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What is the understanding behind the physical activity and motor memory that occurs when women complete breast self-exams?

The Liv Aid is a non invasive women’s medical device intended to assist the process of breast self-examination. With any new product, response comes varied and diverse. It is here that we try to understand how the physical and neurological process of sense of touch and motor memory work during BSE (breast self-examination).

Through surveys conducted by BHS International, research has found women who are familiar with the practice of breast self-examination have an immediate response to the difference the Liv Aid has on creating a “magnifying effect” on small matter. As they already have a foundation of data stored in their memory, they can compare the practice of skin-on-skin contact vs. self-examination with aids like the Liv. Thus, understanding the physical and neurological processes of BSE has a greater assist for women who have little to none BSE experience. It helps them to understand the intention of a breast self-examination aid and the potential benefits, making them feel more at ease with the Liv.

What happens during breast self-examination is summarized in 4 main actions.

1. They learn a new motor skill

2. Memory retention of the motor skill

3. Teaching the senses in the finger tips what they are looking for

4. Sending the data message to the brain for memory storage.

Learning a Motor skill

What's Happening Inside the Brain?

When we master a new motor skill(1), we go from active effort to automatic ability. By compartmentalizing BSE as an automatic ability, we turn it into a skill rather than just an action. Through practice and repetition we hard wire it into the brain, thus retaining it as a motor skill for life.

When applying this theory to BSE, the brain processes the information of a new motor skill in one of two courses:

1) Consolidation

2) Retrograde interference (R.I).

The correlation between sense of touch and memory retention is documented by a study done at MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology(2)) as being a direct derivative of allowing motor skills to consolidate gradually over a minimum of a four hour period. In a case conducted, a manipulandum(3) was employed in learning a new motor skill. There were 2 experiments. The 1st being subjects learned a new motor skill and took a rest, the 2nd followed learning the new motor skill with completing an immediate activity, such as learning another new motor skill. Research found that the next day the subjects whom rested were more easily able to complete the initial motor skill learnt. A process called CONSOLIDATION occurred.

The most vital time after learning a new motor skill, which is the process of improving or learning the smoothness and accuracy of movements, is the 4 hours that ensue the initial practice of it.

RETROGRADE INTERFERENCE is the disruption of motor skill retention due to interference of other activities directly engaged after initial practice of the motor skill.

Sense of Touch

Receptors

To understand what your fingers should feel when performing BSE, it is insightful to understand how your sense of touch works with regards to its receptors.

The largest organ in your body is skin; therefore receptors are both engaged in the skin of your breast and in the skin of your fingers when performing BSE. Mostly, for one particular task, the brain receives the message of one set of receptors (the hand touching a subject or another person, our back touching cloth) Having two sets of receptors engaged in the same task (hand-on-breast) may confuse messages being sent to the brain. You need to teach receptors in the finger tips

a) What type of abnormalities you should be feeling for &

b) What feels normal for an individual’s breast tissue, and what does not.

Sense of touch allows you to tell the difference between rough and smooth, soft and hard, and wet and dry. As the Liv Aid gives a soft, cool sensation, it provides an exterior juxtaposition to the hard matter in breast tissue; thus enabling the brain to recognize the breast tissue separate to the receptors examining it.

The Liv Aid eliminates the connection of 2 sets of receptors engaging through breast skin and finger tips contact. (NB: In the finger tips the highly sensitive glabrous receptors are found which have an extreme heightened sense of touch. They are the most sensitive in the entire body.) By placing the Liv Aid between the breast and fingers, the Liv Aid enables receptors in the finger tips to concentrate their sensitivity to find abnormalities. As a result, the brain receives one set of data from the finger tips contributing to the accumulation of memory retention of the breast tissue.

How does the Liv Aid benefit Breast Self-Examination?

The Liv Aid acts as a cool, soft sensation outside of the body

The Liv Aid acts as a barrier between skin receptors in the breast & fingers and creates a magnifying effect on breast tissue.

The Liv Aid allows receptors in the fingers to concentrate on finding abnormalities in breast tissue

The Liv Aid attempts to assist the brain to receive one clearer set of impulses from fingertips

The brain is able to gather more relevant information re: breast tissue health

The Liv Aid allows a clear set of data to be stored in the memory warehouse as a comparison for next month's exam

Motor Memory Restoration

MEMORY: When you learn something new, your brain determines whether that information needs to be saved or not. If your brain judges the information important, it places it in the memory files. Repetition is a method that converts information from short term memory into long term memory
retention. It also teaches BSEs to go from awkward to automatic, building confidence through practice.

When the brain begins the consolidation phase of how to store, and how to do BSE, a separate part of the brain stores the memory. Thus compiling an information database it can tap into when performing monthly exams. This is known as implicit or procedural memory. When BSE is practiced regularly over a long period of time, you will see a significant increase in the effective and successfulness of the self exam.

In Summary:

With any activity, there is a right and wrong way of how to best complete the task. Depending on the task, some master it automatically due to their memory data base and others don’t.

With Breast self-exams the same principles apply. As some women with BSE experience recognize the Liv Aids benefits automatically, others need the process of consolidation through practice to apply.

By removing the friction of skin-on-skin contact (fingers-on-breast) the Liv Aid engages and heightens one type of receptors. This isolation allows a clearer message to be sent to the brain. Because these sensors are at such an extreme sensitivity, it is important for individuals to repeat the practice of self-examination so the glabrous receptors differentiate between matter in the breast tissue, the cool consistency of the Liv Aid and the rib cage under it all.

The Liv Aid intends to allow a more precise warehouse of data to be built regarding how an individual’s breast tissue feels through separating the receptors and creating a magnifying effect on the breast tissue. Through practice and repetition women should learn what is standard for their breast health so they can detect abnormalities early. This can only happen over a period of time and with practice.

With breast self-exams you have to teach your body to know:

1) What it’s looking for

2) How to look for it

3) How to recognize abnormalities.

Let’s summaries the cycle of how breast self-exams work:

Footnotes

1. A motor skill is a learned series of movements that combine to produce a smooth, efficient action.
2. Consolidation in Human Motor Memory; Bizzi,Emilio Brashers-krug,Thomas Shadmehr,Rez. July 18 1996
3. A manipulated apparatus

© 2009. Researched and written by Loukia Kyriacou under the contractual request of BHS International Co.

© 2009. BHS International Co. Upland California USA