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Journal of Addiction Research & Therapy
ISSN: 2155-6105
August 13-14, 2018
Madrid, Spain
Addiction Psychiatry 2018
Page 34
8
th
International Conference on
Addiction Psychiatry
A
nxiety disorders defined by ICD IV have a lifetime prevalence
of 28.8% and a point prevalence of 7.3%. Comorbidity
of addiction and anxiety is common. Part 1: BabyGaze for
attenuation of anxiety – An anxiety positive feedback loop has
been proposed involving an efferent pathway (from the cortex)
via
the limbic system, amygdala, amygdalofugal and sympathetic
nervous system to the viscera. There is also an afferent
interoception pathway from the viscera
via
the spinothalamic
tract, the spinoreticular and spinotegmental tracts and on to the
ventromedial prefrontal cortex which senses and rationalizes
visceral information. Neonates have a typical up and out gaze
‘BabyGaze’ that involves recruitment of the III & IV cranial nerves
that juxtapose the most rostral parasympathetic (Edinger-
Westphal) nucleus in the brainstem. By adopting the BabyGaze
whilst giving attention to interoceptive perception, feelings of
anxiety (and anger) can be rapidly attenuated. The workshop will
give participants the opportunity to experience the attenuation
and to deliver the method as a treatment to a fellow participant.
Part 2: Da Vinci Gaze for resolution of stress –Cerebellar function
goes beyond the long understood role of muscular co-ordination.
Each cerebellar hemisphere has a bidirectional relationship with
the contralateral hippocampus where coding to and decoding
fromlong termmemoryoccurs. Spatialworkingmemoryhasbeen
shown to be lateralized, egocentric short-term memory being
held in the right cerebellar hemisphere and allocentric memory
being held in the right. Thus the right cerebellar left hippocampus
(RCLH) deals with experiential memory forming a street view and
LCRH deals with understanding and forms amap view. Traumatic
events are postulated to involve a sudden change to the map
view held in the LCRH. Smaller hippocampal volume predicts
vulnerability to trauma. US combat veterans with PTSD have a
right hippocampal volume that is 8% smaller than controls. Co-
twins of PTSD patients also had smaller hippocampi, suggesting
a genetic or developmental predisposition for PTSD affecting the
encoding and decoding of long-term memory. The anatomical
connection between the two cerebellar hemispheres is
via
the
middle cerebellar peduncles which are juxtaposed around the
VI
th
cranial nerve nuclei. This juxtaposition is consistent with REM
sleep representing middle cerebellar activity synchronizing of
egocentric and allocentric memories for encoding to long-term
memory. It has been postulated that when short term egocentric
and allocentric memories are asynchronous, encoding is
negativelyaffected leadingcerebellar neural networksunavailable
for further short term memory. A simple exercise to encourage
subconscious allocentric and egocentric synchronization by first
identifying the dominant lateral gaze to encourage intercerebellar
connection and then using alternate cerebellar stimulation to
synchronize egocentric and allocentric memories for encoding
will be demonstrated to and experienced by the delegates.
Recent Publications
1. Ashworth A J and Dutton P V (2017) BabyGaze: A rapid
neurobiological intervention for anxiety, panic and anger.
International Journal of Psychiatry 2(2):1-2.
2. Ashworth A J and Dutton P V (2016) BabyGaze: A
neurobiological method of anxiety relief in trauma. Trauma
Emerg Care, 1(3):36-39.
3. Yu W and Krook Magnuson E (2015) Cognitive
collaborations: Bidirectional functional connectivity
between the cerebellum and the hippocampus. Front Syst
Neurosci. 9:177.
4. Iglói K, Doeller C F, Berthoz A, Rondi Reig L and Burgess N
(2010) Lateralized human hippocampal activity predicts
navigation based on sequence or place memory. PNAS
107(32):14466-14471.
5. Stoodley C J, Valera E M and Schmahmann J D (2012)
Functional topography of the cerebellum for motor and
cognitive tasks: An fMRI study. Neuroimage 59(2):1560-70.
A workshop on rapid simple exercises using
neurobiological evidence to attenuate
anxiety, anger and stress
Andrew J Ashworth
Bonhard Medical Ltd., UK
Andrew J Ashworth, J Addict Res Ther 2018, Volume 9
DOI: 10.4172/2155-6105-C2-039