One such study looked at a general look at what regulates and influence how bold or shy someone is. This manifests in humans but it also manifests in other animals such as fish and rabbits. When looking at fish, it was clear that bold fish had fewer interactions overall while shyer fish were much more conservative and reserved yet held series of reactions with a small group of friends. It is noted that even though animals are much simpler than humans in terms of physiology, they still have very complex social networks (Pike, 2008).
This particular study looked at whether the ratio of bold and shy fish had an overall reaction on the group's composition as a whole. In other words, and to ensure that this is perceived to be applicable to neurons, it is assessed whether the bold fish influence the neuron/synapse pathways and, thus, the overall behavior patterns of the shy fish and/or whether that same thing happened in reverse (Pike, 2008).
The results of that study showed that while there is a definite change in the overall level of reactions, there was also a clear decline in the uniformity of those interactions-based what typically happened when the bold and shy fish interacted with their own kind as compared to how they interacted with each other. The study did make it a point to focus on mixed networks of bold and shy fish. The reason for this is that shy fish, just like shy people, are likely not going to change (i.e. their synapses won't be challenged or altered) if they are only or mostly in homogenous groups whereas change is much more likely to occur if there is a mixing of the groups and it happens over a long period time. To note what was said before yet again, sustained exposure to forces that require the animal (or human) to change will be more likely to cause and retain changes to the way that synapses/neurons generally work (Pike, 2008).
The fish study showed a lot of trends that obviously manifest themselves with humans as well. One example is that shy fish latch...
On the other hand, a much less uniform group, per the above, turns those patterns on their head makes the overall uniformity of the communication patterns much more scattered.
Conclusion
To put a fine point on it, synapses and neurons can lead to thought pathway changes but only if the environment changes a lot over time. Perhaps a good example is drug use. Drug users rarely escape their drug use if they remain around things or people they associate with drug use. That is an extreme example since there is a physical dependency, but the example holds. Patterns and trends dictate long-term behavior much more than fleeting/rare reactions and changes in scenery.
References
IntroPsych. (2013, March 3). How Neurons Communicate | in Chapter 02: Human Nervous System | from Psychology: An Introduction by Russ Dewey. Table of Contents for Psychology: An Introduction by Russ Dewey. Retrieved March 3, 2013, from http://www.intropsych.com/ch02_human_nervous_system/how_neurons_communicate.html
NIH. (2013, March 3). Communication Between Synapses. NIH. Retrieved March 3, 2013, from www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2709812/
Pike, T. (2008, January 1). Behavioural phenotype affects social interactions in an animal network . Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. Retrieved March 3, 2013, from http://rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/275/1650/2515.full
Sekata, J. (2004, January 1). ScienceDirect.com - Animal Behaviour - Social experience affects territorial and reproductive behaviours in male leopard geckos, Eublepharis macularius. ScienceDirect.com | Search through over 11 million science, health, medical journal full text articles and books.. Retrieved March 3, 2013, from http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0003347201919529
