The Neurogenesis Experiment
Neurogenesis is the process by which neurons are created1. In the coming weeks I’ll perform an experiment on my own mind and body to gauge its effects. I’ll try to add in-depth articles on different aspects of neurogenesis, but let’s start with a broad overview.
Neuron by Neurollero@flickr
Neuron by Neurollero@flickr
The benefits of neurogenesis
There are a number of benefits ascribed to neurogenesis. One is improved mood. Indeed, the current hypothesis is that the mood-enhancing effects of antidepressants can be ascribed to a stimulation of neurogenesis.
Another, less certain, benefit is improved learning. There’s a lot of disagreement and conflicting results regarding the link between neurogenesis and learning, even in rats. But it seems the evidence is growing that neurogenesis improves at least certain types of learning, and I’m hopeful that these results also apply to humans.
At this point I should mention why I’m interested in these benefits. Firstly: who wouldn’t like to be in a better mood and learn faster? And secondly, I’m a student, plagued by the No. 1 student disease, procrastination. There seems to be a link between procrastination and mood (more on that in a later post), so improving the latter should help. I’m also at a point in my studies where I’d like to learn some highly mathematical stuff (like quantum mechanics) and a little boost of mental capabilities wouldn’t hurt. Lots of students and scientists take stimulants like Ritalin for this purpose. I should probably do so, too, but I’m just not the type I guess.
The plan: Six ways to stimulate neurogenesis
The benefits are great but useless if there’s no way to influence the amount of neurogenesis. Fortunately, there seem to be quite a few2.I’ve picked the most promising six and plan to implement them all at once, which will obviously require a certain amount of discipline. To measure compliance, I’m going to award points each day for correctly implementing these.
1. Exercise
The most effective way to stimulate neuron growth in rats has been physical exercise. Aerobic exercise is thought to be more effective, so my plan is 4km of running every morning. The distance should increase once I get better. Running will count as 1.5 points. I will complement this with another unit of sports each evening, alternating weigh lifting, (the physically stressing type of) yoga and meditation (not a sport, still effective) (1 point).
2. Change of environment
A “new, but benign” environment also seems to increase neurogenesis. I’ll get 1 point if I manage to learn/work for five hours in a place I haven’t visited for at least a week. This can be anything: one of the many libraries or the even larger amount of coffee shops. For the purpose of this experiment, all Starbucks shall count as one, as they really aren’t distinctive enough to call the second one “new”.
3. Omega-3 fatty acids
Unsaturated ω-3 fatty acids seem to be an important building block of new neurons. I’ve developed a somewhat drinkable milk shake that contains about 80g of linseed oil, which is very rich in Alpha-linolenic acid. Gets me 1 point for drinking it. Another 0.75 point are added for a ω-3-rich dinner such as fish.
4. Avoid junk foods
Junk food is bad for you. I haven’t found any paper directly linking Big Macs and stupidity, but it seems prudent to stay off the stuff for a while. 1 point for each day without Ben&Jerry’s and pizza.
5. No caffeine
This will be hard. There is, unfortunately, pretty good evidence that caffeine inhibits neurogenesis. The new stainless steel espresso maker will therefore be my girlfriend’s exclusive territory, unless I want to forfeit the 1 point.
6. No nicotine, either
With the coffee goes the cigarette. I’ve smoked a pack a day for the last three years, so this will require a lot of willpower. Points: 1-(#of Cigarettes/17).
Measuring success
There is, unfortunately, no easy way to measure my success. I will record and publish my compliance as measured by the point system above. I will add to that my effectiveness in work/study as measured by RescueTime and the results of a weekly memory test (remembering as many digits of a random number in one minute as possible).
Is this science?
Yes and no, but mostly no. For this to be a scientific experiment one would (a) test each measure by itself, (b) have a control group and (c) do each experiment on more than one person.
Cool stuff.
Good luck. I think you’ll feel much better after quitting smoking and exercising. Worst case scenario, you feel proud for taking better care of yourself.
If you think about neurogenesis with respect to the natural cognitive dissonance that results from doing something bad for you, that internal neuronal struggle will be eliminated and you will have more neurons to devote to good things rather than the justification of the smoking.
I don’t see how your plan can lose.
sounds fun, good luck.
Well if you want I am ready to take on this experiment with you. That could help us regarding motivation and factorizing the effort spent on the tools (data acquisition, storage, interpretation, etc) required to do this properly.
You can check the link on my website and see that I planned (dates of edition are in the history of the page) to do the same but with a goal more related to creativity.
I can tell you–anecdotally, of course–that omega-3 EFAs work.
But 80mg of linseed oil simply will not do it. Linseed oil runs about 40%-60% ALA, which means that you’re getting 48mg of omega 3s per day at most. You need 2-5 grams per day of omega-3s to see results.
I recommend [BRAND] Super EPA Fish Oil (300mg of EPA and 200 of DHA per softgel; I dose at 2.5g of EFAs per day which is five softgels). It’s the cheapest source of EFAs per gram (that’s per gram of EFAs, not per gram of fish oil, and it’s the EFAs that matter). It’s produced by [BRAND], with purity profiles available upon request.
Good luck!
[Matt: I removed the brands, as it sounds too much like an ad. I also mixed up my units (since corrected). I'm taking 80g of linseed oil, not 80mg].
Hi, Matt.
Excellent stuff. What about brain exercise? It may be the most directly effective way to stimulate neurogenesis.
I’m interested to see how you’ll measure your progress…
Martin
It’s not an ad, just the end result of my own research in the area. As long as you got the info I don’t much care one way or the other.
Something else you’ll want to consider. Your body metabolizes ALA into EPA and DHA, and it’s the EPA and DHA that your brain uses to make good things happen neuron-wise.
However, conversion of ALA is highly inefficient, typically 15% into EPA and 5% into DHA. So, with 80g of oil, you’re getting at most 42g of ALA, which will then breaks down into about 6g of EPA and 2g of DHA. Which is a fine dose, but there’s all kinds of things that can muck up the conversion process. If you’ve got a lot of linoleic acid in your diet (found in corn oil, soybean oil, and lots of other stuff common in the mod’ren Western diet) it can cut that conversion rate almost in half. Deficiencies in any of the vitamin co-factors (B3 B6 Zinc and Magnesium) will also inhibit conversion, and so will drinking alcohol.
So, you might choke down that 80g of linseed oil and end up getting much less than 3g of EPA and under a gram of DHA.
My advice (in terms of omega-3 supplementation) would be to switch to a good quality fish oil and add a decent multivitamin plus a B-complex supplement. That way you take 4-5 pills a day and get the EPA & DHA you need directly.
Plus: no linseed oil nastiness.