Parenting with the Brain in Mind

Parenting with the Brain in Mind Daniel J. Siegel, M.D. FPR-UCLA Center for Culture, Brain and Development Mindful Awareness Research Center Center for Human Development

Mary Hartzell Interpersonal Neurobiology Seminar Participants Global Association for Interpersonal Neurobiology Studies [MindGAINS.net] Center for Culture, Brain, and Development [CBD.UCLA.edu] Teachers: Marion Sigman, Ph.D. Jerome Bruner, Ph.D. Mary Main, Ph.D. Elinor Ochs, Ph.D. Robert Bjork, Ph.D. Acknowledgment Mind Your Brain, Inc. (c) 2005

Interpersonal Neurobiology (IPNB) • An interdisciplinary view of human experience that draws on over a dozen branches of science to find the consilient findings across various perspectives to create a framework for understanding the development of our subjective and interpersonal lives. • [Norton Series on Interpersonal Neurobiology; The Developing Mind-How Relationships and the Brain Interact to Shape Who We Become] Mind Your Brain, Inc. (c) 2005

Basic Tenets of IPNB • 1) The MIND IS a Process that Regulates the Flow of Energy and Information. • 2) The Mind EMERGES within the interaction of the Internal Processes of the Brain/Body and the Interpersonal Processes. • 3) The Mind DEVELOPS as the Genetically Programmed Maturation of the Nervous System is Shaped by Ongoing Experience. Mind Your Brain, Inc. (c) 2005

IPNB: Well-Being • A working definition of Well-Being: • A system that connects differentiated elements into a functional whole = an INTEGRATED System • When a system moves toward integration it is a achieving a movement toward maximizing “COMPLEXITY.” Mind Your Brain, Inc. (c) 2005

FACES • Well-Being is proposed to emerge with Integration: producing a “FACES” state: Flexible – Adaptive – Coherent – Energized – Stable = FACES • COHERENCE can be defined as: Connected, Open, Harmonious, Engaged, Receptive, Emerging, Noetic, Compassionate, Empathic. Mind Your Brain, Inc. (c) 2005

COHERENCE FACES path Embeds new experience into its own defining features Connects to the Larger World of Experience Reinforces Well-Being COHESION Rigidity / Chaos Restrictive definition of its own Features and Pathway Limited to boundaries defined in the past Constricts Well-Being Coherence and Cohesion Mind Your Brain, Inc. (c) 2005

Developmental Principles • Genes and Experience contribute to the formation of Brain and Mind • Genes influence connections in the brain. • Experience (Neural Activation) Shapes Connections in the brain via Synapse Formation (Synaptogenesis) and New Neuronal Growth = Neural Plasticity • Mental Processes Shape Neural Connections which Shape Mental Processes Mind Your Brain, Inc. (c) 2005

An “Inside Out Approach” to Parenting • Basic Principles: • 1) Mindfulness • 2) Lifelong Learning • 3) Coherent Narratives: Making Sense • 4) Response Flexibility • 5) Joyful Living Mind Your Brain, Inc. (c) 2005

Steps in Making Sense • 1. How We Remember • 2. How We Perceive Reality: Stories • 3. How We Feel • 4. How We Communicate • 5. How We Attach in Childhood • 6. How We Make Sense of Our Lives (Adult Attachment) Mind Your Brain, Inc. (c) 2005

Steps in Making Sense (II) • 7. How we Hold it Together and How we Fall Apart: The High Road and the Low Road • 8. How We Connect and Reconnect: Repair • 9. How We Develop Mindsight: Reflective Dialogues Mind Your Brain, Inc. (c) 2005

Direct Effects of Experience: Neuronal Firing shapes synapse formation and strengthening Involves gene activation to produce proteins for lasting change Adaptive Effects of Experience: The MIND harnesses Self-Regulation in the Brain to maintain balance and ADAPT Adaptations can involve alterations in synaptic connections Neural Plasticity Mind Your Brain, Inc. (c) 2005

Temperament A “Constitutional Feature” of the child: Inborn (not necessarily genetic) – Constitutional predisposition of the Nervous System May have lifelong impact that is influenced by Experience – especially with Caregivers Attachment The Relationship of the child to the caregiver over time Research has shown Attachment shapes the developing mind Attachment impacts Self-Regulatory Circuits Temperament and Attachment Mind Your Brain, Inc. (c) 2005

Research on Attachment • Attachment Classifications are Independent of Temperament • Attachment Experiences can shape the developmental outcome of temperamental features [See J. Kagan (1996) , Galen’s Prophecy] • Attachment directly shapes Autobiographical Narrative Processes [Siegel and Hartzell (2003), Parenting from the Inside Out] Mind Your Brain, Inc. (c) 2005

Activity Level (the motor activity) Rhythmicity (regularity of functions) Approach (positive response to new stimuli vs. withdrawal) Adaptability (ease with which responses are modified) Threshold of Responsiveness (sensitivity level) Intensity of Reaction (the general energy level of a response) Quality of Mood (the intensity and nature of emotional responsiveness) Distractablity (responsiveness to extraneous stimuli altering ongoing behavior) Attention span/persistence (vigilance in attending to task at hand) Chess and Thomas’ Nine Aspects of Temperament: Matching Mind Your Brain, Inc. (c) 2005

Epigenetics and Personality • Predict general PATTERNS of Developmental Pathways over a lifespan. • Development is NON-LINEAR, meaning that small inputs can lead to large and Un-predictable outcomes. • Why then propose Patterns? • Chaos and Rigidity: Two banks on the flow of the river of life. Mind Your Brain, Inc. (c) 2005

Some General Principles • Memory embeds prior experiences in neural connections in the brain. • The brain is an associational organ and matches present firing patterns with those of the past. • The brain is an anticipation machine - linking the present with what it expects in the future based on experiences in the past. Mind Your Brain, Inc. (c) 2005

The Brain is a Social Organ • The structure and function of the brain is to engage with other people, other brains, in the shaping of its development over time and in shaping its activity in the present. • Mirror Neurons and the capacity to develop empathy and insight = MINDSIGHT Mind Your Brain, Inc. (c) 2005

How Do We KNOW and Re-Create Our Selves across Time? • The Brain and Autobiographical Memory • Autonoetic Consciousness: Self-Awareness • Life Stories: Narratives and the Brain – How we reinforce our own Patterns • [Siegel, DJ (1999) The Developing Mind, and • Macrae, C.N., Heatherton, T.F., and Kelley, W.M. (2004): A self less ordinary: The medial prefrontal cortex and you, In: M.S. Gazzaniga (Ed.): The Cognitive Neurosciences III.] Mind Your Brain, Inc. (c) 2005

How do we know our Self Traits? • While the Right hemisphere appears to specialize in Autobiographical Memory, recent studies suggest that it is the Left hemisphere that creates and stores factual knowledge about SELF TRAITS. • [Klein, S.B. (2004): The cognitive neuroscience of knowing one’s self, In: M.S. Gazzaniga (Ed.): The Cognitive Neurosciences III] Mind Your Brain, Inc. (c) 2005

The Low Road • Temporarily Disengaging the Middle Aspect of the Prefrontal Cortex dissolves the nine functions of the PFC including Body Regulation, Attunement, Emotional Balance, Response Flexibility, Empathy, Self-Knowing Awareness, Fear Extinction, Intuition, and Morality Mind Your Brain, Inc. (c) 2005

Movement Toward Coherence • Interpersonal Neurobiology predicts that the movement toward well-being is created as the system connects its disparate elements into a functional whole. • This INTEGRATION creates a FACES pathway: flexible, adaptive, coherent, energized and stable • Secure Attachment Is Created by and Creates Integrative States Mind Your Brain, Inc. (c) 2005

Integration, Coherence, Empathy • Coherence entails a flexible state of harmony that embraces the many aspects of neural functioning and interpersonal connections ::: Brain Stem, Limbic/Right and Left Hemisphere processes. • As Integration is achieved across the numerous dimensions of living, a sense of the unity of being is revealed • [Siegel, DJ (in press) Mindsight] Mind Your Brain, Inc. (c) 2005

The Optical Delusion of Isolation Albert Einstein had a sense of the importance of this issue when he stated: “A human being is a part of the whole, called by us ‘Universe,’ a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separated from the rest, a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. Mind Your Brain, Inc. (c) 2005

This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty. Nobody is able to achieve this completely, but the striving for such achievement is in itself a part of the liberation and a foundation for inner security." Mind Your Brain, Inc. (c) 2005

Secure Attachment, Community, and Compassionate Connections • With the emergence of integration across the a wide range of domains, self-awareness enables the restrictive adaptations to life’s challenges to relax and a wider range of possibilities become realized in the internal and interpersonal worlds. • We are ultimately a part of the same essence. Deep neurobiological analyses reveals the ultimate connection of each of us to the larger whole. Mind Your Brain, Inc. (c) 2005

Parenting with the Brain in Mind