Laymanpsych does not take the tragedy in Japan lightly. Many lives have been lost and the reality of the tragedy in Japan has only just begun surface. If you would like to help, a safe and surefire way is to simply text REDCROSS to 90999 on your cell phone to make a one-time $10 donation to help assist the Red Cross with disaster relief in Japan.
Understanding Human Reaction to Sudden Tragedy
The unfortunate reality of most human tragedies is that in the chaos that they create is the predictability that is human nature. As much diversity in our behavior that our (massive) frontal cortex allows for, at the base of our brain is an ancient structure that we share with every vertebrate on the planet. The brainstem, not surprisingly, is thusly the center of our most simple behaviors and bodily functions.
Many (women) may argue that men are mostly “brainstem” for it is the simple things that are required for life that are controlled by the brainstem. The beating of your heart, the rhythmic breathing of your lungs, arousal, and our alertness are all functions of the brainstem (among others).
There is more than irony in Disney's personification of the animal stampede
Human Emotion in The Brain
Additionally, it has been hypothesized that our emotions are largely controlled by areas of the brainstem. A PET study (conducted by Antonio R. Damasio, Thomas J. Grabowski, Antoine Bechara, Hanna Damasio, Laura L.B. Ponto, Josef Parvizi & Richard D. Hichwa) in 2000 demonstrated that when humans think of emotional historical events in their lives, activity in the regions of the brainstem increased, indicating that the brainstem plays an important role in the creation and reaction of emotional stimuli.
So what does it matter if the brainstem controls all of these simple functions?
The point is that although the rest of our brain has evolved significantly from our early ancestors, ultimately the very basic functions of our being are shared with the rest of the animal kingdom. This is no more visible than in times of sudden and unexpected tragedy, specifically in large groups of people.
Human Reaction to Disaster
As natural as it seems to run from disaster, as can be seen in many clips of the earthquake it’s easy to take for granted the lack of control we actually have when the brainstem is in high gear. Many refer to the brainstem as the brain’s “auto pilot” because the functions it is mostly responsible for are also the ones that we take without thought. This is not by accident but rather by design.
If we were tasked to assess and react accordingly to every experience in our lives, our survival rate would be more similar to Layman Psych’s Call of Duty score.
Every time you slam on the brakes because of a car you didn’t see, every time you duck from a soccer-ball that grazes your head, and every time you see a mass of people running like a herd of cattle, the brainstem is at work. The masses of people running from ground zero on 9/11 were not thinking about getting away, it was an automatic response. And while many would likely tell you later “We were just trying to get out of there” the truth is that this was more likely something that they became conscious of after they had already started running.
How do we know this?
As mentioned previously, there have been many studies that point to evidence that suggests our brain stems play a significant role in emotional responses. Such suggestions are nice on their own, but how can we further make this claim concrete? What if we studied an emotional disorder–the mental disorder–and examined the cause of that disorder–the physical or biological reason the disorder exists?
The Brainstem’s role in Panic Disorder
It just so happens that by studying panic disorders, we can begin to understand what part of the brain is responsible for eliciting this emotion. A now outdated, but oft cited study from 1994 (by V J Knott, D Bakish, and J Barkley) found that stimulation of the brainstem elicits panic attacks. Since then, a vast amount of scholarship has been written that supports these claims. Additionally, a recent study found that not only is there a correlation to panic (and panic attacks) and regions of the brainstem, but an abnormally large area of brainstem is correlated with an increased chance of an individual having panic (attack) disorders.
The Take Home
Every vertebrate on the planet has a few things in common. They eat, they breath, they sleep, they panic, they have a brain stem. While many animals lack the vast majority of structures and/or size of the human brain, we all share the ability to panic and react in auto mode.