By Andre Auerbach
Your every action… your every thought is controlled by your brain. Every time you do something and every time a thought passes through your mind, networks of neurons in your brain fires signals to different parts of your body. These neurons that fires at the same time create what is called “synapses” among each other.
These synapses are something like a relationship to keep these neurons firing together. For example, if every time you hear a bell ringing and food is served, pretty soon the neurons responsible for your hearing create a synapse with the neurons for the sighting of food. Thus the explanation for the Pavlov’s dog phenomenon.
These synapses are responsible for your learning. But it is also how you develop an addiction. Some people assume pornography to be harmless but the truth couldn’t be further. Pornography, as much as people in the industry would deny, is highly addictive. Every time you watch pornography, neurons responsible for perceiving the film/print are linked with neurons for pleasure.
As you repeat a behavior and get the same consequences, these synapses strengthens. Thus practice makes perfect. In the case of pornography, it makes an addiction. As these synapses strengthen, you build tolerance for the stimulus and to get the same amount of pleasure you once had, you need stronger stimulus.
It is through this process that people who are addicted to pornography often destroys their families, their social circle of friends and disappoints people who care for them.
The good news is, when a behavior no longer result in a certain consequences, synapses begin to break down. Thus when a student study for an exam, they often forget what they’ve learned within days after completing the exam – synapses they’ve built over the study period breaks down when they stop revising. In much of the same way, one can kick an addiction when these synapses breaks down or they were replaced by other synapses.
By learning how the brain works, there is now scientific proof that constant short periods of practice (perhaps 2 hours a day for a year) is far more beneficial for an individual for wishes to master a skill than a blitz approach (14 hours a day for 52 days then stop) such as the one most students undertake.
Because your brain requires synapses to learn, it makes sense that experience is often a better teacher than a book. Reading and listening allows the neurons responsible for facts and figures to link with neurons responsible for sight and/or hearing. By experiencing, for example, going to the forest instead of reading the textbook about it, neurons responsible for these facts can associate it with neurons responsible for sight, hearing, touch and smell.
Such broad network of synapses clearly beats the relatively small network of sight and hearing alone. Of course, the more you experience a particular circumstance, the stronger these synapses become. The more experiences you have, the more synapses and neurons you have.
These synapses is crucial in maintaining brain fitness in old age. At a time when synapses and neurons grow relatively slower, stimulation through experiences and learning is more crucial than ever. By preventing these synapses from breaking down, you’re essentially making sure that you avoid the common problems elderly often face: memory loss, inability to balance yourself, inability to learn (old dogs CAN learn new tricks) and even dementia.
In fact, some of the most successful people in history did not achieve their breakthrough till they reach a stage in life when others are urging them to quit. Some of these people include Benjamin Franklin (Inventor of bi-focals), Ray Kroc of McDonald’s, Colonel Sanders of KFC and Frank Lloyd Wright (Designer of Guggenheim Museum). In fact, research by Dr. George Valiant of Harvard involving 824 subjects, following them from their late teens through to old age, have concluded that older people are wiser, more socially adept and develop new skills.
Old age can be an advantage – so as long you’ve paid your dues in taking care of your brain.