Mind is a jungle, let the lions play and keep the monkeys at bay

Aristotle’s remark on humans, ‘Man is by nature, a social animal’ has remained one of the most remarkable observations about our functioning as a society. However, when social animals tend to behave pathologically or when they go out of bounds and turn rogue, they end up whipping up havoc, a situation which understandably does not augur well with a civilized society, and in effect a nation built on its sound premise.

As a neurologist, while analysing the current upheavals in the social milieu of our nation, I tried to make sense of our surroundings and its happenings by presuming our brain is like a jungle, full of life subject to simultaneous growth and decay. The animals, ghosts, demons and sages invariably become a part of the brain’s synaptic network, which comprises of both the green areas and areas full of deadwood.

The next question in the line of thought that arises is: Who rules the jungle? Is it the lion, who with his courage, conviction and aura of authority, governs the rest of its inhabitants? Or could it be a monkey, the guy who keeps hopping from one branch to another showing off his populist face to all, but is far from any real governance and has an undesired social impact?

In his Pulitzer prize-winning bookThe Dragons of Eden,Carl Sagan has beautifully described the archetype of evolution of the vertebrate forebrain and its behaviour proposed by the celebrated American physician and neuroscientist Paul D MacLean.In 1973,MacLean had put forward a beautiful concept of exploring the mysteries of the human brain.

According to the model proposed by him, the present-day human brain evolved phylogenetically and developed into three separate and distinct biocomputers, each with its own genetic programming, consisting of the Reptilian Complex, the Paleomammalian Complex (limbic system), and the Neomammalian Complex (neocortex).Each of these structures is believed to have been sequentially added to the forebrain in the course of our evolution over the years.

The Reptilian Complex, also known as the R-complex or the reptilian brain, is responsible for the physical state of housekeeping for the species.It accounts for the instinctual behaviour,which is programmed to govern our basic survival and typicallymanifests in what we call as fight or flight reflexes. It engages our thought process to secure our survival through fights and aggression, reproduction, dominance, territorial and ritual actions.

The Paleomammalian Complex, also known as the emotional and societal brain — the proposed epicentre of social intelligence — is responsible for the feelings of love, hate, fear, pleasure, sexual satisfaction, jealousy and social attachment. It is what triggers our amazing range of emotions when we come in contact with a person or confront a situation.

The Neomammalian Complex represents the cerebral neocortex, a structure found uniquely in mammals subservient to the intellectual and spiritual pursuits. The Neomammalian Cortex is the most advanced, the largest and most arborant, but is also the most underutilised by humans as a specie.

Now, here’s the interesting part. It is the presence of pre-frontal cortex or Neomammalian brain that differentiates the human brain from the animals. Those who continue to be dictated by the subcortical brain not only add to their miseries but end up being disastrous to the society and, in consequence, the nation as a whole. Criminals, rapists, the pathologically corrupt, terrorists and addicts fall in this category. When you witness an increasing number of those governed by their animal instincts, you are witnessing the “lions” in the society being pushed to the fringes by the “monkeys” who will end up leading a nation to decay, just like the decay in the synaptic jungle of the brain,which leads to the Alzheimer’s disease.

Neither the psychologists nor the neurologists can assist any more than explain the phenomenon. We need a Mahatma Gandhi to stimulate the biggest soft power on earth — the human brain — to re-explore its potential, to develop greener pastures for the self, society and the nation.