Now that we have a basic understanding of the structural anatomy of the brain, we can start breaking down the functional anatomy. More specifically, we are going to look at adaptive brain theory - a key concept that influences how we respond, react, and interact with our environment. 

As I mentioned in Part 2 of this series, the brain is a complex system of feedback loops that takes in internal and external stimuli information to process and provide a response. We looked at the three main parts of the brain and their associated functions, however, the regions of your brain are all interconnected (meaning no one region is responsible for one thing and your brain networks work together). A common analogy I like to use when explaining this to clients is your typical group project that we all know and love from our university days. You get assigned a task and a group and then you divide the responsibilities amongst group members, but how often did you have a group project where every member did their part? We all know that it will ultimately be one person doing the heavy lifting with the other group members providing the occasional helping hand. Your brain networks function in the same way, there’s one primary network that has a specific function that does most of the heavy lifting and the other networks support it to give a more comprehensive response. These interconnected networks are one of three main principles that work together to optimize maintenance of the body’s internal state, emotion, and cognition in order to adapt to continuously changing needs. The three primary principles are:

1. Interdependent Brain Networks

2. Prediction

3. Balance

   
   

These three principles are constantly in play as our brain has evolved to predict the most adaptive course of action, but what does this really mean? To put it simply, the brain wants stability and homeostasis and determines courses of action with these two goals in mind. The networks in your brain function to evaluate your current environment, predict what is likely to occur, and then determine the best course of action based on this data. It’s a constant balancing act of internal needs and external demands. For example, imagine you take a trip away from modern day comforts and are roughing it out in the wilderness. Eventually, you will get hungry and need food. When you get hungry your brain will receive an internal signal that tells you to eat/find food; but, if while you are eating a tiger shows up and starts hunting you the brain will shift priority to a flight response from the external threat in order to survive. Is this example extreme and a very unlikely occurrence for 90% of people? Yes, but it illustrates an example where the external demand supercedes the internal demand and your brain shifts priorities in order to survive. This concept is referred to as allostasis, or the ability to anticipate and adapt to diverse environmental forces to balance internal needs and external demands. Essentially, the brain is constantly taking in and analyzing data in conjunction with “stored” data from past experiences that enables it to predict an outcome and provide the associated response that is conducive to maintaining homeostasis and surviving.

But why does this matter? We aren’t being hunted, we have food readily available, and modern technology has made life relatively easy in comparison to the human experience centuries ago. The concept of allostasis and your brain’s ability to adapt is just as applicable if not more applicable today, but the “threats” look a little different. You aren’t being hunted by a tiger, but maybe you are about to give a presentation in front of a room of board members or you and your partner just got into a huge argument. These situations don’t put your life at risk, but they are examples of modern day “threats” that cause a heightened emotional state or flight response. The more the brain can minimize prediction error in these situations and accurately predict the outcomes, the better it will be at anticipating and responding to the threat efficiently and rapidly. Basically, our brain starts to adapt and create feedback loops that are a reflection of our experiences and how we responded in those experiences and in that stressed state.

The concept of our brain adapting and prioritizing demands leads me into a discussion of how we can increase adaptation in our brain. There are three key ways that the brain responds to stress that can be developed to improve prediction and response: 

Emotion: Responding Quickly to Stress

Let’s dive into the topic of emotion and responding quickly to stress. This particular adaptation focuses on affect which is a representation of how we value our current situation. Emotions come and go but we are always in a state of affect that influences our choices based on what we are currently focusing on and the expected impact that these choices will have on our affective state. We are more willing to make choices that will immediately improve our affective state, such as getting that sweet treat or stress shopping online after a stressful day. Our core affect is an integrated awareness of our internal and external worlds and is oftentimes described as a “neurophysiological barometer.” It is a combination of two types of feeling continuums - valiance and arousal. Valiance scales from pleasant to unpleasant and arousal scales from low activation to high activation. Sound complicated? Let’s simplify. Core affect is how we feel at any point in time and influences our “knee jerk” reactions to stress.

Cognition: Responding Intelligently to Stress

Now that we’ve talked about our feelings, we can discuss cognition and responding intelligently to stress. When I refer to cognition, I’m referring to the ability to gain, represent, and use knowledge. Our ability to remember past events and experiences and use that knowledge effectively to cope with current stressors and challenges increases our brain’s adaptive qualities. This circles back to the concept of predictive reasoning and data compilation I discussed earlier in this article. It is adaptive to remember past events that might be like the current situation in order to problem solve and use that knowledge to adapt more successfully. This cognitive response relies on data input and memories in order to adapt and be strengthened and fortified as we go through life. It works with emotion in meeting needs, but functions as a slower response.

Social Bonds: Responding Cooperatively to Stress

Finally, we can also utilize and develop social bonds in order to respond cooperatively to stress. Having strong social bonds and being able to work with others increases adaptation. In fact, modern personality theory emphasizes that social acceptance and social status are key foundational principles in the human experience. Humans all have a desire to “get along” and have evolved psychological mechanisms to avoid being excluded.  

Now I’ll ask the question that you are probably asking yourself, why do these things matter? It matters because we are constantly surrounded by stress, it looks different for each person but the presence of stress is a shared human experience. Regardless of if we are aware of it, we are always in some state of affect, cognition, and social connectedness that impacts how we respond to stressors. If someone’s current affective state, cognitive state, or social connectedness is negative the person is more likely to respond defensively. The opposite is also true. If someone’s current affective state, cognitive state, or social connectedness is positive they are more likely to respond in a less defensive manner to a stressor. Developing a fundamental understanding of how our brain is making decisions and adapting as we progress through life facilitates our ability to train different pathways and responses and optimize how we function within our current environment. The concept of changing responses and creating new feedback loops and pathways within the brain is referred to as neuroplasticity and works with the adaptive brain theory in building new responses and data for the brain. The next part in this series will dive a little deeper into neuroplasticity, but the important takeaway is that we can train and develop the feedback loops and responses in our brain based on how we manipulate inputs and the “data” that our brain stores to draw from when trying to predict and provide an appropriate response.