Mind-Body Connection

mind - the element of a person that enables them to be aware of the world and their experiences, to think and to feel; the faculty of consciousness and thought

body - the physical structure, including the bones, flesh, and organs of a person or animal

“I think, therefore I am”

Rene Descartes

The notion that our brain is a computer, the master-orchestrator and so determining factor behind our every action has been gaining ground for quite some time now. But is it all in the brain? What about the rest of our body? Would the brain work if it didn’t have a body to work on? What’s happened to our view of the mind-body connection? 

This connection is even more important than we might first think. Alan Jasonoff, professor of biological engineering at MIT has termed our obsession with the brain “cerebral mystique”. It is as though we are living from our neck, up alone. We are out of touch with our bodies, and as a result even more dissatisfied with our lives. We cannot forget that our mind is interdependent - it needs our bodies in many ways, especially our gut! 

In his book, The Biological Mind, Jasanoff puts forward two opposite ideas - the biological mind centered on the brain; and the cerebral mystique, a mixture of complex stereotypes and ideals about the brain which treat it as though it were an isolated entity. The issue with having a dualistic view of the brain and its relationship to the physical body, and the physical world, is that it makes us seem self-contained. 

In many ways I believe we are, yet we also have to be aware of how the outer world is affecting our inner one - which it inevitably is. We do operate from within, yet we also have to be sensitive to the workings without (outside us). There is also the emotional factor to take into consideration, which is a very important aspect and key to learning and behaviour, as it impacts decision-making. Perhaps the most famous person to advocate this is Daniel Kahneman. Then also in the field of neuroscience, Antonio Damasio has argued that there is a loop between the body and the brain. 

There are some aspects of what makes us who we are that are intrinsically embedded in our brains, it’s true. Yet, there are many other aspects which lie elsewhere. One of the primary areas is personality - how you respond and behave in the face of certain challenges, your disposition. These are mainly emotional responses. This cannot really be tested, yet there have been important tests done by replacing bad bacteria with good bacteria in the gut - which have shown to alter mood and emotional behaviour. This has also happened with other kinds of transplants, most significantly with heart and liver transplants. This is not shocking, as the heart works to pump oxygen into the bloodstream thereby renewing it and the liver detoxifies the blood, toxins which would have affected the brain - so when these are changed so is the cognitive landscape. 

Neuroscience experiments at the University of Pittsburgh have found that stress, depression and other mental states can alter organ function. Such research also provides an explanation, or a better understanding of why meditation, yoga and Pilates are so beneficial in modulating the body’s responses to physical, metal and emotional stress. To put it simply, because yoga, Pilates, tai chi, and dancing (among others) work on the core and require skeletal alignment, coordination and flexibility, they are activating a portion of the primary motor cortex which is in control of the axial body movements and posture. This input to the adrenal medulla is what helps to modulate stress responses.   

“People are like plants, blossoming or fading with the weather.” 

Alan Jasonoff 

Our environments have always and will continue to affect us; from the climate in which we live, to our exposure to natural light, and even to the colours that we surround ourselves with. 

There is a movement - quite unappealing to me - towards transhumanism, which focuses on the brain and there is this desire to create people who are somehow more than people, more than normal. We see this in the ‘Internet of the mind’ idea which links minds directly to the Internet through brain implants - the kind of futuristic direction people like Elon Musk is promoting. In some ways Jasonoff feels that Musk is fuelled by his cerebral mystique, this idea that in order to be futuristic about the brain we have to touch it. We can even see this happening with the automobile industry - to make roads safer they are taking humans totally out of the equation. Yet why interface the car to the brain when you can just make the car better? Why would you want the freedom that driving is supposed to give, along with the independence?  

So, what makes you you?