Your Brain On Rosie: Reaction Meets Thought

Imagine:

You are at home, watching your favorite Fox News talking head tell you there is no such thing as global warming. There is a knock on the door. It's Rosie O'Donnell. Do you invite her in or call the police?

Here's the situation. Yesterday, while walking your dog, she jumped out from behind a tree and told you she's lonely.

Think of the brain as responding to whatever life throws your way. What now?

The rational thinking part of the brain - the cortical region - is going to be way too slow. You need to turn executive control over to the limbic system, situated in the interior of the brain. Think of the limbic system as the first responders to the scene. The limbic system is built for quick action. This is where fight or flight originates, along with other primal actions and reactions.

The limbic system is where the amygdala is located. Think of the amygdala as a smoke alarm. While your rational brain is still stretching and yawning, the amygdala is hard at work pulling information imprinted in the limbic or emotional, memory - the hippocampus. The hippocampus is telling the amygdala that you have had very bad experiences in the past with women who say they are lonely.

Drama queens, bunny-boilers - this is why you don't go to stalker movies.

ROSIE O'DONNELL IS LONELY!!!

That's all you need to know. The amygdala sounds the alarm. Instantly, your fight or flight response kicks in. You're operating on pure reflex now. You slam the door on Rosie and bolt it and run like hell to the guest bathroom and lock yourself in.

Whew!

Your rational brain is coming on line. You need to think things through. You're safe for now, but a clear and present danger is lurking outside. You need your cortical areas back in charge, but you also need to stay alert and focused. Your rational brain, with the support of certain subcortical regions, tells the amygdala to heel, but to stay watchful. Your entire holistic mind-body connection settles down.

Hmm, you think. Out through the bathroom window? No you decide. Rosie's probably headed that way right now. The heating duct, then ...

**

What I just described was a perfectly normal brain responding to a terrifying situation in a perfectly normal way. But what if that had been the UPS man at the door or your best friend and you had reacted the same way?

Let's go with a less extreme example. Your boss says he wants to see you in his office right now. Do you perform a quick memory scan for the latest sales figures you know he needs or do you start to panic because you're sure he is going to fire you?

A lot of us are genetically programmed to view life as threatening. We live in fear. What's going on?

For one, maybe our smoke alarm sends out way too many false alarms. Numerous brain and genetic studies have linked an oversensitive and overactive amygdala to no end of behaviors and mood states, from anxiety to depression to aggression to mania, and on and on.