Originally Posted on July 24, 2012

The human brain evolved from the brainstem up and forward. The brainstem is responsible for maintaining basic functions such as breathing and the muscular contractions of your intestines. The limbic cortex evolved on top of the brainstem and is associated with muscle and emotional memory – imagine the brainstem is an icecream cone and the limbic cortex is a scoop of vanilla icecream. Then, the cerebral cortex – a large, scoop of chocolate icecream – evolved on top and developed into four lobes – the parietal, occipital, temporal and frontal. Each of these lobes has broadly different functions. The frontal lobes – right above our eyes and extending back towards the ears – is the most complicated part of our brain and has changed and enlarged the most from different animals through the different early humans – see image below (Figure 1) of relative size of cerebral cortex.

FIGURE 1. The relative size of the cortices and frontal lobes. The red sections are the frontal lobes.

Social-Emotional Intelligence is one’s ability to recognize, process and react appropriately to the social and emotional cues around us. Look at Figure 2 below. This is the cerebral cortex. The brain is facing to the right and you are looking at the surface.

• The blue areas are involved with science, logic, math, general reasoning – the Analytical Intelligence network.
• The orange/yellow areas are involved with social reasoning, emotional self-regulation and self-awareness –the Social-Emotional Intelligence Network.
• The white dots are the brain areas involved in emotional self-awareness
• The green lasso is the general brain area for bodily and emotional self-awareness

FIGURE 2. Social-Emotional Intelligence Network: Orange/Yellow; Analytical Intelligence Network: Blue. ©Tony Jack. Brain, Mind & Consciousness Lab, CWRU: www.tonyjack.org

Look at Figure 2 again. Notice that a larger area of the brain is engaged with the Social-Emotional Network, in comparison to the Analytical Network. Western education focuses primarily on the Analytical Intelligence Network. We start with numbers, shapes and sounds which uses the lower parts of our brain (see the blue parts in the bottom of figure 2) and we continue to co-opt the higher areas of our brain as we learn algebra, engineering and more advanced philosophical, reasoning or STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematical) activities, decode the meaning of Shakespeare’s sonnets, or translate English to Spanish. However, there is much less of a focus on the social-emotional intelligence network. This is problematic for a number of reasons.

The first is that, the area of the brain that is involved with Social-Emotional Intelligence is larger than the area of the brain involved with Analytical Intelligence, so it behooves us to learn how to effectively use those areas, so we are socially and emotionally literate.

Second, research is starting to show that activating one of these networks, shuts down the other network. Tony Jack’s lab at Case Western Reserve University http://tonyjack.org/research.html has done research which involved subjects performing physics problems and observing social-emotional interactions. Using the technique of functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) they were able to demonstrate the areas of the brains involved in each of these types of tasks, and how activating one network, effectively shut down the other network. This has huge implications for how long we spend in one of these networks.

Have you ever noticed how hard it can be to interact with real, tangible people after you have spent hours on your computer? Have you ever noticed how hard it is to drag your children away from computer games, and how their social-emotional skills are somewhat lacking and often downright rude immediately after disconnecting from technology? What about the spinning social and emotional processing that continues after a charged and exciting conversation, which hamper the ability to concentrate back at your desk?

Tony Jack’s lab performed an experiment using a basic measure of social-emotional intelligence (ability to recognize the emotion expressed on someone’s face) before and after a yoga class and before and after playing a computer game. The result showed that the yoga class improved your social-emotional intelligence, whereas the computer game decreased your social-emotional intelligence!

Third, psychiatric data is starting to show that the switching between these networks does not happen efficiently in people with schizophrenia, ADHD, Autism and Depression, for example. The natural homoeostatic cycling of the brain is disturbed. For example, in Autism – the brain is biased towards the Analytical Network. In Silicon valley, families of engineers have higher levels of Autism which indicates that the proclivity of one’s brain to utilize one network has far-reaching impacts. People with depression demonstrate a failure to activate part of their Social-Emotional Network. In severe cases of depression, successful treatment has involved the deep brain stimulation of the area of the brain that is associated with empathy and compassion and is particularly active in long-term compassion meditators (see Change your thoughts and you change your mind).

This is where yoga and meditation come in. Look at Figure 2. Observe the green lasso shape. This is the area of the brain that is involved in bodily and emotional self-awareness. The physical practice of yoga – asana – the third of the eight limbs is grounded in learning where your body is in space and what your emotional responses are as you struggle, practice, attempt, and fall down in your study of yoga. These practices create this extraordinary ability to understand, control and learn how to connect your body and mind.

The other seven limbs of yoga which focus on the ethical standards for operating in the world (yamas), self-discipline and self-study (niyamas), breath practices (pranayama), withdrawal from the sense organs such that there is less focus on the external world (pratyahara), extended periods of concentration and focus, which leads to meditation (dharana), meditation (dhyana) and samadhi – which means a state of ecstasy brought about by the merging of the self with the greater consciousness. These goals may seem abstract, but Patanjali’s description is fundamentally about finding peace, letting go of the ego and connecting with the rest of humanity.

This new understanding of the brain suggests that the ancient yogis were on to something: the practice of yoga, which means union, can alter who you are and how you are for the better and thus how you interact with the world. Wouldn’t the world be a happier, less violent place if we were all a little more socially and emotionally self-aware?

©Tamsin Astor-Jack, Yoga Brained LLC