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THE POWER OF HABIT
COVADONGA O'SHEA
How Habits Wrok
In 1993, Eugene Pauly walked into a laboratory in San Diego. He was an old man over six feet tall dressed wearing a blue button-down shirt. His hair was all white, and he was walking slowly with arthritis. He is better known in medical literature as E.P. One year earlier, Eugene started vomiting and experienced stomach pain. He was dehydrated when his wife brought him to the hospital. He had a very high fever, and he was delirious. Eugene was violet. He was shouting and kicking when the nurses tried to put an IV into his arm. When he was sedated, the doctor was able to insert a long needle between two vertebrae on his back and extract some fluid. The doctor knew what was wrong immediately. Usually, the fluid in the brain and spinal nerves are clear and quickly flowing. It is running like silk through a needle.
But the sample from Eugene's spine is different. It was cloudy and sluggish like it was filled with grit. The diagnosis was that he had viral encephalitis. It is a virus that produces cold sores, mild infections, and fever blisters. It is harmless, but when it gets to the brain, the virus becomes deadly. Viral encephalitis chews through the delicate tissue of the brain. It eats away our thoughts and dreams. The doctors said that there was nothing they could do to counter the damage that was already done. But they could give Eugene a large dose of antiviral drugs that could stop the virus from further spreading. Eugene was in a coma for 10 days, and he was close to death. But slowly, the drugs worked, and his fever went down. The virus eventually disappeared. When Eugene woke up, he was disoriented, but he was alive.
The doctors did a series of tests. Physically, Eugene was great. He could move his limbs, and he responds to noise and light. However, his brain scans showed that the virus ate up an oval tissue near the center of his brain. All that remains is just a shadow of where his cranium and spinal column met. The doctor told Eugene's wife that they needed to be prepared. He might not be the same person he used to be. "I don't think I've ever seen anyone come back like this. I don't want to raise your hopes, but this is amazing." The doctor said. A few weeks later, Eugene was discharged from the hospital and put into rehabilitation treatment. He could not remember the names of doctors and nurses no matter how many times they introduced themselves.
When he got home, Eugene did not remember any of his friends. Some mornings, he would wake up, get out of bed, go to the kitchen, and cook bacon and eggs. Then he would go back to the bedroom and open the radio. Forty-five minutes later, he would do the same routine again. Wake up, cook bacon, go back to the room, and listen to the radio. Eugene became the favorite subject of researchers eho specialize in memory loss. One of them is Larry Squire from the University of California, San Diego. Squire had spent the past 30 years studying the neuroanatomy of memory. Squire observed that Eugene could not remember new information. Eugene was shown photos of his grandchildren, but he cannot remember who they were. He did not have any memory of his illness or his hospital stay. Squire also observed that Eugene could navigate around his house, but he could not explain how. He can go to the kitchen and bathroom, but he cannot describe how he got there. Squire asks Eugene to draw a sketch of his house, but he cannot do it.
Eugene loses his memory, but his habit leads him to where the kitchen or bathroom is. He also knows how to walk around the neighborhood and go back home all by himself. When he is asked how he did it, Eugene cannot explain why. He just does it. Eugene gets up in the morning, goes out of the front door, walks around the neighborhood, and brings home some rocks or acorns. Then he arrives back home and sits in front of the TV to watch History Channel. Eugene does this routine every day. His memory is lost, but his habit kicks in. Eugene knows his way around the neighborhood, and he does it automatically. The human brain is like an onion. It is composed of layers upon layers of cells. The outside layer is where complex thinking occurs. But deep inside the brain and closer to the brain stem is where more primitive structures are located. They control our automatic behaviors, such as breathing or swallowing.
At the center of the skull is a golf-ball-sized tissue that is similar to what you will find in the head of a mammal, fish, or reptile. It is the basal ganglia. It is where our habits lie. Scientists discovered that emerged because the brain is always looking for ways to save energy. It will turn any routine into a habit because it allows the brain to focus on more complex tasks. For example, walking, tying our shoes, getting dressed, and brushing our teeth are tasks that we don't need to think much about anymore. It is part of our habit. We do it on autopilot. The brain does this "chunking" of behavior so that we can focus on more complex tasks such as programming a software or solving a math problem. Our basal ganglia kicks in when we brush our teeth or tie our shoes. Having this automatic habit enables us to do tasks that a higher level of thinking or decision-making.