus is interesting, enjoyable, or dangerous. Yes, if I see someone going to hit me I move to avoid any contact because we usually react quicklier to fast movements different than slow movements.

Selective attention is one of the problems of many children, but does not only tell someone pay attention!, when I hear that I wonder to which put attention?, do to your speech, to the intensity of your words, your choice or how you move your mouth?.

There is evidence that we evolved to looking at the lips and face of other persons to recognize emotional emphasis in speech, and of course the gestures.

But attention cannot be sustained for long time, eyes tend to move, noises of the environment will cause that there is another source of attention, and it’s not only an extreme noise, in a classroom where you can hear the thoughts, even the hint of a pencil or a pen on the paper can cause a rotation of our heads to find the focus of noise. And if someone pulls out a pencil tip during an examination?, if... we are going to flip, because naturally, the ears are intensified, since that may depend on our life.

Many people then, to forget these natural principles, but it doesn’t mean they don’t knkow it,  I believe they sometimes forget that we are not experts, but how can we avoid years of evolution and selection natural and that attention as a mean of survival depends on the environment, then says that if a child not focuses attention on one single thing  has a  damaged brain.

Schools of the 16th century, which were basically churches built to avoid the temptations, where you can hear a yawn to far because of those wonderful domes and the acoustics that allows you to hear every note of praise choir, it was clear that meditation was the best way to listen to God, but if we see them as laboratories, it was certainly possible to maintain attention because after the first time of admiration, there isn't much to see.

But today at any place away from home or school, children face the streets, where cars are moving at a certain speed, there are many people talking, they must  pay attention to traffic lights or the movement of the cars to know when crossing the streets, and pay attention to so many other persons around and even notice if the light is red or if a driver may decide that being in a hurry is worther than a life. Also  if mom is  texting while crossing street, so she is not careful while people is crossing and hit eachother, and there is a bicycle in the opposite direction... and trees move and birds singing…

Attention on the natural environment

We have asked children to  focus  on something or someone, do not you look anything else!, and at the same time have increased the transit accidents, in particular those fatal accidents because people are not able to attend all stimuli a round such as number of passengers in the car, number of cars around, number of hours of monotonous journey or level of danger at the intersections  are factors of the most serious accidents.

To this we must be add that we learned to pay attention to the voice that speaks or the screen. Ups, if you drive don't send text messages!.

What do happen to children in the family environment?, children vie for attention of parents or caregivers that are between the cell phone, Facebook, twitter, television, problems at work, trying to finish a proposal while cooking, the dog barks, siblings yells, brother shouts stronger and if they ask for a little attention with the wonderful phrase as “look what I did!”, sometimes only receives a: “not now”,  “I can't answer”, “leave me alone”, “perhaps later”, and sometimes a good!, without even looking at what the child  did, or sometimes only receives a grunt in response. Who can meet the request of the child when there are many things by turning at the same time?.

Teachers complain that they are between 15 and 20 children, all looking for their  attention, talking, making noises, of course they want a little peace!, but their  reaction is to say to everybody: if you sit down and cab be quiet, you will look prettier!, and if any of them dare to stand up without permission no doubt some children will win a visit to the and a flight non stop with all expenses paid to the psychologist’s office, who is faithful friend of the ignorance of the neurodevelopmental but who knows very well how not only apply harmless tests and without context, also know how to ask money for them as if they  are useful.

Attention to the brain

I won't say that attention-deficit disorder does not exist, the brain studies show differences in anatomical and electrophysiological brain mechanisms in children affected with one of three types of 3 attention deficit disorders. Hey! Wait a second: 3?  everyone is talking only about deficit of attention disorder!, when have you seen a happy meal with three toys?. The popular side of the disorder usually don’t talk  about it, but there are three types, the hyperactivity, inattention, and the combined type attention deficit disorder.

Neurological studies show that children with attention deficit have a slow brain development a lower overall, but specifically the cerebellar, volume especially in portions postero inferior (lobes VIII to X) as well as the vermix, the volume of the nigra substance in the right frontal gyrus and putamen are at the same time lower than the brains of healthy children, however it is worth mentioning that this can not be seen with a test in a doctor's Office.

The main problem with the diagnosis of the call children epidemics, i.e attention deficit deficit  and never well recognized autism, is that manuals of diagnostic observed clinical and non-neurological shunts, what I mean is diagnostics are based on subjective observations reported by parents, teachers based on questionnaires that analyze the inattention, impulsiveness, and hyperactivity under criteria such as "often"regardless of the contexts in which behaviors are manifested.

Occasionally apply two or three tests, is observed to the child, and as an immediate response to the problem, it prescribes a pill, and is sent to the world with a diagnosis that for better or for worse will follow throughout all  life.

But, what if the child was not the problem?, andif the problem is the environment?, and if rather than ask parents how the child behaves asked how parents and teachers to behave with the child?, what do happen when children ask something? Do we ignore them?, if when children speak they are ignored  so we push them to  do something extrem like a stop breathing and vomiting the carpet so that caregivers give them 2 seconds of attention.

Yes, because like the screen that jumps so we notice we have received a new message, an update or a new email, the child jumps, makes noise, not to disturb the world, but to say: "here I am,  pay me attention!".

The environment is chaotic, certainly to survive must pay attention to many stimuli, but is not the case  that we are becoming psychotic, reality is that way, or  the car will run and hit us, the boss asks us something that we don't know how to do because we lost the sticky note where we detailed instructions, overflowing emails and accounts invoices do not stop. The reality is that each one must find a way to adapt to the environment and does not expect the environment adapts to each of us.

References:

Bernfeld, j. (2012) ADHD and factor analysis Are there really three distinct subtypes of ADHD? Applied Neuropsychology Child. 1 (2) 100-104.

Fernandez Perrone, a., Fernández - Mayoralas DM, & Fernandez-jaen, a. (2013) of attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder: inattentive to the restrictive type type. Revista de Neurología. 56 (Supl 1) S77-S84.

Kiyonaga, a., & Egner, T. (2013) Working memory as internal attention: Toward an integrative account of internal and external selection processes. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review. 2 (2) 228-242.

Klauer, SG., dinghys, TA., Neale, VL., Sudweeks, JD., Ramsey, DJ. (2006) The impact of driver vigilance on near-crash risk: An analysis using the 100-Car naturalistic driving study data. Available at: http://trid.trb.org/view.aspx?id=786825

Koziol, LF, Budding, & D. (2012) ADHD and sensory processing disorders: Placing the diagnostic issues in context. Journal of Applied Neuropsychology Child. 1 (2) 137-144.

Mules, f., Gandia, r., rock, p., Etchepareborda MC., Abad, l. (2012) update drug of attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder: intervention models and drugs. Revista de Neurología. 54 (Suppl 3) S41-S53.

Ramos-Quiroga, JA., Chalita, PJ., Vidal, r., Bosch, r., Palomar, g., Prats, l., and houses, M. (2012) diagnosis and treatment of attention deficit disorder / hyperactivity in adults. Revista de Neurología. 54 (Supl 1) S105-S115.

Schmidt, EA., Schrauf, M., Simon, M., Fritzsche, M., Buchner, j., Kincses, WE. (2009) Drivers' misjudgement of vigilance state during prolonged, monotonous daytime driving. Accident Analysis & Prevention. 41 (5) 1087-1093.

 Tivesten E., Wiberg, H. (20013) What can the driver's own description from combinated sorces provide in an analysis of driver distraction and low vigilance in accident situactions?. Accident Analysis & Prevention. 52 (2) 51-63.

Tye.Murray, N., Spehar, BP., Myerson, j., Hale, S., Sommers, MS. (2013) Reading your own lips: Common coding theory and visual speech perception. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review. 115-119 (1) 20. 

Whitehead, JW. (2013) The psycho.therapeutic school system: pathologizing childhood. Huffington Post: The Blog. Available at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/john-w-whitehead/the-psychotherapeutic-sch_b_3037194.html?utm_hp_ref=%40education123

The neuron

Some persons still consider the neuron as the most basic unit of the brain and spinal cord, since this is a special type of cell that sends information through electrical and chemical impulses. They are interconnected to form communication networks that transmit signals by defined areas of the nervous system and it is known that each neuron have thin extensions called dendrites that come out of the neuron as the branches of a tree, as compared with receptors signal cables, while axon or nerve fiber is the conduit outlet of each signal, this is much longer than dendrites, and can measure from mm, up to one meter. In its final part has small structures that communicate with other neurons and these connections are called Synapse.

Synapse is the process by which electrical impulses from one neuron influences the conduct of another neuron, one can say that a neural impulse is like a Flash, and becomes the next neuron, which is the form of communication between them. The neuron processes the electrical currents that come to their dendrites and axon that conveys electrical currents arising at a speed of about of between 100 and 120 meters per second to other neurons connected to it by means of the synapses. The first measurement of the speed of nerve impulse is attributed to Hermann von Helmholtz, who in 1853 established an average value of 43854.624 m/s.

In the space of connection, axon liberates the neurochemical information is called intersinaptic, and basically interchange the contents of a few tiny vesicles, these chemicals released are the neurotransmitters, and are disseminated through the space between neurons, which are captured by special receptors located in the membrane of a neighbouring dendrite.

However, neurons do not always communicate in the same way, because some synapses may occur depending on the type of neurotransmitter substances that develop, as excitatory i.e., continue the flow of shock towards another neuron, or else it can be inhibitory and then lock the drive, this is done in order to maintain the balance of system, since if all neurons begin to download information, the system is saturable,. Thus stimuli are transmitted as waves of electrical impulses, obeying to the needs of communication and the environmental cast that is done, this is the learning for the brain, since modification of synaptic patterns, creates the intensity of the synapses, which can be changed depending on the behavior of two nerve cells. There is sufficient evidence that if two neurons send an impulse almost at the same time, the connection between them will increase.

Generally, a neuron is connected with another 10,000, therefore the potential for connections that has the human nervous system with regard to the previous figure is exponentially by the number of possible connections, all can communicate between if and all carry out specific functions and the set of networks created by the interconnections are known as Connectome.

 

However, not all neurons are the same, some neurons are very short, with less than one millimeter in length, while others are very long, depending on the function that are within the system of communication, for example, the axon of a motor neuron in the spinal cord, which inerve a muscle of the foot, may have close to a meter long. So while a motor neuron cell body has about 100 microns (0.1 millimeters) in diameter, the axon of a motor neuron, which mentioned above be measured as up to a meter (1,000 mm) in length, allowing you to have more communication with other neurons.

Although the terms neuron and synapse were created by Waldeyer and Sherrington, respectively, it was without doubt the extensive work of observation and description of the cellular composition of the brain tissue, developed by Ramon y Cajal, what universal the doctrine neural nervous system and earned its author the prize Nobel in Physiology in 1906, award shared with the Italian physician Camillo Golgito discover the mechanisms that govern the morphology and connective nerve cell processes, a new and based in which brain tissue is composed of individual cells.

As already explained, the connections between neurons give rise to neuronal circuits. Largely, the plasticity of the nervous system is synaptic plasticity; Since these allow the possibility of modifications of the type, shape, number and function of neuronal connections and, therefore, of the neuronal circuits. It is thus that processes as diverse as learning and memory, the response to various physiological situations (e.g. fetal development or thirst) and recovery after injury, common base, and synaptic plasticity

However this plasticity and the rest of the neuronal functioning depends on other factors that become a complex case, the brain in this sense are required of the neuronal response to neurotransmitters, the relationship between astrocytes, which provide structural and metabolic support to neural networks and who have a key role in physiological reflexes, and of course it is not possible to forget the protein action which is known as Proteome thereby already not you can continue thinking is in the neuron as the basic unit as there are many other factors involved in brain functioning.

References:

Arteaga, g. and pepper, H. (2004) on the Colonnade of the cerebral cortex organization Revista Colombiana de Psiquiatría. Supplement No. 1, Vol. XXXIII.

Bloom, f. (2007) The best of the brain from Scientific American: mind, matter, and tomorrow´s brain. Dana Press. New York, Washington. D.C.

Bloom, f., Beal, M & Kupfer, D. (2006) The Dana guide to brain health. Dana Press. United States.

Head, C., and Buno, w. (2006) Distinct transmitte release properties determine differences in short term plasticity at functional and silent synapses. Journal of Neurophysiology. 95 (5) 3024-3034.

Hawkins, j., and Blakesleem, S. (2004) On intelligence. Times Books. USA.

Gopalakrishnan, g., Awasthi, a., Belkaid, w., De Faria Jr, o., Liazoghli, D., DR. Colman, and Chaunchak, AS. (2013) Lipidome and proteome map of myelin membranes. Journal of Neuroscience Research. 91 (3) 321-334.

Gourine, a., Kasymov, V., Marina, N., Tang, f., Figueiredo, SL., Teschemacher, AG., Spyer, km., Deisseroth, k., & Kasparov, S. (2010) Astrocytes control breathing through PH - dependent release of ATP. Science. 329 (5991) 571-575.

The cerebral cortex

The molecular level of the organizational structure of the nervous system, corresponds to the cerebral cortex, which is organized in columns or modules of information exchange. These columns are perpendicular to the surface of the cortex, and have approximately 3 mm in length and between 0.5 and 1 mm wide and they are  recognized as forming separate anatomical entities that give rise to different quasi-independent functions, and even there is research indicating that perception and memory may be distributed through the nervous thanks to this system of organization. 

In this way, groups of cells forming vertical columns, which processed together information from the same source of stimulation, i.e. have the same receptive field have been described.

These columns were established by first time in the visual cortex, but the formal proposal of an organization in columns of the cerebral cortex, has been called the hypothesis in Colonnade and it was formulated by Mountcastle (cited in Arteaga and Pimienta, 2004). 

However more recent studies show the probability that other sensory areas consisting also in columns, even proposed that the frontal lobe, to the which is credited with the processing of the more abstract knowledge, has this kind of columnar organization.

This organization allows to the neocortex on the basis of a cortical hierarchy which permitted the development of generative models of perception that gave way to computational hierarchical models that allowed to make predictions about the anticipation (feedforward) and feedback of the neuronal conduction including segregation and topographic precision in both directions, whereupon it became clear that instead of a single upper and lower chambers via of the upper and lower areas There are bi-directional communication against the current in each compartment of the neocortex.

In this sense, it is speculated that these columns could be the fundamental unit of the organization in all evolution since the columns have similar sizes and shapes, not only within each species, but in all of them, giving the opportunity to be plastic, which represents the maximum evolutionary invention, since it allows the nervous system escape from the restrictions of its own genome and adapt to the pressures both environmental as a psychophysiological changes and experiences.

 This mechanism is activated by the matching entry from opposite poles of the neuron, which is exquisitely adapted to the final architecture to large-scale crust and is closely controlled by neuronal microcircuits.

All this adds a design which in addition to creative is controversial, that allows the sending of information contralateral (i.e. the right information is analysed in the left side) and recently has been said this  recognize and analyze the flow of energy that is possible thanks to the response of white matter and its relationship with the Corpus Callosum which extends the flow of information has different areas depending on the action on the environment that required.

This advantage is must in part to distribution patterns laminate making interaction with different receivers required to perform different functions. In this sense, both distribution laminar, as the relationship between areas and receptors, creates advantages for the acquisition of learning processes, but at the same time opens the door for various pathologies. 

References:

Arteaga, G. y Pimienta, H. (2004) Sobre la organización columnar de la corteza cerebral  Revista Colombiana de Psiquiatría. Suplemento No. 1, Vol. XXXIII.

Casper, S., Schleicher, A., Bacha-Trams, M., Palomero-Gallagher, N., Amunts, K., Zilles, K. (2012) Organization of the human inferior lobule based on receptor architectonics. Cerebral Cortex. Available at: http://cercor.oxfordjournals.org/content/23/3/615.full.pdf+html

Davis, SW., Kragel, JE., Madden, DJ., Cabeza, R. (2012) The architecture of the cross-hemispheric communication in the aging brain: linking behaviour to functional and structural connectivity. Cerebral Cortex. 22 (1) 232-242.

Larkum, M. (2013) A cellular mechanism for cortical associations: an organizing principle for the cerebral cortex. Trends in Neuroscience.

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Woodrow, LS., and Dietmar, P. (2013) The functional benefits of critically in the Cortex. The Neuroscientist. 19 (1) 88-100.