Changing Habits With Activity Dependent Neural Plasticity

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 

Unspoken Burdens: The Psychology of Secrets

You have just finished taking an incredibly lengthy exam. As you head to your locker, your friend runs up to you and reveals that she cheated on the exam. You promise not to tell anyone about it, but it takes all of your effort to not expose your friend the next time you talk to your professor. Keeping a secret is an intensive act that involves a complex set of physical, mental, and social processes. Psychologists have asked questions about these processes, and their research has given us some insight into the secrets of secrecy.

How do secrets affect us?

Keeping secrets may be detrimental to one’s health, as secrecy is correlated with negative consequences for both physical and mental well-being [1]. For instance, in a study looking at gay men, Cole et al. found that there was an association between keeping sexual identities secret and physical conditions such as cancers and infectious diseases [2]. How preoccupied people feel with the secret can potentially influence its consequences. In a series of four studies where participants made judgments of hill slant, which are linked to physical burden, Slepian et al. found that participants’ preoccupation with secrets they were keeping predicted their judgments of hill slant [1]. Emotions surrounding the secret can also affect the people keeping it. In a study asking participants to recall secrets they were keeping, Slepian et al. found that while feeling shame about the secret led to more mind wandering towards the secret, feeling guilt about the secret led to less of this mind wandering [3]. These studies show that, in order to fully understand the consequences of secrecy, we need to consider factors beyond the mere act of keeping a secret.

What is the role of secrets in our lives?

Even though secrets can have negative consequences for their keepers, they can also serve important social functions. Sharing secrets may have a multitude of purposes like expressing strong emotions, creating and increasing intimacy with others, and seeking and establishing a mutual understanding with others [4]. Secrets may also be related to people’s social networks. For example, social networks can shape secrets. Aspects of a person’s social network, like the closeness of its members, can affect whether sharing secrets is used to support or harm others [4]. Secrets can also shape people’s social networks, as people’s responses to secret-sharing can lead to stronger relationships if the response is positive or weaker relationships if the response is negative [4]. Even children seem to understand the social importance of secrets: in a series of studies where children were tasked with making judgments of friendship based on the sharing of secrets versus material resources or other types of information, Liberman and Shaw found that the children tended to view secret-sharing as an important indication of friendship compared to the other kinds of sharing [5]. Ultimately, despite secrecy being difficult and its association to negative health consequences, secrets are still an integral part of our social lives.

References

[1] Slepian, M. L.; Camp, N. P.; Masicampo, E. J. Exploring the Secrecy Burden: Secrets, Preoccupation, and Perceptual Judgments. J. Exp. Psychol. Gen. 2015, 144 (2), e31–e42. https://doi.org/10.1037/xge0000052.

[2] Cole, S. W.; Kemeny, M. E.; Taylor, S. E.; Visscher, B. R. Elevated Physical Health Risk among Gay Men Who Conceal Their Homosexual Identity. Health Psychol. 1996, 15 (4), 243–251. https://doi.org/10.1037/0278-6133.15.4.243.

[3] Slepian, M. L.; Kirby, J. N.; Kalokerinos, E. K. Shame, Guilt, and Secrets on the Mind. Emotion 2020, 20 (2), 323–328. https://doi.org/10.1037/emo0000542.

[4] Cowan, S. K. Secrets and Social Networks. Curr. Opin. Psychol. 2020, 31, 99–104. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.copsyc.2019.07.038.

[5] Liberman, Z.; Shaw, A. Secret to Friendship: Children Make Inferences about Friendship Based on Secret Sharing. Dev. Psychol. 2018, 54 (11), 2139–2151. https://doi.org/10.1037/dev0000603.

[6] Unsplash. Photo by Gama. Films on Unsplash. https://unsplash.com/photos/hpv81oxYZ34 (accessed Dec 7, 2020).