Neurons that fire together, wire together.

By Savannah O’Berry on May 3, 2021

The brain can be trained to do many things. Part of living is learning through experience and these experiences both good and bad impact our brain and body in so many ways. Neuroplasticity means that the brain is always firing signals back and forth and can be adjusted to create new pathways for signals to follow.

You can change your outlook and habits to improve your life. This creates new neurological pathways or a new map for your neurons to follow. Neurons are the tiny signals in your brain that tell you how to react to everything you sense. The science behind it is messy and somewhat complicated.

After some digging around online for a straight story of where neuroplasticity started, I figured out that there are multiple areas of neuroplasticity and it’s been applied to medical disorders and mental health disorders. For this post we are looking at neuroplasticity through our mental health goggles.

History

From what I understand the Hebbian Learning Rule plays a big part in the beginning of neuroplasticity. This type of learning looks at how the neurons in the brain work together and change with certain experiences. Hebb discussed how Pavlovian conditioning works based on the pathways in the brain. Pavlov is the one who trained dogs to drool when hearing a bell by repeatedly feeding them when they heard the same sound.

Hebb published his thoughts in his thesis for his masters degree and wrote a book entitled The Organization of Behavior that dove into this theory about the brain and learning more deeply. He never quite figured out the idea of neurons firing together to change the pathways, but his research was continued by others in the field who were able to put his concept to the test.

Hebb’s theory was the first one about neuroplasticity to be widely accepted by psychologists which was the first time all the psychological minds came together in agreement on a theory. They did so when he had no real basis for his theory, basically saying that it sounds good so it must be true. Hebbian learning was not fully established with adequate evidence until 1985, 36 years after he had been published.

Bottom line Hebb was the stone that started the ripple across the lake of neuroplasticity in psychological research, and sadly he was not alive to see it come to fruition.

Application

If you perpetuate thoughts about failing or never being able to accomplish something, you may start down the path to a self-fulfilling prophesy. By switching to positive thinking you can learn to manage negative thoughts. Positive affirmations can help you overcome your negative thinking pattern to grow as a person.

In my post about Self-Love, I mention how to use positive affirmations to improve self-esteem, but I wanted to explain a little more in detail about the science behind the health benefits of positivity. Focusing on strengths and values are key parts of Positive Psychology. One study showed that by using a strengths-based approach people significantly improved their overall health and wellbeing. Positive affirmations are the application of this strengths-based concept in every day life.

Positive affirmations are phrases that you tell yourself to counteract the negative thoughts you might be having. They change the pathways in your brain so you no longer get stuck in the negativity and are able to see yourself and your situation in a healthier way.

Affirmations should be posted somewhere that you will see them daily and be repeated to yourself when stress or negativity begin to seep into your thoughts. Relearning that you can overcome life’s challenges without being swallowed up by them takes time, but there are numerous health benefits to positive thinking.

In a group of people who had limited resources on top of their health-related issues, the majority saw a significant improvement in their quality of life after implementing affirmations. Self-affirmations and believing in yourself can lead to trying new and exciting things while not succumbing to the stress or worry that might pop up in the process.

Wrap Up

When you are more positive about yourself, you can become more empathetic to those around you and other positive people tend to gravitate toward you. This trickle-down effect can improve many areas of your life including healthy socialization and sense of purpose. Birds of a feather flock together so being positive can increase positivity in those around you and draw in more healthy relationships.

I included the resources I used in the reference list below so feel free to read more if interested. For more ideas about positivity and affirmations, check me out on social media at the links below or subscribe to get newsletters related to this topic and more information about upcoming posts.

Simply,

Soberry

References

Dalai Lama (2009). “The Art of Happiness, 10th Anniversary Edition: A Handbook for Living”, p.28, Penguin

Keshavan, M. S., Mehta, U. M., Padmanabhan, J. L., & Shah, J. L. (2015). Dysplasticity, metaplasticity, and schizophrenia: Implications for risk, illness, and novel interventions doi:10.1017/S095457941500019X

Łakuta, P. (2020). Using the theory of self-affirmation and self-regulation strategies of mental contrasting and forming implementation intentions to reduce social anxiety symptoms. Null, 33(4), 370-386. doi:10.1080/10615806.2020.1746283

MILNER, P. (2003). A brief history of the hebbian learning rule. Canadian Psychology, 44(1), 5-9. Retrieved from https://lopes.idm.oclc.org/login?url=https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=edsovi&AN=edsovi.00011346.200302000.00003&site=eds-live&scope=site

Weiss, L. A., Oude Voshaar, Martijn A. H., Bohlmeijer, E. T., & Westerhof, G. J. (2020). The long and winding road to happiness: A randomized controlled trial and cost-effectiveness analysis of a positive psychology intervention for lonely people with health problems and a low socio-economic status doi:10.1186/s12955-020-01416-x