how your brain works - psychology today · your brain works helps you understand yourself and...
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How Your Brain Works
Loretta G. Breuning, PhD
a 200-million-year success story
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Loretta Graziano Breuning, PhD InnerMammalInstitute.org
Humans inherited brain structures from earlier animals and added on.
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Loretta Graziano Breuning, PhD InnerMammalInstitute.org
You have 3 brains
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Loretta Graziano Breuning, PhD InnerMammalInstitute.org
They’re all good
Each of your brains has successfully promoted survival for millions of years.
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Loretta Graziano Breuning, PhD InnerMammalInstitute.org
They promote your well-beingby working together
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Loretta Graziano Breuning, PhD InnerMammalInstitute.org
Each brain seeks in survival its own way
reptile
mammal
human
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Loretta Graziano Breuning, PhD InnerMammalInstitute.org
The reptile brain seeks survival by reacting to threats.
The mammal brain seeks survival through social bonds.
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Loretta Graziano Breuning, PhD InnerMammalInstitute.org
The human cortex seeks survival by learning from experience.
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Loretta Graziano Breuning, PhD InnerMammalInstitute.org
Working together, your three brains use experience
to build social bonds and avoid harm.
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Loretta Graziano Breuning, PhD InnerMammalInstitute.org
But it’s not easy. Your three brains are not on speaking terms
because the animal brain doesn’t think in words.
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Loretta Graziano Breuning, PhD InnerMammalInstitute.org
It thinks by releasing neurochemicals into the body. Humans experience
these chemicals as emotions.
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Loretta Graziano Breuning, PhD InnerMammalInstitute.org
When the animal brain sees something good for survival, it releases chemicals that humans experience as happiness.
Dopamine
Serotonin
Oxytocin
Endorphin
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Loretta Graziano Breuning, PhD InnerMammalInstitute.org
Something bad for survival triggers cortisol in the animal brain.
Humans perceive it as anxiety.
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Loretta Graziano Breuning, PhD InnerMammalInstitute.org
Neurochemicals are powerful enough to trigger urgent survival behaviors in the state of nature.
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Loretta Graziano Breuning, PhD InnerMammalInstitute.org
Our neurochemical responses are hard to put into words, but it’s easy to see the behaviors they trigger in animals.
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Loretta Graziano Breuning, PhD InnerMammalInstitute.org
Your human cortex learns about survival from experience.
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Loretta Graziano Breuning, PhD InnerMammalInstitute.org
Experience builds real physical pathways in your brain.
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Loretta Graziano Breuning, PhD InnerMammalInstitute.org
Your cortex builds pathways in 2 ways: from emotion and from repetition
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Loretta Graziano Breuning, PhD InnerMammalInstitute.org
Repetition gradually improves a neuron’s ability to trigger other neurons.
Emotion instantly improves a neuron’s
ability to trigger another neuron.
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Loretta Graziano Breuning, PhD InnerMammalInstitute.org
Your brain can “learn” behaviors that are not really good for your survival.
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Loretta Graziano Breuning, PhD InnerMammalInstitute.org
Your animal brain seeks whatever felt good in your past.
Your cortex may think it’s not good for
your future.
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Loretta Graziano Breuning, PhD InnerMammalInstitute.org
The electricity in your brain flows
like water, finding the paths of
least resistance.
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Loretta Graziano Breuning, PhD InnerMammalInstitute.org
Electricity easily flows into pathways built from past emotion and repetition.
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Loretta Graziano Breuning, PhD InnerMammalInstitute.org
You can create new neural pathways by repeating new experiences.
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Loretta Graziano Breuning, PhD InnerMammalInstitute.org
But it’s not easy. The more you know about
how your brains works, the better you can promote
your own well-being.
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Loretta Graziano Breuning, PhD InnerMammalInstitute.org
200 million years ago, mammals began evolving brain systems
that support group life.
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Loretta Graziano Breuning, PhD InnerMammalInstitute.org
More of their babies survived as a result, and the successful brains got passed on.
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Loretta Graziano Breuning, PhD InnerMammalInstitute.org
You have inherited the brains of successful survivors.
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Loretta Graziano Breuning, PhD InnerMammalInstitute.org
Knowing how your brain works helps you understand yourself and others.
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Loretta Graziano Breuning, PhD InnerMammalInstitute.org
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Meet Your Happy Chemicals is a lighthearted guide to the brain’s natural ups and downs, and re-wiring yourself for more ups.