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The truth is, when we're under stress, we're not so different from our animal friends. But we can be, if we use our brain to tap into a uniquely human capacity.
Like even the most primitive species, we have what's called the reptile brain. Composed of areas deep within the brain like the thalamus and the cerebellum, the reptile brain controls basic functions like breathing, hunger, and sexual drive.
Like many other animals, we also have an emotional brain. Including areas like the amygdala, which controls the stress response, and the hippocampus, which is the brain's memory center, the emotional brain's job is to keep us safe and help us experience pleasure, security, and confidence.
Animals want this too. They don't want to be eaten or eat the wrong thing. That's why their brains get very active when they escape a predator or find a source of delicious food or water.
What makes us different from snakes and lizards, lions, tigers, and bears—and even our closest cousins in the animal kingdom, primates such as monkeys and apes, is that we have frontal lobes in our brains that make us capable of insight. But what does it mean to have insight?
Human frontal lobes are a vast network of associations among their neurons and with other areas of the brain that they have made it possible to do something no other species can do. We can see how our own minds work. That’s insight.
This is different from the usual use of the term “insight” in psychology and psychotherapy. Typically, what is meant by insight is awareness of our inner flaws and conflicts. While that is one aspect of insight, it’s not the full story.
Our brains are so complexly wired that we can see—or to be a bit more specific, visualize and imagine—how not only the physical machinery of our brains works (such as with fMRI or PET or SPECT scans) but also how our mind behaves. We can even develop a “theory of mind,” that is, a description of how we believe our mind processes information to learn, find meaning in experiences, and make choices.
This way of thinking of insight—the ability to see into our own minds and understand how they function—enables us to do something that no other animal can do.
We can imagine what’s going wrong when we’re not thinking or feeling or acting in the way that is consistent with our values, hopes, and abilities. When we’re stressed or distressed or just dysfunctional, we can use this ability to also imagine how we could use mind differently to be more consistent with what’s most important to us. That kind of insight or full self-correction is what happens when people mature, change, or recover in therapy. It’s what all of us can do when we intentionally use our frontal lobes.
Insight has a particularly important function in our lives. When we see into, and modify, how our mind works, we’re not only learning and maturing, we’re also regulating our emotions. Insight is the form of focused mental activity that turns down another part of the brain, the alarm, which can cause a lot of stress and distress if it’s not well regulated. So you might say that insight, in this sense, is the key to stress management.
Hijacked by Your Brain blogs are co-authored with Jon Wortmann. Visit our website at www.hijackedbyyourbrain.com. You can follow us on facebook or join us on twitter @hijackedbook.
