Brainwashing Is The New Future Ahead
By Krizia Colon-Rosa
When you think of brainwashing, you probably think of aliens or secret agents in an underground government facility. As sci-fi as it sounds, brainwashing may be happening the second you get into bed. Research may have discovered new importance of cerebrospinal fluid. Cerebrospinal fluid is as important as the blood running through our veins. Before we hop into sci-fi becoming a new reality, let's get a background about cerebrospinal fluid.
What is cerebrospinal fluid? Cerebrospinal fluid is a clear liquid located in thin layers of brain tissue, the clear liquid protects both the brain and spinal cord from physical and chemical damage. The fluid is within a little gap in the brain called the meninges. Cerebrospinal fluid circulates through the ventricles of the brain. The content within the fluid is glucose, proteins, lactic acid, and many more. While this fluid protects the brain, it also provides nutrients. Cerebrospinal fluid has three main functions: providing a chemical environment for neuron signaling, shock absorption to prevent the brain and spinal cord from impacting any bony surfaces, and providing nutrients for the nerve tissue and blood circulation. Just like how our brain plays an important role in the body, so does cerebrospinal fluid. Without it, any degree of a head injury would be severe and we wouldn’t have a source to research diseases.
The benefit of cerebrospinal fluid is that it can be used to look into the health conditions of patients. This practice is known as lumbar puncture or spinal tap. This method helps diagnose and treat diseases or conditions. The procedure is conducted by taking a needle into a space in the spinal column (your lower back). The doctor will withdraw the fluid and send it to a pathologist to look into it. It’s very shocking how much you can learn from spinal fluid. It can help diagnose viral infections like meningitis and syphilis. It can also find multiple sclerosis and even cancers that target the brain or spinal cord. Over 20 years ago, my father went into a clinic in San Juan, Puerto Rico, where he was born and raised. He was having frequent cramps and soreness in both his legs and arms. When he went into the clinic the doctor performed a spinal tap. From that small sample of cerebrospinal fluid, he was later diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. Without this procedure or recognizing the purpose of spinal fluid my father would’ve been too late to get a proper diagnosis and immediate treatment.
Researchers from Boston University discovered that during sleep, cerebrospinal fluid flows into the brain, washing the brain and sending pulsing waves. In the study, there is awareness of electrical waves in neurons, but researchers found it unique that they never pay attention to cerebrospinal fluid waves. Although this study took place back in 2019, this might be the first study to ever record cerebrospinal fluid pulsing during an individual sleep. It was also mentioned that the motions are almost identical to brain wave activity and blood flow.
“But before now we didn’t realize that there are actual waves in the CSF, too,” said co-author Laura Lewis, a representative from BU College of Engineering, assistant professor of biomedical engineering, and Center for System Neuron Science faculty member. This captured moment will become a new spark in neuron science. There is still an insight that CSF may hold a role in sleep patterns. CSF acts as a toxin remover, and in deep sleep the brain is given a nice bath in the fluid. Just like how a nice bath makes us feel clean, our brain is given the same treatment.
We hope later in the future this study will lead to more insight into the variation of neurological and psychological disorders. Common disorders associated with disrupted sleep are Alzheimer's Disease and Autism. There have been specters of cerebrospinal fluid flow and quantity. When people age the brain decreases in brain waves. Researchers would evaluate toxic proteins in decline in memory abilities separately but with this current study, there might be a possibility that they are linked. Currently, there hasn’t been much in-depth about how the fluid might affect our sleep patterns. They were only able to locate the fluid and realize that the CSF has a wave when a person is asleep. On the Pioneering Research from Boston University, The Brink, other individuals engage with this article in the discussion section. Even one individual offered to participate in the study due to their irregular sleep pattern. It’s amazing to see so many people interested in this study and looking forward to future intel. Many express their curiosity and even suggest a variation of how to expand the study.
I was introduced to this article in a neuroscience class and decided to look much deeper into it. Though Boston University might’ve been the first to capture imaging of the cerebrospinal fluid in wave activity, there are other studies circulating CSF, such as “Sleep deprivation and cerebrospinal fluid biomarkers for Alzheimer’s disease” This study primarily focuses on sleep deprivation in the possible effects it may have on CSF in healthy adults. Researchers wanted to see if there might be an increase in CSF in a range of five to eight days. There is a common association between irregular sleep patterns and Alzheimer's disease. As result, there wasn’t much shown for any damages, amyloid, and any odd activation. I do find it exciting that Boston University found this amazing discovery and I hope with their research we will be able to expand both neurological and psychological science.
References
Are we “brainwashed” during sleep? (2019, November 1). Neuroscience News. https://neurosciencenews.com/sleep-cerebrospinal-fluid-15153/
Benson, K. (2019, October 31). Are We “Brain Washed” during Sleep? Boston University. https://www.bu.edu/articles/2019/cerebrospinal-fluid-washing-in-brain-during-sleep/#comments
Makin, S. (2019, September 1). Deep Sleep Gives Your Brain a Deep Clean. Scientific American. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/deep-sleep-gives-your-brain-a-deep-clean1/
Olsson, M., Ärlig, J., Hedner, J., Blennow, K., & Zetterberg, H. (2018, February 7). Sleep deprivation and cerebrospinal fluid biomarkers for Alzheimer’s disease. Academic.oup.com. https://academic.oup.com/sleep/article/41/5/zsy025/4841632?login=true
Smith, M. (2017, April 6). What Is Cerebrospinal Fluid? WebMD; WebMD. https://www.webmd.com/brain/cerebrospinal-fluid-facts