Pan-Fried Hippocampus with Spicy Roasted Amygdala
- 1 day ago
- 2 min read
Who are you? There’s a short answer, and a long answer, and everything in between. A serious exploration of the matter raises as many questions as it provides answers. Brain science answers the question “Who am I?” in part by dividing the brain into a “thinking brain” and a “feeling and reacting brain.” The latter is the subject of this post and is called the limbic system. It is anatomically deep and evolutionarily ancient and its functions center around self-preservation and species-preservation. Two important structures in the limbic system are the hippocampus (from the Greek for “seahorse”) and the amygdala (from the Greek for “almond”).
The hippocampus: What if you could no longer form memories of facts and events, if all your short-term memories disappeared before they could become long-term memories? What if you constantly lost track of where you were and what you were doing and why? Who would you be then? Those with degenerative memory conditions often have degeneration in their hippocampus, and the effects on their sense of self are profound.
The amygdala: Sometimes when I’m completely overwhelmed I feel like I’m not myself at all. It’s as though some alternative circuitry has taken over, as in fact it has. The amygdala is a center for anxiety and fear, and for processing of other deep-seated emotions. When we perceive something dangerous happening, our autonomic (involuntary or unconscious) control center seizes the reigns, and when that happens the little amygdala plays an outsized role in our decisions and actions, for better or worse.
Even the most eclectic hole-in-the wall Portland eatery may not offer pan-fried seahorse with spicy roasted almonds, but if it did you could devour a plate and honestly answer “Who am I?” with “I am what I eat." (Though you may want to think twice about eating the seahorse as there are not very many of them to go around.)
