OK, so loosely there are 4 main areas of the brain. There’s the reptilian brain, so named because it covers the same function in reptiles, too: breathing, body temperature, emergency responses, digestion and so on.
On top of the brain stem perches the limbic system. All mammals have a limbic system.
It involves memory creation, emotions and their regulation, as well as the sense of attachment or care for another.
Next the neocortex, somewhat in mammals and very much in primates, which controls language, thought, spatial reasoning, and sensory perception.
And then the human part of the brain - the prefrontal cortex. This unique part of the brain allows for complex social behavior like empathy, understanding other points of view, emotional balance, impulse control, reasoning through difficult social challenges, and intuition.
As you can see in the side diagram, there is a place where the prefrontal cortex and the limbic system connect. Between them run massive numbers of nerves. The nerves from the emotional limbic system to the prefrontal cortex out number the nerves going from the rational prefrontal cortex to the limbic system by ten to one. Significantly, that ten to one ratio means that the emotions have a super highway to get our attention, but the cognitive nerves have something more like a country path.
Take Home Point: It’s a lot easier to become swamped by messages coming in on the super highway of emotions than for the emotional self to sense the messages coming in from the country path of reason.
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