STEM-Talk Episode 193: Tommy Wood and his new book bust the belief that the adult brain is fixed
Upside-Down Goggles Show Rapid Adult Relearning
- Austrian reversing-goggle study had adults initially clumsy but within days rebuilt upright vision through effortful tasks.
- Participants practiced tracing and complex actions like fencing and drawing until upright perception 'ensued' by day six.
Skill Learning Reshapes Adult Brain Structure
- Learning targeted complex skills produces measurable brain structural change even in adults.
- Wood cites juggling and London taxi drivers: MRI increases in visual cortex or posterior hippocampus correspond to acquired skills and trade-offs.
Reductionism Hits Limits With Emergent Brain Functions
- Reductionist methods reveal components but struggle to explain emergent brain functions.
- Tommy Wood highlights transcriptomics, imaging, and huge data projects yet warns emergence prevents simple reassembly into whole-system understanding.
Today we have Dr. Tommy Wood, a neuroscientist and frequent STEM-Talk guest who joins today on the eve of the publication of his first book, “The Stimulated Mind: Future-Proof Your Brain from Dementia and Stay Sharp at Any Age.”
Tommy is an Associate Professor of Pediatrics and Neuroscience at the University of Washington, where his laboratory focuses on brain health across human lifespan. Tommy is a colleague and good friend who also is a Visiting Research Scientist here at IHMC.
Today we talk to Tommy about his mission to dispel the myth that the brain is doomed to decline with age. His book, which publishes on March 24 but is available for pre-order on Amazon, offers science-backed strategies to enhance mental sharpness and prevent cognitive decline, including Alzheimer’s disease.
There was so much to unpack with Tommy about his book, that we decided to split his interview into two parts. Today we talk to Tommy about the history of neuroscience and how researchers go about studying the brain. We also have a conversation with Tommy about what is holding us back in terms of addressing an ever-increasing burden of cognitive and mental health disorders we are experiencing not only here in the U.S., but also around the world. In part two of Tommy’ interview, which will air in a few weeks following today’s episode, Tommy shares science-backed strategies to help people future-proof their brains.
Tommy’s lab at the University of Washington focuses on brain health across the lifespan. He conducts research that focuses on ways to treat a range of brain injuries, including babies born preterm and adults who experience brain trauma. He also investigates lifestyle factors that affect long-term cognitive function and increase the risk of dementia.
Tommy has a bachelor’s degree in biochemistry from the University of Cambridge, a medical degree from the University of Oxford, and a Ph.D. in Physiology and Neuroscience from the University of Oslo.
Show notes:
[00:04:04] Dawn opens our interview congratulating Tommy on his new book, “The Stimulated Mind.” Dawn asks Tommy what inspired him to write his first book.
[00:07:29] Since writing the book consumed more than 18 months of Tommy’s life, Dawn asks Tommy if he thinks he’ll write another one.
[00:09:36] Dawn asks if it’s fair to say that the overarching theme of “The Stimulated Mind” is that the conventional belief the adult brain is fixed and incapable of change is wrong.
[00:17:35] Ken explains that Tommy opens his book with a story about a study on barn owls, where researchers outfitted a group of owls with prism goggles that altered the perceived position of objects in the owls’ vision. While young owls were able to quickly adapt to the change in their vision and return to normal behavior and activities, adult owls, even after months of wearing the goggles, were unable to adapt and would miss mice that were directly under their beaks. However, the research group amended their study design and found something interesting. Ken asks Tommy to explain what they found when they amended their design.
[00:22:40] Ken asks Tommy to share how a human study, which outfitted participants with goggles that flipped their vision upside down, demonstrated the adaptability of the adult brain.
[00:25:32] Ken asks if these sorts of adaptations have been seen as beyond basic sensory modalities in higher cognitive functions.
[00:31:25] Dawn zooms out in our discussion and asks Tommy, given the falsehood of our previous understanding of the adult brain as being fixed, what exactly do we know about the brain.
[00:35:36] Dawn asks Tommy to talk about Santiago Ramón y Cajal, who is considered the first neuroscientist.
[00:38:41] Dawn mentions chapter two of Tommy’s book, “How do Neuroscientists Study the Brain,” in which Tommy explains the complexity of the brain, which is comprised of almost 100 billion neurons which compose nearly a quadrillion synapses. Given the complexity of the brain, Tommy notes in his book that even an organ as complex as the human brain is incapable of fully comprehending its own complexity. Dawn asks Tommy to talk about how he and his colleagues approach studying the brain.
[00:43:30] Ken notes the parallels between attempting to understand the function of the brain based on an understanding of its individual components to the process of trying to understand how a piece of software works on a computer by systematically studying the computer’s hardware. Ken goes on to start a discussion on the parallels between the brain as a self-referential system that is so complex it cannot even fully understand itself, to various paradoxes as well as Gödel’s theorem, while noting that such comparisons are a false equivalency, and the brain is not a formal system in the sense of mathematical proofs. Still, Ken notes, the parallels are interesting.
[00:47:07] Dawn asks Tommy about a humorous but insightful section in his book that illustrates the complexity of neurological research called “Can a Biologist Fix a Broken Radio.” Dawn asks Tommy to explain what this analogy is about.
[00:52:18] Dawn notes that the modern belief that the adult brain is fixed stems from work done by Cajal in the late 1800s where he claimed that after development the adult brain was no longer capable of regeneration or plasticity. Dawn asks Tommy to touch more on this.
[00:56:26] Ken explains that while people are likely familiar with neurons, as the basic building block of the nervous system, most people are less familiar with glial cells, which, until recently, were considered to play a minor role in the brain. However, Tommy in his book, argues that glial cells should be seen as just as important as neurons. Ken notes that within the neuroscience community there is a renewed interest in these cells.
[01:02:35] Dawn shifts the conversation to ask about the importance of cardiovascular health in brain health.
[01:06:35] Dawn explains that Tommy ends part one of his book by looking at what the brain is actually for, and to answer that question, he first explains that although the brain is capable of adaptation and change over a lifespan, it requires the right environment. To illustrate this, and the fact that dementia is not predetermined, Dawn asks Tommy about the indigenous Tsimané people of the Bolivian Amazon, who have some of the lowest rates of dementia in the world.
[01:08:27] Ken asks Tommy if it’s true that these people also have a lower prevalence of APOE 4/4 and 3/4 genotypes.
[01:11:26] Dawn asks, since one of the aims of Tommy’s book is to help people improve their cognitive function and reduce their risk for dementia, if he could give listeners a brief history of Alzheimer’s disease.
[01:17:07] Ken explains that general warnings that as we get better at treating various diseases and increasing lifespans, we will see an overwhelming number of people develop age-related dementia. Recent studies out of Europe, however, have shown the opposite trend, and that the likelihood of being diagnosed with dementia at the age of 70 is now lower than it was 20 years ago.
[01:22:43] Ken and Dawn close out part one of our interview with Tommy by explaining that in part two we will focus our discussion with Tommy on ways people can stimulate neuroplasticity in their adult brains. Ken asks Tommy to close out by briefly discussing the recipe for changing and improving the adult brain.
Links:
STEM-Talk episode 47 with Tommy Wood
STEM-Talk episode 110 with Tommy Wood
STEM-Talk episode 111 with Tommy Wood
STEM-Talk episode 128 with Tommy Wood