The Research File

The Brain-Body connection: going beyond the dream

What goes on in the head affects physical well-being — this Hamilton institute literally "sees" how

By Marvin Ross

"It will take us into areas that we've never even dreamed of." Dr John Bienenstock is very enthusiastic about his newest project, the Brain-Body Institute (BBI), established at McMaster University in 2002. He's right to be proud. There are no other centres in the world devoting this much effort to a better understanding of the brain-body connection, the study of the brain's often mysterious relation to a whole range of diseases that are not necessarily classed as neurological or mental.

"The Brain-Body Institute focuses on a multidisciplinary approach to a whole series of diseases such as depression, asthma and irritable bowel syndrome," explains Dr Bienenstock, founding director of the BBI. The idea of a connection is far from new, what is new is the approach the team is taking — understanding the environmental factors (stress, childhood experience, microbial exposure) and biochemical, genetic and electrophysiological interactions that link the brain to the rest of the body.

The team is assisted by the world's largest and fastest PET scanner and a state-of-the-art functional MRI — the first of its kind in Canada. Dr Bienenstock considers one of their major cutting edge areas of research to be the use of magnetic resonance spectroscopy, which enables

scientists to actually see the neurotransmitter gamma-amino butyric acid (GABA) in real time. Working with electrical engineers and a nuclear physicist, the scientists are striving to improve the quality of the images by reducing background interference. They also hope to develop methods to visualize the action of other neurotransmitters and to build a computational neurological image of the brain. This would allow scientists to better study changes that occur in the brain.

Here's what they're up to.

Depression
The shrinking hippocampus: It's known that the size of this part of the brain is decreased in people who have suffered depression for some time but it's not known if it's also smaller in newly diagnosed patients. Dr Glenda McQueen and her team investigate.

Stimulate or shock?: Dr Gary Hasey is researching the use of transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) as a substitute for electroconvulsive therapy in depression. He's improving the coil design with the aid of the functional MRI so that it will be possible to more directly target parts of the brain that are most therapeutically crucial. TMS is also being studied for a variety of non-psychiatric conditions such as epilepsy, fibromyalgia, chronic pain and chronic fatigue syndrome.

Irritable bowel syndrome
It's all in your gut: Gastroenterologist Dr Gervais Tougas will be looking at how the brain interacts with the gut in irritable bowel syndrome. With their advanced imaging equipment, the scientists are hoping to be able to determine if drugs act peripherally on receptors in the bowel or if there are central effects. The new PET scanner can take an image of 50cm compared to only 15cm for conventional equipment and can thus see a much larger section of the body at one time.

Asthma
Asthma gets emotional: What role emotion may play in asthma is not known, but will be investigated by Dr Paul O'Byrne and his colleagues. They plan to map brain responses in asthma to try to determine which parts may be associated with bronchospasms, the constriction of the air passages of the lung during an asthma attack by spasmodic contraction of the bronchial muscles.

Whiplash
Lawsuit lawyers hold their breath: The imaging equipment will be used to study whiplash. It is hoped that this very controversial and expensive condition will finally yield to the high-powered scanning capabilities and that it will be possible to definitively detect any physiological abnormalities in patients presenting post-accident.

Chronic stress in women
It's a hormone thing: Psychiatrist and Ob/Gyn Dr Meir Steiner heads up the Women's Health Concerns Clinic. His research at the BBI centres on the role that hormones play when people have to deal with chronic stress and have difficulty coping.

Each month this column features a summary of advanced research at one of Canada's 16 medical schools. Suggestions for future columns are welcomed, e-mail: [email protected].