The Tangible Soul

Many years ago, a friend’s parents were contemplating divorce. His father had rapidly changed from congenial and loving to angry and aggressive. It put enormous strain on the marriage. He had become a different person. They found out that the changes were due to a small brain tumor that shrunk with treatment, allowing him to become more like the man he once was. An alteration in the normal functioning of his neural networks had created a different personality. The behavior of neurons is precisely what controls how we act, remember, reason, and emote and an abnormality is enough to generate a noticeable change in personality. This has led me to think it possible that the entirety of human nature and personality can be found within the coils and folds of the brain.

Studies of the connectome, the complete structural connectivity of the nervous system, may shed new light on the origin and function of the human mind. There are an estimated 10 billion neurons making 100 trillion synapses in the human brain. If we are amazed at the computational and problem solving capabilities of some computers, it is no wonder we find so much of the transcendent and numinous in ourselves, as our brains comprise a much more complex and powerful network than that found in any computer. We correctly think of ourselves as the product of our experiences, recognizing the influence of our environments on the people we become. It may therefore be difficult to think of a rigid network of cellular wires and their connections as the root of our character. As it happens, that is precisely what the connectome is not. Rather, our neural networks have plasticity and are shaped and altered by experiences. Connections between neurons and networks can be added or subtracted, enhance or inhibit, and adjust sensitivity to information all depending on activity of cells. Almost any changes in activity, from thinking differently about something to experiencing a traumatic event, result in alterations of neural structure. The connectome grows and changes, not just correlating with changes in ourselves but driving those changes.

We still do not and perhaps never will know how a personality comes to be but studying the connectome is sure to aid in our understanding. The synapses of the connectome dictate who we are. Learning, memory, and even brain tumors mold our neural responses, which, in turn, generate our thoughts and actions. These are the aspects of human nature that make up the core of what is labeled the soul and yet they have completely material foundations. Although advances in neuroimaging, immunohistochemistry, and diffusion tensor imaging have been helpful in creating elegant and complex 4D atlases of mammalian brains, we lack the technology to adequately map and analyze the 10¹⁴ connections in the human brain. At this point, we can only be excited by the prospect of knowing more about the blueprints of the mind and channel that curiosity and exhilaration into scientific thought and discovery. It is important to acknowledge that we do not have the answers but even more important to strive towards them, all the while appreciating how our brains give us the facility to do so. The connectome contains our memories, our experiences, our thoughts and emotions. It is the basis of our reason and logic and intermittent lack thereof. Perhaps knowing how neural structure differences between people and even changes throughout one person’s life correlate with the differences in personality we observe will show the ways in which the flesh and soul are one. Studying the structure of our neural networks will bring about a new way of understanding our faculties of thought, action, and emotion, allowing us to recognize the material, neurological basis for our remarkable nature. Perhaps then we might appreciate the novel concept of a tangible soul, one not imprisoned by the flesh but born from it. I believe it is essential to a good understanding of ourselves to begin thinking in this way. Anyone would do well to look into the progress of this study and consider a new self image or at least question the one they hold now and Sebastion Seung’s TED talk is a great starting point: http://www.ted.com/talks/sebastian_seung.html