In the 1500s, artist Guiseppe Arcimboldo painted portraits of influential
Italians. When he noticed that the nobles’ features resembled animals or
vegetables, he incorporated these images into his view of their heads. In
one of his paintings, Arcimboldo included an Elephant in the noble’s head,
400 years before scientists discovered that a brain region acts just like this
five-ton animal. This region is called the Amygdala, which develops and
releases our emotions.
The Brain’s Amygdala: Our Emotional Center
Just the way Arcimboldo’s heads are filled with images, the brain has
many activity centers that represent every body function. We feel
pleasure, anger or fright in one region, activate balance on a skate
board in another, and conduct our reasoning with a third. Electrical
and chemical impulses transfer information through the cells in these
brain regions, sometimes at a speed of 250 miles per second.
One brain region, called the Amygdala, connects our brain with
senses of sight, smell, hearing and touch. This region, the size of an
almond, lies deep inside the brain, just above the ear. The Amygdala
interprets information from our senses, and sends signals to other brain regions that relate to feelings and identity of
self.
The Amygdala sends feelings to the Frontal Cortex, the brain region that controls thinking and planning. This cortex area
either affirms and acts on those emotions, or “applies the brakes”. At the very front, just above and between the eyes, the
PreFrontal Cortex exercises our reason in a “free-will” unit and a “free-won’t” unit. The “free-will” unit thinks about our
choices for action. Its opposite, the “free-won’t” unit, applies our reason to operate self-control. That brain unit says “no” to
the emotional signals.
Just as a gym machine strengthens a specific muscle group, exercising self-control over emotions, or exercising one’s reason,
builds that talent over time. In initial athletic effort, muscles tire quickly and they become sore until repetitive effort makes
them stronger. In the same fashion, when individuals experience high emotion, intense new learning or times of growth, the
brain gets tired. The brain is one of the most energy-hungry organs in the body, and it regains its balance with rest and
nutrients from food. As new behavior becomes more automatic, brain cell connections thicken and the transmission of signals
becomes more efficient. Energy consumption is reduced and the effort is less tiring.
1
MINDSET
THE ELEPHANT INSIDE US:
OUR EMOTIONS
