The effect of trauma on the brain and how it affects behaviors | John Rigg | TEDxAugusta

AI-generated summary and notes. Check quotations, numbers, and important claims against the source video. Captions may contain errors.

Watch the source video on YouTube

Estimated reading time: 26 minutes for the text on this page.

Summary

In this TEDx talk, John Rigg explores the profound effects of trauma on the brain, particularly how it influences behaviors through the lens of the human and primitive animal brain. He illustrates the concept using scenarios like arguments with loved ones and the instincts of soldiers in combat settings. Emphasizing the role of stress and the fight-or-flight response, Rigg explains how our primitive brain can hijack our responses faster than our thinking cortex can process, affecting behavior almost automatically. He advocates for natural stress relief and holistic approaches, over pharmaceutical solutions, to manage hyperarousal and stress-induced symptoms.

Highlights

Understanding traumatic brain injury and its effects can improve how we manage stress responses. 💡
Our animal brain does not understand geography, which can lead to confusion in different environments. 🌍
John Rigg uses a rock concert scenario to explain instinctive vs. reactive responses. 🎸
He emphasizes the value of physical exercise and holistic practices over medication. 💪
John Rigg shares personal experiences and concludes with a musical tribute, blending art and science. 🎶

Key Takeaways

Our brain has two main parts: the human cortex for thinking and the animal brain for instincts. 🧠
Trauma and stress can hyperactivate the primitive brain, leading to automatic, unthinkable reactions. ⚡
Soldiers' fight-or-flight responses remain hyper aroused even after returning home from combat. 🪖
Relaxation techniques like meditation and yoga are effective in reducing stress and improving mental health. 🧘‍♂️
The primitive brain responds faster than the thinking brain, often leading us into undesired situations. 🐒

Overview

John Rigg captivates his audience with an engaging exploration of the dual nature of our brain, highlighting how the primitive 'animal' brain can dominate behavior under stress. He explains that while the human cortex is responsible for complex thought processes, the primal brain governs survival instincts, often leading to reactions beyond our conscious control. This duality can lead to behaviors that might seem irrational when under stress or after traumatic experiences.

The talk delves into the impact of trauma on soldiers, particularly how their constant fight-or-flight response in war zones can permanently alter their behavior even after returning to civilian life. Rigg describes the physiological mechanisms behind this, emphasizing how the primitive brain acts faster than conscious thought, triggering instincts that are hardwired for survival. His anecdotes bring to light the daily struggles faced by those living with heightened stress responses.

Rigg finishes with a powerful message on the importance of addressing the root causes of stress without relying on pharmaceuticals. Instead, he champions alternative therapies such as meditation, yoga, and physical exercise to help regulate the primitive brain's reactions. Concluding his talk, Rigg picks up a guitar, blending his love for music and medicine, offering a unique tribute through performance, symbolizing healing and harmony.

Chapters

00:00 - 03:00: Introduction to Overreactions and Stress In this introduction chapter, the concept of overreactions and stress is explored. The reader is prompted to recall personal experiences of arguments or conflicts with loved ones, such as family members or spouses. This reflection aims to set the stage for a deeper understanding of emotional reactions and stress management in subsequent chapters.
03:00 - 09:00: The Two Brains - Human vs Animal This chapter explores the differences between human and animal brains, particularly focusing on emotional responses and reactions such as anger and hyper-arousal. It examines factors contributing to overreactions in humans, pondering the mechanisms that trigger such emotions and behaviors.
09:00 - 15:00: Primitive Instincts: Survival and Reactions In the chapter titled 'Primitive Instincts: Survival and Reactions', the discussion centers around the concept of stress as a determinant of human behavior. The chapter explores the anatomy of the human brain, highlighting that two distinct brains contribute to our behaviors. The influence of stress is particularly examined in relation to one of these brains. It emphasizes that stress is not a concept we consciously create but rather a reaction to external environmental factors.
15:00 - 21:00: Trauma and Hyperarousal in Soldiers The speaker introduces the concept of having 'two brains.' They refer to a diagram illustrating the cortex and the structure beneath it, the brain stem, with an emphasis on the subcortical brain. This structure is essential for understanding trauma and hyperarousal in soldiers. The cortex is identified as the human or intelligent brain, which houses our personality and individuality.
21:00 - 25:00: Irritability and Miscommunication in Relationships This chapter discusses the various choices and actions we make in our lives and how they are influenced by the cortex of the human brain. It emphasizes the role of the cortex in processing sensory information that shapes our personality and individuality, highlighting its significance as the largest part of the human brain. The chapter underscores the impact of these cognitive processes on our relationships, particularly focusing on how they contribute to irritability and miscommunication in relationships.
25:00 - 32:30: Stress, Hormones, and Healing The chapter discusses the concept of humans being animals with complex behaviors driven by our primitive animal brain. Despite not excelling in physical attributes like size, speed, or strength compared to animals, humans dominate due to superior cognitive functioning, specifically attributed to having the largest cortex. This animalistic nature influences certain behaviors, some of which are undesirable, such as the basic functions of eating, excreting, and reproducing. The chapter explores how behaviors triggered by this primitive brain impact our lives.
32:30 - 37:00: Self-care and Alternatives to Pharmaceuticals This chapter discusses the brain's automatic responses to environmental stimuli, particularly focusing on the 'animal brain' that operates beyond our conscious control. It uses the example of an increased heartbeat when prompted to race, highlighting the difference between the conscious thoughts of the cortex and the involuntary actions managed by the animal brain.
37:00 - 47:10: Musical Tribute to Veterans The chapter highlights the involuntary functions controlled by the primitive animal brain, emphasizing its role in maintaining vital processes like heartbeat, breathing, and digestion from fetal development to death. The discussion underscores the impressive and constant activity of the central nervous system without conscious intervention.

The effect of trauma on the brain and how it affects behaviors | John Rigg | TEDxAugusta Transcription

00:00 - 00:30 I want to ask you to think back to some occasion in your life when you might have gotten in an argument with someone particularly someone that you loved you cared for a lot a family member a spouse
00:30 - 01:00 a parent and really reacted really react it got so angry did things you said things maybe broke stuff said hurtful things and then later on reflected on your behavior and wondering what happened where did that come from I want to look at some of the factors that contribute to that type of overreaction that mechanism that hyper arousal that occurs hyper arousal anger hostility where does that come from what generates
01:00 - 01:30 it I'm going to talk about stress okay stress as if as a factor that can influence behaviors and look at the anatomy of the human brain is actually we actually have two brains that are contributing to our behaviors two brains contributing to our behaviors and stress is particularly influential on one of them stresses noting that we think about right we don't come up with stress it is a reaction to the external environment
01:30 - 02:00 so let me talk about the two brains I have a diagram here of this the cortex of the brain and this structure underneath the cortex of the brain which is labeled brain stem in here but I'm really talking to talk about the subcortical brain this entire structure here the cortex of the brain is what I'm going to call the human brain the intelligent brain it's where our personality is our individuality where
02:00 - 02:30 we make choices of our mate what we eat we're kind of music we listen to what car we drive where we live what type of life we live we take in sensory information that's processed in the cortex and we take actions based on sensory information that's where our personality our individuality it's all centered in that cortical area note in the human brain it's actually the the by far the largest mass of the human brain is cortex okay we rule the world as humans
02:30 - 03:00 why not because we perform animal functions better than any animals we're not bigger faster stronger than animals we think better we have the largest cortex and we rule the world but we're animals we eat make waste products and make babies and that behavior triggered by our primitive animal brain is sometimes responsible for triggering some of the behaviors that were not particularly fond of so this primitive animal brain what does it do well the
03:00 - 03:30 brain reacts to situations whether we want it to or not particularly this animal brain which doesn't think it just reacts to the environment so if I if I said to you hey let's all go outside and race across Broad Street but don't your heart beat increase could you do it now you can think to yourself hey I'm going to stop my heart beat for 10 seconds but you can't do it the thought exists the thinking exists in the cortex the human brain but the animal brain is controlling your heartbeat and won't let
03:30 - 04:00 you do it so you can think all you want about lowering your blood pressure and it won't happen that primitive animal brain is maintaining your heartbeat your breathing your digestion from the moment that you're born at any time I mean even pre pre birth you know as a fetus that no these structures start operating in that central nervous system primitive animal brain is operating non-stop until it until your death pretty amazing okay I'm gonna ask you to look at
04:00 - 04:30 another way that that this primitive animal brain reacts the situations okay so this you know let's let's pick a picture a bunch of guys hanging out arguing about who's gonna win the Super Bowl on Sunday talking about cars whatever whatever men might want to talk about when they're involved in a conversation I'm a man so I look at you know I only have a male perspective on things but what you guys are sitting around talking and all of a sudden there that conversation this really attractive
04:30 - 05:00 looking woman walks by with a inappropriately short miniskirt and an inappropriately tight t-shirt what's gonna happen to that conversation all right the little Snickers in yon is no not me man I don't look you know men will be attracted to that not because they're out there searching for mates married men might react that way okay but because of the fact there's an animal incident of sexual attraction why do advertisers put sexually attractive women in ads to attract
05:00 - 05:30 attention to that ads so people go on buy stuff they don't need okay it's an animal instinct now I may be distracted at times but I'm married so I don't go out and chase the girl you know married men's committed men or in relationships might to be attracted might be it might be like a magnetic boom but back focus on hey I'm married yeah I think the Patriots are gonna lose or whatever you know whatever the conversation happens you know but the reaction and I don't know how
05:30 - 06:00 women react to men I mean you know fortunately you you do react those ugly guys with that's good you know but that primitive sexual instinct is a really important behavioral driver of on a day to day basis you know male elephants are attracted to female elephants female frogs mate with male frogs all species mates sexual attractions basic animal instinct a more powerful animal instinct programmed in that primitive animal brain is survival and how do animals
06:00 - 06:30 survive fight or flight okay much more powerful instinct so the primitive animal brain to review runs our body breathing digestion heartbeat blood maintains blood pressure and this program for primitive animal instincts that all animals have eating sexual attractions seeking safety and shelter and then that most powerful instinct survival fight-or-flight the cortex of the brain is our thinking brain it makes
06:30 - 07:00 decisions it takes actions that those things okay based on sensory information it thinks it's where our memory is located all of our processing now my job on a daily basis is I work I'm a physician I work I'm the director of the traumatic brain injury for the military down here at Fort Gordon Eisenhower Army Medical Center and I'm gonna use some examples of what happens to soldiers when they're taken from the United States sent over to Iraq and
07:00 - 07:30 Afghanistan and experience the traumatic experience of war and how does that experience impact their performance how does that experience impact their behaviors based on the influence that that traumatic experience has on their brain whether they wanted to or not okay so what they do is they go to a place like Iraq or Afghanistan what is the enemy trying to do to them when they're there kill him trying to keep the enemies trying to kill these men and women so their
07:30 - 08:00 fight-or-flight the primitive animal instinct is ramped up and magnified turned on big time all the time not for like 20 minutes here in ten minutes here but non-stop for 24 24/7 through their entire time of deployment I was I was with the patient this morning seven deployments seven deployments 14 months minimum of those seven in those seven deployments hyperactivated fighter flight and when you're in a place where you know bad guys are trying to kill you having your
08:00 - 08:30 fight-or-flight activated to respond real quickly is the best thing that could happen to you and it functions great when you're in a combat zone but now let's take that soldier and return him to the United States so you get on a plane come back to the US get off the plane hi I'm back home what part of the brain is recognizing the geographic shift back to the United States the cortex the intelligent human thinking brain but where was this hyper aroused fight-or-flight located and the primitive animal brain the subcortical
08:30 - 09:00 brain specifically a structure called the amygdala which becomes hyper activated and triggers fight-or-flight now that was very very powerful and essential in a combat zone but the soldier now comes home and he's still hyperactivated so to give you an example I had one of my men went to it was home for a few months he was feeling pretty good he went to a rock and roll show in Atlanta hanging out in Atlanta I was doing ok with the crowds but all of a sudden boom fireworks go off BAM he bought he dives to the ground now he
09:00 - 09:30 didn't hear the explosion ago that sounds like a bomb I'd better duck ok he reacted non-thinking so now let's look at the anatomy of the brain cause there's one more super important point to make in here that's fascinating sensory information comes in - you know we see here taste touch and smell that sensor information comes into our sense organs is sent to a structure in the brain except for smell which bypasses the thalamus but all the rest are sent to the thalamus which is a relay station that sends a signal to both the human intelligent cortical
09:30 - 10:00 brain and the primitive animal brain so in this case of this explosion at a rock show the explosion gets to the cortex and the cortex is gonna think about exploding sounds like a bomb Whitman I'm in Atlanta oh my gosh the terrorists by the way the band still playing nobody's running for cover nobody saw romance fireworks roof I'm ok and the cortex could figure that out very quickly simultaneously that signal went to the animal brain the animal brain doesn't understand geography it's hyper activated it's hyperactivated particular to
10:00 - 10:30 explosions which in war meant what I a DS rocket-propelled grenades mortars blood guts death body parts here's the second key point about this primitive animal brain number one it doesn't understand geography number two it's faster than the thinking brain the animal brain actually is physiologically wired to respond faster than the thinking brain so before the soldier can take that soldier was fireworks that
10:30 - 11:00 explosion was fireworks boom he's on the ground diving for cover you know about the time he hits the ground he's going on like god I feel like a jerk down here you know because everybody else is up cheering and he's on the ground ok but it was a non thinking response you know non thinking response triggered by the animal brain which is wired to respond faster when you think about it from a survival perspective a survival perspective the faster we react the more likely you are to survive so indeed through an evolutionary period you know
11:00 - 11:30 the human species has been around about 300,000 years but for 300 million years we have had animals have had a fight-or-flight reaction I don't know who figures this stuff out but that's what it says in the biological books 300 million years of a fight-or-flight you know the faster they react the more likely they are to survive the animal brain is not very smart it's fast it's fast the more the quicker you respond to dangerous threatening situations the more likely you ought to
11:30 - 12:00 survive a child that grows up in an abused environment you could take them out of that home right and put them somewhere else but if he's experienced he or she has experienced significant abuse in that home that abuse is impacted their arousal system their primitive animal brain no matter how much in their cortical brain they may want to overcome that they are still reacting to situations programmed in that primitive animal brain but you can't change by thinking any more than you can change your heartbeat your blood
12:00 - 12:30 pressure okay eat and hold your food your belly for four hours before you digest it so let me talk a little bit about irritability okay so there was a man and wife or at home and the wife asked her husband honey can you take out the trash for me sure maybe no problem I'll take out the garbage so the man he gets up took out the garbage did a good job cleaned up everything a nice came back in the house that down job done now meanwhile his wife walked off into another room and their two little children the two little
12:30 - 13:00 children had spilt chocolate milk all over this beautiful brand-new white sofa she was angry now she's got this new sofa with big nasty stains on it she's not happy okay why they look these kids to break chocolate milk in here why did I get a white sofa my relatives are coming to visit I got this nasty stain on here boy is she angry she's not mad at her husband okay but she comes back to her husband with a me angry look on her face okay and now our husbands in a maybe fatigued
13:00 - 13:30 stressed-out with you know stuff going on at work or whatever you know not particularly a great mood she comes back to him now and she got a angry look on her face and she goes did you take off that trash like I asked you yeah he starts cursing his way yelling at her Wow well what happened well how did she go how did she approach her husband aggressive hostile angry what's the fastest part of the brain to
13:30 - 14:00 respond to sensory information coming in his angry face and angry tone of voice the fastest part of the brain that respond is what the primitive animal brain in order for that man to recognize hey that's my wife talking about the garbage he needs his memory in his cortex to recognize his wife and to recognize the English language did you take out the garbage so when he responded he didn't respond to his wife he responded to the aggressive tone of voice and the aggressive face that she presented now of course when he yells at his wife she
14:00 - 14:30 don't like that okay so she barks at him and he barks back at her and now they're in a big argument over nonsense over nonsense they made a their intelligent thinking human brains made a decision hey I love you baby let's get married and live happily ever after let's have a wonderful life together your awesome husband daddy but now in the heat of the moment that intelligent decision and the primitive animal brain
14:30 - 15:00 is reacted and gotten him into a situation that they're intelligent thinking brain never would have never would have when when the brain is hyper aroused if it's stressed out you know certainly this is a situation that I see in in in military personnel who have been involved in combat but you know everybody gets stressed out you know bills family relations neighbors making too much noise or whatever okay that hyper arousal that primitive animal brain is pumping out stress hormones
15:00 - 15:30 interfering with sleep keeping you up it can hijack a memory because as you're thinking of all the stress even unconsciously remember I'm not talking about the conscious brain where you're thinking and plotting and using your cortex and probably a hyper arousal the animal brain that's been stimulated by some type of stuff okay could be trauma could be just day-to-day stuff that's accumulating and hard to manage but the stress hormones get released
15:30 - 16:00 it activates that part of the brain and memory becomes difficult because concentration and attention it's not that the memory storage and recall is problematic 'since the attention is being diverted to all this other stuff ok the stress factors for example I'll have a lot of soldiers will tell me they have memory problems I was talking to a guy once in my office and we had started having a sports conversation and we get up and walking down the hall and I'm talking about you know the topic that we had been speaking about we got to the end that
16:00 - 16:30 Holly goes doc and I told you my memory sucks I don't remember anything he just said well what happened was when I opened up the door we retrace our steps to analyze this so when I opened up the door he saw other doors in the hallway and started thinking who's in those rooms what kind of weapons they got in there whose footsteps are those coming down to connect me hauling one of the guys a grenade what are we gonna do it's about time we got to the end of the hall he wasn't he didn't forget what I said he never heard it because his primitive animal brain was hyper aroused so what
16:30 - 17:00 are we gonna do about it you know I mean as a neuroscientist I went back to school later in life I became a physician and I have been fascinated being a brain mechanic that's kind of what I consider myself to be I'm not a behavioral health psychiatrist or anybody that deals with move depression and all this kind of stuff but what I love is the way the brain operates is a machine the most complex machine in the entire universe and what is really amazing to me is we got this part of the brain it's reacting before we think and triggering hormonal releases and
17:00 - 17:30 consequently behaviors that really take us in situations that we don't necessarily want when we look back well why did I do that during the day the brain is constantly generating ideas constantly generating thoughts it goes back to that you know I like to think about in terms of ontology you know Descartes 1650 said there I think therefore I am how did he define his being I think therefore I am fast forward to the 1950s French
17:30 - 18:00 existentialist jean-paul Sartre was concerned not that I think therefore I am but I am the person that sees my thoughts thoughts may happen but they're generated spontaneously by the brain they're not necessarily who you are you are the person that sees those thoughts I love that definition because that's the cortex of the brain that I want to amplify I want to magnify when you use that cortex to determine in my life how I live my life what I do I can see
18:00 - 18:30 thoughts coming into my head you know maybe getting emotional about stuff angry about somebody challenging me or cutting me off on the road or or something that's challenging but it's always good to stop for me I stop to think wow feel my reaction to it is not necessarily what I want to happen here what I want to happen I can control I can do with my cortex I still react is that brain that primitive brain reacts so in my experience both in the working
18:30 - 19:00 for I've been working for the for the army for about almost seven years now and you know been a brain injury doubt for a few years more than that I see a lot of folks in this status who end up going to doctors and they get headache medications prophylactic and a board of therapies they get sleep meds which don't work they get mood medications they get pain meds okay you know oh let me talk about one more thing I forgot so stress right when you're always walking
19:00 - 19:30 wrong all these muscles are tightening up you know you're walking around neck the sore back is sore you know this is this is pain being generated by stress you know with headache headache generation particular attention and then migraine headaches neck muscles being tight for that you know from stress pretty much every soldier that I see it's been the war has this going on so is is a solution to give them headache meds to fix the headache or do we get to
19:30 - 20:00 the cause of the problem let's get to the cause of the problem this isn't rocket science okay a person's stressed it changes the way their body is operating because of these stress hormones being activated so we can do things to reduce the stress you don't need so long well I mean I'm not talking about psychiatric patients need medications but I'm talking about just cases where there's a clear-cut cause of hyper arousal hyper stress okay where this physical symptoms are being generated not by abnormalities in
20:00 - 20:30 the brain but by a set of circumstances that is arousing the primitive animal brain to create stress hormones and activation of this thing we call stress so what we do when we treat the men and women who have gone to war is try to get to a solution okay so how do we treat headaches send them to a physical therapist they learn a stretching program they get devices heating devices massage devices to loosen up the muscles
20:30 - 21:00 lower the tension that's triggering the headaches learn sleep hygiene learn relaxation techniques okay we have yoga classes okay we teach meditation meditation has been an amazing tool you know meditation relaxes the brain what happens physical symptoms get better headaches memory sleep mood issues all are improving exercise physical exercises we one I'm probably the biggest advocate of okay we have many many patients who are on profiles
21:00 - 21:30 meaning they're not allowed to exercise at normal high level of military so we use these programs to really help the soldiers decrease their stress level and go to an organic holistic solution rather than using the pharmaceutical products which of course have significant side effects so I leave you with the message of considering in your own lives how the your primitive animal
21:30 - 22:00 brain reacts to situations triggering actions and urge you to consider alternatives to the pharmaceutical industry I am about to demonstrate something that I do for relaxation before I was a physician I was a professional guitar player for many years and I'm about to plug in this beautiful Gibson Les Paul over here and do a little I'm gonna do this as a tribute to the men and women that have served in military I've had an amazing opportunity in my life to not only be a
22:00 - 22:30 professional musician but to go to medical school and become a doctor in my 40s because I live in this amazing country called the United States and play this for all the veterans and current active-duty soldiers and people involved with the military who have allowed me to have the freedom to live this crazy life that I've had so thank you and this is gonna be for you okay let it rip
22:30 - 23:00 [Music] [Music] [Music]
23:00 - 23:30 [Music] [Music]
23:30 - 24:00 [Music]
24:00 - 24:30 [Music]
24:30 - 25:00 [Music]
25:00 - 25:30 [Music] [Applause]
25:30 - 26:00 [Music]
26:00 - 26:30 [Music] [Music]
26:30 - 27:00 [Music] [Music] [Music]
27:00 - 27:30 [Applause] [Music]
27:30 - 28:00 [Applause] [Music]
28:00 - 28:30 [Music]