Brain: The Body's Ocean

We love NASA in this country, don't we? We love the thrill of space, the daring astronauts risking their lives, the occasional astronaut donning a diaper, the scientific discovery of super glue and Tang, OK neither one really were invented at NASA, and the antiquated space mobile aka the "Shuttle" that is about as reliable as a 1986 Plymouth Reliant with 197,000 miles on it. We love exploration I guess. And what is more fantastic than not leaving our own gravitational pull and entering the depths of the ocean?

Anybody old enough to remember Jaques Cousteau? Whatever happened to these adventures? He was a household name for heaven's sakes. Anyhow, I hate deep water. It freaks me out. However, I love to be near and in the ocean. The ocean is a very compelling area of the Earth. It covers so much of it, we have only seen so much of it, and it contains mysteries and history. The irony of the ocean is that it is largely unexplored although totally exploited. We have overfished the waters and dumped pollutants in it. I realized only recently that the human brain is much like the ocean waters. We know it's important, however, we don't really understand it, have likely only scratched the surface in researching it, and abuse the snot out of it.

Zach went to the neurologist the after conducting a sleep deprived EEG a few weeks ago. I have yet to write about it because it let me with nothing, well flabbergasted and hopeful and questioning at the same time, for a sum total of nothing.

Leanne's Overly Simplistic Science Nugget of the Day; An EEG, or electroencephalogram, is a test that monitors electrical activity and patterns on the brain. These patterns can indicate seizures/eplipelspy, brain tumors, even infection or injury, although MRIs are more typically used in the latter. Can it measure intelligence though??

We have not seen the actual EEG results or the write up. Last time we were able to see what two doctors besides our doctor interpreted on the EEG. The two doctors stated that there was a spike in the frontal lobe that looked anomalous, but that they did not believe it to be epilepsy. Our doctor said she could tell where they might interpret that from, but that she doesn't believe it was anything extraordinary that warranted any attention. My take: I have a kid who has a disorder that affects roughly 1% of the population, and I have a kid that has something noteworthy by two physicians to warrant a remark although not a condition or dx. Are the two somehow related? Is there something to investigate? I think like much of other parts of our world of autism, if we were to pursue this we would have to think about that once we get further information, what would we do with it? The fact is, there is no rulebook for kids on the spectrum and neurological brain activity, as measured by the EEG. Since there are no defined or accepted characteristics of autism and brain activity, there will be no treatment options. After our first visit, the doctor told us he was fine and likely a little math genius, not to worry. She also recommended a second EEG since two give a more accurate portrayal of what is going on, so that is why we scheduled the second.

What did the doctor say to us this go around? He has an EEG pattern of an older child. She actually stated he likely had a high IQ - closer to that of a six year old. Where did she get this from? She states the maturity of the wave patterns. She then remarked: "You don't have him in some intensive program do you?" Insinuating that it is unnecessary. Mind you, this is a woman with a PhD and an MD from prestigious Ivy League schools and a stint at the Mayo Clinic, leading me to believe she has an IQ much higher than my own. But does that mean she really knows what she is talking about, especially in regards to my beautiful son?

Off I went, into the wild wild west of published papers on the topic of intelligence, IQ, brain wave acitivity, and EEGs to find these recent studies:

• Research published in Clinical Neurophysiology in 2005 concluded that neural efficiency and increased brain complexity is positively related to intelligence.
• Other research also had some similar findings, one article entitled "Intelligence and neural efficiency: The influence of task content and sex on the brain–IQ relationship" had similar findings in both 2001 and further research conducted in 2005.

These were nice to read - but there was a lot of research on the topic and even though individual researchers made conclusions about this (some say yeah and some say nay BTW) there doesn't appear to be any overarching body declaring these findings.

I would love to believe that Zachy is really intelligent - don't we all want to think that about our kids? However, so what's up when it comes to him not talking and communicating? Right now when I talk to Zach, I feel like we are on a Charlie Brown special where the teacher is going "wa wa wa" (sound of muted trumpet I believe.) He knows a few words (sort of like when Buddy was around, he heard "ride", "treat", "Buddy", "no" and everything else is just noise. What good is all this hidden intelligence?

Nobody "knows" - from what I can gather, the brain is too unique to each individual for them to make the assertions they can about our other organs. The brain is still such an unknown part of the human body still needing much more exploration.

So what the heck am I supposed to do with that information? I am not sure what my gut is telling me anymore. At the time I wanted to slug the doctor and hug her at the same time. Confused? You bet. I guess my instincts tell me to feel hope that he will be functional, keep the therapy up, keep the supplements/diet up, give school a chance, fight for more services, and most importantly play often, smile even more, and love endlessly.