13.07.2015 Views

Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can ... - WordPress.com

Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can ... - WordPress.com

Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can ... - WordPress.com

SHOW MORE
SHOW LESS

Create successful ePaper yourself

Turn your PDF publications into a flip-book with our unique Google optimized e-Paper software.

array <strong>of</strong> functions, from decid<strong>in</strong>g whichbrand <strong>of</strong> toothpaste to buy, to plann<strong>in</strong>ga meet<strong>in</strong>g, to ponder<strong>in</strong>g the nature <strong>of</strong>reality. One <strong>of</strong> these functions is tosoothe unwarranted fears.If you were a high-reactive baby,then your amygdala may, for the rest <strong>of</strong>your life, go a bit wild every time you<strong>in</strong>troduce yourself to a stranger at acocktail party. But if you feel relativelyskilled <strong>in</strong> <strong>com</strong>pany, that’s partly becauseyour frontal cortex is there to tellyou to calm down, extend a handshake,and smile. In fact, a recent fMRI studyshows that when people use self-talk toreassess upsett<strong>in</strong>g situations, activity <strong>in</strong>their prefrontal cortex <strong>in</strong>creases <strong>in</strong> anamount correlated with a decrease <strong>of</strong>activity <strong>in</strong> their amygdala.But the frontal cortex isn’t all-powerful;it doesn’t switch the amygdala <strong>of</strong>faltogether. In one study, scientists344/929

Hooray! Your file is uploaded and ready to be published.

Saved successfully!

Ooh no, something went wrong!