37. Dr Douglas Fields - On ‘Why We Snap‘ and our neural wiring for Violence

Today, I spoke with Dr Douglas Fields, who is a neuroscientist and author of numerous books and articles about the brain. We discussed his excellent and important book, Why We Snap: Understanding the Rage Circuit in Your Brain, which focuses on the neuroscience that triggers rage and violence. It turns out, evolution has endowed every single one of us with nine neural pathways that, when activated, will lead to a violent and oftentimes involuntary and non-conscious response. During our chat, Doug explained these circuits—captured in the mnemonic LIFEMORTS—and how they relate to many important issues, including: their applicability to our interpersonal relationships; origins in threat detection; their unconscious nature and subsequent voluntary expression; impact of social media and technology; disproportionate effect of stress; power of genes and the environment; manifestations of violence in different genders; utility in peacebuilding; training of responses; role in PTSD and, perhaps most-importantly, geopolitics and war.

Several previous episodes that link to the topics we discussed include:

Role of the environment:

• Gregg D. Caruso - On the Illusion of Free Will, Myth of Meritocracy and the need to rethink our Justice Systems
• Arjan Verdooren - ‘Cultures don‘t meet, people do‘
• LTCOL Dave Grossman - On killing, combat, sleep, ‘blind spots’ and everything else in between

Geopolitics:

• John Blaxland and Qinduo Xu - On AUKUS, US/China relations and growing tensions
• Hasan Aygun - The Pragmatic Diplomat

PTSD and trauma

• Tom and Jen Satterly - The All Secure Foundation
• Steve Dennis - On getting shot, kidnapped and the court case that sent tremors through the humanitarian aid industry
• Will Yates and Joe McCleary - On Trial for War Crimes: A Soldier’s Experience
• Ashley Judd – On combat, mental health and the road to recovery

I also mentioned an article I recently published on the state of Western democracy, grey zone warfare by authoritarian states and how social media is contributing to a build-up of tension in our societies. You can view the article here.

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Full show notes:

My guest today is Dr Douglas Fields, who is a neuroscientist and author of numerous books and articles about the brain.  He is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, University of Maryland adjunct professor, and Chief of the Nervous System Development and Plasticity Section at the National Institutes of Health.  He received advanced degrees at UC Berkeley, San Jose State University, UC San Diego, and was a postdoctoral fellow at Stanford and Yale University. 

He writes about science for Scientific American, Quanta, Outside Magazine, Huffington Post, Undark Magazine, Psychology Today, and similar prestigious outlets.  His neuroscience research has been featured on national television, radio, NPR, the National Geographic and others, and he speaks about neuroscience for the general public on mediums like NPR, World Science Festival, TEDex and Google Talks. 

He is the author of three books about neuroscience for the general reader, The Other Brain, about glia, which are brain cells that communicate without electricity, Why We Snap, about the neuroscience of rage, and his new award-winning book, Electric Brain, about brainwaves, brain-computer interface, and brain stimulation. Some of the topics we discussed today include: 

• Doug’s personal experience with sudden aggression
• Evolutionary reason why we need triggers for sudden aggression
• Unconscious nature of this mechanism
• Explanation of LIFEMORTS
• Voluntary expression of unconscious mechanisms
• Our volition and culpability for violence
• Impact of social media and technology
• Disproportionate effect and impact of stress
• Link between violence and gender
• The ‘lizard brain’ debunked
• LIFEMORTS in geopolitics
• The role and impact of stress
• Utility of LIFEMORTS in peacebuilding
• Training the conscious and unconscious responses
• Impact of genes and environment
• Role in PTSD