What even IS a lizard brain?
It’s a fair question. Many have seen me use this moniker and wonder if I’m REALLY into lizards (I am not) or if I have lots of lizard decor in my home (I do not). So why “Lizard Brain?” Well, it’s because we all have one. Yes, even you. Everybody you know has a lizard brain.
The (Real) Science Behind the Lizard Brain
The truth is, you don’t ACTUALLY have a lizard brain. There used to be this theory about our brains called the Triune Brain Theory. Basically, it was thought that our brain evolved in layers around itself, and the deeper in the brain, the older the structures.
Turns out, like most things, the human brain isn’t so simple or straightforward.
BUT
These are useful ways to talk about the brain and behavior. We can talk about them as constructs.
Even if there technically is no lizard brain, we can use it to talk about behaviors that are more instinctual we find ourselves doing. Our brain evolved into its current draft about 35,000 years ago. That mean that even though our world is drastically different from the world we lived in milennia ago, our brain has not.
Think about what life was like 35,000 years ago. Better social status meant access to the better food. We had to be on alert all the time for predators. And we didn’t know where our next meal was coming from. We basically didn’t do much except survive, eat, and mate to pass on our genes.
Y’know, like a lizard.
So when we say “lizard brain,” we mean “the part of us that is making us behave instinctually.” Bad day, and came home to devour a whole container of ice cream? That’s your lizard brain. Can’t tell the different between a shark attack and a piece of seaweed touching your foot? That’s your lizard brain helping you stay alive.
And when we get corrected on something in front of our peers, it threatens our social status, and can genuinely make us behave instinctually.
But Abbey, haven’t people used the idea of a “lizard brain” to justify some truly awful things?
It’s true. When figures in history have been criticized for aggression, dominance-seeking, “othering,” or even infidelity, some have adopted a “my lizard brain made me do it” mentality. But just because you HAVE a lizard brain doesn’t mean you should let it take charge. We should acknowledge what our lizard brain is trying to tell us (it kept us alive for millions of years, after all), but YOU, that higher thinking neomammalian, you call the shots.
TL;DR
I call myself “Miz Lizard Brain” not because I love lizards and have lizard-shaped pillows and rugs and ceramic lizards everywhere, but because the instinctual behaviors that make up our “lizard brain” fascinate me, and I think awareness of them is one of the most important skills we can have in our modern times.