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Fight-or-Flight Unpacked: How Your Nervous System Runs the Show · Professor Peterson’s Psychology Classroom

0:05
Welcome to Professor Peterson's Psychology Classroom,
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connecting the science of human behavior to everyday
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life. Here's Dr. Curtis Peterson.
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All right, so what we've done, uh, during this topic
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is we've been trying to basically build the nervous system
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Uh, focusing on those, uh, areas of the nervous system
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that we really investigate when we're investigating psychological
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topics. Okay, so we started with the smallest
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unit, which was a nervous system, and then we started to bring— build
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the brain system, starting with the brainstem and the limbic areas.
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And in our last conversation we
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looked at the cerebral cortex.
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So our job for today is to look
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at the nervous system as a complete whole system,
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uh, throughout the body, not only within the brain region itself.
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And when we look at the divisions of the nervous system,
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we can essentially divide it into 2
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areas. One is the central nervous system,
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which contains the brain and the spinal cord.
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And the spinal cord is really what bridges
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between the brain and the second
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division of the nervous system, which is a peripheral nervous
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system. And it's really what transmits information
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to and from the central nervous system to the different extremities
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of our body to create
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our bodily movements, bodily systems functioning,
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and those kinds of things. Okay? So really, if we
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were to kind of give them more definition, central nervous
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system is kind of the command center. It processes,
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interprets, stores, issues orders
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to muscles and glands and organs. To really
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keep the system running. And again, the peripheral
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nervous system contains all our input nerve cells,
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so our sensory nerve cells, which we will talk about in topic
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4, and our
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nervous— our downward
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nervous system that then commands the different
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areas of the body of how to respond. Okay,
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and within the peripheral nervous system,
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let's spend some time with it. It can be subdivided into
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2 other branches as well. Okay,
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the somatic nervous system, which really controls our
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voluntary behaviors and skeletal
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muscles. So, uh, things like
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production of speech through the muscles in the throat
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and the, the, the voice box and the
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how our lips and our tongue move, uh,
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to being able to, uh,
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log into this Zoom meeting, uh, to listen
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to the lecture, all of those voluntary muscle
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controls And then we have the autonomic
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nervous system. This, this system is regulated by
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glands, blood vessels, internal organs,
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and controls all of our autonomic automatic
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responses to environmental input
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and information it's receiving from the
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central nervous system to keep everything kind of going and
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moving along. Okay,
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well, both of these are important to understanding psychology.
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The one system that tends to get a lot of focus,
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speaking specifically within the peripheral nervous
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system, is this autonomic nervous system
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because it controls 2
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other branches of our nervous
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system response, and that is the sympathetic branch
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and what is known as the parasympathetic branch.
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Okay? And it is the
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combination of these 2 areas that negotiate
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our degree of bodily arousal.
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Okay? So, When we have a sympathetic
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response, this is our emergency response.
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It's that fight-or-flight response,
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and its function is to mobilize the body for action.
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So it accelerates heart rate,
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output of high energy— outputs high energy
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in response for threat or extreme stress.
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Okay, it's what, uh, if you want to think of it from the hormonal
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system, it's what's releasing epinephrine. It's releasing
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stress hormones to get the body to prepare to
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either fight or flight.
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The parasympathetic branch
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is what quiets the system down to bring
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it back down to a stable,
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uh, system. So it quiets the body and tries to
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maintain homeostasis, which is that balance
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of energy, uh, uh, just distributing
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energy to all of our organs in a, in an effective
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manner. Okay, um, and it becomes
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most active after some type of emotional event.
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It's kind of that calming down system after
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we have an emotional event.
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Okay. Going back to these 2 systems,
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and I want to make this clear, and I'm going to kind of use evolutionary
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terms, is these systems are very,
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very effective at responding to
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acute threat. So if you want
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to think about our great-great-great ancestors,
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what were their threats? They were immediate emergency responses
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to a predator, to some environmental
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catastrophe. And it really
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prepared us to either defend ourselves or to
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run away. And then the parasympathetic response
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came when we were no longer in threat.
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It's now going to help us bring— catch our
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breath, as you would say, get us back to
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a maintaining system. Where these systems
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start to break down is when we start to look at things like
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more modern chronic stress systems.
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Such as concerns about bills,
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about our, our kiddos and social
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issues and all of those more modern types
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of threat that probably need a more long-term
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sustained response rather than a quick
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burn out the energy system to get us
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to a safe place, and then a parasympathetic
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system that then conserves the energy over a long period of time.
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Okay, I kind of want to explain
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the sympathetic response a little bit more
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in detail as it relates
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to the human condition and,
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and its effects. Okay. Um,
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basically what happens when we have a sympathetic
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response is the nervous system
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starts to shut down all unnecessary
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core functions and
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sends basically all of the bodily
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resources, energy, blood flow to our extremities
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Because it's our extremities which are
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going to fight or flight. Okay?
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So an example of how it turns off
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the system is when I first taught this,
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I had a student who had a grandpa that
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did the kind of old-school policing.
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Right? They— back in the day when they didn't have modern
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tools like tasers and, and,
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and restraining systems that you could restrain from
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a distance, okay, is he used to
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tell, uh, uh, the student that when
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they used to come up with— come up
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on 2 individuals that are fighting the first
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thing they would do is look at their crotches and
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smell. And the reason behind
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that, if the person has urinated and
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the person has defecated, there's really
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not much the officers are going to
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be able to do to get them out of that sympathetic
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response. In fact, By them interjecting themselves
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into that fight, it actually increased
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the risks that the police officers and anyone
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else who tried to get involved in that fight of
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getting injured themselves. So,
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back in those days, they would smell to
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see the scent, smell of any defecation that's going
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on. Seeing if they urinated themselves. And at that
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point, it was about creating a safe boundary
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and eliminating any type of weapons that
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they might try and use to attack each other, keep other
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people away, until they started seeing them wear out
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and go into more of a parasympathetic response.
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Okay, what the body is doing when it gets
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to that stressed period is it's shutting
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down the digestive system and it's
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releasing any, um,
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bowel or urine that is currently taking up
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any type of blood flow or energy burning thing.
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So it's getting rid of the storage system so that
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that energy then could go to the fight
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or flight areas of the legs.
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Okay, um, another case of
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this is if you've watched a movie and the big tough guy
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looks over and there's a guy shaking and he's,
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he, he's urinating on himself, and the,
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the big tough guy goes, oh, get control of yourself.
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Um, uh, if I was a betting man
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and it wasn't a movie and I was watching that,
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I would actually bet on the person that urinated
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themselves and not on the hero,
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because a person who has urinated themselves now have the
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physical energy capacity to
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win a fight versus the big tough guy
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hero. So Think about that next time
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you're at a somewhere that requires you to judge
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who's going to be the winner of something based on that kind
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of response. Okay. Now,
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where this becomes interesting in modern times is
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when we have chronic stress.
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This is the large reason why people develop bowel
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issues is because the body is constantly
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shutting that system down. It can create things
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like ulcers. It can create things like
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even, uh, IBS can be traced to chronic
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stress in, in some individuals.
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Um, uh, heartburn.
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Um, uh, you constantly see stressed people,
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if they're all constantly popping Tums
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or something like that, it's because their
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sympathetic system is shutting down those systems and
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they're not functioning correctly. Okay,
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so something to think about when dealing with things like chronic
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stress and those kinds of things. The other
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issue, which we will get to when it comes to things
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like chronic abuse a person
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coming out of a chronic abusive chaotic
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home, a large
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issue that they often deal with is that
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even when, even when they're in a safe place
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where the parasympathetic system should
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take over, the sympathetic system has
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been trained not to shut down because
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that person who has been in a chaotic,
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abusive, uh, place is
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constantly hypervigilant, waiting for the next
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insult or waiting for the next change, and their
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body is unable to determine a
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safe place versus an abusive
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chronic place. And so the system kind
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of keeps the system on. All right,
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now we're talking about the peripheral nervous system,
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but it's also important to understand that the central nervous
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system also goes through this stress
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response, uh, um,
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uh, event. Okay, but unlike—
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I'll try and I'll try and draw it.
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So with a parasympathetic response, I'm just
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going to do a stick person here.
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Um, as I said, the, the, the flow of
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energy, blood flow,
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nutrients goes from the core and
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it goes outward. All right.
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At the same time, however,
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in the central nervous system, in the brain region,
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remember we have this brainstem.
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I'm going to crudely draw our brainstem. Please don't
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take this as autonomically correct.
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And then, as we have learned, we have this cerebral
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cortex setting on top of it.
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Okay, now remember in
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our conversations, the limbic system is
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what, uh, detects threat and
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fear within the amygdala area and whatnot.
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So it's the primary detection system for it.
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But also, if you remember, it's the limbic
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system that gives— is our quick
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response system. And also
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it houses our most well-learned behaviors.
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And our most well-learned behaviors are behaviors
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we learn between the age of 2 to
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about 6 years of age. Okay,
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and what happens when we go through a sympathetic response
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is again the blood flow,
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nerve nutrients,
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the, uh,
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activity sources flow
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away from the cortex and
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are concentrated in the limbic system,
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which makes it so an individual who is going through a
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very high-arousing, highly,
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uh, threatening situation,
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um, is going to kind of lose their rational,
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uh, conscious decision-making area
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of the brain because all of that is being now focused
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in the emotional reactive limbic
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system that also is going to respond
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based on the most well-learned adaptive behaviors
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for the individual. So I
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always like to use couples for this because
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If you've ever been in a relationship, they're wonderful,
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but conflict is always inevitable.
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Okay? And mainly because we
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tend to, you know, get in intimate relationship with strangers.
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And so conflict is inevitable. All right?
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So I'm going to take you through kind of a basic
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example of this. Focusing on the
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central nervous system. Let's say you
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and your partner were
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going to meet at a restaurant
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at 6 PM. You both agreed on it.
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You both said,
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yes, we'll be there. We're committed to this. You both
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planned out through the day how you were going to be there on time,
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and for some reason, let's say you're
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go— you're going to be 30 minutes
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late. All right, and on your way to
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the restaurant, you're building this very rational,
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uh, reason that you were late.
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Um, you're stuck in traffic, car wreck,
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the boss put some more work on you, whatever it may be.
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But you have this very rational excuse for
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being late, okay? But when you arrive
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at the restaurant, your partner is probably,
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uh, already at a stress point. They're already
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having a physiological response because there was
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a relationship violation.
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Okay, so you get there with your rational reasoning
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and you practice this conversation you're going to
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have with your partner in your head. But what
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can happen is you go and you say, I'm sorry, this and this
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happened, and the partner who's already aroused said, well, you said
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you'd be here no matter what, da da da da. Which then lifts
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your defensiveness. And what
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happens in the course of a relationship is we start
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off with these very rational,
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higher cortical reasoning of
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why you shouldn't have been late and why the partner
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was late, and then it ends up in basically
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a yelling match,
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a little kid, you know, swinging at each other,
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um, uh, saying silly stupid things
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at each other, and you end up in an argument.
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And if you notice, those behaviors are
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very similar to a 2 to 6 year old.
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Okay, and this is why in
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a lot of couples counseling, one of the first
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advices a couple counselor usually gets
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is when an argument gets very volatile— um,
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Destry, it could mean physical contact, but it's more like
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what you do when you're between the age of 2 and 6.
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So, if you were physically aggressive between that age,
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when you are going through a severe sympathetic response,
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you will most likely use whatever aggressive
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tactics that, that you learned
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during that age group. This is
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why couples who get in Extreme,
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extreme arguments can end up with things like bite
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marks. Why couples
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will shove each other. If you think about
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ages between 2 and 6, those are often responses.
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But physical contact, yes, means whatever behaviors you
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best learn during that age group. If it was punching,
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you are more likely going to punch.
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If it was biting, you can end up biting,
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if that makes sense. Okay? And in
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some cases, that age group, it may be they run away
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or they escape it and leave.
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Okay? Again, it is fight or flight.
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Right, going back to the— I hope that answered your question,
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uh, but going back to the, um,
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couples counseling question, the most
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common advice in early, uh,
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couples counseling is when you get into a heated argument,
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separate from each other and
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do something separate for 15 to 20 minutes
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Usually they ask you to do something physical to wear
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off all the epinephrine and, and stress hormones
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in your body and get your body back into a
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parasympathetic response. Because what
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they're really trying to do is to get you out of this sympathetic
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branch, uh, limbic response and
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have the couple go back and retain
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more of their cortical areas of the brain to really
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make good decisions and,
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and have a less volatile
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conversation. Okay,
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now with all this being said, and this is something to keep in,
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keep in mind, you note that in the couple counseling
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situation The couple was asked
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to do something separate, physical,
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and then relaxing. Okay, because these
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responses are not— are autonomic.
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Remember this term up here? These responses are autonomic.
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And so, for example, in,
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um, uh, domestic batterers
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treatment, a lot of the treatment is to
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prevent them from going into an autonomic
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stress response.
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And also help them evaluate
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a situation as potentially highly
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stressful versus Um,
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not. Okay, now I
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want to make it clear that doesn't— not an autonomic
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response, um,
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doesn't automatically lead to domestic violence.
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All right, it's the power and control dynamic
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that makes it easier for the batterer to
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lose, as, as you would say, lose your cool and
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to make a decision to harm someone else. Okay,
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so I don't want everyone to think this is excuseology for,
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uh, being violent or being any of
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those things. The thing that I want us to understand is
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once someone gets to that violent state
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This is why we do a lot of safety planning
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for individuals who live in violent situations.
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Because at a certain point, that batterer
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no longer is going to be able to control
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their impulse to create harm. All right?
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And that's why we safety plan, safety plan, safety plan.
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All right,
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so this is kind of some of the areas
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that, uh, we'll also look at when we talk about
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human development. In human development, we'll talk
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about something called temperament, and someone with
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a quick emotional temperament often has a rapid
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sympathetic system. People who
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have a low temperament, that slow-to-warm type
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of individual, has more of
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a parasympathetic responsive system,
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meaning they don't really physiologically react very
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quickly to environmental stimuli.
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Okay. And so
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these systems will also come up when we talk about human development
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and different types of, of developmental
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propensities such as temperament.