Positive Intelligence (Part 2) - The Neuroscience

If you’re like us at Potencia, your brain is well attuned to sorting fact from fiction and science from pseudoscience. We value evidence-based coaching.  So this post is for those who are science nerds (like us!) and skeptics (also us!) who need to see the research about a new area for coaching: “Positive Intelligence”.  

Let’s dig into the evidence for Positive Intelligence first with a quick overview of the brain (I made this expandable in case you wanted to gloss over specific parts!).

Brain Basics

Parts of the Brain - Basics

Cerebrum

The cerebrum (front of brain) comprises gray matter (the cerebral cortex) and white matter at

its center. The largest part of the brain, the cerebrum initiates and coordinates movement and regulates temperature. Other areas of the cerebrum enable speech, judgment, thinking and reasoning, problem-solving, emotions and learning. Other functions relate to vision, hearing, touch and other senses.

The cerebral cortex is divided into two halves, or hemispheres. The right hemisphere controls the left side of the body, and the left half controls the right side of the body. The Cerebrum includes 4 lobes: 

• Frontal lobe. The largest lobe of the brain, located in the front of the head, the frontal lobe is involved in personality characteristics, decision-making and movement. Recognition of smell usually involves parts of the frontal lobe. The frontal lobe contains Broca’s area, which is associated with speech ability.

• Parietal lobe. The middle part of the brain, the parietal lobe helps a person identify objects and understand spatial relationships (where one’s body is compared with objects around the person). The parietal lobe is also involved in interpreting pain and touch in the body. The parietal lobe houses Wernicke’s area, which helps the brain understand spoken language.

• Occipital lobe. The occipital lobe is the back part of the brain that is involved with vision.

• Temporal lobe. The sides of the brain, temporal lobes are involved in short-term memory, speech, musical rhythm, and some degree of smell recognition.

Brainstem

The brainstem (middle of brain) connects the cerebrum with the spinal cord. The brainstem includes the midbrain, the pons and the medulla.  These pieces facilitate various functions, from hearing and movement to calculating responses and environmental changes, movement and coordination, tear production, chewing, blinking, focusing vision, balance, hearing, and facial expression. At the bottom of the brainstem, the medulla is where the brain meets the spinal cord. The medulla is essential to survival. Functions of the medulla regulate many bodily activities, including heart rhythm, breathing, blood flow, and oxygen and carbon dioxide levels. The medulla produces reflexive activities such as sneezing, vomiting, coughing and swallowing.

The spinal cord extends from the bottom of the medulla and through a large opening in the bottom of the skull. Supported by the vertebrae, the spinal cord carries messages to and from the brain and the rest of the body.

Cerebellum

The cerebellum (“little brain”) is a fist-sized portion of the brain located at the back of the head, below the temporal and occipital lobes and above the brainstem. Its function is to coordinate voluntary muscle movements and to maintain posture, balance and equilibrium. New studies are exploring the cerebellum’s roles in thought, emotions and social behavior, as well as its possible involvement in addiction, autism and schizophrenia.

Parts of the Brain - The Limbic System

The limbic system is located deep within your brain. It contains several parts (structures or components) that take the shape of a closed fist in the middle of your cerebrum (the largest region of your brain). The word “limbic” means “border,” because it its in the border above your brainstem and underneath your cerebral cortex.

There are four main structures of the limbic system:

• Hypothalamus: The hypothalamus produces hormones, helps you sleep, and manages your mood, hunger and thirst, sexual arousal, blood pressure, body temperature and heart rate.

• Amygdala: The amygdala plays a role in how you experience emotions and feelings (like anxiety, anger and fear), memory and social interpretations (information about others).
  

• Thalamus: The thalamus processes sensory information (hearing, taste, sight and touch) and helps with memory, planning and emotions.

• Hippocampus: Your hippocampus is responsible for your ability to form new memories.

The limbic system is one of the oldest structures of your brain. It produces natural instincts that your ancestors used to survive by triggering important behaviors like caring or fighting/flighting. It also helps manage your memories, learn from memories, and keeps you stimulated and motivated.

Higher Mental Function

Higher mental function occurs when multiple components of your brain work together to help you complete a task. You use higher mental functioning when you speak, remember, control your emotions, plan or make decisions, for example. The components of your limbic system work together with other brain regions so you can attain higher mental functioning every day.

Neuroplasticity

The neuroscience of Positive Intelligence begins with the concept of neuroplasticity. Neuroplasticity is the brain's ability to change and adapt due to experience. It is an umbrella term referring to the brain's ability to change, reorganize, or grow neural networks. This can involve functional changes due to brain damage or structural changes due to learning.

The average adult has half of the 15,000 synapses per neuron as a 3-year-old - why? Because as we gain new experiences, some connections are strengthened while others are eliminated. This process is known as synaptic pruning. Neurons that are used frequently develop stronger connections. Those that are rarely or never used eventually die. By developing new connections and pruning away weak ones, the brain can adapt to the changing environment.

While people used to believe that the brain became fixed after a certain age, newer research has revealed that the brain never stops changing in response to learning.

So this is us at Potencia making the case that you should adopt a growth mindset - that with work, you can grow and retrain your brain to improve at anything you strive to improve.

Saboteurs and the "Survival Brain"

Your Saboteurs and your Sage come from different regions of your physical brain and are strengthened when you activate those regions. Thus your internal war between your Saboteurs and your Sage is tied to an internal struggle for domination between the different parts of your brain.

We each develop Saboteurs early in childhood to survive the perceived threats of life, both physical and emotional. By the time we are adults, these Saboteurs are no longer needed, but they have become invisible inhabitants of our minds. Shirzad calls the region your Saboteurs come from your "Survivor Brain".

The Survivor Brain consists of the most primitive parts of the brain, the brain stem, and the limbic system, both of which are involved in initiating our response to danger. The left brain is the primary hemisphere involved in the survival functions. The hallmark of the Survivor Brain is the fight-or-flight response. This response instantly shifts the brain and body’s priorities to survive immediate danger. In addition to reduced peripheral vision, all nonessential brain and body functions are diminished as blood is directed to the larger muscles of the heart and limbs, enabling a quick escape. The fight-or-flight response also narrows the mind’s focus to anticipating and escaping danger, to the detriment of other functions. In particular, it activates the mind’s survivor agents, the Saboteurs.

When the brain is in survival mode, it is so focused on seeing signs of danger and finding something or someone to blame that it misses signs of opportunity and fails to appreciate what is right. The Judge Saboteur rules the Survivor Brain. Its very existence is due to the Survivor Brain: the Judge’s extreme negative bias was helpful to the physical survival of our ancestors in a dangerous and unpredictable world of predators, enemies, and natural disasters. This is a vicious cycle that feeds on itself until you learn to quiet your Survivor Brain and activate its antidote, the PQ Brain.

Sages and the "PQ Brain"

Our five sage powers, Empathize, Explore, Activate, Innovate, and Navigate, come from our "PQ Brain". The PQ Brain consists of three components: the middle prefrontal cortex (MPFC), the "Empathy Circuitry", and the right brain.

The MPFC is a relatively small region of the brain that plays several critical PQ functions. These include observing yourself, pausing before action, soothing fear, staying centered in the middle of challenging situations, and gut wisdom.

“Empathy Circuitry” is Shirzad's (author of Positive Intelligence) term for a few different areas of the brain that are together responsible for experiencing empathy for yourself and others. It also helps your brain tune in to the emotions and energy of others. See below for more details (from National Geographic, January 2018):

The right brain deals with the big picture, imagery, nonverbal language, and the detection of invisible things such as energy and mood. It helps with our awareness of our physical sensations and emotions. This contrasts with the left-brain focus on language, linear and logical thinking, and details. The right brain enables us to thrive in a life rich with relationships, curiosity, discovery, joy, and meaning.

Growing our Brains!

As children, the strengths of our Survivor Brain and our PQ Brain are far more balanced than they are when we get older. As we grow up, our Survivor Brain is continually exercised, rewarded, and strengthened, while the PQ Brain trophies.

In the vast majority of adults, the Survivor Brain muscles are far stronger than those of the PQ Brain. The great news is that the PQ Brain muscles respond very quickly to being exercised and can develop great strength in a relatively short time.

Want to learn how? I'll write about it in the next Positive Intelligence blog post. If you want to discuss the possibility of building up your PQ brain, schedule a free discovery call here.

For Learning and With Love,

Chris