Posts made in June, 2013
Bad Bedfellows – Stress and Poverty
Understanding Your vmPFC
Bad Bedfellows – Stress and Poverty
The vmPFC (Ventromedial Prefrontal Cortex) controls and helps to reduce the impact of stressful situations. Stressors aren’t stressful in you think you can escape or solve them at will.
The brain has an entire system for turning off the stress systems known as the dorsal raphe nuclei. It’s located in the Prefrontal Cortex and when we think, then we have control over the stressful situation.
Control over a stressor activates the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC). The vmPFC turns off the stress response and eliminates the effects of stress. After experiencing control, it extrapolates to other stressors. People with PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder), don’t activate this region under stress
Further explanation is provided as Philippe Matthews, the founder of the HOW Movement, interviews Psychologist, Dr. Brian King
Dr. Brian King:
The ventromedial prefrontal cortex is that area of the brain, located in the part of our brain that we would consider our conscious mind, the part of our brain where all conscious activity occurs. When we feel in control, what we’re doing is we’re activating areas in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex, and that has a connection to other parts of the brain that control our stress response. Feeling in control turns off our stress response. Not feeling in control, of course, is where all the effects of stress come from. Control is really the element there.
