neurophysiology and somatics

So, here is a paper I've been working on for awhile now and was one of the graduation requirements for the Hanna Somatic certification I just completed. Thought I'd share.

With Hanna Somatic Education, we have wonderful techniques for focusing on the first person experience and our relations with the surrounding world. In many ways, Somatics is a framework for study, a way of processing and searching for information, not just a thing to be studied by its self. Yet within the framework of Somatics, many things are worthy of being studied and aide in the understanding of human somas. Of particular interest is the field of neurophysiology. Neurophysiology is the functional study of the nervous system, how our brain and spinal cord receives and responds to stimulus and how the varied parts work cohesively to create a human soma. Studying neurophysiology allows us to engage our clients and the larger healthcare field with confidence. Most importantly, a thorough knowledge of neurophysiology from a scientific perspective bridges the gap between the objective and subjective, ensuring that the work we do is valid and reproducible.


If the sole purpose of Hanna Somatics were to reduce tension and help clients change their posture, then a simple understanding of the sensory-motor system would be adequate. It is through our sensory motor system that we interact and connect with the world around us. Stimulus comes in through the peripheral nerves that send messages to the central nervous system. In response, commands are sent back to the peripheral nerves and movements are initiated.


Much of this is done automatically. Although the lifting of an arm requires complex coordination of the body, it appears to us as a simple task. The simultaneous contracting and releasing of various muscle groups is programmed by the cerebellum, so that all we have to do is think ‘lift the arm’ and it is done. But really, it’s quite complex.

To start, a neuron in the brain fires sending a wave of energy down the spinal cord. This action innervates nerve groups that branch off from the spinal cord heading out to the limbs and skeletal muscles. This is referred to as a motor unit, the neuron and the muscle fibers it innervates. But that is not enough. Stimulating one set of muscles and causing them to shorten would do nothing if the other muscles were still engaged. So, as one set of muscles is being shortened, a signal is sent out to opposing, antagonist muscles to release. More particularly, the antagonist muscles release only to the extent that the agonist muscles shorten. Done this way, the movement is controlled and smooth. The balance of muscle contraction and release allows us to know exactly where our body parts are at any moment and to change direction mid movement if necessary.


All the movements of our body happen like this. The decision is made to move a certain body part and instantly the whole soma is organized towards that action. Essential to this unconscious process is the functioning of our spinal reflexes.


Two primary neuro-physiological reflexes that are useful to Hanna Somatics are the stretch reflex and reciprocal inhibition. The stretch reflex is involved in the maintenance of balance and prevention of muscle injury. With our world in constant motion, maintaining a muscle or limb’s position is blessedly an unconscious, reflexive event. Stretch reflex is triggered when a muscle is pulled or involuntarily moved beyond its resting position. Sensory, intrafusal muscle fibers are stretched stimulating 1A afferent motor neurons. 1A afferent neurons send sensory input to the central nervous system. There, in the spinal cord, they create a loop with efferent, Alpha Motor neurons that carry energy back to extrafusal muscle fibers causing the muscle to shorten and contract.


Simultaneously, as they innervate the alpha motor neurons of the stretched muscle, alpha motor neurons connected to antagonist muscle are inhibited. The effect of this is reciprocal inhibition. Reciprocal inhibition is necessary for any movement to happen because attached to every joint are muscles that bend the joint in not just one, but two or more directions. If multiple muscles are contracting simultaneously, bending a joint in opposite directions, the joint will not move, the muscles simply tighten and constrict around the joint. Range of motion becomes extremely limited and painful.


You often find this decreased mobility, as people get older. In fact, traditional views on aging see this as inevitable. Physiologically, what might be happening is that these two primary reflexes of stretch and reciprocal inhibition are acting at the same time. For instance, if you try to flex your elbow the agonist muscle for that action is the biceps. Contracting the bicep will reciprocally inhibit the antagonist, triceps muscle. To the extent that it can, the triceps will lengthen. At some point, the triceps muscle will reach its max passive length and further lengthening will trigger stretch reflex causing the triceps to contract. In this way, both muscles that bend the elbow are contracting and movement stops. For people who have strongly habituated alternating stress responses, their whole soma can become tight and pained. Signals are being sent to pull the body in two or more directions at once, and movement becomes quite stiff and painful.


This happens due to the setting of our resting levels. The resting level of the muscle is a subconscious program that our body uses to maintain a consistent length when a muscle is not being actively used. It is a part of our proprioception and is constantly being regulated to maintain our position in the world. If we had to think about the length of all our individual muscles at every moment, it would be almost impossible to get anything done.


Neurophysiologically, the resting level has to do with the sensitivity of the gamma motor neuron and the Intrafusal muscle spindle. The gamma motor neurons set the tension level of the muscle spindle making it more or less sensitive to stretch. By increasing activity in gamma motor neurons, the spindle cell is more likely to be stretched stimulating afferent neurons and the activation of the stretch reflex. Alternately, by lowering the activity of gamma motor neurons we can make the muscle less sensitive to stretch and therefore less likely to contract and tighten.


One of the main benefits of Hanna Somatic techniques is that they change the activity level of gamma motor neurons. Gamma motor activity increases proportionately with static load. Stretching a muscle excites the gamma motor neurons and increases alpha motor contraction. On the other hand, consciously contracting a muscle blocks the gamma motor neuron, easing the tension on Intrafusal muscle fibers. When we help our clients do a pandiculation, they are contracting the muscle to inhibit gamma motor activity and then maintaining the muscles contraction while slowly lengthening and decreasing alpha and gamma motor activity. This leads to a longer, more relaxed muscle that is not as sensitive to stretch reflex.


We are also working with the gamma motor neuron when we use kinetic mirroring techniques. By bringing the ends of a muscle together, the spindle cell is shortened, and Gamma motor activity decreases which then allows for a reduction in Alpha motor activity. The risk of stretch is decreased and the muscle becomes slack and rests.


The resting level is also affected by reflexive muscle contraction and stress response. Types of external stimuli have been shown to illicit predictable responses over and over again. We flex from negative stress, protecting our organs and vulnerable areas of the neck and abdomen. In response to opportunity and joy we contract our extensor muscles, lifting up from gravity and opening to receive the world. When injured, we contract the muscles around the point of impact to stabilize and prevent further injury. The postures we take on during development and the forms our bodies go through show us the stressors and injuries that we have had through our life. If we are repeatedly exposed to a similar stressor, the resting level of our muscles increases to hold our soma in the position of that response. Either the stimulus lingers and reoccurs often or the stimulus was so strong, the lesson learned from the stimulus so important, that our soma holds the position as a memory. In this way, posture develops. Over time, contradictory contractions of flexion, extension, and protection can lock our body in a rigid, painful pose. The resting levels of opposing muscles are so elevated that we get stuck in a physiological tug-of-war.


It is the lower, unconscious functions of the nervous system that are responsible for carrying out these reflexes and maintaining our somatic position. To change these we must use the higher brain functions, including the frontal lobe and the sensory motor cortex. When we ask a client to consciously contract a muscle, what we are really asking them to do is engage and stimulate these higher functions. We are teaching them to focus on a particular muscle. This has two effects. The first effect is that it focuses attention, drawing neural resources that are often scattered towards a singular goal. Secondly, this serves the purpose of strengthening our ability to feel and move the targeted muscle, reaffirming the connection between muscle and brain. As with anything, this is a skill that can be cultivated and improved upon. Awareness and internal sensitivity will increase and deepen the more that we do it and with that awareness comes improved control and understanding of ourselves.


This is what we are doing with means whereby. Simply asking a client to notice how they are functioning will improve that functioning. By making movement and posture more active and conscious, the subconscious, reflexive actions will be subverted. The movement does not need to be anything specific, awareness is the goal and benefit of awareness.


With the Hanna Somatic techniques of pandiculation, we are essentially combining the active movements of a means whereby and the physiologically altering work of kinetic mirroring. Kinetic mirroring loses lasting effectiveness because it does not happen in the higher processes of the brain. When you add the consciousness of means whereby and focus on the active lengthening of a muscle, you bring the effects up to the motor cortex and frontal lobe. This ensures that the effect lasts. It also ensures that the more you do it, the easier and more effective the movement will become.


The reason for that is due to the motor cortex’s allocation of neurons. As mentioned earlier, every muscle in the body is represented in the sensory motor cortex. Muscles that have more motor neurons have more representation in the motor cortex. Muscles that have more sensory neurons have more representation in the sensory cortex. As we grow and develop, these representations change to conform to learned skills. When fine motor skills are learned with particular muscles, they get more representation in the brain and our ability to sense and move them increases. If certain muscles however are not focused on, they start to lose their representation in the brain. Decreased representation leads to decreased sensitivity and control, a term we call sensory motor amnesia. When a muscle is neglected for a long period of time we in effect forget how to use that muscle because we can no longer feel it. By bringing a client’s attention to these dulled, forgotten muscles, the brain wiring changes. The more they move a muscle actively, the better sensation they will have in the muscle making it that much more controlled and movable. This is then termed sensory motor awareness.


So with Hanna Somatics we are applying this elaborate knowledge of neurophysiology to the benefit of our clients. As a practitioner, I can help a client understand why they are feeling pain, affirming the experience that they are having in their soma. Although I cannot actually feel what is going on inside of them, because their somatic structure is similar to mine and I have experienced pain, I can imagine what they might be experiences. By feeling muscles and visually assessing areas of hypertension, I can make assumptions about their internal state.

Using this knowledge of neurophysiology, I can then explain to them, scientifically, what is probably happening. Through this thorough study, pain is no longer a mystical problem of a broken body, but rather a natural reaction of their soma to stress and tension. The fact that a client feels pain and has muscle tension is an indicator that they have a healthy and active nervous system. Furthermore, if they have a healthy and active nervous system, then there is no reason that their tension cannot be reversed and pain lessened. The rigors of scientific method allow us to make those presumptions and move forward confidently with treatment.

As educators, we are able to then bridge the divide between what we view, feel and know objectively and what the client is experiencing subjectively. As the field of Somatics grows, we will most likely see a continued softening of the border between subjective and objective. The subjective is thought of as our own personal experience of the world and as such is thought to have little relevance when it comes to scientific theory. But as somas we are constantly engaged with and responding to other somas and the world around us. Our internal states shift continuously as we grow and as our environment changes. The objective, on the other hand, is what we would think of as truth, undeniable facts that everyone agrees on. The objective is rigid while the subjective is fluid.


With Somatics, it becomes clear that maybe the subjective is not always so fluid and the objective is not quite so rigid. As somas that respond to their environments, we tend to have very similar responses to stimuli. This is what the somatic postures are based on. We have these similar reflexes because structurally and genetically we are quite similar. If we are quite similar and are sharing these physical attributes and reactions, then it is very likely that we have also similar subjective experiences. Of course no two people are exactly the same and you never can truly walk in someone else’s shoes but to a certain extent there is an objective experience within a shared environment and shared structure


Looked at from another angle, if we are subjective somas living varied and mutable existences, then our lives are growing and changing while we move and adapt. As creators of physical and societal structures in the form of buildings, governments and art, we are actively changing the world around us. What is real and tangibly truthful at one time will eventually be rebuilt, destroyed or become passé. In this way objective reality is not actually as formal and rigid as we would like to think.


By combining somatic principles with scientific study we start to get a better sense of how these two ideas converge and influence each other. We subjectively experience an objective reality and then respond to change that reality. We do this without even trying to and we do this so reliably that the mutability of fact becomes fact itself.


Without neurophysiology, all of these ideas would be just ideas. With science behind us, we can confidently talk to our clients and the medical world. Without Hanna Somatics, all of these scientific theories would be just theories. We need the application of these theories to help grow as a people and expand what we can be as somas. Each can exist separately, but together, there is a greater power. Together, as Reebok says, “impossible is nothing.”

resisting resistance...releasing release

I'm trying to improve my vocabulary, understanding that words have power and are a structure of society. I'm sure you're all familiar that eskimos have a hundred words for "snow" and americans have two zillion words for "money". We work with what we know and we focus on what is important to us. In this way, we strengthen the structural supports that create our reality and direct our lives. Language is no different. And so here I am, trying to write a message about change and am having a difficult time finding vocabulary that is not routed in the structures of struggle, aggression, and conformity that support our world.

How do you talk about change without implying that the current situation is harmful. Subtle differences may seem inconsequential, but realistically, struggle reinforces struggle and ease reinforces ease. Are the words, no, don't, stop, resist, tied to pain, tension, stress?

I'll attempt to evoke without inciting. What I want for you is to let go. Embrace loss of control. Lose control, because control is one way that we struggle against the ways of the universe and against ourselves. As Humans, we are a part of a giant mass of energy that flows and ebbs continually like waves in the ocean. We cannot control that, all we can do is try to enjoy it and allow ourselves to be not like pillars supporting a pier, firmly rooted deep into the ocean floor struggling to hold their ground. And not like a buoy floating lazily from side to side with a chain maintaining its range of motion, inhibiting it from straying too far. I want you to be like the surfer who realizes that the best option really is grab the best wave you can and ride it.

In a similar fashion, I want to say that living can be a more and more effortless process. Not that it will always be easy, but even in times of strain, there is a path of least resistance. This path is our authentic self. It is through increased effort that we resist that self. The weariness we feel after a long day in the world is that resistance. We effort to sit at our desks for long periods of time when our true self wants to walk and dance. We effort to hold in our emotions and maintain composure when inside we feel and want to express. We effort to 'fit in' 'be' a certain way, "find" ourselves when in reality we are already perfect.

But the truth, as I see it, is that the answers are not found through effort, they are found through release. We do not have to compel ourselves to grow, develop, achieve. This is what we do naturally and have been doing for thousands of years. It is our biological imperative. Just as a flower even in the harshest of conditions will find the easiest way to sunlight and water. Flourishing in human terms is often about getting out of our own way and allowing our natural, authentic selves to develop and thrive. The simple fact that we have evolved and continue to evolve allows me to say that.

Try something: pick an activity, any activity. Maybe something you do regularly. I want you to start cultivating ease and gentleness. In this way, you will slowly be training yourself away from resistance. So pick any activity. Can you do it without struggle? Can you find a way to do it effortlessly, gently, with pleasure. Can living itself be effortless, gentle, pleasurable? yes, yes, yes, yes, yes...