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Longer extract from "The Fluid System"
2. Connective tissue is the main fluid structure In Job’s Body, Deane Juhan described the remarkable ‘sol/gel’ properties of the ground substance of connective tissue or fascia, which varies from watery to viscous, from gelatinous to ‘hard as stone’(66). ‘ We can recognize this experientially – the dryness of exhaustion, the lightness of elation, the heavy fullness of foreboding, the grace of confidence, the tight angles of anger and determination. These states are mediated via the perception of organ activity, the activation of particular peptides, autonomic processes and muscle organisation, but the overall sense of these, the unifying factor, is the state of the tissues. It is the connective tissue which synchronizes the motion between muscles, vessels, nerves and viscera, as well as transferring muscle action to the bones’ (Juhan 87) When we observe someone closely it is not just posture and muscle movement we see but the constant qualitative changes in colour, brightness, and texture of surface tissues. These changes are detectable internally via interoception – the capacity to register shifts in what Damasio calls ‘the internal milieu’. Trauma, illness, stress, age, exercise and the self-regulatory strategies originating in early attachment experience all play a role in the health of the connective tissue. Chronic hyperarousal and tension in the muscle system leads to sluggishness and stagnation in the tissues. Rhythms of interaction which generate hope and joy and purpose can re-invigorate the tissues, whereas prolonged extreme grief, anger and fear dries and devitalizes it. Connective tissue is a vital part of the immune system, and so this too may become involved in the sequelae of dysregulation. Fluid plays an important role in the brain: cerebro-spinal fluid, also found in the spinal cord, bathes the brain via a system of aqueducts and ventricles. Cerebral arteries supply the brain with blood providing another conduit for chemical communication between the body and brain, and between part of the brain. (Panksepp 68; Damasio 94: 144) Although the blood-brain barrier filters out many larger molecules, the blood helps to bring nutrients including oxygen to the brain, effecting both cognition and mood. 3. The internal pharmacopeia– the chemistry of feeling, mood, and behaviour The neurochemical system or ‘wet brain’ is evolutionarily older and slower acting than the central nervous system, and highly distributed in its function. Its network includes many parts of the brain, the viscera, the endocrine system, the immune (lymphatic) system and a recently-discovered secreting site in the heart. The number of molecular structures whose functions have been identified is growing all the time, and their functions include regulating homeostasis, growth and maturation, bonding and reward systems, and other affective processes. They are loosely grouped as biogenic amines (dopamine, epinephrine, serotonin) peptides, (which include hormones, neuromodulators, endorphins and growth factors) and steroids. (Panksepp; Pert; Cozzolino) Concerted activations of peptides, amines and autonomic changes directly influence our moods and feelings via noticeable changes in state – for example, the release of endorphins which is experienced as pleasure or elation. This chemical soup interacts with the electrical nervous system by mediating information transmission and shaping attention, emotions, and motivations, as well as perceptions and memories: “We are beginning to understand how attention, emotions, and motivations, as well as perceptions and memories, are constructed through the synaptic chemistries that mediate information transmission in the brain. Information transfer within a single neuron is an electrical process, but at synapses the electrical language of the brain is momentarily converted into the chemical transmitter languages. After transmitters cross the synaptic cleft and interact with specific receptor molecules, the neuronal messages are passed onward in cascades of biochemical events that convert the various chemical dialects back into electrical ones.” (Panksepp, 97)
4. Peptides: systems for behavioural specificity The discovery of the opiate receptor marked a radical turn in neuroscience, with many more peptides with interesting functions coming to light. Some have straightforward physiological regulatory effects, but many seem to relate to particular behaviours. Although they have a specificity with regard to behaviour and mood broader affective states are not reducible to particular peptides but rather concerted activations of peptides, which probably interrelate in complex ways with biogenic amines. Some interesting peptides & functions:
Complex interacting reciprocal feed forward and feedback interconnecting hormonal, immune, neural and metabolic functions. These fluids are transformed in the viscera, in glands (thymus, pancreas, testes, ovaries, pineal, pituitary etc), in lymphatic system (nodes) and via autonomic activity. Amines, hormones and peptides circulate via blood - tidal, slower, diffuse, non-linear, distributed centres in body (endocrine glands) and key areas in brain bathed in cerebro-spinal fluid. The synthesis, release and regulation of neurochemicals is intimately bound up with our relationship to the social and physical environment, as well as to intrinsic rhythms and cycles. The secretion of neurochemicals may be triggered by eye contact and other visual stimuli, by touch, smell and sounds, as well as movement and imagination. The evolution of a reward system to support learning (largely dopamine-based) is now recognised as tightly interwoven with the chemistry of early attachment and continuing social bonds. For example, warm, responsive and attuned face-to-face interactions correlate with increased production of oxytocin, prolactin, endorphins and dopamine, which underpins the sense of feeling good about oneself. (Cozolino 115) By contrast, misattunement and rejection can trigger plummeting levels of these pleasure-inducing substances, leaving us with feelings of pain, anxiety and despair. This stress response then activates cortisol production, which can lead to inhibition of behaviour, feelings of helplessness, or numbness. Books like Molecules of Emotion, Why Love Matters and The Neuroscience of Human Relationships have fleshed out, in more detail than I can offer here, the links between neurochemistry and our bodily and emotional experience of relationships. (Pert, Gerhardt, Cozolino) Pert argues that ‘neuropeptides bring us to states of consciousness and to alterations in those states’. These states range from immediate physiological needs, to behavioural motivations, affects, and impulses influencing aesthetic and creative choices. Angiotensin is a peptide which is activated by water shortage in the body: minute quantities of this peptide, placed in the brain, activates the thirst circuit and leads to voluminous drinking (Panksepp 186). Applied to receptors in the lung or kidneys it will produce bodily changes aimed at conserving water, such as reducing the amount of water vapour in the breath and in urine. (Pert 145) This is a peptide with a relatively straightforward function but it illustrates a more general point about how we perceive and experience chemical re-organisation in the body. Peptide activation produces physiological changes which may not come to awareness as such (eg water vapour in the breath), and other symptoms and sensations (thirst) that may prompt automatic action, or it may produce body signals which, if amplified and brought to awareness, can contribute to a deeper of more expanded sense of self in the moment. Another way in which chemical patterns come to light is through illness, when the systems regulating our well-being start to show some irregularity or change…..
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Psychotherapy, Supervision, Consultation and Training email Roz Carroll |