Chapter 4 - Anatomy
Running for Your Life - The Anatomy of Survival
Overview
- development of brain (very brief)
- what is trauma?
- brain in trauma
- reaction to trauma
- treatment for trauma
The Development of Brain
- The development of the brain →
from bottom to top- Brainstem 腦幹 reptilian brain - Basic housekeeping like arousal, sleep, hunger, breathing, chemical balance/ Developed in the womb
- Limbic Brain 邊緣系統 mammalian brain - all mammals have one/ shaped in response to experience/ developed during toddler/ the seat of emotion, the the monitor of danger, the judge of what is pleasurable or scary/. can also be significantly modified by later experience
- Neocortex 新皮質層 rational brain - absract concept/ human has thicker layer
What is Trauma?
Brain in Trauma
After trauma the world is experienced with a different nervous system.
Different pathway the brains responses to sensory
The brain process sensory in 2 ways:
- The high road - Thalamus -> Amygdala -> Hippocampus -> Cingulate -> Prefrontal cortext -> reaction (take longer time)
- The low road - Thalamus -> Amygdala -> Hypothalamus (stress hormones) -> defend (take shorter time)
In normal contidion, this works perfectly. However, in traumatized brain, when the intepretation of the threat by Amygdala is too intense, or thalamus’s filtering system is too weak, peopl lose controlover automatic emergency response.
Treatment for Trauma
The treatment approaches for traumatic stress should firstly focus on helping patients to live fully and securely in the present