The Importance Of Neuroscience

Neuroscience

The literature frequently recommended group therapists pay closer attention to advancements in brain studies (Flores, 2010). Research highlighted the importance of learning and teaching clients basic ways that the brain functions, especially as it relates to our emotions (Flores, 2010). To first lay a foundation for neuroscience, literature maintains that the human brain is generally organized into three complex and interconnected layers: the brainstem, the limbic system, and the neocortex.

“The brainstem regulates breathing, heart rate, and alertness. The limbic system includes the amygdala, anterior cingulate, and hippocampus: much of our emotional processing occurs in the limbic area. The neocortex, especially the prefrontal

Neurogenesis is the creation of new brain cells. Even though neural connections are “wired early and are resistant to change” we now know through neurogenesis and neuroplasticity, that these connections can and do change over our lifespan (Fishbane, 2007, p. 397). The most rapid period of neurogenesis occurs at the embryonic state of human development (Rutecki, 1992), called embryogenesis. At this stage, progenitor cells, and neural stem cells, which are similar to progenitor cells, differentiate into specific types of cells, and in the case of the human brain, these cells are called neurons (Zhang & Jiao, 2015). A human baby can produce billions of neurons and millions of neural connections, or “neural pathways,” by the age of 3, more than any period in a typical human’s lifetime. In fact, at this stage in human development, the average child is producing around 700 neural connections per second (InBrief: The Science of Early Childhood Development, 2012). “Experience alters the brain, even as we age…whenever we learn something new, attitudes, perspectives, or behaviors, we are changing the physical structure of the brain” (Fishbane, 2007, p.

The amygdala, located in the limbic system, alerts to danger by sending an alarm throughout the body in response to a threat (Fishbane, 2007, p. 397). The limbic system, and in particular the right hemisphere of the amygdala, creates meaning through experiences. Our earliest “implicit” memories are created through various motor functioning, such as body movement, and through emotions (another important function of the amygdala), and this directly correlates with our sensing of emotions and possible danger, our instinctive “fight or flight” responses (Badenoch and Cox, 2010). This mechanism often leads to suffering in human relationships when we feel threatened interpersonally. This interplay of the fight or flight response gives rise to a paradox of “being hard-wired for both connection and self-protection” (Fishbane, 2007, p. 397). Human emotions “involve connections between multiple brain circuits” and are typically “processed subcortically, beneath conscious awareness” (Fishbane, 2007, p.