Brain stuff

Explanations > Brain

At the lowest level of explanation is what happens in the brain. We are not going to go into the depths of neuroscience, but there are a few things at this level which are worth noting.

• General Adaptation Syndrome: The body's attempts at managing stress can eventually kill it.

• Fight-or-Flight reaction: When threatened, our bodies change a great deal.

• The Brain's Urge system: We have a deep system which, when it goes wrong, can cause strange effects.

• The Amygdala by-pass system stops us thinking as it kicks us rapidly into action.

• Causes of stress, including threats, dissonance and stress at work.

• Symptoms of stress, including emotional/cognitive and physical.

• The Brain Syndrome: brain impairment leads to confusion.

Some other facts about the brain are that we:

• Have a trillion brain cells, of which:

  • 100 billion are active brain cells (neurons)

  • 900 billion additional cells to nourish and support the neurons.

• Can grow up to 20,000 dendrite branches on each neuron.