Extract from our PDF 'The Psychology of Lean Manufacturing'
The Brain and Change
So what’s really going on behind the scenes?
In March 2009 Elizabeth Gould gave a talk entitled ‘How does Experience Influence the Brain? This was at the same time she was presented with the Ben Franklin Award at the RSA. In this talk Gould explained her focus on ‘Neurogenesis’ (The birth of new neuronal cells in the brain). Interestingly for the world of organisational change, she also touched on the related rate of change in an adult mammalian brain.
Originally investigating the effect of hormones on cell survival, an experiment, which saw the removal of the adrenal glands in rodents, resulted in massive cell death in certain brain regions, but confusingly, no net decrease in brain mass.
Aware of the first Spanish Nobel Prize Winner (1906), Santiago Ramon Y Cahal and his identification of neurons and dendritic spines using Camillo Golgi’s Silver Nitrate staining method (1905 – image left), (link) the potential for the brain to generate new cells wasn’t an entirely alien idea in the world at large, but there was little evidence readily available and opinions on the subject seemed to conflict.
To explain the anomaly in her own experiment Gould and her colleagues went on a search of old studies and soon found papers from the 1960’s (this was before the internet) from various authors.
Joseph Altman was one such researcher who had claimed adult rats, cats and guinea pigs all formed new neurons. (The image left provides a representation of a neuron or ‘Brain Cell’). Other studies showed an ‘Enriched Environment’ (i.e. an environment that provided more sensory stimulus for the rodent) also led to larger brains, larger neurons and more dendrites. Between 1970 and 1980 Kaplan conducted more studies showing the same. Unfortunately the findings from these studies were not broadly accepted in a world still convinced that man’s biblical superiority over animals must mean such findings didn’t apply to the human brain.
Fernando Nottebohm conducted similar experiments on Canaries and Zebra Finches making similar discoveries. However Nottebohm concluded the confirmation of new neurons was a specialisation of avian brains subject to changes in song patterns and other environmental challenges. Unfortunately, these findings, being avian specific, failed to challenge the received wisdom and were accepted. In 1985, roughly the same time, another research project found no evidence of neurogenesis in Macaque monkeys. This saw funding dry up and research into adult mammalian neurogenesis all but stop from that point onward.
Not able to explain the cell death vs. brain mass conundrum, Gould and her team took to using more advanced techniques, to see if they could once and for all prove or disprove the theories and clarify the inconclusive and conflicting studies that had gone before.
At this time (1996) Immunohistochemistry methods using BrdU (Bromodeoxyuridine) which had replaced 3H (Titrated) Thymadine, (a radio isotope) were being used to overcome the inaccuracies presented when staining only a few microns on the surface of a cell and reviewing them as a 2D image of 3 dimensions.
Combining BrdU (Red) with an immunofluorescent marker (Green) Gould, Cameron and their team were able to produce 3D images of cells stained with both the colours. As these chemical substances are only able to attach to markers expressed by new biological matter, these full cell 3D images proved the presence of new neurons among the existing neuronal cell structure of the adult mammalian brain; specifically, in the Hippocampus.
This micrograph shows fluorescently labelled new neurons in a rat hippocampus. Cells that are actively dividing have bromodoxyuridine (BrdU) incorporated into their DNA and are labelled in red. Cells that express glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) are labelled in green. Astrocytes, but not neurons, express GFAP. Thus, cells that are labelled both red and green are actively dividing astrocytes, whereas cells labelled red only are actively dividing neurons. (credit: modification of work by Dr. Maryam Faiz, et. al., University of Barcelona; scale-bar data from Matt Russell)
This ‘at last’ convinced the sceptics. The evidence presented specifically demonstrated;
It also identified a 3 step ‘process’
Rate of Change
Following this period of re-invigorated and increasingly funded research, Cameron and McKay (2001) identified that the quantity of neurons being produced in the sub-region of the Hippocampus under scrutiny was >9000 per day or 250,000 per month.
In a region containing 1.5 to 2Million cells, this constituted a substantial proportion of the total population. Additionally, new neurons were shown to have very robust electrophysiological responses, making them stronger in some ways than the mature neurons they integrated with.
The conclusion drawn at the time was no stronger than “they are highly likely having an influence over the existing circuitry.”
Not much more can be drawn from such limited data without falling foul of speculation, but if we were to assume this is an on-going process and new cells replace old, to represent our latest sensory stimulus, it means one aspect of a brain region known to be intricately entwined with memory and learning, anxiety (regulation), stress (feedback of the stress response – shutting the stress trigger off), PTSD, depression and dementia (which has been linked to a smaller hippocampus in a number of studies) may take upward of 7 months to become entirely representative of its latest experience.. IF that experience was novel and consistent over time!
Take a second to let that sink in.
The implications for leaders behaviour and change projects are immense! Providing scientific support for prior advice like ‘Constancy of purpose’ as found in Deming’s 14 points.
Die hard sceptics might argue such evidence is only pertinent to rodents and monkeys, however, although it is not routine to inject BrdU into humans, that’s exactly what Peter Eriksson and Fred Gauge did with some terminally ill throat cancer patients, to determine proliferation of the tumour growth they were suffering.
These patients were kind enough to donate their brains to research post-mortem. Without exception, every brain delivered positive evidence of neurogenesis, i.e. new neuron markers were tagged red and green.
This is particularly noteworthy as each patient was very old and very sick, both factors previously linked to a reduction in brain development, due to age and stressors (cortisol) impacting the effectiveness and proliferation of BDNF (Brain Derived Neurotrophic Factor) a substance which acts like fertiliser for the neurogenesis process. Despite this, the evidence was there for all to see.
What does that mean for industry?
Sticking with the science for another paragraph or two, these studies suggested ‘Structural plasticity (neurogenesis) may be important for learning and anxiety regulation’. This was confirmed in subsequent studies leading to the following statements being used by Gould in her talk to the RSA.
“Learning and stress alter the number of dendritic spines and new neurons in the hippocampus (Leuner et al., 2003. 2004. 2006. Mirescu and Gould 2006.)
“Depletion of new neurons alters learning (shors et al., 2001, 2002, Saxe et al., 2006, 2007; Winocur et al 2006) and Anxiety” (Santerelli et al., 2003; Revest et al., 2009)
Being less cautious about the wording than those in research projects have to be, so as not to over-state the conclusions drawn from such findings, what we might infer at his point (20 years after the initial proof of concept and a lot more experiments since) is that the brain changes in response to stimulus (external – physical… and internal – imagination) and embeds new structures into our existing cellular ‘wiring and firing patterns’. It does this by growing new neurons and altering old ones, so our brains represent a live and up to date image of the world available for reference at all times.
More recent studies you may have heard of ‘The Jennifer Aniston Neuron’ for example, helped the author, Rodrigo Quian Quiroga, now resident in Leicester (UK), highlight how the ‘new neuron’ in one of his test subjects was for Rodrigo’s own face. They met one day, and the very next day, a brand-new cell was the one that lit up when Rodrigo was seen, imagined, or spoken of by the patient or by another person speaking to the patient. The neuron that activated in response to his face and name was grown and integrated into the neural network over-night.
This makes a lot of sense for any animal surviving an ever changing landscape. It also means ‘learning’ and coping in a new environment can be considered less in terms of powerpoint presentations and logical process steps and more in terms of the rate of change in the brain. This dictates we fundamentally shift our ultimate intent, our ‘purpose’ away from ‘teaching tools’ and toward ‘moving minds’ … such that tools, logic and other semantic data are perceived as ‘Good’ (of benefit).
One position taken on this by Gould, at the time was;
Stress and elevated glucocorticoids (stressor hormones like Cortisol, also known as hydrocortisone) diminish neuronal growth.
There is other evidence from other studies conflicting that account, but it’s since been shown to be a pretty robust position. What it means in layman’s terms is people can’t adapt as quickly or sustainably when they psychologically perceive themselves to be under threat, suffering from the resultant raised levels of chemical stressors in their system.
Stress can be triggered by any number of situations, including the introduction of new principles and practices imposed through training sessions!
The implications are clear. What we do ‘to’ people at work, is often the reason we provoke ‘resistance to change’, slowing our time to a future ‘changed’ state. This happens consistently purely because we fail to consider the neuroscience and psychology involved.
Doing ‘with’ people is better for the brains involved and for the outcomes required by the business.
Partly due to the disconnect between the different disciplines at play, (i.e. Neuroscience and Psychology, Philosophy, Change, Leadership, Strategy (Hoshin), Lean and Six Sigma are kept separate in today’s silo approach to education) some good questions aren’t yet being asked; as a result there is little evidence coming from the world of neuroscience, other than that detailed above, for the rate of neural adaption in normative conditions, or the capacity to retain new neural wiring patterns over time, e.g. following training.
However, what we do know, suggests the rate of change is significantly impacted by the presence of chemicals related to fear and other emotions, as it is those chemicals that influence the ‘rate of change’ of those neural wiring and firing patterns associated to different types of memory, learning and anxiety… and that’s just in one sub-region of the hippocampus.
Types of Human Memory: Diagram by Luke Mastin
The trouble is, we unconsciously use language in our own defence, relying on words with ambiguous meaning (proxy terms) to generalise, for convenience, often resulting in false efficiency. In recent decades, popular but ambiguous words have included, Empowerment, Ownership, Vision, Mission, Purpose, Engagement, Motivation, Strategy, Culture, Change and many more.
This issue of ‘meaning-ambiguity’ surrounding everyday words and phrases even features in the popular models many people in business take for granted today, like Tuckman’s 1965 Storming-Forming-Norming-Performing model… Deming’s PDCA and even my own models BTFA – Believe, Think, Feel, Act, etc.
Models necessarily include ambiguity, because they use words which are open to interpretation. Example. Believe. When I use this word, I mean an imprinted dendritic wiring and firing pattern, others will not interpret that word in the same way. As a result, a conversation can often be at cross-purposes without either party realising the other is receiving an entirely different meaning from that which is intended.
E.g. Our primary intent and purpose is to change a leaders belief about effective change and what that looks like in practice.
A theologian might consider this to have a biblical or spiritual connotation, rather than assuming the phrase refers to an imprinted dendritic wiring and firing pattern.
To over-come such ambiguity and misinterpretation, base-line language has to be at the chemical neurotransmitter and neural adaption level, if it is to cover all meaning above it … i.e. which neurotransmitters are released when, for what reason and to what effect. The following table provides a brief introduction.
It is classified in two ways. 1. As a neurotransmitter, because it is secreted by neurons. 2. As a Hormone, because it also effects other organs around the body. It is released in response to Stress, mainly associated as a signal from the sympathetic nervous system to the heart, increasing heart rate.
A hormone released from the adrenal glands on top of each kidney, flooding the blood stream and affecting heightened reactions around the body, like heart rate, dilation of the pupils, secretion of sweat, saliva and twitch muscle fibres.
A Glucocorticoid (steroid Hormone), it is produced from cholesterol in the adrenal glands and is released in response to stress (it typically follows a release of adrenaline).
The chemicals above are associated to ‘Fight-Flight-Freeze-Fawn’ i.e. our defence mechanisms. These are the chemicals at play when we are sporadically or chronically stressed. It is the condition of chronic stress, i.e. when under duress from poor relationships with authority and arbitrary / imposed targets and KPI’s that we are particularly concerned with. It’s the elevated presence of Cortisol over time, that can damage cells, leading to long term organ failure and depleting BDNF (Brain Derived Neurotrophic Factor), which is essential for Neurogenesis (i.e. learning and adaption via the creation of new neural wiring and firing patterns). Considering there is so much to consider in respect to neuroscience and psychology in everyday life, it seems odd most studies that make the headlines focus on the sporadic, rare and unusual cases which make for good news stories.
This affects you in different ways, depending upon its origin (where it is released from) and what other parts of the brain the receiving neurons are connected to, even what type of neurons they are comes into play. Generally speaking though, it is associated with love, lust, sex, addiction, gambling... but also motivation, desire, passion… i.e. Dopamine exists to ensure we get things done.
When it is received by the Mesolimbic Pathway, it provides us with a system called ‘The Seeking mechanism’. It literally inspires us to look for the next good thing and the next … and the next. That’s OK when it’s searching out the next meal, but it can lead to social problems if it means we keep seeking out new partners, or jobs, or material things. It’s what keeps marathon runners training to attain the 26.22 mile goal and is also the reason Marathon runners often feel depressed for a week or so after the race, it’s not exhaustion, it’s because the ‘feel good’ factor from the presence of Dopamine is no longer there, because the all-consuming goal is no-longer there – it’s achieved and in the past.
This is released by neurons in the pineal gland of the brain but it can affect structures all over the body. Many effects appear unrelated, making this compound one of the most diverse the human brain and body uses. It is constructed from the amino acid tryptophan, found in banana’s, turkey and milk. It is also raised by exercise and adequate sleep. It is often called the happiness molecule as it has a profound effect on mood. High levels leave people cheerful and better able to cope with everyday stress. On the negative side, low levels are associated to mental disorders including social anxiety, Obsessive-compulsive disorder, anorexia, bulimia, phobias, bi-polar disorder and body dysmorphic disorder. So it’s worth eating healthily, sleeping enough and boosting your Serotonin levels!
This is sometimes called the love hormone; it’s increasingly shown to trigger a wide variety of physical and psychological effects in both men and women. This hormones influence on our behaviour and physiology originates in the brain, where it’s produced by a structure called the hypothalamus. It transfers to the pituitary gland which releases it into the blood-stream. Like antennas picking up a signal, oxytocin receptors are found on cells throughout the body. It promotes attachment (especially between mother and child). Levels are shown to be raised when people experience skin on skin contact. It also solidifies relationships in as much as one study found levels to be increased when biological children had contact with their mother as compared to adoptive children. It eases stress, and facilitates childbirth and breastfeeding. We wouldn’t want to live without it!
These are just some of the chemicals associated to us feeling good and motivating us to continue with any given task or behaviour. The chemical balance in our brains can be detrimentally affected by our prevailing conditions at work and at home... cont.
That is an extract from our £10 PDF "The psychology of Lean Manufacturing" available via the button below.
In addition to the little science above, referenced to try and help clarify issues of 'Change' and what we're really dealing with in respect to organisational change, I'd like to take this opportunity to also consider the misconceptions which often surround the phrase 'Left Brain - Right Brain'.
Since fMRI scanning technologies were first employed, many in the media have over-simplified the construct of the brain to put the complex into neatly packaged attention grabbing headlines.
This has led to many myth's, including left brain activity vs. right brain activity and that 'normal' people only use 20% of their brain, compared to known a known genius like Einstein using all of his brain ... this is nothing less than complete poppycock! For one, there is no way to tell how much neural activity was apparent in Einsteins brain ... and it skips past the evidence which suggest he copied his theory of relativity from Poincare... contentious, yes, true, most likely!
We all use all of our brains, but it's not all "lit-up' (firing) at the same time. The 20% myth comes from the fact that it takes too much glucose energy to fire more than 20% neural mass at any one time and firing too much of our brain at once can see the rate of glucose consumption falter (we feint).
The 20% which is 'in-use' at any one time, is in constant motion as different regions are engaged to process the world around us and our internal dialogue / imaginations. (Still an over-simplified description, but adequate for now). You may have seen this in fMRI images, the blood flow it shows isn't static, but constantly and rapidly shifting as the person is presented with a question or task.
We also use both sides of our brain. It is a fact that different parts of the brain in each hemisphere have localised function, and more 'logical' processing is apparent in the left hemisphere than the right ... and more emotional / artistic processing is encountered in the right hemisphere than the left...
... just as the visual cortex is at the back of the brain and executive function resides in the pre-frontal cortex ... yet both operate when seeing something ...
... just as course motor control is predominantly a task for the cerebellum and fine motor control is found along the central sulcus... but both are engaged when a violinist is moving his bowing arm and placing his fingers on the strings!
This doesn't mean the left and right hemisphere operates independently of each other, they are intricately intertwined and without each other there are no checks and balances.
Each hemisphere is connected via the corpus callosum (this is like a massive ethernet cable of myelin covered axons (white matter), connecting neurons across the brain).
The sensory stimulus we receive from the outside world, our imagination and our decision making activities are routed through both hemispheres... in fact, neuroscientists have long since demonstrated there is no such thing as a 'Rational' / 'Logical' decision (made in the left hemisphere), as all so called logic has to have an emotional quotient. Without it, logical decisions are impossible.
That is to say, where the corpus callosum has been severed (an historical action taken to try and relive epilepsy), 'split brain' patients highlighted the need for both sides of the brain to be connected and work in harmony.
Recognising the fact that the spinal cord twists during embryonic formation, to ensure everything fits into the available spaces, it is reasonably common knowledge today that the left body is controlled by the right brain and vice versa.
Split brain patients can see a pen with both eyes open and describe the pen and it's use. However, cover up one eye and things change dramatically. Cover the left eye, to disengage the right brain, and it is easy for the patient to deliver semantic information from the left brain. When asked what the object is, they can say 'A Pen'.
Keep the left eye covered and ask them to describe what it is used for and the severed brain connection is apparent. They cannot offer any explanation. Cover the opposite eye and they can tell you it's used to express thought by writing down words or drawing pictures, but they can't tell you that the object is called 'A Pen'.
Many examples and various tests of increasing psychological complexity, with split brain patients, confirm that we humans have two brain halves, which very much work in concert with each other.
We fool ourselves into thinking we are making logical decisions, but we cannot escape the fact, every decision we make relies on deep psychological framing from a lifetime of classical conditioning.
It is for these reasons, it is imperative for leaders to understand themselves and their reports in much more detail than is currently popular today. In the absence of factual knowledge surrounding the brain and mind, much of what we do in business undermines our intended outcomes and we fail to recognise it.
Other on-line courses currently available from Duxinaroe, which explore the psychology involved in performance improvement and change, include a full Root Cause Analysis training course and a 14 point psychological change checklist, available via the links below.
New content will be added over time, building to provide a complete training solution. We will provide a Lean Road map and the relevant training for all the tools and techniques within it. Hoshin Kanri (Strategy deployment) and Culture change, including our exclusive 'Brain-Mind-Culture-ADAPT' leadership development method.
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