The LD Coach
 Bill Allen and LD Coach present
 

Understanding the Dynamics of
The Corpus Callosum and Brain Integration

Charles Krebs has given the LD Coach permission to make this information and these charts (© Melbourne Applied Physiology 2001, all rights reserved.) available to you in order that the LD Coach can better assist you in understanding the role and importance of Brain Integration in the success of the learning of your child.  The stress of learning is what generates brain dis-integration, particularly the stress and frustration of learning to read two-dimensional abstract stumble words.

 

The Corpus Callosum

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Krebs diagram above illustrates the dynamics of the Corpus Callosum as it interconnects the two cerebral hemispheres. 
 
The Corpus Callosum is the central area of the brain between and interconnecting the two cerebral hemispheres.  It is an extensive bundle of axon pathways that carry information between the two hemispheres.
 
Brain dis-integration occurs particularly when there is limited intercommunication via the corpus callosum.
 
Input from the Amygdala, triggered by emotional reactivity, often interrupts full corpus callosum interconnection of the two hemispheres, and thus causes brain dis-integration.
 
 

The Neurological Basis of
Loss of Brain Integration

When a "trigger" stimulus strongly fires the Amygdala, projection fibers from the Amygdala synapse either directly on the cell bodies of Inter-hemispheric Neurons, or synapse on the axonal end bulbs of other neurons that synapse with the Inter-hemispheric Neurons. Firing of these projection fibers will either inhibit or excite the Inter-hemispheric Neuron cell body.  Strong firing of these projection fibers from the Amygdala will thus cause a loss of synchronization of the firing of the Inter-hemispheric Neurons, resulting in a loss of integrated brain function, or loss of Brain Integration. (© Krebs, LEAP, BI 1, 2001)

The Corpus Callosum is the bundle of Interhemispheric Axons connecting neurons of a gyrus in one hemisphere with the homologous (same) gyrus in the opposite hemisphere.
 
The Amygdala is one of the first areas of the brain to coarsely monitors sensory input.  When input is recognized as dangerous or threatening by the amygdala, signals are sent out that activate the body to move into fight/flight/freeze mode in order to survive.  If the input is not considered "alarming" by the amygdala, then there is no body activation by the amygdala, no interruption of brain integration, and the sensory input is monitored and responded to appropriately by other areas of the brain, including conscious awareness if the input gets our conscious attention.
 
Snakes and loud noises are not all that "trigger" the amygdala to interrupt brain function.  Emotional and mental stress can also "trigger" the amygdala to interrupt brain function and integration, particularly thinking. Thinking is too slow to be of survival value, and reactivity takes over the immediate function of the brain and the body.  You react - jump or shriek as when startled, freeze and can't move as when scared, leave the area quickly as when threatened, or perhaps attack and fight, verbally or physically - in order to "save" yourself. 
 
Unfortunately, academic learning situations for a child (or adult) can become fight/flight events for them and they function with limited brain integration at that time, knowing they are smart and yet not able to perform successfully.  They can't, their brains are busy making sure they are safe from harm - or at least trying to remove them from the events threatening unwanted stress, harm or trauma.
 
Mental Dysfunction
The mental dysfunction of being unable to think, recall a name, solve a problem plagues all of us from time to time, and particularly a child learning to read or caugt in the pressures of academic studies.  Most of us develop some learning disabilities as a child and find that these areas of low brain function show up throughout our lives.  We usually cope by getting good at avoiding these particular areas of function.  If we have been unfortunate and have been lost in the stress-avoidance cycle during most of our early education (both in school and by life itself), we may be convinced that we cannot read, write, do math, speak about what we know, or that we cannot be successful.
 

The Stress Avoidance Cycle

Avoidance builds as the same stress and frustration occur on repeated occasions of the loss of brain integration - of becoming dysfunctional and unable to perform the learning task. The frustration of not being able to perform builds anxiety, and anxiety amplifies the blockage to understanding and learning that already exists because it increases the amount of loss of brain integration that is occurring.  In fact, it is probably the initial loss of brain integration that causes the initial experience of anxiety, and not the reverse.  However, when the unsuccessful and frustrating learning situation continues, failure looms as a given outcome and anxiety shuts down the learning entirely, sometimes even before the individual starts to perform they go blank and cannot even make another attempt at the required learning/performance.
 
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The Stress-Avoidance Cycle is initiated by a lack of access to specific brain functions (due to fatigue, emotional/mental/physical stress, diet, chemicals, medicines, attitudes, thinking...) or a lack of the ability to integrate these functions.  Brain dis-integration is too often interpreted as "Mis-Behavior." (© Krebs, LEAP BI, 2001)
The Learning to Read Program was developed by the LD Coach to teach multi-sensory children how to read with materials and techniques that minimize their learning stress and teach them how to integrate their brain so they can learn to read.

Learning Difficulties Based on
Gestalt and Logic Functions

The two main mental functions, Gestalt and Logic, are the way we consciously initiate thought, learning and action, and how we initially look at the world.  After the initiation, or lead function, from one mental processing area of our brain, there is an immediate interaction between many areas of our brain (left, right, front, back, top, bottom; cerebrum and all other areas of the brain) that develop a combined output that results in the desired action, or its approximation. We may logically decide that we want to open a window because it is hot inside.  However, all the brain interactions involved in putting that thought into action involve the combined output of many areas of the brain, not just the logic function of the brain.  Thus, our ability to learn or act is never just a function of the left or right side of our brain.
 
Gestalt Dominance in Mental Processing
The mental processing or thinking of the Gestalt areas of the brain is big picture or global thinking.  All the available sensory input becomes a global composite representation of the external event.  There is no referencing and attention to parts, the whole is experienced as the whole! 
 
A gestalt view of a train traveling through a country area would be the "whole view," like the one you would get if you were in a hot-air balloon looking at the whole area.  You would see, hear, feel, taste, smell it all at once the train, the hills, the cows, the fields, the fences, the sky.... In contrast, the experience of a Logic Dominated individual would be more like the view if you were standing between two buildings so that you can only see the train in the space of the opening between the buildings.  As each car would go by, you would individually register and analyze it and its parts, combining them ultimately to build a composite of the whole train.
 
A Gestalt-Dominated Learner who lacks the balance of his logic functions displays the following behaviors:
  1. Tends to be impulsive and are easily distracted
  2. Acts with little appreciation of the connection between "cause" and "effect"
  3. Has difficulty budgeting time, so often incomplete does his projects
  4. Has difficulty concentrating (concentration is paying attention over time!)
  5. Spells poorly, often with original phonetic interpretations
  6. Is poor at math, particularly remembering tables and using abstract concepts
  7. Has difficulty assigning meaning to symbols/words (they are decoded by logic)
  8. Reads with poor comprehension
  9. Often is well coordinated and even gifted athletically
  10. May be an exceptional "out of the box" thinker in solving 3-dimensional challenges.
Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) is often the label given to these individuals because they lack the ability to pay attention over time and complete sequential tasks successfully. They are easily distracted.
 
Logic Dominated Mental Processing
These individuals decode well; they break a thought or object into its parts and work with the parts.  They also abstract well because of their ability to decode and work with symbols.  However, when they lack access to their gestalt functions, then they display the following characteristics:
  1. Cannot spell; phonetically attempt to guess at the individual letters of a word
  2. Stumble, mis-read and cannot sound out words while reading
  3. High comprehension when they read
  4. Dysrhythmic, unable to clap in time with a tune
  5. Clumsy, physically uncoordinated.
  6. Good at math, to the level of algebra
  7. Good concentration
  8. Follow sequential instructions well
  9. May have to be taught things that others learn unconsciously
Limited Access to Both Gestalt and Logic
When access to both logic and gestalt mental processing functions is limited, then the ability to learn is severely limited and the individual develops serious learning problems.  This is the most common type of learning difficulty after gestalt dominance.  There is usually a great deal of confusion during mental processing so that it is very difficult to stabilize perceptions and learning. The following are symptoms of deficit in both Gestalt and Logic processing.
  1. Language development is extremely delayed for age
  2. Reading is very delayed for age; often unable to recognize simple words/letters
  3. Spelling is very delayed for age
  4. Difficulty understanding numbers, even basic numeracy and arithmetic
  5. No concentration or focus
  6. Appears confused or lazy, or just plain "slow mentally"; often is fairly apathetic and lethargic with no zest for life.
Because of the extreme nature of their learning dysfuctions, these people are usually dismal failures in school, and leave school early in their teens. Others "struggle" to just pass school or perform at work.  These individuals may have the greatest breakthroughs from doing Brain Integration work (particularly the LEAP program designed by Charles Krebs to identify and rebalance areas of brain dis-integration) as long as their deficits are not due to inherent brain structure and physiology deficits.
 
Academic Functions of Each Hemisphere
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Krebs' diagram above graphically shows how each hemisphere is involved in initiating many academic functions. 
 
It is the interaction of the left and right hemispheric functions that enables optimal mental processing. 
 
The corpus callosum connections between the two hemispheres are the essential link that enables the two hemispheres to share processing operations in order to accomplish a task. 
 

Blocked Corpus Callosum

Years of clinical observations by Charles Krebs, the developer of LEAP (Learning Enhancement Acupressure Program), leads him to believe that "many learning difficulties and performance problems result from a 'functional' shut down of the Corpus Callosum and access to specific brain areas.  The 'cause' of this 'functional shutdown' appears to be unresolved emotional issues that occurred between 2 and 5 years of age.
 
How Blocked is Blocked?
This information is supplied by Charles Krebs to show the effects of the loss of brain integration due to corpus callosum functional blockage.  
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A Two-Towers  Analogy of How the Integrated Brain Functions
Below is Krebs' diagram that shows the importance of sharing information and the function between the two hemispheres.  The Gestalt and Logic lead functions of the 2 hemispheres are like the architect and the accountant in the two towers.  In order to work together, they need access to the processes they both have to offer, and this occurs largely through the subconscious function of the brain.
 
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In the 2 towers analogy diagram above, consider the workers in the two towers communicating through a common switch board (Corpus Callosum) that connects them to all the data processing modules in the basement/subconscious:
"What would happen if for some reason two-thirds of the operators (in this diagram, the subconscious processing modules were not available) were off duty?  Well, up to a certain level of information flow through the switch board (across the Corpus Callosum) everything would be OK, but once high levels of flow are required, the switch board would become 'over-loaded' and calls would get cut off, wires crossed, and the flow through the switch board would just get 'jammed up'!  [In the above diagram, each tower would not have access to all the subconscious information and therefore might get confused due to lack of needed information.] This is what happens in the Corpus Callosum when only part of the fibers connecting the two sides of the brain are accessible.  A person demonstrating a 'blocked' Corpus Callosum will always have some degree of loss of Brain Integration, and the first step to correting this dis-integration is to 'unblock' the Corpus Callosum."  (Krebs, LEAP Brain Integration 1 Manual, p. 56, 5-2001)
 

Success

        What we all desire is to
  • Learn how to maintain our brain integration, and
  • How to recover it quickly and easily 
In order to be able to optimally function at all times and to perform in life the way we desire to perform. 
The LD Coach provides exercises in the MELTtm article,  Tune In and Turn On Exercises,to assist the student and the teacher in recovering and supporting brain integration while learning to read. These exercises are to be done as often as the signs of brain dis-integration start to appear, to reduce stress and fatigue while studying, and to prepare for studying or a performance that could be difficult.
 
The Success Cycle
Generated When We Maintain Brain Integration Under Stress
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When you can maintain your brain integration under stress, you can continue to learn, problem-solve, find solutions to your present challenge.
 
The more you maintain brain integration, the more you build confidence that you can keep your brain integrated, and the more you will be successful under stress.
 

Signs of Loss of Brain Integration (BI)

1.  Sign: Sense of Overwhelm:
Just too much to do with too little time to get it done, feeling you can’t possibly get it all done – wanting to give up, or doing it poorly due to rush because of lack of time.
(BI lost resulting in loss of Executive Functions of Frontal Lobes - ability to objectively & rationally consider options & prioritize things that must be done from things that don’t have to be done right now!)
2.  Sign: Feeling “Stressed-out” or Fearful / Anxious – “Free-Floating” Anxiety:
Anxiety, restlessness, loss of focus & often short-tempered with family, friends or business associates because you “feel” so stressed.
(BI lost due to activation of Fight or Flight Reactions, which activate subconscious emotions of fear, anxiety, anger/frustration!)
3.  Sign: Only being able to “See” One Option or Choice:
If this choice doesn’t work – you can only do the same thing again. You are just not able to perceive any other choices often leading to “crisis decision-making”. In hindsight (when no longer under stress and BI has returned) you may now perceive this choice or decision as  “wrong” or just plain “stupid”!
(BI lost due activation of Fight or Flight Reactions now shutting down Frontal Lobe thinking and reasoning!)
4.  Sign: Inability to make Decisive Decisions:
This often leads to vacillation and over-dependence upon “others” opinions to make decisions, as fear of making an error dominates your decision-making process.
(BI lost due to Fight or Flight Reactions “Blocking” Frontal Lobe self-monitoring functions – your ability to analyze your own analysis.)
5.  Sign: Decisions based only on “Now-Time” Perspective:
This usually results from the inability to take the “long view” and make decisions based upon what is best in the long-term for all concerned, not just what appears to resolve the immediate problem.
(BI lost due to Fight or Flight Reactions “Blocking” evaluations of outcomes, the Frontal Lobe decision-making processes of evaluation and judgment.
6.  Sign: Freudian Slips or Inappropriate Responses to Social Situations.
Frequently saying or doing something socially inappropriate or mixing your words up so what was said is not what you meant to say. Often these are short-tempered responses driven by subconscious emotions that are not effectively inhibited or filtered by your “higher” Frontal Lobe self-monitoring functions.
(BI lost due to Fight or Flight Reactions activating strong Primary survival emotions that then “dis-inhibit” frontal lobe judgment and control of frustration.)
7.  Sign: Difficulty or Inability to Follow What People Tell You.
You are trying to listen, but just miss the point the other person clearly stated. Difficulty comprehending the “content” of what was said, even though you “heard” it all!
(BI lost due to Fight or Flight reactions “blocking” integrated auditory function so comprehension is poor or often lost all together !)
8.  Sign for Extroverts: Becoming overly verbal.
Finding yourself running on with little coherent theme or content; often finding yourself unable to listen to others because of your compulsive need to talk.

(BI lost due to Fight or Flight Reactions generating sub-conscious fear or  anxiety)  

9.  Sign for Introverts: Clamming up totally.
Trying to “disappear” and pretend you are not present, or trying to fade into the background. Although you may have something to say, this is totally inhibited and you remain silent.
(BI lost due to Fight or Flight Reactions generating sub-conscious fear or anxiety) 
10. Sign: Extreme Fatigue:
Suddenly “running out of steam.” Finding it difficult to muster the energy required to do what needs to be done. Just the thought of all you have to do makes you feel tired.
(BI lost due to Flight reaction to “escape” challenging situations – “Go to sleep, its all too much!”) 
 
Brain Integration and The Learning to Read Program 
3-girls-The LD Coach understands how important it is to maintain Brain Integration in order to be successful in learning to read and write. The Learning to Read Program is designed to minimize the stress of learning, and maximize success while learning.
 
 
For More Detailed Information about the Dynamics of Brain Integration
Go to Charles Krebs' websites:
         Or write to: info@LDCoach.com
 
 
© LD Coach, LLC, 2005.  All rights reserved