How Unique You Are! -Your Marvelous Brain

For years man's brain has been likened to a computer, yet recent discoveries show that the comparison falls short.  "How does one begin to comprehend the functioning of 50 billion neurons with a million synapses (connections ), and with an overall firing rate of perhaps 10 million billion times per second?"  asked Dr. Richard Restak. His answer?  "The performance of even the most advanced of the neutral-network computers . . . has about on ten-thousandth the mental capacity of a housefly."  Consider, then, how much a computer fails to measure up to a human brain, which is so remarkably superior.

What man-made computer can repair itself, rewrite its program, or improve over the years?  When a computer system needs to be adjusted, a programmer must write and enter new coded instructions.  Our brain does such work automatically, both in the early years of life and in old age. You would not be exaggerating to say that the most advanced  computers are very primitive compared to the brain. Scientists have called it  "The most complex object in the universe."  Consider some discoveries that have led many to conclude that the human brain is he product of a caring Creator.

Use It or Lose It

Useful inventions such as cars and jet planes are basically limited by the fixed mechanisms and electrical  systems that men design and install.  By contrast, our brain is, at the very least, a highly flexible biological mechanism or system. It can keep changing according to the way it is used-or abused.  Two main factors seem responsible for how our brain develops throughout our lifetime-what we allow to enter it into our senses and what we choose to think about. 

Although, hereditary factors may have a role in mental performance, modern research shows that our brain is not fixed by our genes at the time of conception.  "No one suspected that the brain was as changeable as science now knows it to be," writes Pulitzer prize-winning author Ronald Kotulak.  After interviewing more than 300 researchers, he concluded:  "The brain is not a static organ; it is a constantly changing  mass of cell connections that are deeply affected by experience." -Inside the Brain.

Still, our experiences are not the only means of shaping our brain. It is affected also by our thinking. Scientists find that the brains of people who remain mentally active have up to 40 percent more connections (synapses) between nerve cells (neurons) than do the brains of mentally lazy.  Neuroscientists conclude:  You have to use it or you lose it. What, though, of the elderly?  There seems to be some loss of brain cells as a person ages, and advanced age can bring memory loss.  Yet the difference is much less than was once believed. A National Geographic report on the human brain said:  "Older people .  .  . capacity to generate new connections and to keep old ones via mental activity." 

Recent findings about our brain's flexibility accord with advice found in the Bible.  That book of wisdom urges readers to be  "transformed by making their mind over' or to be "made new" through "accurate knowledge" taken into the mind.  (Romans 12:2; Colossians 3:10)  Jehovah's Witnesses have seen this happen as people study the Bible and apply its counsel.  Many thousands-from the whole spectrum of social and educational backgrounds-have done so.  They remain distinct individuals, but they have become happier and more balanced, displaying what a first-century writer called "soundness of mind."  (Acts 26:24, 25)  Improvements like these result largely from one's making good use of a part of the cerebral cortex located in the front of the head.  

Next time: How Unique You Are! -Your Frontal Lobe

From the book: Is There a Creator That Cares About You?