?>

Did you know that our brain has practically tripled in size when compared to Homo Habilis? Approximately 2 million years ago our brain was 600cm³ in size, while in homo sapiens we have the following size: 1,400cm³. It is amazing how much our gray matter has gained different layers, properties and different mechanisms, each one being more complex than the other, until we arrive at what we now know as the “neocortex”. This part of our brain is extremely important to us, because it is through it that we perform mental functions. But what is this? Our thinking, our language, all this rational side is due to this part. Meanwhile, going a little deeper into our brain, we have another very important structure that we call the limbic system.

 

The limbic system is a more primitive part of our brain, that is, it has been present for a longer time and also exists in other animals. It gives coordinates to our instincts and one of the most well-known and also very important structures present in the limbic system is an area we call the amygdala - and it is exactly that part that commands our feeling of fear. Have you ever wondered why we are afraid of snakes? Neuroscientist Raul Andero explained: as snakes were a constant danger to our ancestors, evolution has shaped our brain so that we have fearful reactions to them. When you are walking or cycling and you encounter a snake, before you even have time to think, ask yourself how to act, your first reaction is to jump back and that reaction, this impulse, is due to the amygdala.

 

There are studies to demonstrate this effect of evolution in the construction of fear, one of them was done with monkeys raised in laboratories, that is, they had never come into contact with a snake, and they automatically had reactions of fear. While the monkeys that had their tonsils removed, they lost all kinds of fear. So what does that mean? That our fear is triggered by the most primitive part of our brain! Have you ever stopped to notice when we are in that last week of work before the holidays, coming home on Friday, looking forward to the weekend and the holidays and we start thinking about everything we are going to do, where we are going to travel, what you wanna watch, read, play… and suddenly, an uncontrolled cyclist crosses the signal just when you started crossing, but you notice and jump back. That is, our primitive brain is working all the time, even though we don't notice, we are always on the lookout for threats.

 

Some psychologists divide these two parts of the brain as mechanisms, one being more intuitive, fast and emotional, as well as unconscious/automatic and it involves these attitudes that we take “without thinking”, while the other deals with something slower, more rational, conscious. And of course, the two systems are interconnected, always influencing each other.

* This is a social networking platform where blogs are made by customers and researchers.
* The content published here is the exclusive responsibility of the authors.


Autor:

Flávia Freire Carneiro

#consciousness-attention #priming-effect #emotion-craving #human-competence #choice-mechanisms #self-perception