fear

Mission Control…

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Visualize the images of “mission control” that you might have seen as part of any space shuttle launches or a scene from the movie Apollo 13. Another good image to conjure would be the “bridge” from the starship Enterprise in Star Trek. uss_enterprise_alternate_reality_bridgeIn each of these images you have a similar underlying idea of a location where a massive amount of “sensory” data flows into a command center. Advanced technology and highly skilled resources review every bit of data that is possible to capture, scanning the data stream for any anomalies or patterns. Once something “blips,” attention is immediately focused on that aberration and a reaction is mounted:

“Captain, they’re raising their shields!”

What happens next is immediate: “Red Alert”

There is a structure in the human brain called the amygdala. It is part of what is known as the limbic system. The amygdala is located in the temporal lobe of the brain – in close proximity to the brain stem.

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Source: brainmadesimple.com

There are some who refer to the amygdala as the fear center of the brain; it is considered by others to be the emotion-processing center of the brain. I like to consider the amygdala “mission control” or, maybe more accurately, a “strategic command center.”

 

It is the amygdala that signals “Red Alert” in the brain. The amygdala is the emergency management system in the brain using to separate pathways of response. The amygdala is the initial, immediate, instantaneous response to anomaly.

There is also a data stream to the amygdala’s mission control that links through the sensory cortex of the brain. This secondary data stream provides the problem-solving associated with the “red alert.”

To give some context to how the amygdala processes and responds to the data that streams through it, let’s talk about a walk I took through a nature park near my home. It was a balmy late-summer day. Beautiful clear skies and roughly eighty degrees – it was a perfect day for a walk on the asphalt path of the park.

As I was strolling through the path, enjoying the beauty of the gorgeous day, my attention suddenly snapped to an object that had been laying on the edge of the path as it began to stretch itself out across the width of the path.   My immediate reaction was to stop. It took a millisecond or two longer for my brain to grasp that it wasn’t a stick that was moving, it was a snake! I took an instinctive step backwards away from the snake as I was observing how long it was before I remembered that I live in a part of the world where few poisonous snakes are found outside zoos and pet stores. I then took a step closer to see if I could capture a picture of the reptile with my cellphone because I didn’t recall that garter snakes could grow to three feet in length.

My amygdala was responsible for the immediate snap of my attention to the unexpected movement on the side of the path, the immediate stop and my step backwards: Whoa – stop – safe distance!

The curiosity and inquisitive action that occurred once my initial startle had passed reflected that my amygdala had moved from the immediate “survival” response into processing through the sensory cortex which transformed my initial surprise into an investigative process. “What is that?”

Another good example of this blended pathway of sensory processing would be an adult’s response to a loud noise. An explosion occurs, your amygdala has you “jumping” and turning your head in the direction of the sound before your eyes, ears, and nose are reporting that the car next to you backfired.

The amygdala generates the “Houston, we have a problem” response. The sensory cortex pathway brings forth the investigative team: what was that? What direction did it come from? Have we seen this before? Who is involved? Etc.

All incoming stimulus – visual, auditory, tactile, spatial – is processed through the amygdala. There is a constant stream of data flowing through – even when you are not conscious of it. In all truth, the amygdala is reviewing this stream of data particularly when you are not conscious of it.

Is anyone reading this asking themselves why I would be including this information in a blog about addiction and recovery?  I’d love to hear your thoughts…

The Survival Machine

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So, why did I reference the concept of the various ages of the human brain and potentially how the brain developed in my last post?   The discussion of why the brain works, and to some degree how certain parts of the brain work, is important to truly understanding addiction and recovery as processes of learned behavior.[1]

I think, that as a society, as a culture, as an evolved species with an impressive capacity to think and consider abstract concepts, we lose sight of the fact that the human brain was not originally designed to “think”, at least not in the context of how we might consider the action of “thinking” today. The oldest parts of our brains originally evolved to act instinctively in order to keep the organism alive. Our brain is, in the words of James Zull, “a survival machine.”

Today we live in our highly evolved glory surrounded by a robust social safety net that includes abundant resources for nutrition. Our lives in the United States include a great deal of technology to keep us safe from the threats that our ancestors faced on a daily basis: vaccines to keep us healthy, animal control to keep predators at bay, heated homes to protect us from the elements. We lose sight of the fact that everything about our brain evolved on the basis of managing threat or danger and experiencing things that sustained the species (and generated pleasure).

It is easy to understand the necessity of the “fear center” in your brain when you consider the conditions that most humans have lived in. If you look back beyond the aberration of the last 120 years, the ability to recognize a threat and instantaneously respond to it with movement and problem-solving served us well when, as a species, we were dancing with lions and tigers and bears all day. During our days filled with higher order thinking (hmmm… what will I order as take-out tonight?) it is very easy to lose conscious awareness of how important and powerful the fear and threat management mechanisms in our brains really are.

Our first breaths were taken not because we thought and made the choice to breathe. Our first breaths were taken because certain structures deep in our brains responded to external stimulus and impelled us to do so.

Let’s take the survival mechanisms of the human brain out for a test drive. Let’s demonstrate how the survival pathways in our brain trump the power of conscious thought.

Take a deep breath and hold it.Unknown-2

Repeat the following thought in your mind:

“I am not going to breathe, I am not going to breathe.”

Wait thirty seconds. Wait 45 seconds. What happens?

Your chest begins to feel a little tight; your body begins to tense. If you hold your breath long enough your face will flush, you will begin to sweat and all of sudden, against your will, you will exhale.

Why?

Because those “unconscious” survival pathways of your brain are doing their job – they are keeping you alive – regardless of what you are thinking.

If you continue to resist, what happens? Your body shuts down unnecessary processing – like conscious thought – you lose consciousness and your body returns to “normal” breathing. Such is the power of the threat management strategies of the human brain and body.

Each day hundreds of thousands of “invisible” biochemical processes occur in your brain – all designed to keep you alive and the species evolving. Breathing; eating; moving; turning your head toward an unexpected sound; ducking your head when something falls off a shelf – all seemingly “unconscious” processes that occur over and over with little, if any, “thought” on your part. All processes designed to keep the organism that is you alive and functioning for one more day without you consciously thinking about it.

How do you think this might be related to the disease of addiction?  I’d love to hear your comments.

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Zull, J. (2002). The Art of Changing the Brain. Sterling, VA: Stylus Publishing

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[1] N.B. Throughout my posts, I reference certain processes or functions of areas of the human brain. My goal here is to explain what is relevant about brain functionality and evolution, not to spend a great deal of time on the how of brain function. There are a number of useful resources that explain how the brain works (for instance, McGill University has a wonderful resource online about brain structures and how they interact).