Adaptive and social brain
Throughout our resources we help children to understand what is happening in their bodies and brains when they experience different situations, environments and a range of emotions.
We use ‘Our Amazing brain’ analogy to show that ‘our inner guard dog’ reacts to any perceived threat when we feel unsafe or under attack. We become hypervigilant and our threat response system reacts to protect us in fight, flight or freeze mode.
Adaptive Brain Theory
The latest neuroscience research demonstrates that the brain’s interconnected networks work together to maintain the body’s internal state, emotions and cognitions to adapt to continuously changing needs. This is called Adaptive Brain Theory.¹ The brain’s networks are always active so that the brain constantly responds to stress and adapts to changing internal and external environments.
Three key adaptations that have developed over human evolution to help us to predict and respond better to stresses in our environment, thereby keeping us safe and helping us to survive are: quick emotional responses; slower cognitive responses; and seeking others’ help to cooperatively respond to the stressor.
The Social Brain
Whereas neuroscience has, up until recently, focused on the study of neurons or networks of neurons of individual brains in isolation, the newer understanding is that behaviour arises from a network of different brains interacting with each other – this is called Social Brain theory.
We know that the brain itself is the central organ of a supersystem that extends throughout the body and influences every aspect of our individual physiology (functioning of the body), forming a dynamic body-mind process. But our individual body-mind does not function or operate completely independently in isolation from other body-minds, but rather in the context of relationships, from the personal to the cultural.² In other words, the more we learn, the more we realise that our physical health and our mental and emotional wellbeing is a complex consequence of all our relationships.
“We are wired for connection. Our nervous systems are social structures that find balance and stability in relationship with others.”
Deb Dana
“We are social beings, and our brains grow in a social environment.”
Eric Jensen
