At 11:27 3-05-95 -0400, Tebay, Wendy wrote:
>Just would like to throw out another interesting anecdote (at least from my
>perspective): I was a physics major and now have pd. My dad works at a major
>university research lab, and supposedly 5-6 physics professors at this
>univeristy have pd. I find that a very interesting coincidence, no matter
>what the link, if any. Could it be possibly something that
>physicists/scientists are routinely exposed to, a genetic predisposition
>(including a more introverted personality typically).
Dear Wendy,
I like the anecdote: I'm a (former) physicist, my personality fits the
description quite accurately, and since a long time I probably have pd,
though still not formerly diagnosed, since until now I managed to keep it in
such a early stage, that I still don't feel an urge to rush to a
neurologist. I'm quite familiar with Parkinson's: my mother - she is 82 - is
now in the last stage of the disease - about 20 years after the first
diagnosis, alas with almost all the all too familiar consequences, not the
least because of the long time usage of medications, like sinemet. I must
confess, that this is one of the reasons to postpone a regular diagnosis,
with all the consequences, as long as possible: there is no reason for me to
take the effort to put a label on a possible disease, without any following
treatment.
Since we - as physicists - are between ourselves ;-), and the encouragement
of Rami Kaminski ("Keep on theorizing!") I'll present a start of some
_physical_ reasoning:
It seems not unreasonable to model roughly the brain as a associative
memory. If this model is allowed, then "intelligence" (whatever this
maybe...) could be linked not only to the total nervecells, that can be
fired simultaneously, but also to the change in the pattern of firing
nerves, that is possible within the brain. Since firing of nervecells
changes the uptake and/or release of neurotransmitters, one can argue, that
"intelligence" is a function of the (local) stability of the brain
metabolism: the lower the stability, the higher the intelligence. (BTW. in
this way exceptional high intelligence can be seen as a - social desirable -
physical disorder....)
The global brain metabolism will be roughly constant (apart of course from
natural cycles as sleep and others), so higher possible usage of instability
in one region of the brain will have consequences for the stability in other
regions.
One can also argue, that reduced stability poses a risk of going "over the
border": I have seen about some evidence, that - looking backwards -
dramatic life events, like a operation, often poses the onset of Parkinson's.
Arno.
