The Brain and Neuroscience
In thinking about the question ‘what are you as a human?’ a key component that needs to be considered is the human brain.
Discoveries have shown that the human brain is by far the most intricate and advanced piece of technology known to humans, far more complex than any computer system or piece of nanotechnology; and particularly since the 1990s, the discipline of neuroscience has been one of the most successful and celebrated advances of the scientific domain, as it’s been explicating the intricacies of this breath-taking organ. From the neuroscience, we’ve learned that the average human brain contains 100 billion neurons (neurons being elongated nerve cells), carrying electro-chemical information in them – the brain is pulsating with this electro-chemical energy as it functions as the nerve centre of the body. Through advances in neuroscience, we can now wire up a person to a brain scanner and see which of those neurons are firing when that person, for instance, is seeing the colour yellow, making a moral decision, falling in love, having a religious experience, singing a song etc. Although there are billions of neurons to map, neuroscience is steadily progressing in this task, advancing our understanding of the brain and its intricacies and helping us to understand how it is that we as humans function. Whilst demonstrating a lot of success, what makes this task even more complex is that, connecting those 100 billion neurons to one another are 10,000 billion synapses, connectors that relay information between the neurons. So, the task for neurology is vast in seeking to map the brain with its 100,000,000,000 neurons and 100,000,000,000,000 synapses, but one that is steadily making progress (and might take encouragement from the successful and completed mapping of the human genome in 2003).
The Brain and our rhythms of life
Whilst a huge venture, the quest of mapping the human brain brings with it multiple insights into human functioning and numerous benefits to human life. For example, in what has already been discovered so far, neuroscientists have identified an interesting feature of the brain in which ‘neurons that fire together wire together’. As certain neurons get used to firing in tandem with certain other neurons, synapses form between them, establishing neurological connections and pathways in the brain. This means that our regular behaviours, rhythms and habits in life are integral to the forming of such pathways, in that the particular neurons used for such purposes adapt to working in tandem with other particular neurons – so connect together – forming these neurological patterns and pathways in the shaping of the brain. The significance of this is that the regular actions you perform affect the configuring of your brain, so therefore go to shape what it is to be you.
As an example of this, if you regularly wake up in the morning with a groan or the thought ‘oh no its morning’, neurons associated with you waking up each day will wire together with those responsible for your feelings of despondency and so your brain will shape in that way and you’ll find yourself in a groove of feeling downcast in the morning. If you wake up in the morning and get into the pattern of saying thank you / being grateful for a new morning, your brain will re-wire, new synapses will be formed, connecting the ‘waking up neurons’ with the ones responsible for giving you a sense of gladness – resulting in you getting into the groove of waking up with gladness. As another example, if in the past you’ve been treated well on your birthday – received cards, love, presents etc., the neurons in your brain responsible for your understanding of the term ‘birthday’ will have wired together with feelings of happiness, so you experience a sense of anticipation as your birthday comes around each year; so the act of regularly showing someone love has a major effect on the shaping of their brain and the wiring together of their neurons (with certain other neurons).
In this phenomenon known as ‘neuroplasticity’ the human brain is always re-wiring, re-shaping, setting new grooves and pathways, based on our habits and behaviours; But it is particularly prevalent at specific times in a person’s life. In the very early years (ages 0-5), a baby / toddler’s brain is very malleable as it shapes, configures, gets used to learning and taking in life, and again, during teen years, there’s another burst of ultra-neuroplasticity. As we grow older, the brain does continue to re-wire but the rate at which it happens slows down. For this reason, particularly older people are often encouraged to take up something new – to learn, maybe, a new language, try playing an instrument, sitting in different seats when they go to regular events, start doing word puzzles – in order to keep the brain as malleable as possible. Indeed, such activities, or doing something that you wouldn’t naturally do (e.g. brush your teeth with the other hand) is recommended for all ages to keep our neuroplasticity high.
The Brain and its relation to the Mind…?
Such findings as the above trace their way back to the advances of neuroscience and its discoveries about the brain, underlining the significance of this discipline in advancing our human knowledge and living, and the incredible nature of the brain. So the brain and neuroscience is certainly to be celebrated, for the insights it gives us; but as well as being central to our biology, the brain is also intimately involved in our psychology, to what is called our mental life, the life of our mind - so the mind will be the focus of the next and up-coming post.