Results In for Osher Institute Study Head Researcher to Speak at BTC - Winter 2008

Tai chi practitioners—of all ages—had better tactile sensitivity than nonpractitioners, according to a research study just reported by Harvard Medical School’s Osher Institute, the center for research and education in complementary and integrative med- ical therapies. The study compared 14 long-time BTC students and 14 “control” individuals for their ability to identify the vertical vs. horizontal orientation of the grating (spaced less than 1/16") on a thimble-sized dome. Why are we excited about this result?

For one thing, it demonstrates the benefits of the practice of tai chi as an anti- aging tool. Usually, “tactile acuity”—what the study aimed to measure—declines severely with age. This is the capacity to feel very fine details in an object simply by touching without either moving your fingertips or using your eyes. It is known to be stronger in musicians and blindBraille readers than in the general population. Though tai chi training doesn’t emphasize touch, it does develop feeling awareness throughout the body, out to the fingertips. So research points up an additional Tactile Acuity Tai Chi Research Results benefit to our constant insistence in class on feeling out to the five points (head, feet, hands). Research results were presented in an abstract at the fall, 2007 meeting of the Society for Neuroscience in San Diego, reaching neurologists, clinicians, and other researchers. Catherine Kerr, the principal investigator, calls this “the first study we know of” to find enhanced tactile acuity in practitioners engaged in “a somatosensory- attention practice as opposed to a direct touch-based practice such as Braille.” She will be speaking at BTC on January 13.

Follow-up studies are planned to explore the mechanisms that account for these effects. Increased tactile acuity is generally thought to indicate increased plasticity of the brain’s cortex. Plasticity affects the brain’s capacity to adapt positively to new situations (even blindness). BTC practitioners with good tactile acuity will again be studied to determine whether tai chi also improves sensitivity in other parts of the body. The most interesting long-range implication for BTC outreach into the medical community is that tai chi may help the elderly cope with progressive decline in various abilities. The work can add to the body of research already showing that tai chi reduces falls in the elderly and some effects of aging (such as gait).

Speaking at BTC last October, Peter Wayne, head of tai chi research at Osher Institute and also founding director of Tree of Life tai chi school, said that carefully done research studies are gradually affecting opinions on tai chi’s health benefits, including in the medical community. They will increase the likelihood of doctors referring patients and colleagues for tai chi.