The Neuroscience of Self-Transformation: Explained in Visuals

Understanding this process can allow you to become whoever you want to be

Image generated using DALL-E by OpenAI.

When researchers studied the brains of people who became blind later in life using fMRI scans, they found that:

1. Initially, the sensory areas of their brain for index, middle, and ring fingers were distinct. Meaning, that if you poked them on the index finger or the ring finger, they could differentiate between the two.
2. Eventually, these sensory areas coalesced into one. The researchers found that with time the subjects could sense a much lighter touch than those with sight—but they often couldn’t identify which of the three fingers had been touched.

This is because blind people read braille by sticking together their first three fingers and using them as a coherent unit, instead of separate fingers. And hence, their brain rewires those areas to increase efficiency.

All visuals were created by the Author on Figma.

Neurons that fire together, wire together.

— Donald Hebb