Direction?

March 6th, 2021| Topic: RaMbLeS | 0

These days it is hard to get lost. What with GPS devices everywhere, even on our phones, we can bravely go where no one has ever gone before. Well, almost!

But wait! We had GPS before GPS was a thing.

So say scientists at the University of Durham, U. K., in “Vector Trace Cells in the Subiculum of the Hippocampal Formation,” published recently in Nature Neuroscience.

There are, apparently, cells in a part of the brain that actually function like a GPS. Our current gang of scientists discovered this new species of neurons, which they named Vector Trace cells, that were actually storing distance and direction data in memory.

It seems that these distance-and-direction sensitive cells connect to brain networks and enable us to visualize complex scenarios in our mind’s eye, helping us recreate spatial relationships between ourselves and objects or places, even when these objects and places aren’t directly visible to us. Like when you are sitting at home thinking of a way to get to DFW airport in rush-hour traffic.

First author, Dr. Stephen Poulter:

Vector Trace cells help me remember where my daughter buried her seashells on the beach, i.e. three meters from my deckchair in that direction.”

This is quite some finding. Especially given that these Vector Trace cells are found in a part of the brain that is first attacked by disorders like Alzheimer’s disease. And that might well explain the common symptom of this condition, and an early warning sign: the misplacing of objects and a loss of a sense of place.

Of course, that would be wonderful—finding a possible intervention (or even cure) for forms of such dementias, not to mention helping me remember where I (mis)laid my car keys.

But in the economy of God there is another kind of direction he calls us to—his way, his path, the divine vector!

Right at the beginning of the Book of Psalms, we are called to make that choice: the path of sinners vs. the path of the righteous, following the law of God.

Blessed is the person
who has not walked by the advice of the wicked,
οr in the path of sinners stood,
But, instead, in the law of Yahweh [is] his delight,
and in His law he meditates day and night. …
For Yahweh knows the path of the righteous,
but the path of the wicked perishes.
Psalms 1:1–2, 6

So the psalmist pleads:

Your paths, Yahweh, make me know;
Your ways, teach me.
Guide me in the path of Your truth
and teach me, for You are the God of my deliverance;
on You I wait all the day.
Good and upright is Yahweh;
therefore He instructs sinners in the path.
He guides the path of the humble in [His] ordinances,
and He teaches the humble His path.
Who, then, is the one who fears Yahweh?
He instructs him in the path he should choose.
Psalm 25:4–5, 8–9, 12

And God promises:

“I will instruct you and I will teach you
in the path which you should walk.”
Psalm 32:8

That’s the way to go. God’s path. Following the GPS of God’s word:

Your word is a lamp to my feet
And a light to my path.
Psalm 119:105

The [only] God—His path is blameless;
For who is God, except Yahweh? …
The God who girds me with strength
and makes my path blameless?
Psalm 18:30–32

May we claim, like the psalmist:

My steps have held fast to Your paths;
my feet have not stumbled.
Psalm 17:5

SOURCES:
Nature Neuroscience; StudyFinds