All language subtitles for 1. Reptilian Brain

First Britain's future we will be looking at is a retailer in brain.

It's located deep inside the skull.

It's the home of our individual survival instincts and is responsible to deal with life threatening

situations not to be technically correct.

It works closely together with the limbic amygdala which is located in the next brain search and Colvert

in the next lecture.

The term reptilian brain refers to the Iranians believe that we inherited this part of the brain from

our reptilian ancestors.

Now this is incorrect.

However as amphibians and fish also share this part of the brain we most probably have to go back to

our common evolutionary ancestor of all vertebrates.

The other thing with the reptilian denomination is that this part of the brain is only concern is its

own individual survival.

Now I know I know it's unfortunate just to name one some crocodiles take care of their offspring by

letting them hide in their mouth for all these reasons.

This part of the brain is sometimes also referred to as the primitive brain.

Anyway just to be clear we do not have an actual reptilian brain in our head.

It's an image being used here.

Good.

So the reptilian brain has three and only three ways of responding to a threat.

You're probably already familiar with the famous fight or flight response.

Actually there is one more flight fight freeze.

So back in the stone age when a caveman would notice his being followed by a pack of hungry wolves.

Three things would happen.

The first strategy our caveman would try to run a thing with wolves is that they are pretty fast our

legs may be longer but they got four of them so our running them is pretty much impossible.

Second option for cave caveman is to fight them off.

If the danger is not too strong this could work actually.

Sometimes it's enough to intimidate by making ourselves look bigger making much noise throwing stuff

around.

Unfortunately we're in the stone age so much more than sticks and stones won't be available and the

walls while there are a lot of them they got claws and sharp teeth and strong jaws.

The odds are definitely not looking good.

Last but not least our caveman can freeze.

This means he makes himself as small as possible so the thread won't see him or won't find him interesting

enough as lunch.

The best survival option for our Gavyn though would have been to find a big tree and climb up there

hoping the walls would tire and eventually walk away.

So here we are thirty thousand years later and there aren't that many packs of wolves or any other hungry

predators for that matter.

Running around in our big cities or even in the countryside it's so great.

No more need for the reptilian brain.

Well not quite.

In our modern lives the reptilian brain still gets activated in situations of life or death.

Even if these are quite few if you're crossing the street and a car comes right at you you will have

the same instinctive reaction as our caveman.

The first reaction is to jump away or flight in the second face.

You might consider stopping the car with both your hands like Superman does.

However that might not work.

The third reaction is to freeze like a rabbit caught in the spotlight at night.

You'll just stop moving altogether if you're lucky the car might miss you.

Bird our reptilian brain also gets activated when our live is not in danger.

And that ladies and gentlemen is what today we call stress.

Stress is a defense mechanism to a perceived danger.

Now I didn't say danger I said perceived danger because humans are probably the only species capable

of worrying for something that might never happen anyway so when we feel stressed we actually still

use those same three strategies as our friend the caveman.

The flying becomes anxiety.

Ever felt nervous before a test or when you had to give a presentation that is a free stress fighting

becomes aggressivity.

Ever came home after a nerve wracking day at the office and you started shouting at the kids or your

partner over something trivial.

That is the stress and action.

Finally the free stress becomes helplessness and I faced this daunting task where you didn't even know

where to begin.

Only thinking about it made you feel depressed.

Well that is the free stress.

So to summarize the reptilian brain this brain structure is responsible for our individual survival

instincts.

When activated we feel stress which can take three forms.

Flight fight or freeze or translated in our modern world.

Anxiety aggressivity helplessness.