“The cerebral cortex is a liberation [. . . ] No longer at the mercy of the reptile brain, we can change ourselves.” –Carl Sagan
The cerebral cortex is the most evolutionarily recent part of our brains. It governs reasoning, memory, empathy, and other forms of higher thought. It also contains the bulk of the brain’s grey matter, which is the mass that allows for new neural pathways to be built — and thus new ways of receiving stimuli and perceiving reality.
The cerebral cortex is in direct contrast with the limbic system, or reptile brain, in both age and function. The amygdala, located in the limbic system, is the first of the brain to process sensory input. It triages stimuli into one of two categories: threatening and nonthreatening. If stimuli is deemed as threatening, a defense mechanism is triggered. This defense may be an extreme one, such as fight of flight; or, it may be more benign, such as cognitive dissonance. If the incoming stimuli is read as nonthreatening, it is passed onto the cerebral cortex to be further processed.
I often wonder what these physiological facts and neurological binaries mean for the world-at-large as we grapple with so many sociopolitical indictments and undoings. How does the amygdala decide what is and what isn’t threatening? What does the amygdala of, say, George Zimmerman look like?
The brain processes visual stimuli first. When you see something in the corner of your eye and flinch without first knowing what the visual is, that’s the amygdala in action. When I read this neurological fact, I immediately thought of representation in the media: who do we see most? Who are we most acclimated to? What populations have been inured to the neurons of the masses? What races, gender identities, languages? Who receives neurological dominance?
Further, I wonder what this means in terms of the meanings we attach to these images and their corresponding social facts. Despite growing diversity in the media industry, the roles being filled by marginalized people are roles of marginalized lives: slave, murderer, criminal, impoverished family. Rarely do we see roles with a strong lead from a colonized nationality engaged in life’s day-to-day and expected successes.
But we are not trapped or forever indebted to our current perceptions. As neuroscience reveals to us, any oppressive sentiment can be reduced to a few localized neuronal firings. These neurochemical sequences do not exist in permanence; they can be changed, refined, rewired.
What could the world look like if we attached new meanings to the images of marginalized people? If we reworked the forms these images took, or even reconceptualized what is even worthy of fearful response?
All these revolutions are not only possible, but waiting for us with our cerebral cortices and grey matter. Within us is the power to rewire a thousand realities into something more wholesome and conducive to the flowering of all. Yes; the cerebral cortex is a liberation — a portal toward new new ways of functioning — both individually and collectively; physiologically and socially; culturally and politically.
ADDITIONAL READING
https://www.brainscape.com/blog/2012/03/facts-about-your-gray-matter/
http://thebrain.mcgill.ca/flash/d/d_04/d_04_cr/d_04_cr_peu/d_04_cr_peu.html#2
subatomic thoughts 