WHY Neurobiology Matters
by Kim Barthel and Bob Spensley
Whether we know it or not, there is always a reason for our behaviour. Knowledge of how the brain works is fundamental in attempting to understanding human actions and reactions. It is the curiosity to understand what lies behind challenging or complex behaviour that leads to our compassion – the mindset that sits at the very heart of trauma-sensitive living. It is only when we become consciously curious for what’s going on for another that we move beyond judgement. Client assessments and interventions that are neurobiologically-informed support clinicians and caregivers in developing evidence-informed clinical reasoning. Said another way: If we’re not understanding how the brain works, it’s possible we’re seeing people primarily through a lens of our own bias and projection. While this is understandable, neurobiology has the potential to expand our objective comprehension and reflection on the interpersonal world around us.
How does understanding the brain support our clinical detective work? There are two key answers: One clear example arises from an appreciation that the nervous system has an over-riding bias toward survival. Our self-protective mechanisms are powerful. Through innate reactions of the autonomic nervous system, we have a built in felt-sense of safety or danger. When both physical and emotional safety is perceived, the body can rest, relax, engage, and participate to its highest capacity. When either physical or emotional threat is recognized, fight or flight or sometimes freeze energy emerges within the body in attempt to self-protect. Many of these fluid responses to what’s happening in our environment around us or within us operate way underneath our awareness, yet they are primary forces that are influencing behavioural engagement in every moment.
Survival is such at the forefront of our brain’s function that while our senses are constantly scanning for danger, our cognition is busy predicting. Thanks to the work of Dr. Lisa Feldman Barrett in her book 7 ½ Lessons About the Brain, we now appreciate that when faced with anything unknown our brain reflexively tracks backwards into the rolodex of memory to attempt to predict a possible outcome. Given the bias towards survival, it is often the worst-case scenario that is typically referenced with the greatest ease and then projected as the most likely experience of the still unknown situation. The body then reacts as if the projection (the story we make up in our mind) is reality, even though the prediction our brain made up in a millisecond may be completely inaccurate. This helps explain why people who’ve experienced trauma can have outbursts that can seemingly come from nowhere.
Imagine clinically attempting to support an individual who is acting out, engaging in conflict, withdrawn or oppositional. Typically, when presented with these behavioural descriptors, there is an impetus to just get the behaviours to stop. But in attempt to offer new adaptive solutions, first these behaviours need to be understood. What purposes are they serving or communicating? There may be historical neuronal networks and neurobiological biases that have been accessed repeatedly in the person’s life as forms of self-protection, without which more fear would be felt and potentially more dangerous reactions would have ensued.
Why does it matter that we appreciate the brain’s priority is survival? Recognizing this design and purpose shifts our perception of challenging behaviours from being “willful” to being “self-protective”. This means that when we feel people are aggravating us, almost always they aren’t doing it on purpose. They’re more likely internally activated by something – the suspicion of which helps us to get to compassion and connection.
An additionnal reason to appreciate an understanding of neurobiology is that it reinforces how interconnected we are to each other as humans. This is explained in the way that a brain recognize safety and danger. Information through the sensory systems convey a continuous flow of data to the brain signaling novelty, demanding immediate analysis to determine relative threats. In tandem, a neural network of cells operate as mirrors to the emotions, actions, and expressions of the people around us. Mirror neurons are like resonant tuning forks within the brain, permitting us to have shared experiences of feelings and social connection. Like Norton Antivirus running in the background, the mirror neuron systems and social engagement networks in the brain are tracking information from peoples’ faces, bodies, voices, and gestures 24/7. When a person in our midst presents as connected, available and tuned into us, we feel it. This creates a felt sense of embodied safety and comfort and allows us to interact from our most regulated state. When a person in our midst is highly anxious, aggravated and dysregulated, we also feel it, creating an embodied sensation of danger. Appreciating the power of social networks in the brain supports the knowing that we have tremendous impact upon each other, for better or for worse. This reminds us to be mindful of how we may be impacting others, and it also reinforces that we can co-regulate each other - even in extremely stressful situations.
When our neurobiologically-informed assessments and interventions become one of the foundations of our clinical practice, and we move from judgement towards curiosity and compassion, there is a potential that the people we impact will perceive themselves as received and understood.
All this said, human behaviour often remains a mystery. There is no expectation that we’ll understand others fully, nor ourselves. But if we try, the world might be an easier place.
Barrett, L. F. (2020). 7 1/2 Lessons about the Brain. Brilliance Audio.