![]() ![]() But what if your prefrontal cortex didn't attenuate that response? Otherwise, we might all be at each other's throats all the time. Usually, hopefully, you're not actually in any danger and your higher reasoning mitigates your response. By the time your prefrontal cortex catches up to the action, your heart rate and blood pressure are up and you're ready to run or punch as the occasion demands. The amygdala sets off alarm bells and floods your body with hormones like adrenaline, so that you're ready for a fight. ![]() KATERYNA KON/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY/Getty Images The amygdala (red) is part of the brain's limbic system and plays a key role in processing emotions. The correct responses to those events are as varied as their potential outcomes - injury and death, or warm chocolate chips - but if it's the first kind of event, you need to act fast. A loud noise could be a gunshot, an intruder, or a kid selling cookies at your front door. While your prefrontal cortex is responsible for higher reasoning, working logically through a problem takes time you may not have if your life is in danger. Your brain takes in that information and starts processes to quantify and formulate a response. Let's say you hear a loud noise you weren't expecting. ![]() When you're presented with a potentially dangerous stimuli, a couple things happen in your brain. Scientists have identified the amygdala as the part of the brain responsible for pumping you full of some of your most intense emotions, including anger. Whether your neighbor stole your newspaper again, the dog left a present for you on the kitchen floor, or you've been infected with a novel virus which has taken over your brain, getting angry is an ordinary response. Whether we like to admit it or not, anger is an ordinary part of human life. ![]()
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