Brain and Behavior: From molecules to the mind

The human brain is an immensely fascinating yet a complex riddle. We may be further led to wonder at the ingenuity of the fact that to decipher this riddle, the only tool which can be used is itself. Only a brain can solve the puzzle of the brain. The solution to this conundrum would therefore, also give an insight into the many other unanswered questions concerning neurobiology, the most fascinating of which is the development and sustenance of behavior.

Behavior can simply be defined as the way an organism behaves or conducts itself. Among the most important ideas of the twentieth century, was the increasing acceptance that all aspects of human behaviour are functions of the brain. 

Now that we are in twenty-first century, the notion that Brain is equivalent to behaviour is still far from being accepted, let alone being understood in terms of its implications. This would bring us to two questions: Does our different brains determine our behaviour and hence learning about the brain, tell us about the behaviour? The second question would be, do changing our behaviour mean a change in our brain? or vice versa? Intriguing questions, are they not?

A major part of our behaviour comes from our learning. This learning takes place by the net accumulation of our experiences and is stored in our memory. We learn to avoid behaviours which harm us and adapt more to the behaviours which benefit us. Also, there are People who show varying degrees of self-destructive behaviour, which is interesting as there is learning here, that the so-and so behavior is bad, but still there is no change in the behavior. This can be seen clearly in the case of substance abuse patients.This is something which the science is trying to explain at the cellular and molecular level.

Synaptic Plasticity plays a very important role in this learning and memory. Synaptic plasticity refers to the change in strength of the synapse in response to either use or disuse of transmission over synaptic pathways.  It takes place at the molecular level, so this means that ultimately our behaviour could be explained on the basis of the behaviour of the molecules. Also it is known that the synaptic transmission could be increased or decreased by activity and hence we come to a very interesting phenomenon: behavioural changes which take place by changes taking place at the synapses.

Although relatively little is known about the functional roles of these phenomena, such changes in synaptic function and structure remain the leading candidates for some of the fundamental mechanisms by which experiences of any type cause the reorganization of neural circuitry and thereby modify thoughts, feelings, and behaviour. Thus, it is not totally untrue to say that our behaviour is being governed by the behaviour of the molecules in our brain. Hopefully, by understanding the behaviour of these molecules we can understand the link between the brain and behaviour better.