By Marc Ellis D.C. NMT, MSc, DACNB, FACFN, FABBIR
Who are we? Where is our mind located? What is the relationship between the mind and the body? These have been questions that humans have considered for thousands of years, including Dr. D.D. Palmer. We, as chiropractors discuss that subluxations can be caused by thoughts, traumas and toxins. One of the greatest questions we have in neuroscience today is how thought would impact the body. Dr. Daniel Monti, Director of Integrative Medicine at Thomas Jefferson University, is highly interested in helping answer these types of questions. In his quest to do so, he has been working with the One Foundation (OneFoundation.org) to study the effects of Neuro-Emotional Technique on human health.
The researchers enrolled 23 participants who had cancer where in this research program they experienced anxiety for a minimum of six months. The participants were initially given a variety of psychological assessments. These included the Impact of Event Scale (IES), State Trait Anxiety Index (STAI), the Brief Symptom Inventory (BSI) and the Posttraumatic Cognitions Inventory (PTCI). Patients were randomly selected to either receive Neuro-Emotional Technique treatments or be placed in a control group. The control group did not receive any treatment. All participants were placed in a functional magnetic resonance scanner (fMRI) and were then read a script related to their personal trauma. While the script was read, the patient’s heart rate was monitored and the fMRI was performed. Patients had an increase in heart rate, in response to hearing the script read. The fMRI scans showed an increase in brain activity in several brain regions: the parahippocampal nuclei, anterior cingulate, insula, brainstem and midline cerebellum.
The hippocampus, cingulate and insula being activated made sense to the researchers, as these areas are known to be related to stressful memories. However, they were surprised to see the involvement of the midline cerebellum. The midline cerebellum has been primarily thought of as an area that controls the motor functions of the spine and eyes. It has only recently been observed in the last few decades that the cerebellum is involved in emotional processing. The most famous researcher in this area is Jeremy Schmahmann M.D., the author of “The Cerebellum and Cognition”. There is an increased realization that the cerebellum is not simply involved in motor control, but that it also is involved in cognitive processing.
This has led the scientific community to expand the classical networks of the limbic system to include the cerebellum as well. The initial set of data showed that the patients involved in these studies had subjective increases in stress scales. It also demonstrated increased autonomic responses and increased excitation in brain physiology.
After the initial scans were performed, the treatment group underwent 3-5 NET sessions. One of the researchers, Andrew Newberg, M.D., a professor of emergency medicine and radiology, discusses how amazed he was, watching one of the NET sessions. Dr. Newberg noted the NET practitioner helped the participant recognize their trauma as a cancer patient. It was correlated with the trauma they experienced at seven years old when a parental figure was diagnosed with colon cancer. Through muscle testing, the practitioner was able to make this conclusion.
After the NET treatments, the initial tests were performed again. The control group did not have any changes in their findings. The treatment group showed improvements in all their initial assessments. The participants demonstrated improvements in somatization ratings, depression and anxiety ratings. They also showed physical improvements in the autonomic nervous system, as demonstrated by a decrease in heart rate.
Post fMRI findings appeared to show improvement, showing a decrease in the previously heightened brain areas. In an interview, Newberg commented he has been published over 200 times as well as mentioning he has never seen the brain change so significantly in such a short period of time.
If you would like to learn more about the Neuro-Emotional Technique or the One Foundation you can go to OneFoundation.org. You may be interested in reading their other papers like the Chronic Low Back Pain Study. Research is showing that Neuro-Emotional Technique is effective in helping people with problems ranging from pain syndromes to anxiety or post-traumatic stress disorders.
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