About a year ago when I was having my traditional springtime existential crisis, I had a chat with one of my mentors at school, Keri Tolboe, and she advised my problems by introducing me to the three social myths that plague our world. Myths in society keep us from growing and keep us from truly expressing ourselves. Since they resonated so much with me at that time (and still do), I began to view and analyze them in my everyday life. And since I'm such a psychology weirdo, I was obviously intrigued.
Myth 2: "You cannot change."
This is an epidemic thought in society ridden with labels, prejudice, and stereotypes. Psychologically, humans have a desire to categorize. It’s a completely natural wish to be able to say, ‘this is this,’ and put this into a box and leave it there forever, satisfied with the brilliant organization. (Weseley) While categorization can be a productive and useful tool, it is too often misused to reinforce the second Myth. It creates a pattern of unchangeableness in our nature, formulating in our minds the idea that things can’t change, and consequently that we can’t change.
Over the past twenty years, neuroscience has had a dramatic epiphany. For centuries, humans believed that neurons were fixed—that each person was born with x number of neurons, and died with the same x number of neurons. “In what seems, in retrospect, like a serious lapse of imagination, scientists concluded that neurons’ inability to reproduce closed off all avenues to the birth of new neurons in the adult brain” (Begley). However, in recent years of study, scientists have discovered that our brains have an incredible ability to adapt and change. “When we acquire a new knowledge or master a skill or file away the remembrance of things past, the brain changes in some real, physical way to make that happen” (Begley). This is a concept called neurogenesis, markedly the formation of new brain cells.
Before researching neurogenesis in adult brains, a surge of neuronal growth was discovered in young children. Between birth and approximately age three, children are in their learning prime; they have an incredible ability to absorb new information, and this was fairly widely accepted by scientists and laypeople alike. What’s recently been discovered is that this huge surge of growth happens again in early adolescence, and that smaller, continuous growth can happen throughout a lifespan. “The development of new neurons continues during adulthood” (Mandal). Despite the common misconception of “we are what we are,” we in fact have the ability to transform ourselves simply with a desire and a mindset.
Michael Merzenich, a neuroscience professor at the University of California, is known for his work in testing brain plasticity, or the ability of the brain to adapt. He revealed that early specialized brain function prepares the brain for later changes. “Using specific attentional control… this lifelong capacity for plasticity, for brain change, is powerfully expressed. It’s the basis of our real differentiation, one individual from another” (Merzenich). In other words, what one does at a very young age sets up his or her brain for the entirety of the lifespan, but as an adult real change is still very possible. At any time and for any reason, people can decide to change themselves—to free their lives of the bondage of believing they cannot change—and that is possible because of neurogenesis. Although this is true, one person cannot rely solely on himself to attain this change.
For our senior year "big project" at my school, we had to write a ten-page research paper and I chose to disprove the Three Myths using my favorite, neuropsychology. (Myth 1 here)
Myth 2: "You cannot change."
This is an epidemic thought in society ridden with labels, prejudice, and stereotypes. Psychologically, humans have a desire to categorize. It’s a completely natural wish to be able to say, ‘this is this,’ and put this into a box and leave it there forever, satisfied with the brilliant organization. (Weseley) While categorization can be a productive and useful tool, it is too often misused to reinforce the second Myth. It creates a pattern of unchangeableness in our nature, formulating in our minds the idea that things can’t change, and consequently that we can’t change.
Over the past twenty years, neuroscience has had a dramatic epiphany. For centuries, humans believed that neurons were fixed—that each person was born with x number of neurons, and died with the same x number of neurons. “In what seems, in retrospect, like a serious lapse of imagination, scientists concluded that neurons’ inability to reproduce closed off all avenues to the birth of new neurons in the adult brain” (Begley). However, in recent years of study, scientists have discovered that our brains have an incredible ability to adapt and change. “When we acquire a new knowledge or master a skill or file away the remembrance of things past, the brain changes in some real, physical way to make that happen” (Begley). This is a concept called neurogenesis, markedly the formation of new brain cells.
Before researching neurogenesis in adult brains, a surge of neuronal growth was discovered in young children. Between birth and approximately age three, children are in their learning prime; they have an incredible ability to absorb new information, and this was fairly widely accepted by scientists and laypeople alike. What’s recently been discovered is that this huge surge of growth happens again in early adolescence, and that smaller, continuous growth can happen throughout a lifespan. “The development of new neurons continues during adulthood” (Mandal). Despite the common misconception of “we are what we are,” we in fact have the ability to transform ourselves simply with a desire and a mindset.
Michael Merzenich, a neuroscience professor at the University of California, is known for his work in testing brain plasticity, or the ability of the brain to adapt. He revealed that early specialized brain function prepares the brain for later changes. “Using specific attentional control… this lifelong capacity for plasticity, for brain change, is powerfully expressed. It’s the basis of our real differentiation, one individual from another” (Merzenich). In other words, what one does at a very young age sets up his or her brain for the entirety of the lifespan, but as an adult real change is still very possible. At any time and for any reason, people can decide to change themselves—to free their lives of the bondage of believing they cannot change—and that is possible because of neurogenesis. Although this is true, one person cannot rely solely on himself to attain this change.
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