The Human Brain: Fantastic, Fearful and Flawed

And it is flawed.  

It is flawed in the sense that it is not designed for the modern stresses and strains that we increasingly throw at it.  We simply don't have the brainpower for a world we now find ourselves having to cope with, pandemic or no pandemic.

Despite the wonders of modern science and technology that we enjoy today, our brain is still effectively the brain of our forebears.  This brain can deal fairly efficiently with the problems of long ago: a sudden fright or an angry beast.  But give it a cocktail of current stressors – such as social rejection, an angry boss or an upcoming performance review – and it doesn't fare so well.  Anticipated or even imagined threats are treated by the brain as if they are real.  But unlike an encounter with a lion, tiger or bear, which has a definite start and stop, our threats today are continual and ever-present – and more menacing as a result.  

So if we want to get the best out of our brain in today's world, familiarising ourselves with how our brain is designed – and flawed – is an advisable first step.

Flaw 1: We aren't designed to embrace life

The human brain is not designed to embrace life.  Rather it is designed to avoid death.  What this means is that we are primed to switch on to threats much more quickly than to anything safe.  As a consequence the brain is easily distracted, particularly by anything negative or alarming.  This survival mechanism has kept us going as a species; without it we would not have been alert to possible predators or dangers.  

We are therefore naturally predisposed to information that carries even the merest hint or suggestion of threat.  We are fascinated by bad news and we are buoyed by crisis-fighting.  But we are also, especially in the wake of Covid, more sensitive to each other's cues: was that a frown on the screen?  Why was I not asked to join the meeting?  When will they get back to me about my proposal?

The big problem is that we respond to these worries as if we are fighting a real, physical, in-your-face threat.  The brain doesn't know the difference between a real and an imagined threat. And it doesn't care.  As long as the brain thinks something is stressful, that's enough for it to start a chain reaction of events through the body that releases a combination of chemicals designed to protect us.  But over time these same chemicals can cause us harm, because they were never meant to stay in our system for as long as they do now.

Flaw 2: We're control freaks

We hate being in a state of 'not knowing' or being out of control. 

The brain is a predictive instrument.  Sitting in darkness inside our skull, it likes to be able to second-guess the information it receives in order to be able to help us respond to it rapidly.  The brain likes to know what it is dealing with and it feels out of control when it has little or no idea.

In order to help us make sense of the word the brain relies on its store of known experiences and reference material, which collectively make up our memories.  Any situation that is unprecedented and unfamiliar sends the brain into somewhat of a tail-spin.  We would rather be sure that something bad is coming than not know at all what to expect.  

Faced with a situation that is entirely unpredictable (think Covid), the brain's neurons fire rapidly and blindly, grasping at any information to help it interpret what is going on.  The resulting discomfort puts us on high alert, activating our survival response over and over again.

Flaw 3: We're lazy!

None of us would like to admit that we are lazy but in fact the human brain suffers from something called 'natural inertia'.  In other words we don't need much encouragement to do nothing.  The brain is designed to conserve energy, follow well-trodden paths and effectively minimise cognitive expenditure.  Historically this has served an important purpose: we didn't know when we were going to get our next meal and so we had to learn not to do much in between eating.  When we did move, it was generally to get food.

But the world today looks very different.  Many western societies now have food at their finger-tips.  We no longer need to conserve energy but our brain hasn't adapted quickly enough to cope with new external conditions; it is still designed for the sporadic food supply of the past. 

And so we eat too much and too often – the wrong food at the wrong time.  Our sleep is then affected, which in turn knocks our hormones out of balance.  We crave high energy food when we are tired, even though the body is not burning the calories we're eating – and of course our lifestyles are more sedentary than ever.   And so it goes on.

The other problem is that the challenges of non-stop information, endless distraction and being 'on' all the time are simply too much for the brain.  The same part of the brain (at the front) that we need for sustained attention is wearied easily.  We have a finite capacity for decision-making, risk-taking, logical thought and good judgment.  And when our resources are used up, they are used up. This means that when our neural resources are depleted we can't think straight.

So the big question is what can we do about all of this?  

There is no easy or straightforward answer to this question. 

The first step is to become more aware of how the brain is designed and to work with it, not against it.  Once we have a better understanding of our design flaws we may not be so tempted to push the brain to do what it simply isn't designed to do. 

The second step- and this is particularly important at this time – we should be examining how we are switching the brain on.  Are we feeding ourselves a media diet of bad or, worse, fake news?  Are we sitting endlessly at our screens with email pop-ups that divert our attention?  Are we using language that is angry or fearful – for ourselves and others?  Are we giving other people information, frequently dressed up as 'feedback' (a word which the brain hates, by the way) that is going to make them worry more and perform less?

Or are we activating the brain more positively?  Are we stimulating our reward centres to keep us moving in the right direction?  Are we helping ourselves and others deal with what is going on around us?  Are we mobilising our body to mitigate against chemical build-up and stress?  Are we constructing new references for the brain to use next time around?

There are some simple and quick fixes.  Moving and exercising regularly, shortening timescales, finding small and regular rewards (even something as simple as crossing items off a list), controlling what we can control and finding ways to form pockets of certainty are all effective ways of keeping the brain working optimally.  

Creating cognitive ease for others is also crucial; we need to reduce the burden of overload for others around us.  This means speaking in concrete and specific language (get rid of your jargon and guff!), breaking information into digestible chunks – and presenting it in a visually appealing format – and asking people for their ideas.  

Bear in mind that the brain doesn't always want what it actually needs.  Just like our gut benefits from a diverse diet, the brain also needs to be fed different inputs which in turn strengthen us.  This means fighting our natural inertia and forcing the brain to push its own boundaries.  

Humans have survived because of an ability to cope with the unexpected and work out solutions to complex challenges.  We just need to stop thinking that we should have all the answers, and instead be open to learning both from new experiences and from the people who are brave enough to venture first into the unknown.  

We can never be fully prepared for the future.  Curve balls will always be thrown in our direction.  We need to treat these as an opportunity to build a more robust system that will be able to handle what is coming next.  The brain benefits beautifully from learning.  It may struggle to appreciate it at the time, but it will certainly thank us later.  Whatever we do today will make a difference to how we handle tomorrow.