prisoners to old brain

Evolutionary neurobiology is a very interesting area to study and helps understand the fundamental nature of of human behavior. Businesses regularly exploit this knowledge to their benefit by captivating consumers (via techniques like neuromarketing) into a voluntary enslavement towards their products or services. Building a foundational understanding of how this is possible is very useful. I came across a book called ‘Future of The Mind’ authored by theoretical physicist Michio Kaku which delves deep into the intricacies of the mind. The human brain can be broadly classified into 3 parts from an evolutionary standpoint :

1. Reptilian Brain : the most primitive component of the brain (common with reptiles) that has existed the longest time (~250 million years) in the evolutionary trajectory of human species . It is responsible for the basic survival instincts in humans like fear, lust and hoarding. It occupies a very smart part of brain in terms of volume and has very low energy consumption and functions even in an unconscious state.

2. Limbic Brain : the second level of the brain that is common with most mammals and has existed for about 100 million years in the evolutionary trajectory of human species. It is responsible for emotions and sensory control that facilitates social connection to provide survival advantage through increased social collaboration. This component also has low energy consumption and functions in an unconscious state.

3. Neocortex : the brain component which is a relatively recent evolutionary development (< 0.2 million years) and is unique to humans. It is responsible for logic and computation. It relatively consumes very high amount of energy and works only in a conscious state. The core feature of the neocortex is the ability to help humans simulate the future within our mind which provides a huge survival advantage.

   
   

The functions of reptilian and limbic brain were essential for the survival of humans in their early evolutionary stages. Emotions and instincts of fear, lust and hoarding were essential to avoid predators, ensure procreation and survival. However in the present era due to rapid technological advancement, the external environment has considerably changed from what it was thousands of years ago - humans are not currently hunting and gathering for their survival. Presently, a lot of our primitive biological instincts governed by the reptilian and limbic brain are not really necessary to ensure survival but they still exist as vestiges of the past. However they still surprisingly serve as a very dominant element of the brain and influences a lot of the human behavior that would seem rather unnecessary from a purely rational standpoint. An evolutionary trait possessed by humans is energy preservation and humans tend towards ceding control to the reptilian and limbic brain that functions subconsciously and requires minimal energy consumption. Consciously accessing the neocortex to overcome the vestigial and primal instincts requires high energy consumption and humans tend to naturally avoid it to preserve energy. This results in human behavior largely being driven by subconscious emotions and instincts. Brands are aware of this anomaly in the human brain and take advantage of this through carefully crafted messaging in their ad campaigns that can specifically target and strongly influence the limbic and reptilian brain rather than only the rational brain or neocortex. For example, brands showcase graphic images to arise fear or images showcasing happy moments in their marketing campaigns to stimulate the limbic and reptilian brain in order to evoke our primitive animal instincts and persuade us to take action. A technique called neuromarketing employed by brands, use brain imaging sensors to measure electromagnetic stimulation and compare brain activity in the old brain i.e. limbic and reptilian brain to decide which ad campaigns would be most effective to induce purchase actions among consumers. The data observed from neuromarketing experiments will be surprisingly different from the conscious thoughts of the customers when viewing the showcased advertisements and brands choose to air the ad campaigns that have maximum effect on the limbic and reptilian brain rather than the neocortex as they believe that will ultimately dominate the decision making process in consumers.