114. Art as a Neurological Product (Part II)

 “Art is the only way to run away without leaving home.” Twyla Tharp 

This episode builds on last week's conversation (episode 113) about what happens in your brain when making art. And we're taking a deep dive into the neuroscience of the hormones that help us feel good and the role that creativity plays in giving us those feelings. I'll talk a little bit about the hormones, plus the strategies that give you effective means of feeling better. 

Transcript

 “Art is the only way to run away without leaving home.” This quote from Twyla Tharp starts off today's episode. Welcome in to the Modern Creative Woman podcast. I'm Doctor Amy Backos, and I am delighted that you're here. We're building on last week's conversation about what happens in your brain with art. And we're taking a deep dive into the neuroscience of the hormones that help us feel good and the role that creativity plays in giving us those feelings. I'll talk a little bit about the hormones, plus the strategies that give you effective means of feeling better. Let's get into this. Let's get this started. 

Making art is this uniquely human experience. And it's connected in our brain with symbolic and abstract cognition. And cognition is just the overarching term that describes the thinking that's happening and the process of thinking. Art, of course, is seen around the world, and I've been able to sort through the three major theories about brain and art. And there's a great article called Art and Brain by Dahlia Sydell. And so some of this comes from that. And you can find that article in the Journal of Anatomy. The first theory is really localized brain regions and the pathways, the theories that link art to these multiple neural regions in the brain. So that's the biology of it. The second theory that's emerged in the literature is the display of art. And we've talked here a lot about aesthetics. And why aesthetics is so important to us as human beings. There's simply no way around it. We cannot deny that how things look. Play a role in how we perceive them and in how we feel about them. There is biological motivation in making art. The studies from cultural anthropologists have really focused on art as advancing societies. There's self-expression. There's courtship. There's being able to expand culture and society that is essential in the use of art and aesthetics and a lot of evolutionary theories. Dissanayake and many others are tying art to these critical changes in human behavior by using such symbolism. Art also is connected with this sudden emergence of modern language, modern being 45,000 years ago. And a lot of that work comes from Klein. And when we think about the evolutionary advantage of language and art. Both are symbols. Art is a symbol that's perhaps closer to the original object and experience. And words are symbols that are more abstractions. So the localized brain regions is the first one, displaying art and understanding aesthetics and the human response to aesthetics. And then the third train of research is that evolutionary theory really looking at the symbols of art and language. Remember in the last episode we talked about the biology of art and what it does for us right now in the here and now, not as some aspect of evolution or some aspect of the neurological process, but in that moment when you are making art, which I hope you are, those repetitive movements with your hands feel good and they reward you, they continue to help you feel good. We talked last time about serotonin and the brain power that we have from getting in the state of flow from planning and prediction, attention, self-regulation, and of course, self-expression. So are you getting enough of these feel good hormones? It's a really important question. Let's shift our conversation to dopamine. Now, you know dopamine as the pathway to pleasure. It gives this intense feeling of reward. And you get a dopamine hit during and after sex, during and after shopping. You get it when you smell cookies that you love baking in the oven. Dopamine plays a really important factor in shaping behavior and specifically in reinforcement. That feeling of dopamine that goes along with tasting the cookie makes us want a second cookie. There is, of course, the dark side of dopamine and the struggle that happens when people get the intense feeling of reward from drugs. If you think about drugs like heroin or cocaine, they can very easily lead to addiction because there is such an intense high. The euphoria of using those. Gives a huge rush and then a quick fall. So when people are perhaps biologically primed for addiction, genetically speaking, or they're they're lacking other sources of feel good hormones, if someone's trying to self-medicate pain or mental illness, they're more vulnerable to the dopamine addiction related to drug use. The role of dopamine in our brain is really important. It has a really pivotal role in a variety of functions, including learning and attention. If our brains are rewarded because we learn something and we associate it with pleasure, we want to learn more. But it's also related to staying focused on what we're doing, that level of attention. Dopamine plays a huge role in our mood. Also in our movement, heart rate, kidney functioning, our blood vessel functioning plays a role in sleep pain processing. And lactation for new moms. And all of these details come out of the Journal of Harvard Health. So let's talk about the how of dopamine. This comes from my neuropsychology class in my doctoral program. Neurons in the region at the base of the brain are producing dopamine. But it's really this two step process, the amino acid trypsin that gets converted into another amino acid called L-dopa. L-dopa then undergoes one more change. Enzymes in the brain are turning it, then into dopamine. So it's a multi phase process to get to the dopamine. You may be familiar with where there are deficits of dopamine. Too little dopamine can cause those stiff movements that are the hallmark of Parkinson's. And though we tend to associate depression and find that it is linked more with serotonin deficiency, there's a lot of studies that find dopamine deficiency contributes to a down mood as well. And the research has whittled it down a little bit. The low dopamine level shows up when people who have depression are experiencing things like lack of motivation and lack of concentration. So those are sort of the hallmarks of what it looks like when someone's low on dopamine. So what about food and dopamine? We talked about serotonin and food last time. Since dopamine is made of tyrosine, getting more amino acid in this way can boost your dopamine levels in your brain. And so there is a line of research that shows a diet rich in tyrosine can also improve memory and mental performance. So this is really good news. You can empower yourself with this kind of information to help keep your brain healthy and strong and age in a really powerful way. So here's the foods that are part of this. And again is from the Journal of Harvard Hall. Chicken and other types of poultry, dairy, you know, milk, cheese, yogurt, avocados, bananas, pumpkin and sesame seeds and of course, soy. Recently, my doctor suggested I should eat a half an avocado every day. It's one of those foods that really helps mental performance. But oxytocin itself, self made by us, promotes these positive feelings like attachment. It's really helping our children feel safe and loved. It gives us the urge to care for a child. And even when you're exhausted, moms will get up and take care of their kids. This hormone in particular has a variety of purposes. It stimulates the uterus to contract, and it boosts the production of all the other hormones that increase the uterine contractions for labor. For new moms, it helps specifically move the mother's milk. It's what happens to bond the mother and baby when they look at each other. Moms holding baby. We also produce oxytocin when we're excited by our sexual partners. It shows up when we fall in love. It feels so good to fall in love. Now oxytocin levels, I thought, are they different in men and women? Well they are. Women do have higher levels, especially around childbirth and being around children. But men get it too. They also have oxytocin released, and for them it's really the social bonding and intimacy. You might wonder how this might affect mental health. Oxytocin also lowers stress and anxiety. It reduces postpartum depression. And as I mentioned it has this really positive impact on social behaviors. It does that by increasing our relaxation and trust around other people. It just helps us feel psychologically stable with others. One interesting factor about oxytocin is that. When your brain is producing an oxytocin and secreting oxytocin, it is kind of controlled via this positive feedback loop in your brain. And essentially that means that the hormone causes an action that stimulates more of the hormone. So the more you get, the more you get love begets more love. There was a lot of research, maybe several decades ago, about how could we administer oxytocin in a simple way, like a pill or a nasal spray? And it wasn't successful. It didn't work. The good news is you don't have to work that hard. Music, singing, and even more so, singing in a group will increase the oxytocin and help you feel better. Also, art and exercise increase your oxytocin. If you need any excuse in the world to go get a massage, I'm giving it to you. You can increase your oxytocin through massage. You can get it by cuddling. Making love. Hugs. All of these lead to this higher level of oxytocin and a greater sense of subjective well-being. And what I mean by that is just like you feel better. According to you, Tish Han has a great hugging meditation. You want to put all this into one? You can hug someone. If you go hug your partner and say, they're alive in my arms and I love them. You're going to get so much benefit from that one meditation. And then you can ask them to say it about you. This is a quote from Grazia Carmel. She's a colleague, a professor at Drexel University. She does a lot of research in art therapy. She's past president of the American Art Therapy Association. She says anything that engages your creative mind, the ability to make connections between unrelated things and imagine new ways to communicate is good for you. You can think about making a little bit of brain art by consciously paying attention to your art. I like to draw my brain occasionally. You know, it's got a right lobe and a left lobe and different functions in there, and there's no need to look up a neuroanatomy picture of what's where. It's just a visual, creative depiction of a brain. And in this process, you can be consciously aware of the lines, the shapes, the colors that you're choosing. And pay attention to anything that you're noticing. Thoughts, feelings, bodily sensations. Sounds you're breathing, the temperature, the light. Anything that crosses your awareness gets to be included in making this art. And if you notice judgments, just notice. If you notice enjoyment just notice. So this kind of meditation is really pulling in all kinds of creativity. Another way, if you want to level this up is sculpt a brain. Same exercise, but sculpted in clay. Gives you more tactile experience and want to take it one step further. Invite your friends over and make some art. I hope you feel more informed about the art and the science, and really, what happens when you're engaged in art. And we talked about the three lines of research, but it comes down to this. Making art is good for you. If I could sum it all up, I would say making art feels good and people like it. There's not an adverse reason for making art. It's personal expression. It's creativity, it's political advocacy. It's all the feel good hormones, mindfulness and flow. If you have not made art today, what in the world get on this. And one way to see for yourself is to write down your mood. You can rank it on a scale if you want, but write down how you're feeling before you make art and after. The research shows that those positive feelings will also linger throughout your day. We'll talk a little bit more in the next episode about endorphins and the science behind pain management. Have a wonderful rest of your week. Now that you know about how to use your creativity, what will you create? Want more? Subscribe to the Modern Creative Woman digital magazine. It's absolutely free and it comes out once a month. And I know you can get a lot out of the podcast and the digital magazine. Yet when you're ready to take it to the next level and want you to know you have options inside the membership, and if you're interested in a private consultation, please feel free to book a call with me. Even if you just have some questions, go ahead and book a call. My contact is in the show notes and you can always message me on Instagram. Do you come find me in the Modern Creative Woman on Instagram, Facebook, and Pinterest at Doctor Amy Backos. If you like what you're hearing on the Modern Creative Woman podcast, I want to give you the scoop on how you can support the podcast. You can be an ambassador and share the podcast link with three of your friends. You can be a community supporter by leaving a five star review. If you think it's worth the five stars, and you can become a Gold Star supporter for as little as $3 a month. All those links are in the show notes. Remember to grab your free copy of the 21 Day Gratitude Challenge. The link is in the show notes and you can find it at. Com. Have a wonderful week and I cannot wait to talk with you in the next episode.