Changing one’s habits and the most action-oriented approaches to doing so has remained an age-old question yielding a diverse array of answers. Perhaps, the idea that your brain is in a perpetual state of change is something you have encountered previously, through a television show, a book, or maybe even as you peruse the local newspaper. At first, notions pertaining to this scientific phenomenon, known as activity-dependent neural plasticity, may come across as slightly contradictory: all throughout our schooling years, we’ve been told that our brains are subject to the modular outputs of a dynamic biochemical environment prevailing within our brain’s cells after all. So how could it be that these ostensibly inanimate ions, voltage-gated channels, and synaptic clefts are operating independently of stimuli perception?
Recent advancements within the realm of neuroscience have conferred mankind with a uniquely nuanced insight into the intricate mechanisms facilitating neural modulation. Analogous to how your plastic water bottle warps in conformity to direct sunlight, scientists have recently discovered that our brain is increasingly implicated by everything occurring in transcendence of our subconscious thought: every single observation, interaction, smell, sight… as it turns out, there is not much information that goes unnoticed by our minds [1]. Contemporary neuroimaging techniques have served to capture the extent of this dynamic rewiring that prevails within each of our brains; this redefines our collective approach to the interplay between the mind, brain, and body necessary to ensure the fruition of our consciousness [2].
What exactly does this information mean for us, as individual agents embedded within the crosshairs of highly developed sociocultural institutions around the world? Like many other things prominent within our day-to-day lives, neural plasticity can be reverse engineered to promote only the most positive feelings within people: namely, contentment, satisfaction, and ultimately, serve to provide such individuals with a way of altering their negative habits. For instance, the persistent practice of one’s desired habits under a number of different conditions has the potential to change the functional activity of neurons across the brain, housing over 100 billion neurons which strive to communicate across 100 trillion synaptic connections [3]. Contemporary somatic therapeutic interventions, predicated upon the functioning of neural plasticity mechanisms to incite positive development, can be revitalized by the maintenance of a persistently positive personal state with repeated practice and a defined goal.
So the next time your mother scolds you for habitually consuming your fingernails, or falls victim to the notion that it simply is not possible to develop a highly outcome-oriented habit, try to remember that you have immediate access to a dynamic community of 100 billion neurons communicating over 100 trillion gaps in space. Similar to your favorite hiking trail, the neuronal circuitry constituting the foundation of basic actions remains vulnerable to changes in one's habits, strengthening over time as the status quo is challenged with sheer willpower.
References
[1] Taylor, B. Breaking Bad Habits, With Neuroplasticity. EduGuide Developmental Biology - Lumina Foundation [Online] 2015. https://www.eduguide.org/content/2015/02/13/breaking-bad-habits-with-neuroplasticity/
[2] Foss, R. How to Change Your Behavior and The Science Behind Neuroplasticity. Kwik Learning for Academic Success [Online] 2018. https://kwiklearning.com/kwik-tips/how-to-change-your-behavior-the-science-behind-neuroplasticity/
[3] Ganguly, K.; Poo, M. Activity-Dependent Neural Plasticity from Bench to Bedside. Cell Neuron [Online] 2013, 86, 122-134.. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuron.2013.10.028
[4] Bergland, C. How Do Neuroplasticity and Neurogenesis Rewire Your Brain? Psychology Today [Online] 2017. https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-athletes-way/201702/how-do-neuroplasticity-and-neurogenesis-rewire-your-brain