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 | "Pre-Consciousness" |  |
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| A very similar set of circumstances occur in the human brain when our emotional mind overrides our rational mind. A common occurrence is that of a runaway emotion that swamps the control centres of the mind, and thus the high-order functions of the brain itself. The descriptions are common to all languages. Paralysed with fright, blinded by hate, drunk on love, running amok, etc. All cultures are aware of the danger from the lack of judgement exhibited by someone who is swept by emotion. For most of us, our lives contain few instances of great and immediate threat, and we have time, if not the inclination, to consider events before deciding how we will choose to react. However, the Limbic Brain evolved at a time when relaxed cogitation would have been decidedly anti-survival. Coming face to face with a Sabre-toothed Tiger brought about a decidedly narrow choice of alternative responses. Engaging the predator in a philosophical discussion of the moral nuances of the situation was not a viable option. Kill or be killed, was very much the order of the day. Only those with fast responses came to pass on their genes. It was an amplifying, feedback circuit that made all the difference. |
Diagram D is a flowchart of the brain's processing procedure. Under  average conditions, the eyes and/or ears input stimuli from what is happening around us. The information is passed along the optic nerves to the visual cortex via a part of the Limbic Brain known as the Thalamus, picking up a degree of emotional loading en route. From the visual cortex the message travels to areas of the neocortex for processing, and to another part of the limbic system - the Amygdala - for further, modified emotional interpretation.As well as the normal signal flow pattern described above, it will be seen that there is a shortcut within the Limbic system that goes directly from the Thalamus to the Amygdala. This is the emotional override circuit; an emergency-situation trigger that is capable of negating rational thinking at a time when one needs all their wits about them. It is one of the devices that we need to bring under conscious control. |
| You will recall from chapter 2, that the Limbic Brain grew out of the primitive brain stem as a survival necessity. Among its attributes is the ability to learn from experience, and to remember the details of incidents. It made our ancestors much smarter than their ancestors who had been locked into purely reactive behaviour. The possessors of the new Limbic Brain were able to remember such details as places where food was abundant, safe places to bed down for the night, and to recall early warning signs of the approach of danger. Repetitive situations did not have to be relearned at each occurrence; memory gave birth to a new set of reactions. Visual, auditory, and olfactory signals could be acted upon without having to wait and see what happened next. When an animal hears a twig break underfoot it does not sit around to see who is coming. Its Amygdala screams its alarm to organs throughout the body, triggering off numerous other circuits. Depending on its capabilities, an animal is ready to fight or flee, instants before it has any conscious pattern of what it is that has startled it. This lack of conscious censorship is an earmark of the amygdala. It makes an emotional judgement on incoming signals, without having words to describe them. That is the reason behind those times when we are unable to describe our feelings. The feelings exist in a world that has its own symbolic, non-verbal language. Again, it is the amygdala that causes traumatic events to be recalled when other events that happened in adjacent time periods are forgotten. As so often happens, folklore gives examples of this effect being put to use centuries before the cause was known. |
| As a younger man, I was familiar with the old ritual of 'birthday bumps'. The custom dated from the time before the general population were either literate or numerate. It consisted of friends and relatives lifting the unfortunate victim by their arms and legs, then swiftly lowering them so that their tail bone bumped against the ground. The number of bumps would correspond with the number of the years reached. Another custom was 'Beating the Bounds'. This was to ensure that all and sundry remembered the extent of the Parish boundaries. On a given day, at certain places around the borders, boys of the parish were whipped with birches. The emotional impact that accompanied the discomfort fixed the places firmly in their memories. Numerous similar happenings are recorded in folk tales. It is probable that the 'Pinch and a punch, for the 1st. of month', ritual had its roots in the same lore. Not only did the Limbic Brain come into being long before the Forebrains took up their currently dominant role, it also develops at a much faster rate during childhood. Not only does it contain response mechanisms for primitive fears, it also becomes the depository for emotional traumas that occur during our life. When, during the next step up the evolutionary ladder, that the neo-cortex flowered above it, the limbic system sent its nerve tendrils along each growing pathway. |
| The neo-cortex is the central processing house for all sensations that are perceived. It gives a fuller understanding of what is happening around us, and how it affects us. It is the neocortex that generates our thoughts, but it is the limbic system that provides feeling to those thoughts. Together they give rise to a richer harmony than either can provide by itself. Referring back to Diagram D, it can be seen that normal thought processes pick up an emotional flavour on their journey to the neocortex. Once arrived there, they are subjected to a whole range of 'sub-committees' for appraisal and evaluation. Numerous possible actions may be considered at each stage prior to taking any action that is deemed necessary. At our best, we can think quite rapidly, but some situations do not permit time for thinking. If the senses perceive an event that the limbic system 'recognises' on the basis of previous experience as being a threat to us it is then that the Thalamus - Amygdala shortcut opens. We are projected into fight or flee mode before the forebrain has had time to fathom any suitable response. Unfortunately, this process is liable to go off half-cocked. The amygdala's reaction is purely emotional, without constraint of intellect. A person who has been subjected to constant, negative criticism, will feel threatened by all criticism; becoming unable to respond in a positive way to what is intended as constructive advice. Although a potential life saver, it reacts without having a clear picture of all the relevant facts and the short-cut can snap open to produce very inappropriate results. |
| I still shudder at the possible result of just such a 'triggering' that happened to me. I had been retired from active service for some years, but old habits die hard. Particularly when they are the result of highly intensive conditioning. Spending the day in pottering about, doing a number of those small jobs that get to be put off until one feels like doing them, I was standing at my workbench, sharpening the blade to a motor-mower. It was not a job that demanded full attention; part of my mind was on the task in hand while most of it was lost in reverie. I still have no conscious memory of the transition, but I vividly remember my conscious mind springing to attention as I whirled round with the mower blade clenched in my fist. While I had been absent-mindedly working, my young son had come up behind me to visit his dad. Some small signal of his approach had switched on the amygdala short-cut and I was hijacked by an old defensive behaviour pattern that I had thought long gone. It was only the fact that I was so much taller than my son that prevented my inflicting a terrible injury on him. I snapped back to real time as the blade slashed through the air, inches above his innocent head. Millions of years have passed since we descended from the trees, but we still have one hand on the trunk. |