Plans cutting edge research to improve how the brain functions

Dr. Carl M. Anderson has joined the CooperRiis facility in Mill Spring as the healing community’s research director.

Anderson is a neuroscientist who lives in Asheville. He received his Master’s degree in experimental psychology from Duke University in 1992 and a Ph.D. from Florida Atlantic University in 1995 in developmental pyschobiology.

“From childhood I have had an intense curiosity about how and why things work,” Anderson said. “I have an even greater passion for understanding how and why the developing brain is hijacked by drugs of abuse. The possible role of alterations in brain structure and function in the development of adolescent substance abuse is fascinating.”

Anderson said an old radio gifted to him by his grandparents at the age of 8 sparked his curiosity into the way things work, calling himself a “neo-reductionist” or someone who reduces things to simple terms.

“I began my scientific career as a research technician in 1984 under Dr. Clinton D. Kilts at the Duke University Medical Center,” Anderson explained. “I spent a great deal of time in the DUMC library during those years, reading up on anatomy and physiology.”

Anderson and Kilts collaborated on five research papers, each dealing with the affects of drugs on the human mind in the late 1980s. While a graduate student at Florida Atlantic, Anderson shifted the focus of his research to exploring brain dynamics.

“I became disenchanted with the traditional methods of post-morbid assessment of neurotransmitter concentrations as a ‘window’ in brain dynamics,” Anderson said. “My work with Dr. Arnold J. Mandell instilled in me a novel view of brain organization.”

Beginning in 1995, Anderson was a research fellow and instructor in psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and the McLean Hospital in Boston. While at Harvard, Anderson received four honors. These include the Newell Fellowship and Bryant W. Robinson Neurological Foundation awards.

“I have extensive knowledge of the cerebellar vermis and a meeting with Dr. Julie Schweitzer at Emory University in 1998 originally sparked my interest,” Anderson said. “I began an analysis of the cerebellar vermis in children, which culminated in published findings of dose-and-rate dependent relationships between blood flow and behavioral activity.”

The cerebellar vermis is the central part of the cerebellum of the brain between the two hemispheres, according to Anderson.

“Currently, my focus has shifted to the investigation and delineation of the influence of childhood maltreatment on the emergence of sensitive exposure periods over the course of brain development,” Anderson said. “What causes trauma and how can we pinpoint the origins of mental disorders like PTSD or substance addictions?”

Virgil Stucker is the executive director of the Mill Spring CooperRiis community and explained the purpose of the healing center.

“It’s most often the people who arrive here who have mental health diagnoses and sometimes addictions,” Stucker said. “These people do not feel like they are a part of the community and feel isolated and alone. Here, they find a community where it’s a special place for those who should feel special.”

Stucker said CooperRiis offers access to the best of science and that bringing in Anderson amplifies this implementation.

“This science includes nutritional support, psychotherapy, psychology and now neuroscience support,” Stucker said. “Anderson just joined our staff and over the last two years we’ve developed a neuro-enhancement program at our Asheville center and it’s mostly using neurofeedback to retrain the brain and coach itself in a healthier way.”

Anderson said his research at CooperRiis will involve him using the BrainPaint neurofeedback training method, created by Bill and Cora Scott. BrainPaint includes a 90-question assessment that ultimately determines the best procedures to be taken for the patient.

Overall, the BrainPaint system is designed to help a patient sleep better, decrease anxiety and depression, increase memory and focus, and decrease addictions.

“I know the guy who invented this system, Bill Scott, and the advantage to this is that it is much easier to use and he used to teach clinicians how to do neurofeedback since it’s such a technical area,” Anderson said. “So he developed a system that is incredibly automated in the sense that you can do a clinical assessment on somebody and the software will go through questions and pick the best protocol for the subject or subjects.”

By using this method, Anderson said he is able to continue his research into how trauma affects the brain at a young age. According to Stucker, childhood maltreatment and household dysfunction account for about half the cases of major depression and two-thirds of substance abuse cases.

“CooperRiis has been great in allowing research to occur and it’s really an advantage that these residents of CooperRiis have the access to this cutting edge technology,” Anderson said. “I have had some research studies in the past but I’ve never been able to totally dedicate all of my time to something like this.”