Holy Rewired - "Wiring the Brain" (part 1)

This fifth chapter of "Holy Rewired" goes into how the brain is wired as related to how it affects the renewing of the mind. The author uses some rather technical language, and although I won't attempt to include much of that, this post will still be somewhat heavy reading. For any of you who want better understanding the technical part of this, I would suggest getting this book (if you don't have it) and/or reading "The Anatomy of the Soul" by Dr. Curt Thompson. And for those of you who have a much better handle on this than I do, forgive my weak attempt at summarizing this. My desire is to marvel at God and at His creation that reflects His power and beauty and love and perhaps help others do the same even if we can't all grasp this well cognitively.

This chapter begins with recognizing that we humans do many things without realizing that we're doing them. Phillips gives the example of his habit of always immediately opening the frig to look for something to eat when he arrived home from work, even if he had recently eaten. In the process of writing down all that he was eating (a counselor was helping him in this area), he became aware of this unconscious habit and that he started it when he was a "latch-key" child in his elementary school years.

"Neurological processes in the brain create habitual processes that are so automatic a person does not realize how she or he is behaving. In fact, a person's brain is largely under the influence of automatic processes. This is important for a person's survival and productivity. Without these processes, every time a person gets out of a chair to walk to the refrigerator, he would have to decide whether to lead with the left foot or right foot....Multitasking would be impossible. We need to understand that the brain is 'organized so that once an activity becomes routine it doesn't require conscious effort but occurs automatically.'"

The author then explains in technical terms how "repeated actions, emotions, and experiences wire the brain in such a way that neural connections are strengthened."

So that we understand how important neural connections are, I will quote Marcia Purse on the meaning of neurons: "Neurons are the specialized cells that make up the body's nervous system. These nerve cells process and transmit information from one part of the body to another. For example, if you touch a candle flame for more than an instant, pain nerves (receptors) in your finger send a message up through your hand and arm to the spinal cord and to the brain. The brain records PAIN and sends messages back down to various parts of the body. The mouth cries, "OUCH!", the arm, hand and body jerk away from the flame, and the finger hurts. This all happens in milliseconds. Much of the brain is made up of highly specialized neurons. They interact to control the five senses, thought, mood and motion."

The brain has the ability to be rewired through changing the order of how the brain's neurons fire (connect). This ability to be rewired is called neuroplasticity.

Conventional wisdom used to state "that the brain could not alter its structure or find new ways to function if part of it was damaged...However, in recent years, scientists have made breakthrough discoveries showing that the brain actually changes its structure with each different activity it performs. It modifies and perfects its circuits. In addition, if parts of the brain fail, other parts can and will take over those tasks."

A study was done by Alvaro Pascual-Leon on adults with normal vision to see what the brain would do if they suddenly lost vision. They were blindfolded all day every day from a Monday morning till Friday evening. Before the test began, their brains were scanned so that any changes during the 5 days of "blindness" could be monitored.

Before the blindfolds were put on, the visual part of the brain was highly active when they looked at something, and when they listened to something, the visual part was inactive. "However, during their period of 'blindness', scans showed that when the volunteers did tactile or auditory tasks, their visual cortex became active. As the week continued, the brain system responsible for touch became increasingly quiet when the volunteers were feeling the Braille dots. The visual cortex became increasingly active. Neurologically speaking, 'the seeing brain was now feeling and hearing.'" Then when the blindfold was removed, the visual part of the brain stopped responding to the touch and auditory stimuli within 12-24 hours!

The study concluded that the ability for the visual cortex to feel and hear had always been there and that neural connections that have been silent (not firing) for decades can be called up when needed. "If those connections were used repeatedly, with the blindfolds staying on for years instead of days, researchers believe that those temporary changes could be made permanent, thus changing the whole structure and mapping of the adult brain."

Like last week I will divide this chapter into two parts. The second part of this will deal with wiring of the brain and behavior and also with the plasticity of the brain related to experiences and thinking.