Emotional Brain: The Barking Dog

The limbic system, learning, development and behaviors

I know having terms like “barking dog” as the title might make you picture your reaction to a dog barking at you. And guess what? You’re not wrong in doing that. The limbic system is responsible for controlling emotional drives, especially those that play an important role in survival. Accordingly, the name barking dog. Thank you, Dan Siegel and Georgetown University Center for Child & Human Development for coining these terms!

We’ve been looking at how the brain affects our emotional response and behavior. Last week, we started with the youngest part of the brain, The Wise Owl. Today, we’ll have a one-on-one session with the secondborn.

The limbic system is the heart of our emotions and memory formation. It’s made up of five regions: the limbic cortex, hippocampus, amygdala, septal area, and hypothalamus.

Makes you wonder…what would happen if the limbic system was damaged?

Well, a dysfunctional limbic system is associated with multiple clinical disorders. These include anxiety disorders, epilepsy, dementia, schizophrenia, and autism.

What is the Limbic System?

It’s not a part of the brain, but a group of several parts of the brain that work together.

The hippocampus plays one of the most significant roles as it’s responsible for memory, learning, special reasoning as well as long-term information storage. Seems important to know considering our job is to help students learn.

The amygdala is what processes emotions and attaches emotional meaning to memory. Any dysfunction of the two affects emotional regulation, learning, and memory. AKA…NOT good for learning, attention, and behavior.

The hypothalamus supports a wide range of functions by releasing hormones that help the body maintain its ongoing automatic and non-conscious functions. Ever wondered how your internal lunchtime clock is maintained and hunger kicks in at that time? That’s the hypothalamus.

Fun Fact!

I’m sure we’ve all used the phrase, “mind over matter” and some of us have t-shirts to further drive the point home. It is waging war with the limbic system as it connects the mind to the body. The gap between physiological and psychological experiences is bridged by the limbic system. SO COOL, right? Okay, I am totally a science nerd and LOVE this stuff, but you at least have to agree that it IS interesting!

What are the major functions of the limbic system?

FIGHT, FLIGHT, FREEZE, FAWN

The limbic system controls how we respond to intense emotions of anger or fear by activating the fight, flight, freeze, or fawn response. The amygdala will receive a threat and message the limbic system to prepare to handle the perceived threat. It’s like a smoke detector!

So, the adrenal glands are triggered to release epinephrine which increases the breathing rate, blood flow, heart rate, and blood pressure. “GET READY,” it says to the body.

In the short term, the response can be lifesaving, but it may lead to chronic stress disorders in the long-term like PTSD. Totally acceptable if you need to jump out of the way of a moving vehicle or escape from a bear. Not acceptable if you just need to get to school and learn.

Children who have undergone trauma mostly suffer from this. And believe me, it’s so painful for a kiddo who has never been to war to behave like a soldier traumatized by war. I hope that gives you a new perspective on what it’s like for these kiddos. Try to view them with the lens of “What must have happened to them?”, instead of “What’s wrong with them?”. All about that mindset.

As educators, it’s our duty to recognize these signs early enough and seek guidance on how to handle the situation. If students are acting strange, there’s a reason. Don’t overlook it.

MEMORY

The hippocampus and amygdala are responsible for storing memories, retrieving them, creating new memories, and helping the brain process their emotional content. The limbic system supports all of the following:

Long term memory
Spatial memories
Spatial reasoning

Whew — thank you brain for making it possible to memorize. Can you imagine your life without the hippocampus?

REWARD AND MOTIVATION

The limbic system holds the neurons like dopamine, which are responsible for pleasure feelings or at least the anticipation of pleasure. This is what motivates kiddos to meet new people, try out new things, or even learn something new.

The drawback is that abuse of drugs and alcohol also affects the release of dopamine making it difficult for the person to feel pleasure without alcohol or drugs. As a result, people become addicted to drugs as they help with the release of dopamine. Think about kids exposed to drugs in utero. They are born with altered dopamine-making systems. Meaning…they usually seek a greater release of dopamine, which means MORE. More attention, more movement, more control, more everything. Nothing is ever enough. Hello addiction.

LEARNING AND ATTENTION

As educators, our main goal is to give our kiddos the best environment to enhance their learning experience. So, let’s talk about how that happens.

The limbic system is also referred to as the “downstairs brain” as it’s responsible for the development of the lower systems. The lower systems meaning emotions, survival impulses, and movement. The consistent development (or let’s say, learning to control) and use of the lower systems affect a kiddo’s attention span, focus, social skills, and critical thinking in school.

The lower working levels include:

1. Occipital Lobe: Visual system, visual information, sight (shapes, numbers, letters, sizes)
2. Temporal Lobe: Auditory processing, speech, hearing, emotions, short and long-term memory (processing what the teacher says, fight/flight/freeze/fawn, remembering facts and details, fear)
3. Parietal Lobe: Senses, sensory integration, and input (touch, temperature, taste, smell)

From 6 months to 3.5 years the lower systems develop. As they develop, they build the basis for higher learning. However, higher learning can’t happen if a kiddo hasn’t first developed the lower system muscles. THIS is why the “early years” are SO critical. When will policymakers learn this?

For instance, if kiddos are fidgeting on their seats, chewing pencils, or easily distracted by activities in the next class, then they aren’t in a position to read or solve a math problem. So, you need to work on improving on the lower levels by teaching them how to recognize dysregulation and putting something in place to regulate such as breathing, movement, or touch. That way, they’ll be in a position to focus on higher levels. There’s a reason for those brain breaks!

Hence the importance to teach kiddos how to regulate their emotions as emotional stress drains their intellectual capacity.

It’s clear that the limbic system plays a HUGE role in kiddos’ learning and development. As parents and educators, we can work together to keep strengthening this muscle by modeling, teaching, and practicing ways to neutralize.

We’ll also talk about strengthening the prefrontal cortex muscle so that it can override the limbic system. Here’s a little secret…think yoga, meditation, and mindfulness to strengthen the PFC.

Next week, we’ll look at the all-star champ: The Brain Stem.

Want to learn more about caring for your brain? Watch this short video!