“The lizard brain is hungry, scared, angry, and horny.
The lizard brain only wants to eat and be safe.
The lizard brain will fight (to the death) if it has to, but would rather run away. It likes a vendetta and has no trouble getting angry.
The lizard brain cares what everyone else thinks, because status in the tribe is essential to its survival.
Seth Godin
The Lizard Brain
Have you ever wondered why some people act the way they do?
Have you ever had questions about your own behaviour?
If you’re like most people, the answer to both these questions is yes.
We’ve all seen people do seemingly crazy things, stuff that is most definitely not in their best interest. And, if we’re being honest, we’re all guilty of behaviors that probably aren’t the best for us in the long term. In other words, there’s room for improvement in all of us. The problem is that to improve ourselves by stopping or limiting negative behaviors, we first have to understand what’s causing those behaviors to begin with.
As a species, the origins of homo sapiens go way back. I mean really way back. While we developed around two hundred thousand years ago, our direct lineage goes back nearly ten million years. More astounding, our common lineage, those creatures that are not directly related to us but indirectly contributed to our growth as a species, goes back hundreds of millions of years. These lineages are the key to understanding our complex and sometimes confusing behaviors.
To understand our current behaviors, you first have to go back and understand the behaviors of our oldest common ancestors. Why? We and our ability to think rationally did not simply appear out of nowhere. Our brains are the result of hundreds of millions of years of evolutionary development. The amazing thing is that every step of that journey has left its mark.
In the 1960s the researcher Paul McClean proposed the idea of the “triune brain”.
He suggested that our brains can be divided into three general areas. Each of these areas fits neatly into the other, nestled together like a Russian matryoshka doll. The older areas of the brain are surrounded by the newer areas and as we go deeper into the brain we go back further in evolutionary time.
The very oldest of the three areas of the brain lies deep inside the brain, at the brain stem near the back of our skulls. This general area has been dubbed the “R complex” by neurologists. The “R” stands for reptilian because this area of the brain controls the most basic of functions – functions that we share with all other mammals and reptiles.
Think of a crocodile sunning himself on the bank of a river. What is of concern to that crocodile?
What’s important?
Well, he’s concerned about food.
He’s concerned about mating.
He’s concerned about his territory and he’s concerned about surviving. Now, the croc isn’t actively thinking about these things.
Thinking is a function of rationality.
However, when the croc needs food, his brain will send signals that motivate him to hunt.
The same holds true for his other needs.
He feels an urge and he takes action on that urge. So, you could say that most of a crocodile’s life is spent being reactive.
The R complex in our brains controls our most basic functions.
It regulates our heart rate and respiration. It controls hunger and thirst. It tells us when to sleep and when to wake. It is the source of our basic desire to procreate. It is the source of aggression, dominance, and territoriality.
Most importantly, it is the source of our fight or flee mechanism.
The fight or flee mechanism is an old instinctual response to a perceived environmental danger.
How it works is fairly simple.
You see a danger that is a threat to your continued existence, let’s say a lion. In response to that danger, the R complex activates your adrenal gland, located within the complex.
The adrenal gland begins flooding your system with a chemical called adrenaline. Adrenaline instantly elevates your heart rate and breathing. You begin taking in more oxygen. It also activates the large muscle groups located in your legs, back and arms.
These muscle groups get ready to convert that extra oxygen you’re acquiring into energy for movement.
Finally, adrenaline causes you to become hyper alert. Your visual field narrows. Your sense of time slows down. You get ready to run for your life or engage in a fight for your life.
So, all of these basic physical functions controlled by the R complex are what keep each of us alive and what prompts us to create the next generation so our species will survive. There is no rationality involved here. Aggression, dominance, the urge to mate – all of them occur outside of our control and the desire to satisfy these urges are extremely strong. The more urgent the desire is, the more powerful the impulse to satisfy that desire becomes. In short, the R complex controls our most basic and most impulsive behaviors – react, survive, repeat.
Wrapped around the R complex is a portion of the brain known as the cortex or paleomammalian complex. The cortex is a much newer part of the brain system and is one we share with other mammals, but not with reptiles.
The cortex is home to many more complex behaviors. It is where our urge to parent and care for our young comes from. It controls many of our emotional responses. It also controls our ability to remember and the habits that form in our reactions to situations.
So while a crocodile doesn’t care for its young, a mammal will. When a croc is hungry it eats anything it can find, including its young.
A mammal will forego food, giving what it forages to its young instead. A crocodile reacts to situations and has no real interaction with its fellows. A mammal is less reactive and more considered in its response to situations. It also can develop patterns of behavior that help it to interact with its fellows. So while not rational, the cortex offers a wider range of behavioral options – decide, survive, repeat.
Finally, wrapped around the cortex is the neocortex or neomammalian complex. This is the source of all our higher brain functions. Here is where we get the ability to rationalize.
This is the source of logic, language and the ability to imagine. Abstract thought and the idea of consciousness come from the neocortex.
So when you look around you at the modern world, it is an artifact of the neocortex.
Now, how does the triune brain relate to problematic behavior?
Well, each of the three areas of the brain does not operate independently.
They are all part of the whole and cannot be separated.
This can lead to some interesting behavioral results.
Let’s look, for example, at hunger. If you feel hungry, your first thought is how to satisfy that hunger. The R complex knows that you need food and urges you to obtain some. It doesn’t care how you do it, just do it. The cortex recognizes the urge to eat and overlays the urge with possible sources of food, as well as an additional urge to think of whether anyone you care about is also hungry.
Finally, the neocortex also recognizes the hunger and begins developing a plan to satisfy that hunger.
This plan includes time of day, other commitments, price of the food, directions to the nearest store or restaurant, ingredients on hand, recipes that you want to try, available cuisines that you enjoy, and more. The point is that all three areas of the brain are involved in you being hungry.
The hungrier you become, the less you rely on the neocortex and the more you rely on the more primitive parts of your brain.
Someone who hasn’t eaten in days isn’t considering possible choices and sources of food. They want to eat, they want their loved ones to eat and they want this result now. If they are hungry enough, the behavioral restrictions imposed by the neocortex and the cortex begin to break down. The R complex demand that food be obtained is paramount. Social restrictions about theft, violence or even cannibalism become minimized or forgotten. All that is left is the pattern of react, survive and repeat. In the end, if the urge is strong enough all the values, morals, habits, and patterns contained within the neocortex and cortex get largely thrown out the window. What is left is a pattern of behavior that is quite similar to our old friend the crocodile. We are capable of anything in order to satisfy that urge
This is what’s often meant by the “veneer of civilization”.
We forget that we are animals and that we are capable of animal-like behaviours. Our rationality keeps these more ancient behaviors in check, but in dire circumstances, we can “rationalize” behavior that we would find questionable otherwise.
Now whilst modern neuroscientists agree that the Triune Brain model is a gross oversimplification - the brain is much integrated and more complex - the model does provide some useful insights into our behaviours and what drives them.
So the secret, if it is a secret, is to know what “spooks’ the lizard; what triggers those, at times, unwelcome responses.
“When a person has a reaction to something in their environment, there’s a 90-second chemical process that happens; any remaining emotional response is just the person choosing to stay in that emotional loop.” - Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor
The trick is to find that 90-second gap between stimulus and response - what triggers you and how you respond.
“When you react, you let others control you. When you respond, you are in control.”
Bohdi Sanders
Alan /|\
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