A Brain Gone Wrong:
Can Negative Imprinting be Reversed?
Part Two of a Ten Part Series
By Dr. W. Dean Belnap 

Society begs for answers, somewhere to point, someone to blame, and then demands a quick fix for the once ebullient child whose stare is now vacant.  Fix.  The word is gripping.  Fix, a common term for addictive behavior, is in reality, no fix at all. Can you fix a youth whose teenage years have been wasted?  Can you reattach what abuse in its many forms has disconnected in their highly sensitive brains? Can “imprinting” be reversed? 

Yes. 

Here’s what happens in a brain.  The neurotransmitter dopamine springs from neuron to neuron in the brain circuitry, beaming a molecular “grin” for a feel-good sensation.  Its activity affects the firing of other neurons and stimulates feeling from mild pleasure to a surge of energy and euphoria. 

Positive imprinting, what brain science calls “forward genetics,” changes the brain to ever-developing heights of fulfillment, direction, and goal formation for a continually better future.

Positive imprinting – of the prefrontal cortex – correlates to higher intelligence evidenced by the most advanced aspects of human intelligence.  These include verbal expression, memory of higher or advanced concepts, abstraction and the ability to formulate behavioral plans and pursue them.  For example, charity is a measure of the strength of the prefrontal cortex.  Uncharitable acts reflect negative imprinting, a diminished prefrontal lobe.

Negative imprinting takes another course.  Drugs – whether cocaine, marijuana, crack, heroin or whatever is the latest craze on the streets – drive straight to the basal ganglia where feeling is stored. Euphoria!  For a moment.  The process is the same for sexual addictions, alcohol, and violence.   The initial experience produces feel-good sensations.  But what follows are irritability, anxiety, distress, even despair until the next experience. And the next.  It is compelling to know that each drug use produces a high, but never one equal to the first.  Hence, more drugs, stronger drugs, more frequent ingestion to stimulate become the pattern but never the panacea. 

With the aid of new technology, sophisticated brain imaging techniques can illustrate in real-time pictures the very activation of negative imprinting from one cold beer to a joint, a violent scene played out on the big screen, a pornographic illustration on the family computer.  

Initially, the stimulation tickles the brain.  But for some, far too many, just that one adventure is enough to lock in an imprint that begins the downward spiral.  For others, long term use cuts new pathways to the areas of the brain that control pleasure and judgment.  The new routes circumvent the prefrontal lobe and response accelerates to the pleasure center.  An addicted brain is both physically and chemically different from a normal brain not subjected to negative imprints. The brain has been reprogrammed to compulsively want more rather than to weigh the options.  Genes reverse when imprinted with negative experiences or behaviors. 

Youth who lose the prefrontal cortex control in their brains become addicted to their limbic system.  The change is manifest in every aspect of their lives: relationships, values and purpose are up for grabs as the brain downshifts to dependency and need.  The soul of the nation as well as individuals is teetering.  A nation watched as students went to school hefting guns and ammo rather than books in backpacks and picked off victims in video game style.  With each kill, they cackled and shouted and in the end shot themselves as well.  A major source of entertainment for millions is making large numbers of people die on screen.  While games used to invite slaughter of gangsters or aliens, some “games” capitalize on blowing away ordinary people who have done nothing wrong – pedestrians, marching bands, elderly folk.  And the saga continues.  At some point, the nature of the killing field is no longer animated nor a dress rehearsal. Young people are being invited to enjoy the killing of others.  How can a sniper random pick off unsuspecting citizens at a gas pump?  Because the lines have blurred between real and not real.  It has happened across the country.  It will happen again because of negative imprints on the brain.

Even after behavior has been reshaped to acceptable patterns, DNA changes may persist.  If not too far advanced, brain damage and loss of brain cells can be stopped and genetically rehabilitated.  Prolonged negative stimulation may produce permanent results that can even be transferred to those yet unborn.

Gene combinations make us distinct.  These singular gene patterns may, in many instances, be vulnerable to negative imprinting – hence regressive behavior.   Scientific studies have shown that changes can take place in the gene makeup of the brain to create temporary or permanent loss of the use of the prefrontal lobe of the brain.  In other words, abnormal behaviors manifest as loss of inhibitions or urges to satisfy need, feed a habit, engage in violent behavior become reality.   Imprinting switches DNA, turning on and off the very essence of the singular human identity. 

Lost are the nerve transmissions that access the unique higher centers where freedom of choice and feelings of joy are centered.  Instead, once prosperous brain functions are overridden by primitive, animal-like behaviors.  The result is a teen who drinks excessively, takes drugs, finds excitement in violence, seeks company with gangs, uses sex, abuses family and friends and ultimately loses the potential to rise above self gratification. 

Negative imprints erode the ability to feel pleasure in those things that once produced satisfaction.  Adolescents whose choices are producing negative imprints hang with others who are in similar frame of mind; they share a code of secrecy.  Other signals include being boldly argumentative or sullen, testy or sad, depression, showing less and less interest and motivation in school even if grades are high, changing eating habits or not eating at all. 

Such stimulation is the fork in the road.  The model is the same for alcohol and other stimulants that open the floodgates for feel-good chemicals like serotonin.  The result is resculpting of the brain.  Want becomes need.  There can never be enough to feed the growing appetite as the pleasure center of the brain pushes the executive center aside.  From the prefrontal cortex, the executive decision center, to the basal ganglia, the pleasure center, is a short skip.  The brain becomes accustomed to an artificial balance between the two and programming causes craving as the pleasure center takes over.  And it never rests.

The Apostle Paul, dispensations ago spoke of the tug between imprints.  “Know ye not that ye are the Temple of God, and that the spirit of God dwelleth in you.  If any man defile the temples of God, him shall God destroy, for the Temple of God is holy, which temple are ye?”  (1 Corinthians 3:16-17)  The question is, “Can a teenager be returned to that ‘holy’ image if he or she has lost sight of God-given potential?”  Yes.  Absolutely.

With spiritual help and recognition of moral absolutes, imprinting can be reversed.  Youth can be healed.  But it takes attention and adherence to the laws of God and the healing power of His love.  The love of Jesus Christ can reshape the soul and its thinking just as He.  He can bring about “mighty change” that will reverse negative imprinting and encourage love, acceptance, humility and tranquility.  While therapy, medical treatment, and care centers can help affect long-term change, only the healing power of Jesus Christ can secure the needed revolution.  And it can come.  Jesus Christ helped the blind to see, the lame to walk and the leper to be cleansed; he redirected the woman at the well and reached out to the thieves who hung next to Him at Golgotha.  They had lost their innocence in deviant behavior but there was for them living water.  Renewal is not limited to those who have only erred.  Slightly.  Jesus Christ through the atonement provides much needed balance and security, the intimacy of close associations and healthy friendships, physical, emotional and spiritual transformation.