it alerts the hypothalamus, which alerts the pituitary gland, which tells the adrenal gland (atop your kidney) to make stress chemicals. Those chemicals travel through the bloodstream and affect your whole body. In your brain, they inflame the amygdala (increasing the intensity of sadness, fear, and anger) and block the hippocampus from laying down memory tracks.
If these chemicals continue for any length of time, the hippocampus shrinks and the amygdala enlarges. You can see these changes on an MRI brain scan. Parts of the cortex (the gray area on the outside that does most of your thinking) are also affected, including the VMPF (ventral medial prefrontal cortex), which controls emotions by calming the amygdala. Other areas in our cortex that help us speak and think coherently also can decrease in size.
THE LONGER THE SYMPATHETIC NERVOUS SYSTEM STAYS ON, THE MORE DAMAGE IT CAN DO TO YOUR BRAIN.
No comments:
Post a Comment