It’s been a rough year so far.
From terrorist attacks to coups, a surreal presidential race and heart-rending police shootings, we’ve been confronted with narratives that challenge our belief systems on weighty topics like peace, race, culture and religion. In person, we often say little about these topics to colleagues and acquaintances, but on social media we let loose in an echo chamber, liking and sharing articles and videos that reinforce our beliefs while either avoiding or disagreeing with those who think differently.
A recent Pew Charitable Trust poll shows that 55 percent of Democrats and 49 percent of Republicans see the opposing party as “a threat to the nation’s well-being,” and that was before the heightened emotions of presidential conventions. Among those actively engaged in politics, the numbers are significantly higher on both sides.
And any visit to Facebook shows the rise of #BlackLivesMatter has revealed a steep division between those who get the concept of the poet Langston Hughes’ place at the table and those who think, ‘Everyone already has a table, so what’s the problem?’
Yet this polarization actually has roots in our own bodies, in the biology of our brains. By understanding a bit about neuroscience, we can learn to overcome our blind spots and accelerate our growth. We can embrace the perspectives of other people and cultures, making life in L.A. and on the planet a richer, more loving and inclusive experience for all.
“Brain development isn’t about building memory, it’s about changing our understanding of ourselves and others,” said Kathleen Taylor, an adult learning and development expert, Fulbright scholar and professor at Saint Mary’s College of California. “Your brain can’t fully understand something it has never before experienced. Clearly, if we are going to change our minds, we have to figure out how to change our brains.”
Your Brain, Impatient and Strung Out
Since the 17th Century, brain theory has mostly aligned with the rational, scientific worldview of the philosopher René Descartes. The brain was seen as a machine, analogous to the high-tech wonders of the day, whether the automobile or the computer. But recent advances in neuroscience and robotics have shifted our understanding. As Andy Clark, a noted cognitive scientist, wrote, “We simply misconstrued the nature of intelligence itself… The biological mind is, first and foremost, an organ for controlling the biological body… Minds are not disembodied logical reasoning devices.”
Researchers have come to understand that the brain prioritizes quick responses to keep the body safe—fight, freeze or flight style—and to operate efficiently, as our brains, when awake, use up to 25 percent of our body’s energy. Quick responses rely on longstanding associations of experiences with emotions, leading to the well-traveled highways in our circuitry that make up our unconscious assumptions and generalizations. Bringing a fresh awareness to experiences and perspectives requires exiting to a side road, which may offer incredible scenic vistas, but the brain nevertheless resists. “This embodied brain is crucial to understanding how we learn or do not learn, because the brain wants to go on believing what it already knows,” Kathleen explained.
The brain also is wired for anxiety, due to its focus on keeping the body safe. Neuroscientist Joseph LeDoux believes that anxiety arises only when cues from several parts of the brain erupt simultaneously, some older and unconscious, some newer and thought-riddled. He concludes that to be more successful in helping the estimated 20 percent of Americans who suffer from anxiety (perhaps an underestimated group, given the popularity of the Republican presidential candidate), treatments need to address both the unconscious circuits of the reptilian and mammalian brain and the more conscious, thought-riddled patterns of the neocortex that are commonly known as “monkey mind” in Buddhism.
Building a Better Brain
The good news is, by tapping insights garnered from fresh research into learning, memory and biology, we can rewire and improve our brains and bodies using targeted behaviors. Japanese neuroscientist Hideyuki Okano defines memory as behavioral changes spurred by experiences, and learning as the process of obtaining memory. In this distilled view, all adults with functioning minds truly are lifelong learners. As he explained in a recent science journal article, “Memory is a fundamental mental process, and without memory we are capable of nothing but simple reflexes and stereotyped behaviors. Thus, learning and memory is one of the most intensively studied subjects in the field of neuroscience.”
Two kinds of memory have been recognized according to Okano. Declarative memory, thought to be centered in the cerebrum and hippocampus, has to do with facts, and can be consciously comprehended. Procedural memory is believed to be located in the cerebellum, taps skills practiced in the past, such as playing an instrument, and is unconscious. For example, we don’t think out the sequence of individual muscle movements to make and strum an “A” chord on the guitar when we play; we just do it. The actual mechanism of creation and storage for both types of memory is thought to be synaptic plasticity, in which nerve cells communicate with one another.
By consciously creating new memories, we can change our brains in order to change our minds, as Taylor noted. When we are faced with moments of disequilibrium that challenge our neatly wrapped sense of reality—such as thinking that perhaps that person might actually become president after all, or maybe racism does still exist in the criminal justice system, since somebody did everything right in his police interactions, yet still was assaulted or killed—we can remember to slow down and examine the evidence in front of us with a more consciously open mind.
To engage our embodied brains, Taylor suggests consciously staying open to what is unfamiliar by finding activities that foster empathy and awareness: reading books we would normally avoid, going to services for a religion we don’t follow or attending a political event we would otherwise shun.
Physical activities also contribute to more flexible brains. “You think with your body, not only with your brain,” says Nobel Prize-winning psychologist Daniel Kahneman. Art, dancing, yoga, meditation, prayer and being out in nature—without the earbuds—can “tamp down the anxious brain and elevate the curious brain,” according to Kathleen, setting our minds free by providing the space for new emotions and thoughts to arise.
At the societal level, as complex challenges such as global warming, starvation and drought magnify, we need to collectively cultivate open, curious brains. “I am passionate about this,” she emphasized. “Our capacity to welcome ambiguity and uncertainty, to reach beyond what is comfortable and known, is the only thing that is going to save our planet and our species.
Social Media for Your Noggin
Joseph LeDoux, neuroscientist: @theamygdaloid
Andy Clark, cognitive scientist: @fluffycyborg
Neuroscience: @neuroscience
Facebook
Kathleen Taylor, adult learning and development scholar:
https://www.facebook.com/Embodied-Brains-1611814112475222/
Neuroscience News: https://www.facebook.com/neurosciencenews/
Medium
Dr. Claudia Aguirre, neuroscientist: https://medium.com/@doctorclaudia
Dr. David Handel, retired brain imaging radiologist: https://medium.com/@iDoRecall
This article is a part of the August-September 2016 Success with Integrity issue of Whole Life Times.