Still bored but hopeful by Nell

No. This is the old computer. She has a better one now. She wrote a post and I'm glad because she could pay attention at what she was reading.
Now she is trying to focus on the good things she used to do and trying to visualize doing it again. I hope taking me out is one of this things. She is tired physically.
Yesterday she thought about writing something about her and all of the humans that she knows here on the computer - she likes you all a lot:
"no matter what don't ever forget that we are all amazing people with great power, strength and will. Even if others just see what we don't have..." than she stopped fearing it would become very pathetic. I hate this photo. I don't know why they did not used to cut my hair. I looked like an old lady although I was younger. My mom don't like her hair short because when she was a little girl her mother - that strange woman I never met and don't want to - forced her to have her hair cut very, very short. Strange people. She will be fine. She always does at the end. She is trying to visit her blog friends.
Bark bark Bark... Koda... aff awfff... meowwwww Holly (I've learned that!). Wooofffffffff.

New Your Times mag - article about depression - Abilify was the healing drug

I've just read this article about a person who did fight depression at New York Times mag titled "A Journey through Darkness" by Daphne Merkin a contributing writer for the magazine. Susan has published it yesterday.
What first came into my mind was the title that reminded me of "Darkness Visible" I've read years ago by William Styron about the period he has suffered a serious depression.
He is the author of "Sophie's Choice" and in "Darkness Visible" he makes a great description about his recovery from depression. It was on 1985, before Prozac, that his disease started and he explains how terrible was his experience with Halcion a drug that his doctor said he could take "like aspirin". He was prescribed a high dose of this benzodiazepine plus Valium and Ativan.
Halcion has affected him deeply and made him experience suicidal ideations and played a great role worsening his depressed feelings one of the reasons he went to hospital. He gives many advices about the power of Halcion.
I can imagine how this drug has affected him because I have taken it and reported to the doctor that I was having strange side effects, hallucinations included.
He was so depressed that ECT was considered as a treatment but fortunately he started recovering.
It's a great book and is written with wit and an astonishing comprehension on the depression condition and it's treatments. I hope he's in peace. He died in 2006.
I digress. The article by Daphne Merkin explains some of the feelings depressed people have, the inability to cope with daily tasks, the life in an mental institute with great accuracy.
Than the psych-drugs arrive at the scene:

"My current regime of pills incorporated the latest approach, which called for the augmentation of a classic antidepressant (Effexor) with a small dose of a second-generation antipsychotic (Risperdal). From the time I was prescribed Prozac in my early 20s before it was approved by the Food and Drug Administration, you could say that the history of depression medication and my personal history came of age together, with me in the starring role of a lab rat.

Of course, none of the drugs work conclusively, and for now we are stuck with what comes down to a refined form of guesswork — 30-odd pills that operate in not completely understood ways on neural pathways, on serotonin, norepinephrine, dopamine and what have you. No one, not even the psychopharmacologists who dispense them after considering the odds, totally comprehends why they work when they work or why they don’t when they don’t. All the while the repercussions and the possible side effects (which include mild trembling on the one end to tardive dyskinesia, a rare condition that causes uncontrollable grimacing, on the other end) are shunted to the side until such time as they can no longer be ignored."

She says it at the beggining of the article and at the end:

And then, the Sunday afternoon before I planned to return to 4 Center, something shifted ever so slightly in my mind. I had gone off the Remeron and started a new drug, Abilify. I was feeling a bit calmer, and my bedroom didn’t seem like such an alien place anymore. Maybe it was the fear of ECT, or perhaps the tweaked medication had kicked in, or maybe the depression had finally taken its course and was beginning to lift. I had — and still have — no real idea what did it. For a brief interval, no one was home, and I decided to get up and go outside. I stopped at Food Emporium and studied the cereal section, as amazed at the array as if I had just emerged from the gulag. I bought some paper towels and strawberries, and then I walked home and got back into bed. It wasn’t a trip to the Yucatan, but it was a start. I didn’t check into the hospital the next day and instead passed the rest of the summer slowly reinhabiting my life, coaxing myself along. I spent time with people I trusted, with whom I didn’t have to pretend.

After this shift the next two paragraphs that ends the article plains for a wonderful life are done. The End.
William Styron says that he believes that "time and isolation" made him recover. Now it seems that all roads leads to a psych-drug. What amazes me most is that this article is being published at a time antipsychotics are being considered as the first possible drug to treat depression and Philip Dawdy has been writing numerous articles about this trend. This is one of them:
10% of Depressed Patients Now Take Antipsychotics:

"This trend also signifies just how weak a technology anti-depressants have proven to be in many cases (even the Abilify TV ad for depression states that two-thirds of people who take an anti-depressant don't see good results), how desperate some people are for relief and how willing they are to try out psychiatry's nuclear weapons. That says something about depression and America."

My boring life by Nell

It's a bore here. I don't go out and she hardly talks to me. She's having difficulty doing that thing that she does everyday when she spends hours looking at the thing on the table and make noise with her fingers.
I know she loves me but I love playing and if she doesn't play with me it's not that funny..
She keeps telling me nice things but I want to be touched all the time, Bark, bark, bark... awf awf... So good!
I'll wait. Sending love to Holly. Meoww. I've learned that! Bark, bark, bark... wooooffff Koda.

Craig Damrauer "New Math"

I've just found Craing's site and chosen some of this new equations. He has done more than one hundred and when at his site we start getting in the mood and finding those that have more to do with us.
I hope you like it. Click to enlarge.

Look what they've done to my brain ma

I always liked this song but could never imagine that it would tell about a part of me. This is Mothers Day and since my grandma has died I don't have too much to celebrate. This is sad but I believe it talks about many of us and to some amazing mothers who really "look what they've done".

Look what they've done to my song, ma
Look what they've done to my song
Well it's the only thing that I could do half right
And it's turning out all wrong, ma
Look what they've done to my song.

Look what they've done to my brain, ma
Look what they've done to my brain
Well they picked it like a chicken bone
And I think I'm half insane, ma
Look what they've done to my song.

I wish I could find a good book to live in
Wish I could find a good book
Will if I cold find a real good book
I'd never have to come out and look
Look what they've done to my song.

It'll be all right ma, maybe it'll be okay
Well if the people are buying tears I'll be rich someday, ma
Look what they've done to my song.

Ils ont change ma chanson ma
Ils ont change ma chanson
C'est la seule chose que je peuz faire
Et ce n'est pas bon ma
Ils ont change ma chanson.

Look what they've done to my song, ma
Look what they've done to my song
Well they tied it up in a plastic bag and they turned it upside down
Look what they've done to my song, ma.

Look what they've done to my song, ma
Look what they've done to my song
It's the only thing I could do all right and they turned it upside down
Look what they've done to my song, ma.

Psych-drugs, side effects - hard to live

This whole week I'm feeling something I never experienced in my life. My arms and legs are tingling but not normally as when you stay too much time in a position.
Today my legs started not only tingling but aching.
I spend the whole day in bed sleeping with difficulties to walk. I'm tired of being surprised by so many strange things and I cried a lot for fifteen minutes and feeling sad.
I don't want to talk more about it but I'm really tired of this. I cannot tell other people because they don't understand: "Go to the physician."; "It's no big deal."
The physician will prescribe a lot of exams and end up not knowing what is it.
The psychiatrist don't know how to cope with these side effects and usually tell me nothing.
I'm tired. I'm tired. There are the old side effects like tinnitus that is constant.
Sometimes I have the feeling that I'm alone in this whole thing and there's nobody I can share this part of my life. I can no longer spend a weekend in a friend's house because if these side effects.
I don't know why lately I don't want to go out or talk to anybody. My house is a mess.... blah blah blah.... I'm too tired, I'm exhausted and dear Lord! How I wish I had never had put in my mouth any of these psych-drugs in my life.
These things destroy lives. Go to Susan, I'm deeply concerned with you Susan, Stephany,

Gianna, PreciousRock, just to name a few blog friends.

We have to trust ourselves about the origin of these symptoms and try to cope with them.

X,Y, Z -Scientific letters used in psych-drugs brand names

It's not coincidence. The letters X, Y and Z are used on the brand names of psych-drugs because of their scientific appeal.

Leaves growing in spring announcing good times

Mari's blog, 365 Days (each day a photography) has amazing photos. She said at her post:

"It's getting green here! Some of the trees are full of leaves while others are rather bare, but they are budding. When I walked past this tree, I thought the new leaves looked almost like flowers."

We don't have this change in Brazil. The trees don loose all their leaves in winter. I saw this great transformation in Paris. This is really a wonderful show nature give us. There is a feeling of rebirth and good times ahead.
Have a great day and enjoy the spring.

Abandonment of children in the nineteen century and now

From Le Boulevard. Gustave Doré. 1862-1863. A couple abandoning their child at a hospice, where unwanted children were cared for by the state.

"Hospices: Mothers who could either not care for or did not want their children abandoned them at a hospice. As many as one-fourth to one-half of the illegitimate babies born in Paris each year were taken to a hospice. There was one in each arrondissement(section) in Paris due to the high number of abandoned children. Most women either left their babies at the actual hospice, or gave birth at the hospital and when the police and hospice authorities could not deter the mother from abandoning the child,they signed a form stating they were abandoning their child. From here, the authorities took the baby to the hospice. This was primarily done because abandoning children on the street was illegal. Also, at this time, there was no adoption program established."

This is from a site that is using the work of Victor Hugo "Les Misérables" to talk about some of the social issues of the time. This is a physical abandonment and although they are no more left in hospices babies are still abandoned... at streets, garbages, name it.
There are numerous kinds of abandonment and even at home surrounded by parents and a whole bunch of people some children are not seen, heard even noticed. I don't think I have to say anything else. These are scenes we would no longer want to see but I doubt it will ever end.

Reason is great, emotions are sick

This is me this last month. If I'm with my mind occupied with activities that require thinking I work fine. As soon as I stop it... I feel like crying and other stuffs.
It's amazing how hard it is to control emotions.
I'm asking for some help and it makes me feel terrible because it seems that I should be able to do it by myself.
Not for the moment. I have to accept that for the moment I need some help and I'll have to listen to all those advices that I should do this or that, things I don't care not even when I'm fine.
But when it comes from people who really care about you it causes no harm because this is the way people find to be helpful.
What always amazes me is that even mild emotional problems have to be hidden. People judge you whenever you need a little help, when you are not fully in control of yourself even when you just say that all you need is "a little patience" nothing more.
One can ask numerous favors for others but if you are depressed you have to think twice asking for a tiny thing. I cannot imagine what people who spend all their money during a maniac phase have to take from people who surround them. It must be hard.
I talking about it because I met a woman who was devastated because she has spend all her money. I started thinking about her family and friends.
I know some people have help from their families. But according to my experience and the experience of many it is a moral issue.
I hope it makes some sense because I'm not good in writing about this things. I have to take care of myself now.
Funny, I thought I would never feel this way. It's nothing serious but I'm not fine. Everybody has periods like that but when you have been prescribed so many drugs and is taking some because you cannot stand withdrawal, drugs that contributes to the way you're feeling but people can't see it's a little hard to say you're not a nutter.
I don't care. I just want to feel fine.

Mental Health Awareness Month - Calendar Project

I've just found this amazing site at BPD in OKC blog. I had already seen the first day cartoon at other blogs but didn't pay attention at the whole project.
It's a calendar of May and everyday there's a new cartoon for the Mental Health Awareness Month.
This was yesterday's cartoon and you can click at it to see today's cartoon or look at the whole project.

Do Antidepressants Cure or Create Abnormal Brain States?

This is the title of an article by Joanna Moncrieff and David Cohen that you can read here. This is the conclusion:

Conclusion
"Many patients are led to believe, by their physicians and by advertising, that antidepressant drugs will act on the biological cause of their depressed state by rectifying a “chemical imbalance ” [56 ]. On the contrary, our analysis indicates that there are no specific antidepressant drugs, that most of the short-term effects of antidepressants are shared by many other drugs, and that long-term drug treatment with antidepressants or any other drugs has not been shown to lead to long-term elevation of mood. We suggest that the term “antidepressant ” should be abandoned. We have proposed an alternative drug-centred model of drug action that is consistent with a demedicalised approach to depression." emphasys mine

Joanna Moncrieff is a senior lecturer in Psychiatry, University College London, London, United Kingdom. David Cohen is a professor at the School of Social Work, College of Health and Urban Affairs, Florida International University, Miami, Florida, United States of America.

Wordless Sunday

Welcome! you May say...

Imagine
John Lennon
Imagine there's no Heaven
It's easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us only sky
Imagine all the people
Living for today

Imagine there's no countries
It isn't hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace

You may say that I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one

I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will be as one

Imagine no possessions
I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger
A brotherhood of man
Imagine all the people
Sharing all the world

You may say that I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will live as one.

DARE TO DREAM!

If they take away our capacity of believing that there are other ways we will be in big trouble. I fear it's already happening.
They have attacked merciless and relentlessly great part of our culture and by doing so a great deal of people's strength is lost.
People became population and some of our words became part of politician speeches.
"Power to the people" also became another meaningless song without a new one to replace it.
Civil rights, civil liberties... human rights? I wonder what is the number that mental health human rights is positioned since it's not even at the middle of the list.
This is the Mental Health Awareness Month.
What are the items we have at the agenda? It's a complex issue with numerous aspects to be discussed. Let NIMH, take care of it. The month will pass quickly...
I want to congratulate Gay Power. Homosexuality is no longer a mental disease and they are still fighting for queer rights and have even created their own words something that characterizes a culture.

R.D.Laing - Politics of Psychology - How he has helped me

"...the Clinical Psychologist from the Midwest... parents and teachers to whether it's all right for children of eight, nine, ten to dream in color.
It's extraordinary! That frightens me. He wasn't sure what to say, he asked me what to say because he searched the computer and the computer haven't any data on that. You don't know if it's okay unless a computer tells you... if children dream in color! That's crazy to me!

He talks about DSM-3

When I was nineteen-years-old I used to go to a restaurant and sometimes I met a man. After some months it was innevitable that we started greeting each other till one day I met him at the street. I don't remember a word of what he said other than talking about R.D. Laing. I guess he has noticed by my eyes that I had some issues. I bought "The Self and the Others". I could not understand it all but I've read it along years and decades.
While on therapy I used to read it and got more and more conscientious of some of the things that this work could tell me. I have also bought "The Self and the Others".
For me it was very important some of Laing's insights. I say some because I don't believe that one single person, theory or thinker can give all the answers.
Every person has to engage in the pursuit of it's own way and if a good therapist, in my case psychoanalysis, can help the process it's great.

Marian at Different Thoughts is also an admirer of Laing's work and has this great video at her blog.
Unfortunately we are on a age that it's hard to say anything good about therapy. I gave up because I've noticed that CBT is everywhere and mainstream psychology don't know if children dream in color or in black and white.
This is my last post on therapy and on any other strange approach of mental health understanding.

Addendum
On the post below there's the film "Frances" based on the life of Frances Farmer, the actress. I remember that when I first saw it I was quite disturbed.

Movies and mental health

A list on some most known movies that approaches mental illness. If you know any please leave a comment. Thank you.

A Beautiful Mind (2001) ~ Russell Crowe
After a brilliant but asocial mathematician accepts secret work in cryptography, his life takes a turn to the nightmarish.

An American Rhapsody (2001) ~ Scarlett Johansson
A young Hungarian girl struggles to find her place in the world when she's reunited with her parents in the USA years after she was left behind during their plight from the communist country in the 1950s.

As Good As It Gets (1997) ~ Jack Nicholson
A single mother/waitress, a misanthropic author, and a gay artist form an unlikely friendship.

Awakenings (1990) ~ Robert De Niro
The victims of an encephalitis epidemic many years ago have been catatonic ever since, but now a new drug offers the prospect of reviving them.

Blue Sky (1994) ~ Jessica Lange
Hank Marshall is a tough, square-jawed, straitlaced Army engineer and nuclear science expert, assigned to help conduct weapons-testing in 1950's America.

Brazil (1985) ~ Jonathon Pryce
In an Orwellian vision of the future, the populace are completely controlled by the state, but technology remains almost as it was in the 1970's. Sam Lowry is a civil servant who one day spots a mistake in one of the pieces of paperwork passing through his office. The mistake leads to the arrest of an entirely innocent man, and although Lowry attempts to correct the error, it just gets bigger and bigger, sucking him in with it.

Elling (2001) ~ Per Christian Ellefsen
40-year-old Elling--a sensitive, would-be poet, is sent to live in a state institution when his mother--who has sheltered him his entire life, dies.

Flightplan (2005) ~ Jodie Foster
A claustrophobic, Hitchcockian thriller. A bereaved woman and her daughter are flying home from Berlin to America. At 30,000 feet the child vanishes and nobody admits she was ever on that plane.

Frances (1982) ~ Jessica Lange
Based on the shocking, disturbing, and compelling life of Frances Farmer.

Girl, Interrupted (1999) ~ Winona Ryder
Based on writer Susanna Kaysen's account of her 18-month stay at a mental hospital in the 1960s.

Good Will Hunting (1997) ~ Robin Williams
Will Hunting, a janitor at MIT, has a gift for mathematics which is discovered, and a psychologist tries to help him with his gift and the rest of his life.

Iris (2001) ~ Judi Dench
True story of the lifelong romance between novelist Iris Murdoch and her husband John Bayley, from their student days through her battle with Alzheimer's disease.

Men of Honor (2000) ~ Robert De Niro
The story of Carl Brashear, the first African American, then also the first amputee, US Navy Diver and the man who trained him.

Nuts (1987) ~ Barbra Streisand
A high-class call girl accused of murder fights for the right to stand trial rather than be declared mentally incompetent.

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975) ~ Jack Nicholson
Upon arrival at a mental institution, a brash rebel rallies the patients together to take on the oppressive Nurse Ratched, a woman more a dictator than a nurse.

Ordinary People (1980) ~ Donald Sutherland
The accidental death of the older son of an affluent family deeply strains the relationships among the bitter mother, the good-natured father, and the guilt-ridden younger son.

Passion of Mind (2000) ~ Demi Moore
A psychological romantic thriller where fantasy and reality become indistinguishable for a woman leading a double life in her dreams.

Patch Adams (1998) ~ Robin Williams
A medical student in the 70's that treated patients, illegally, using humor. Based on the life of Dr. Hunter "Patch" Adams, founder of Gesundheit! Institute.

Postcards from the Edge (1990) ~ Meryl Streep
Substance-addicted Hollywood actress Suzanne Vale is on the skids. A semi-autobiographical story written by Carrie Fisher. Read her sequel: The Best Awful.

Shine (1996) ~ Geoffrey Rush
Pianist David Helfgott, driven by his father and teachers, has a breakdown. Years later he returns to the piano, to popular if not critical acclaim.

Splendor in the Grass (1961) ~ Natalie Wood
Pianist David Helfgott, driven by his father and teachers, has a breakdown. Years later he returns to the piano, to popular if not critical acclaim.

Stateside (2004) ~ Rachel Leigh Cook
The film follows a rebellious teenager on leave from the Marines who falls in love with a female musician. The relationship is threatened when she develops a mental illness.

Swimming Upstream (2003) ~ Geoffrey Rush
The true story of Tony Fingleton, a young man from a troubled family who found the inner strength to become a champion. Always overshadowed in his father's eyes by his brothers, it is only when Tony displays an extraordinary swimming talent that he feels he has a shot at winning his father's heart.

THX 1138 (1971) ~ Robert Duvall
THX 1138, LUH 3417, and SEN 5241 attempt to escape from a futuristic society located beneath the surface of the Earth. The society has outlawed sex, with drugs used to control the people. THX 1138 stops taking the drugs, and gets LUH 3417 pregnant. They are both thrown in jail where they meet SEN 5241 and start to plan their escape.

The Aviator (2004) ~ Leonardo DiCaprio
A biopic depicting the early years of legendary director and aviator Howard Hughes' career, from the late 1920s to the mid-1940s.

The Constant Gardener (2005) ~ Ralph Fiennes
A widower is determined to get to the bottom of a potentially explosive secret involving his wife's murder, big business, and corporate corruption.

The Hours (2002) ~ Nicole Kidman
The story of how the novel "Mrs. Dalloway" affects three generations of women, all of whom, in one way or another, have had to deal with suicide in their lives.

The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit (1956) ~ Gregory Peck
An ex-soldier faces ethical questions as he tries to earn enough to support his wife and children well.

The Prince of Tides (1991) ~ Nick Nolte
A troubled man talks to his suicidal sister's psychiatrist about their family history and falls in love with her in the process.

What About Bob? (1991) ~ Bill Murray
A successful psychiatrist loses his mind after one of his most dependent patients, a highly manipulative obsessive-compulsive, tracks him down during his family vacation.

The Blogger Award

Sandee at Comedy Plus gave me "The Blogger Award". I'm very happy because sometimes I have some doubts and because my other blog has also been chosen.
Thank you very much Sandee.

It's all blue, my favorite color. :)
I'll follow it now for Clinically Clueless and Catatonic Kid because I'm still on letter "C". Later I will focus on the whole alphabet.

Update:
These are other amazing people I've chosen always committing injustice:

Bob Fiddaman at Seroxat Sufferers stand up and be counted,
D Bunker at Psychiatry it's a killing,
Gianna at Beyond Meds,
Mark at Justakrusen,
Marissa at Depression Introspection,
Marj at Survivors can Thrive,
Matthew at It's quite an experience,
Mike at Rambling Stuff,
Susan at If you're going thought hell keep going,
Svasti at Svasti: A Journey From Assault To Wholeness,

Five name with letter "M"? Yes, we have to follow a criteria.
:)

Ritalin and gambling new campaign

A little bit of fun.

Engage in "Social Distancing" to protect yourself

Susan has just posted about the swine flu:

1. Sanitize -- i.e. Wash Your Hands Frequently. It may sound obvious, but hand-washing with soap and water for around 20 seconds is the single best thing you can do (if you're going to go out into the world and interact with other human beings). The CDC estimates that 80 percent of all infections are spread by hands. If you can't wash your hands regularly, try hand-sanitizers with 60 percent alcohol content.

2. Avoid -- i.e. Engage in "Social Distancing." That's the fancy term for reducing unnecessary social contact, staying away from crowds, and avoiding people if you're sick or if you're concerned that they may be infected. It may not be especially practical when you have to go to, say, work, but experts believe it's worth repeating: Isolation and avoidance reduce your chances of getting infected or infecting others.

I fear being diagnosed OCD or antisocial behavior. Anyway...

3. Be Alert -- i.e. Recognize the Symptoms and Get Help. Swine flu symptoms are similar to regular flu: Fever, body aches, sore throat, cough, runny nose, vomiting, diarrhea, and lethargy. If you don't feel well, seek medical attention. So far, it's important to note, this swine flu is treatable (and absolutely survivable). It's resistant to two of four antiviral drugs approved for combating the flu: Symmetrel and Flumadine. But two newer antivirals - Tamiflu and Relenza - appear to work.

WOW... Tamiflu and Relenza!!! Tamiflu has disappear from the market at the time of bird-flu pandemic. Remember?
I don't know any longer if and when must I really take care. Do you trust it?

Areas of knowledge that should be concerned with mental problems

I believe that those who have been following this blog must have noticed that there has been some changes.
Since March I am trying to get help from other fields to try to make some sense in mental illness. I believe it started on March, 10 with the post "Have your childhood harmed you?"
I have a great concern with childhood and adolescence because I truly believe that these periods are of great importance in our lives as we can see some bloggers trying hard to cope with sad or terrible experiences during this time of their lives.
Unfortunately few people of other fields are concerned with mental health.
This post by the sociologist and criminologist Jock Young - Herrad has attended his classes - "Subcultural the meaningful aspect" is a good example of those who try to see people's behaviour in a great scale and not only as a individual problem and idiosyncrasies.
There are more attempts in other posts.
I believe that mental is too complex and should be object of study of many fields and it should be done soon.
How can we understand the number of children that are committing suicide?
Who and what area(s) of knowledge should try to answer these questions?

Increase of hippocampus - chemical versus behavioral

At this post on the use of SSRIs to treat deviant sexual behaviour I came across with the information that after a year of SSRIs use there is an increase of hippocampal volume:

"Furthermore SSRIs have been used in the treatment of PTSD. One study found that after a year of SSRI treatments, subjects with PTSD had a 5% increase in hippocampal volume and a 35% increase in memory function (Bremner, 2006)*. Together, these findings indicate a variety of reasons why SSRIs may be beneficial for offenders with multiple paraphilias." p. 547 (emphasis mine)

There is a study by Eleonor Maguire, et all, that has studied London cab-drivers that have been submitted to "The Knowledge", a rigorous test where they must learn a large number of places and the most direct routes between them, and succeeded.
After comparing them to those who have not studied for this text it was found that London taxi-driver s's hippocampi have increased.

"From existing studies, it is impossible to know whether differences in brain anatomy are predetermined or whether the brain is susceptible to plastic change in response to environmental stimulation. Furthermore, although lesion work (6, 7) and functional neuroimaging work (8) confirm the involvement of the human hippocampus in spatial memory and navigation, there is still debate about its precise role. Given the propensity of lower mammalian/avian hippocampi to undergo structural change in response to behavior requiring spatial memory (2, 3), the present study addressed whether morphological changes could be detected in the healthy human brain associated with extensive experience of spatial navigation. Our prediction was that the hippocampus would be the most likely brain region to show changes."

"Although the hippocampus does not support navigation in isolation from other brain regions, it seems to be crucial to the storage and use of mental maps of our environments. The prolonged accumulation of other types of nonnavigational information may also produce similar hippocampal changes. Our present findings, however, corroborated as they are by the results of patient and neuroimaging studies, suggest that space and the posterior right human hippocampus are intimately linked."

I'm not sure if studies like this are being financed and they are highly important to the long process of trying to understand the brain. I cannot help noticing that the word "suggest" is used leaving it clear that it's not the truth as many of the studies we read like to imply.