Caring for our Brains
Conversation with Professor Lionel Naccache (part one)
What is the brain, if not an exceptional organ, a machine of fascinating performance, I asked Professor Lionel Naccache of Paris Brain Institute?
“What is the brain in 2024?” as Naccache rephrased my question.
Last March 5th, Naccache, a neurologist/neuroscientist/thinker/author, was the guest of a fundraising, intimate dinner hosted by Le Bilboquet Palm Beach and Paris Brain Institute America, the philanthropic arm of Paris Brain Institute in the United States, which Martine Assouline—of the eponymous publishing house—chairs.
So, based on what we know, what is the brain today?
hosted by Le Bilboquet Palm Beach, March 5th, 2024 (c) JC Agid
It is, Naccache tells us, a series of astronomical numbers, “a universe of considerable power.”
Our brain houses more or less 90 billion neurons, and they all communicate with approximately 10,000 “neighboring” cells. 90 billion! That’s more than ten times the world’s population. “And our understanding of this is that at any given moment, there is a sort of configuration of this very complex network,” Professor Lionel Naccache explains. “This configuration corresponds to our mental life, both conscious and unconscious, and here I’m limiting myself to neurons, but we also have cells that are not neurons, called glial cells, which are much more numerous. The latest discoveries show that these glial cells play a more subtle role than previously imagined. They keep neurons comfortable and play an indirect role in neuronal coding. So, we have an extremely complex biological organ, perhaps one that can code our mental states.”
A lead neuroscientist at Paris Brain Institute (a world-leading clinical research center of 800 researchers, physicians, and experts from 41 different nationalities, which three visionary scientists and doctors created 15 years ago with the support of business leaders, including Publicis Chairman Maurice Lévy, former Ferrari CEO Jean Todt, and then CEO of L’Oreal Lindsay Owen Jones), Naccache and his colleagues specialize on the part of our brain that harbors our conscience. Some of their remarkable recent studies have demonstrated that we have sleep periods during which we are fully awake.
Naccache, along with Dr. Jacobo Sitt in Paris and Dr. Jan Claassen in New York, is now part of a joint research program between Paris Brain Institute and Columbia University to create a mapping of consciousness in brain-injured patients. According to CDC, in the United States alone, 2.5 million people sustain a traumatic brain injury every year, of which approximately 50,000 results in death, and over 80,000 suffer permanent disability. Why would this mapping be a milestone in understanding how our brain functions? It would lead to a better understanding of the state of patients and improve not only diagnostic but also the prognostic of patients worldwide during critical days following a sudden brain injury.
After the dinner at Bilboquet Palm Beach, we asked Professor Naccache how we could help our brain remain as healthy as possible.
hosted by Le Bilboquet Palm Beach, March 5th, 2024 (c) JC Agid
Could you share with us a few tips for caring for our brains?
I’m not a guru, and since we’re all obviously terrified of what might happen to us, we want answers. So, I will only provide the responses I’m sure of.
My first piece of advice is to protect your sleep. Sleep represents a third of our lives. It’s a vibrant universe; it is not at all a monolithic one. Sleep is essential for memory, creativity, and subjective identity.
Sleep is an active part of our mental life.
Do you have to prepare for a good night’s sleep?
A good night’s sleep also means putting ourselves in the right conditions to sleep and avoiding forms of disturbance, toxic agents, or permanent derivations of our sleep-wake cycles. Sleep, however, is not passive; It’s not a matter of being abandoned in a bed for a few hours. It’s an active part of our mental life. You have to protect your sleep.
Hence, the importance of the bedroom?
And above all a lifestyle: (free of) anxiety, medication, and toxic agents.
We need to carve out periods during the day when we’re not distracted by notifications.
Such as screens?
We are not creatures limited to a stimulus-response mode; so, it’s essential to receive, process, and respond to information. But our mental lives include many other things, including wandering inside, daydreaming, and telling stories. We need to carve out periods during the day when we’re not distracted by notifications, phones, etc. This is as true for children as it is for adults.
Daily vacations!
To protect these essential periods!
How can we prevent brain diseases?
We still need (to gather) more decisive elements on neurodegenerative diseases. However, we do know—and I’m thinking in particular of Alzheimer’s disease and other related dementias—that these diseases are all the more prevalent when there are associated vascular risk factors. And we know what to do about that. We already know how to be very effective in the medical field regarding arterial hypertension, cardiac arrhythmias, cholesterol, and obesity. It also plays a role, directly and indirectly, in our cerebral health and, therefore, our mental health.
We also need to (…) find a balance towards dimensions that are fulfilling and a source of pleasure in existence.
And we need to practice some sport as well?
Yes, sport, walking, strolling. It’s crucial to walk around mentally and in real life. And also, the principles of pleasure, i.e., we need to be able to surpass ourselves, but we also need to be able to identify factors of psychological suffering, and therefore depression, and then find a balance towards dimensions that are fulfilling and a source of pleasure in existence.
Note: The author of this post is an Executive advisor to the board of Paris Brain Institute America. To know more about Paris Brain Institute America and to donate to advance brain research, Click Here.
Other posts related to Paris Brain Institute America:
How Are You? A conversation about Lou Gehrig’s disease with Olivier Goy
Biased? Certainly. But I’m Working on It. A conversation with Dr. Violetta Zujovic
About Professor Lionel Naccache: Lionel Naccache is a French neurologist, neuroscientist, and author. He is known for his research in cognitive neuroscience, particularly in the field of consciousness.
He is a practicing neurologist a
