Looking in the mirror

I think lots of us can identify with much of this post from PERIPHERAL NEUROPATHY NEWS – L A
A publication of the Neuropathy Support Group of Los Angeles
Vol. 10 April 2010

The President’s Corner

It seemed to me that my 55-year-old daughter had been
growing. The past few years when I visit her in Arizona, she
seems to be my height, and I’ve been 5’5’’ all my life.
Wrong! My new doctor’s nurse measured me on my first
visit, and I’m now 5’2’’, my daughter’s height. I saw it with
my own eyes.
It’s not bad enough that I’ve shrunk; my feet are now 1½”
longer than they used to be.
All things considered though, I guess those are small
things to get upset about—that, along with a lot of other
minor irritations. Compare them to neuropathy.
With neuropathy, we hurt, drop and knock over things,
lose our balance and fall, feel drugged out on medications—
then we hurt and have withdrawal when we forget them.
Our toes and fingers tingle—then we burn them without
knowing it, or they’re freezing. That’s just to mention a few.
I guess and inch or two here or there (or everywhere) are
small potatoes. Probably, in the annals of time, so is
neuropathy. We can’t cure it or fix it any more than we can
grow taller or lose a few inches off our feet. But, damn it, it
hurts, it keeps us awake, and we’re afraid. But, sometimes I
think the worse part is that nobody besides people with
neuropathy understands all of that.
I have some confessions to make. What I’m about to say
is probably isolated to me, so don’t get your shorts in bunch,
this is me I’m talking about. But, I confess that I’ve been
known to dwell on my condition; I’ve been short with people
because they don’t seem to be aware that I hurt; I’ve
refused help from friends and those close to me when they
have tried to be sensitive; I’ve worried at night about the
future—being alone, not being able to drive, you name it;
and the worst of all, I’ve exaggerated sometimes to get
sympathy.
What do I say to myself? What can I say? I say, “Don’t do
that.” And guess what? It works! USUALLY.
Hey, good news—I’ve got it! I just figured something out!
I didn’t really shrink 3’’, 1½ of those inches just went south
(among other things) and made my feet longer. Boy, I’m
glad to at least have that settled.
I’m still working on where the other 1½ inches are that
I’m still missing! More than you really want to know? I
promise, I won’t bring it up again…..Velda

Looking After Yourself With Neuropathy Vid

Today's post from beatingneuropathy.tv (see link below) talks about some self-help possibilities for neuropathy patients. As always, Dr Hayes, gives some sound advice and in this case, his suggestions can be seen as a basis for your own body maintenance regime. You can of course add other things to the list.

Episode 37 – Neuropathy Self-Care  
Posted by John Hayes Jr Thursday, December 12th, 2013

Dr. Hayes talks about lifestyle changes that can help neuropathy and fibromyalgia, indeed most pain sufferers get–and stay–healthy, while reducing symptoms. Can it really be this simple? Watch, and try these suggestions!


http://beatingneuropathy.tv/2013/12/episode-37-neuropathy-self-care/

HOW THE BRAIN FINDS WHAT ITS LOOKING FOR

Despite the barrage of visual information the brain receives, it retains a remarkable ability to focus on important and relevant items. This fall, for example, NFL quarterbacks will be rewarded handsomely for how well they can focus their attention on color and motion -- being able to quickly judge the jersey colors of teammates and opponents and where they're headed is a valuable skill. How the brain accomplishes this feat, however, has been poorly understood

Now, University of Chicago scientists have identified a brain region that appears central to perceiving the combination of color and motion. They discovered a unique population of neurons that shift in sensitivity toward different colors and directions depending on what is being attended -- the red jersey of a receiver headed toward an end zone, for example. The study, published Sept. 4 in the journal Neuron, sheds light on a fundamental neurological process that is a key step in the biology of attention.

"Most of the objects in any given visual scene are not that important, so how does the brain select or attend to important ones?" said study senior author David Freedman, PhD, associate professor of neurobiology at the University of Chicago. "We've zeroed in on an area of the brain that appears central to this process. It does this in a very flexible way, changing moment by moment depending on what is being looked for."

The visual cortex of the brain possesses multiple, interconnected regions that are responsible for processing different aspects of the raw visual signal gathered by the eyes. Basic information on motion and color are known to route through two such regions, but how the brain combines these streams into something usable for decision-making or other higher-order processes remained unclear.

To investigate this process, Freedman and postdoctoral fellow Guilhem Ibos, PhD, studied the response of individual neurons during a simple task. Monkeys were shown a rapid series of visual images. An initial image showed either a group of red dots moving upwards or yellow dots moving downwards, which served as an instruction for which specific colors and directions were relevant during that trial. The subjects were rewarded when they released a lever when this image later reappeared. Subsequent images were composed of different colors of dots moving in different directions, among which was the initial image.

Dynamic neurons 

Freedman and Ibos looked at neurons in the lateral intraparietal area (LIP), a region highly interconnected with brain areas involved in vision, motor control and cognitive functions. As subjects performed the task and looked for a specific combination of color and motion, LIP neurons became highly active. They did not respond, however, when the subjects passively viewed the same images without an accompanying task.

When the team further investigated the responses of LIP neurons, they discovered that the neurons possessed a unique characteristic. Individual neurons shifted their sensitivity to color and direction toward the relevant color and motion features for that trial. When the subject looked for red dots moving upwards, for example, a neuron would respond strongly to directions close to upward motion and to colors close to red. If the task was switched to another color and direction seconds later, that same neuron would be more responsive to the new combination.

"Shifts in feature tuning had been postulated a long time ago by theoretical studies," Ibos said. "This is the first time that neurons in the brain have been shown to shift their selectivity depending on which features are relevant to solve a task."

Freedman and Ibos developed a model for how the LIP brings together both basic color and motion information. Attention likely affects that process through signals from higher-order areas of the brain that affect LIP neuron selectivity. The team believes that this region plays an important role in making sense of basic sensory information, and they are trying to better understand the brain-wide neuronal circuitry involved in this process.

"Our study suggests that this area of the brain brings together information from multiple areas throughout the brain," Freedman said. "It integrates inputs -- visual, motor, cognitive inputs related to memory and decision making -- and represents them in a way that helps solve the task at hand."