The ABM and Contemporary Neuroscience

An article written by my fellow ABM practitioner Neil Sharp. He speaks about the Method with remarkable clarity.

The Anat Baniel Method and Contemporary Neuroscience

By Neil Sharp M.D.

(M.A.hons University of Cambridge, M.B., Ch.B. University of Edinburgh Medical School, Alumnus of the Royal Northern College of Music, Manchester)

Physician, Opera singer, Anat Baniel Method Practitioner and Anat Baniel Method for Children Practitioner.

I have worked both as a physician and as a professional opera singer and it was through the latter that I first came to experience the work of Anat Baniel. Experience, here, is a crucial word. Nothing in my medical training had prepared me for the powerful effects of this extraordinary work but, although I had no clue as to its mechanism at the time, it was clear that it was mediated through the nervous system and that it had enormous potential in therapy and rehabilitation. It was to my great surprise and dismay that its use was not universal.

In my training and close working association with Anat I have had the opportunity to study some of the breakthroughs in our understanding of neuroscience that have become apparent only in the last decade [1]. (Indeed it was only in 1999 that the Nobel Laureate Torsten Wiesel admitted in print that he and David Hubel had been wrong in declaring that neuroplasticity is impossible beyond the critical period of infancy [2]). These begin to help provide a scientific explanation for the knowledge that Anat and her teacher Dr Moshe Feldenkrais have accrued through their experience over decades of transforming the lives of children and adults whom conventional medicine had believed beyond help…again that word, experience.

One of the pioneers of this neuroscientific revolution is Michael Merzenich. He and his colleagues, such as Nancy Byl, have shown, on the neurological level, the mechanisms for neuroplasticity and differentiation, both in therapy and normal development [3,4]. These mechanisms are fundamental to the learning process underlying the work of Anat Baniel in helping children and adults overcome the limitations they have in their physical, cognitive and emotional development. Furthermore, Merzenich has demonstrated the necessity of focused attention in order to make these plastic changes last [5,6]. Pre-requisite to the work of Anat Baniel is the awareness and focused attention that the individual must bring to their therapy _ the Anat Baniel Method is not a passive process imposed upon the client, even the most severely disabled of children participates in their path to improvement. Much has been made in the press recently of the positive effects of exercise on brain function but research clearly shows that that exercise must be combined with focused attention to be effective in promoting cortical development and pre-empting cortical decline. Mice in enriched environments show increased synaptic formation over those who merely exercise on a treadmill and the only physical leisure activity in a recent study to show cognitive improvement in the elderly was ballroom dancing – requiring thought and coordination as well as cardiovascular involvement [7,8,9]. Such focused attention as at the core of Anat’s method.

Edward Taub of the University of Alabama has also pioneered research showing the mechanisms whereby stroke victims first learn disuse of their affected side. Taub’s studies demonstrate a CNS correlate of therapy-induced recovery of function after nervous system damage in humans.which opens up the possibility for learning its re-use if the appropriate conditions for learning are provided as Anat’s practitioners have demonstrated with dramatic effect [10]. Similar mechanisms underlie the remarkable results seen with treatment of brachial plexus injury by the Anat Baniel Method. Old neurological patterns are replaced by new ones as clients learn to overcome their limitations.

New insights into the workings of the brain and the nature of consciousness are arising continually in the exciting field of cognitive neuroscience. One exciting area is the application of the principles of Quantum Physics to the mechanisms of brain functioning and the mind as expounded by the renowned physicist Henry Stapp of UCBerkeley in his book the Mindful Universe and numerous articles some of which are coauthored by the psychiatrist Jeffrey Schwartz [11,12]. This work is still controversial but provides a basis for the behavior of the human being as a complex dynamic system in its development and also in its progress through treatment. Once again, given the appropriate learning conditions, provided by a skilled practitioner, the outcome emerges not as a simple cause and effect relationship but as the result of an intelligent, sentient individual creating its own solution.

Many of the extraordinary outcomes resulting from this method have been dismissed by other professionals as mere coincidence and examples of spontaneous recovery or misdiagnosis. It is easy to see how occurrences outwith our experience as physicians may be seen to be beyond the realms of possibility. However, as another major player in contemporary neuroscience, V.S. Ramachandran of UCSD, warns us, more harm has been done in science by those who make a fetish out of skepticism, aborting ideas before they are born, than by those who gullibly accept untested theories [13]. Only last Monday, a study from UCLA showed a mechanism showed that regeneration is possible to recover supraspinal control of stepping following spinal cord injury [14]. Such recovery would have previously been deemed impossible. We need to be open to possibility.

Only a few weeks ago a local pediatrician was in tears when she saw the effects of only a week’s lessons of the Anat Baniel Method on one of her tiny clients. She was weeping for all the children whom she had treated in the past whose lives could have been helped so much if she had known of the Anat Baniel Method before. Fortunately, more and more physicians and therapists are experiencing the effectiveness of the most intelligent therapeutic modality of which I am aware. We, as clinicians, have a responsibility to make this work available to everyone.

I have the honor to have studied with Anat for the past 3 1/2 years. She is the best teacher with whom I have worked and has dispelled my skepticism as to whether the work, which she practices so brilliantly, can be taught to others. I am now privileged to be a part of a growing network of practitioners, nurtured by those with greater experience as my own experience grows.

References

[1] For a review see Alvaro Pascual-Leone, Amir Amedi, Felipe Fregni, and Lotfi B. Merabet The Plastic Human Brain Cortex Annu. Rev. Neurosci. 2005. 28:377–401

[2] Torsten N. Wiesel Early Explorations of the Development and Plasticity
of the Visual Cortex: A Personal ViewJournal of Neurobiology, Volume 41(1999), Issue 1 (p 7-9)


[3] M.M.Merzenich et al 1983. Progression of change following median nerve section in the cortical representation of the hand in areas 3b and 1 in adult owl and squirrel monkeys. Neuroscience, 10(3):639-65

[4] N.N.Byl et al. 2003. Effect of sensory discrimination training on structure and function in patients with focal hand dystonia: a case series. Archives of physical medicine and rehabilitation, 84(10): 1505-14

[5] Recanzone, G.H., Merzenich, M.M., Jenkins, W.M., Grajski, K.A., & Dinse, H.R. (1992) Topographic reorganization of the hand representation in cortical area 3b of owl monkeys trained in a frequency-discrimination task. Journal of Neurophysiology 67:1031-1056.

[6] Recanzone, G.H., Schreiner, C.E., & Merzenich, M. M. (1993) Plasticity in the frequency representation of primary auditory cortex following discrimination training in adult owl monkeys. Journal of Neuroscience 13(1):87- 103.

[7] J.E. Black, K.R. Isaacs, B.J. Anderson, A.A. Alcantara and W.T. Greenough , Learning causes synaptogenesis, whereas motor activity causes angiogenesis, in cerebellar cortex of adult rats. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 87 (1990), pp. 5568–5572.

[8] Ana C. Pereira,, Dan E. Huddleston,, Adam M. Brickman,, Alexander A. Sosunov, Rene Hen, Guy M. McKhann, Richard Sloan, Fred H. Gage, Truman R. Brown||, and Scott A. Small An in vivo correlate of exercise-induced neurogenesis in the adult dentate gyrus PNAS | March 27, 2007 | vol. 104 | no. 13 | 5638-5643

[9] Verghese, J., Lipton, R.B., Katz, M.J., Hall, C.B., Derby, C.A., Kuslansky, G., Ambrose, A.F., Sliwinski, M. & Buschke, H. 2003. Leisure Activities and the Risk of Dementia in the Elderly. New England Journal of Medicine, 348 (25), 2508-2516.

[10] Liepert J, Miltner WH, Bauder H, Sommer M, Dettmers C, Taub E, Weiller C.Motor cortex plasticity during constraint-induced movement therapy in stroke patients. Neurosci Lett. 1998 Jun 26;250(1):5-8.

[11] Henry P.Stapp, Mindful Universe – Quantum mechanics and the participating observer. Springer-Verlag 2007

[12] Jeffrey M. Schwartz A Role for Volition and Attention in the Generation of New Brain Circuitry-Toward A Neurobiology of Mental Force. Journal of Consciousness Studies, 6, No. 8–9, 1999, pp. 115–42; Henry P. Stapp Attention, Intention, and Will in Quantum Physics. Journal of Consciousness Studies, 6, No. 8–9, 1999, pp. 143–64

[13] Ramachandran, V.S.Creativity versus skepticism within science: more harm has been done in science by those who make a fetish out of skepticism, aborting ideas before they are born, than by those who gullibly accept untested theories. Skeptical Inquirer 30.6 (Nov-Dec 2006): 48(4).

[14] Gregoire Courtine, Bingbing Song, Roland R Roy, Hui Zhong, Julia E Herrmann, Yan A, Jingwei Qi, V Reggie Edgerton & Michael V Sofroniew Recovery of supraspinal control of stepping via indirect propriospinal relay connections after spinal cord injury Nature Medicine 14, 69 - 74 (2008) Published online: 6 January 2008