Neuroscience and the Gospel

This year I had the opportunity to take a neuroscience class and I must say it was quite the experience. There’s a lot of material packed in a ten week long class but there were some things that my professor really made me think about. First of all, if artificial intelligence gets too smart we might one day get taken over by robots because humanity will be the problem of all things. Second thing (and slightly more important) is how neuroplasticity and the gospel is found in the brain and the scriptures. We’ll be focusing on the second thing throughout this devo.

I’m not much of a neuroscientist myself, but we studied this concept of neuroplasticity throughout class. In a simplified version, neuroplasticity is the ability of the brain to change and adapt throughout a persons lifetime. In a more obvious sense you can see how a child develops and they learn to talk, walk, recognise faces, speak etc. But in a more complex case, the brain is able to adapt even to injury or disabilities. For example, there was an experiment done in which an animal was blind and that area of the brain responsible for sight was taken over by areas that were responsible for hearing as well as touch. Why you ask? Simply because when you are blind you are going to need to rely on something other then your sight to make it around. So your brain does the best thing it can, it works on strengthening the area that’s responsible for hearing as well as touch. You see, the brain is always changing and adapting!

But another interesting aspect of neuroplasticity is that the things that you constantly do, become embedded in your brain. Get this, if you were a professional one handed bottle opener, and all you did for a living was open bottles with your right hand singlehandedly, you would have an area of your brain that had more neural connections because that area was constantly stimulated and responsible for your ability to opening bottles with your right hand! The things that you do repeatedly are embedded in your brain. That’s why when you learn a song by playing it a hundred times (cause momma yells at you if you don’t) it seems impossible to forget. Because it is embedded deep within your brain! This is called a Central Pattern Generator.

So get this, if your brain forms connections by the things you repeatedly do, can it be that the things you repeatedly think, see, and say get embedded in your brain as well? If you are constantly falling short to that addiction, or shortcoming over and over again, will it just get deeper and deeper to a point where it seems impossible for you to overcome. Why….. because as you see and do, your brain is making connections that are getting solidified the more you repeat an action. This is why bad habits are so hard to overcome. You are doing something over and over and in a way it is becoming part of you in a neural aspect. So what’s the solution?

And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. Romans 12:2

Here Paul is speaking of a renewal of mind in that we too can live a life walking in God’s will and in his stature. Throughout scriptures this concept is seen and the answer has always been the same. Ask God to renew your mind, and remake you. Doesn’t matter what bad habits or shortcomings you may have, the scriptures portray God as a divine neurosurgeon that is able to renew your mind to look a little more like His if you simply ask.

PS: Much thanks to Dr. Lee Olson. To the professor that probably still thinks I’m Filipino and speaks to our class in Norwegian. Takk!