The Biology of an Emotional Outburst — Understanding “Neural Hijacking”
Every time you “lose it” and snap at someone—a family member, a friend, or a stranger—only to later regret your impulsive, irrational, and disproportionate reaction to a situation, you are experiencing an emotional explosion. Such episodes, in which our emotional reaction bypasses our rational or thinking brain, have been termed by neuroscientists as “neural hijackings” or “neural takeovers.”
Central to the priming of such impulsive reactions is a center in the limbic brain, called the amygdala. The amygdala is “the specialist” for emotional matters, and “a storehouse of emotional memory.” The functioning of the amygdala and its interplay with the thinking brain (the neocortex) lies at the center of our emotional intelligence.
Research has shown that within a few milliseconds of perceiving something, we unconsciously comprehend what it is and form an opinion about it, independently and ahead of the rational mind. These unconscious opinions which we form before the thinking brain has gotten a chance to analyze the sensory inputs are, in fact, emotional memories which have been stored in the amygdala.
In many cases, these past events date back to traumatic episodes experienced in childhood. Every time the amygdala is aroused, it imprints in memory the “emotional flavor” of that event. Therefore, emotionally charged events make a stronger neural imprint on the brain and guarantee strong emotional reactions to similar triggers in the future.
In everyday situations, certain sensory inputs are received by the amygdala before they are even registered by the neocortex. The amygdala compares those current stimuli to those from the past and makes associations between past events and the current situation. This fast response is the evolutionary legacy that protects us in situations of emergency, when reacting instantaneously is better than the delay caused by the analytical brain.
However, when in a given situation the amygdala establishes an associative link between present sensory information and those from a troublesome/dangerous/traumatic event from the past, it automatically perceives the current situation as threatening. Acting as some sort of a “central alarm center,” the amygdala then starts scanning all the sensory inputs as potentially dangerous and hostile, thus “proclaiming a state of emergency.” It immediately responds by alerting all parts of the brain and recruiting it for a response. This triggers a “fight-or-flight” response, involving the secretion of stress hormones, an increase in the heart rate and blood pressure, and preparing the body to either confront the enemy or flee the scene.
Thus “neural hijacking” happens when the amygdala takes control of our behavior. It captures and drives the rational or thinking brain. It dictates our behavioral response even before our thinking brain has had the chance to figure out what is going on. Goleman explains that “The hijacking occurs in an instant, triggering this reaction crucial moments before the neocortex, the thinking brain, has had a chance to glimpse fully what is happening, let alone decide if it is a good idea. The hallmark of such a highjack is that once the moment passes, those so possessed have the sense of not knowing what came over them.”
The information sent through the “emergency neural route” (from the senses to the thalamus to the amygdala) is received by the amygdala 1/1,000 of a second before it has reached the neocortex. However, this is just a rough signal, carrying only a small subset of all sensory messages. So, there is an obvious trade-off. The time advantage that the amygdala gets over the neocortex comes at the expense of an incomplete perception (and thus assessment) of the situation. This can save our life in some cases, but it can also cause tragic incidents of “emotional mistakes.”
Many episodes of “neural hijacking” can be distressing, or even lead to serious incidents and cases of crime. However, “neural hijacking” can also happen in moments of joy and fun. Examples include episodes of contagious, uncontrolled, and explosive laughter in response to a good joke, or an emotional overwhelm when one experiences immense happiness and excitement due to personal achievement or a dream come true.
It has been observed that once the amygdala is removed, the individual develops a condition termed “affective blindness” — an inability to assess the emotional significance of situations and events. Such individuals may get deprived of “all recognition of feeling, as well as any feeling about feelings.” Animals whose amygdala has been removed lost fear, rage, the urge to compete and cooperate, and lost sense of the pecking order.
Our emotional brain consists of two parts. The first part is the amygdala, which is responsible for our impulsive — and often irrational — behavior, “at the spur of the moment.” Fortunately, there is another part of our emotional brain that is described as the “damper switch” for the amygdala and allows for a more appropriate and analytic response to those emotional impulses. This part is located in the neocortical, prefrontal lobes behind the forehead, and is active when, despite the intense feeling (such as fear or rage), the person can control the impulse. It is this part of the brain which receives much more sensory inputs than the amygdala, thus being capable of making sense of it. Whenever the situation demands an emotional response, it is dictated by the prefrontal cortex, together with the amygdala and other brain centers.
The neocortical part of our emotional brain is seen as “an efficient manager of emotions,” which weighs our reactions before acting. Furthermore, the right prefrontal lobes are a seat of negative feelings, while the left prefrontal lobes regular unpleasant emotions, keeping them in check by inhibiting the right lobes. The neocortical response is slower than the amygdala’s “neural hijacking,” since it involves more neural circuits. While the neocortical pathway is supposed to be the default one, in the case of a “neural hijacking” the amygdala is triggered, and the neocortical responses fail to activate.
Frequent and continuous emotional stress (especially during childhood) imprints many emotional memories through the amygdala and, in the long run, impairs the functioning of the frontal cortex. As a result, despite having a high IQ, such individuals might fail in their studies, careers, and relationships, due to their lack of control over their emotional lives and impaired capacity for emotional learning throughout a lifetime. Deficiencies in emotional intelligence heighten a spectrum of risks, from depression or a life of violence to eating disorders and drug abuse.
Sources
Based on the book “Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than IQ” by Daniel Goleman, Bantam Books. 1995.