I swore on the Bible once.

One of my patients needed my testimony in a court case, and when I went to the lawyer’s offices to supply my statement, before they accepted it as official testimony, they asked me to swear on their Bible.  I’m not sure if the surprise I felt showed on my face.  I wasn’t expecting it, that’s for sure, since the only time I have seen people swear on the Bible was in cheesy American TV courtroom dramas.

It was a simple, but oddly surreal moment.  I placed my hand on the Bible and said, “I solemnly swear that I will tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.”

We have heard it said so many times that we become blasé to the importance of those words.  But the truth is only true if it is, ”the whole truth and nothing but the truth”.

When Dr Leaf published her latest meme this morning, she was telling the truth.  She said via social media,

“Your brain changes as a result of your decisions.”

Dr Caroline Leaf is a Communication Pathologist and self-titled Cognitive Neuroscientist.  The on-going theme of her recent social media offerings is the “Mind over matter” meme: essentially our mind leads and our brain follows.  This was a fundamental argument in her most recent book too (see reference [1], pages 33 and 38).

The main problem for Dr Leaf is that real cognitive neuroscientists disagree, like Haggard,

“Modern neuroscience rejects the traditional dualist view of volition as a causal chain from the conscious mind or ‘soul’ to the brain and body.  Rather, volition involves brain networks making a series of complex, open decisions between alternative actions.” [2]

But didn’t I say in the beginning of this blog that Dr Leaf was telling the truth?  Yes, I did say that.  And she is telling the truth … she’s just not telling the whole truth.

It’s true that our brains change as a result of our decisions.  But the brain changes as a result of hundreds of different inputs and signals.  Our brain is constantly changing – growing new branches and pruning others.  Most of these changes occur subconsciously.  Only the tiniest fraction would be due to our conscious decision-making.  The true limiting factor of our brains ability to change is genetics, specifically the genes that code for the proteins that are integral to the nerve cells ability to grow the branches it needs to make the right connections.

So while it’s not technically untrue, if you take Dr Leaf’s meme at face value, you would get the impression that the mind controls the brain, which was her intention.

In actual fact, our psychology is dependent on our biology, and the brain is in control of the mind, not the other way around.

References

1.         Leaf, C.M., Switch On Your Brain : The Key to Peak Happiness, Thinking, and Health. 2013, Baker Books, Grand Rapids, Michigan:
2.         Haggard, P., Human volition: towards a neuroscience of will. Nat Rev Neurosci, 2008. 9(12): 934-46 doi: 10.1038/nrn2497