Think about it flip. We are animals on a base level. We share a lot of the brain structures. We do have a emotional basal brain, the amygdala. It's whole purpose is for unthinking, instantaneous reactions, primarily for survival. The visual cortex usually takes a little too long to come up with a better survival solution in a life or death situation.flip wrote:I disagree with your premise TC. It's a choice about how your gonna be. We are not animals who just react, we are cognitive beings.
http://brainconnection.positscience.com ... nal-brain2
I had a split second reaction one time like that. I was standing in the doorway of a friend's dorm room one night. In the background, there was a dark window. All of a sudden, something large appeared to come right at the window. Without thinking, I turned and fled the room. The other girls must have seen my horrified face, for they charged out right behind me without question. But what's funny is that when I was already about halfway out of the room, my visual cortex kicked in and had already figured out what the movement was, so I started laughing hysterically. The other girls were puzzled until I told them what had happened, so we all had a good laugh. Someone on a floor above had thrown some water out of their window and it for the life of me, for a split second, it looked like some animal flying into the window in the dark!
My point is, my amygdala reacted far quicker, and without thought, in that sudden fight or flight situation. The visual cortex did kick in about a half a second after the initial reaction. It's when the cortex kicks in that a person can make the ultimate decision about whether to turn and fight, or run.
