When the Past is Always Present Part 16

fear: A state of motivation that is aroused by certain specific stimuli. It produces a coordinated physiological response to deal with a perceived threat and normally gives rise to freezing, escape, or defensive behavior.

fear conditioning: The process by which a neutral stimulus is paired with an unconditioned fear stimulus. After several pairings, presentation of the neutral stimulus leads to the production of a fear response.

fight or flight: A moment of fear resulting in elevated levels of dopamine, norepinephrine, cortisol, and epinephrine. It is a.s.sociated with increased muscular strength, increased oxygen consumption, and other heightened physiological processes designed to improve the chances of survival when threatened by a predator.

flaccidity: A state of skeletal muscular inactivity. Fainting, in the presence of a powerful emotional stimulus, is an example.

freeze: A moment of fear. Similar to vigilance, it allows for a.s.sessment and focus and makes the individual motionless.

freeze discharge: After being pursued and caught by a predator, an animal may respond by becoming flaccid. The freeze response mimics death. In some cases, if the animal survives, it begins to tremble in a manner much like running. Peter Levine feels that it is this retained memory of flight that needs to be discharged to treat traumatization.

GABA: Gamma-amino butyric acid. This neurochemical inhibits other neurons and is the counter to glutamate.

gamut procedure: Various cognitive, auditory, and physical maneuvers, such as tapping, humming a song, counting, and eye movements that act to displace the current content of working memory.

glutamate: An excitatory neurochemical. The disruption (depotentiation) of activated AMPA receptors is postulated to occur during eye movement desensitization and reprocessing and havening.

hardwired: A response that does not need to be learned. Under appropriate conditions, hardwired responses to stimuli activate systems that are critical to survival.

havening therapy: A form of therapy that seeks to disrupt the encoded relations.h.i.+p between the emotional and cognitive portion of a traumatic memory. Therapy requires activation of the BLC, using either a felt sense or conscious thought, and is followed by havening touch, eye movements, tapping, and distraction.

havening touch: Touch that increases the amplitude of the low-frequency electrical delta wave. It is a firm but gentle touch that is hardwired to produce comfort and make us feel safe.

hippocampus: An area close to the amygdala that processes contextual and other cortically processed information and is critical for storage and retrieval of declarative memory.

homeostasis: This term refers to the process that returns the brain's electrical and neurochemical landscape to a previously preset level.

homeostatic: The baseline levels of neurochemicals that the body returns to after experiencing a stressor.

inescapable stress: A circ.u.mstance that cannot be avoided, producing an adaptive response by the organism. This adaptive response can turn maladaptive.

kindling: The sensitization of the brain by previous experiences that make it more susceptible to traumatization. In neurology, it is defined as lowering the threshold to seizures.

landscape: The levels of brain neurochemicals that are the result of the interaction between what is inherent and what is environmental, between what has already pa.s.sed and what is currently present.

limbic system: A group of interconnected brain structures whose function is to improve our chances for survival. Motivation, emotion and learning are modulated here.

locus coeruleus: Located in the brainstem, this area is the source of norepinephrine efferents.

mirror neurons: A cla.s.s of neurons that discharges during both observation and experiencing an action or emotion.

mammillary body: Located at the end of the fornix, it sends signals to the anterior and dorsomedial nuclei in the thalamus and is involved with the processing of recognition memory.

neuromodulators: Chemicals that set steady-state levels of neuronal activity.

neurotransmitters: Chemicals, such as glutamate, that are released as the result of stimuli.

nondeclarative memory: Memory that involves skills and habits, conditioned reflexes, and emotional a.s.sociations. Also called procedural memory, memories stored here cannot be told in a narrative form.

norepinephrine: Transmitted by efferents from the locus coeruleus, this neurochemical affects almost the entire cortical and subcortical structures. It has wide-ranging physiological and psychological functions.

nucleus acc.u.mbens: An area of the brain involved in motivated behavior and motoric action.

panic: An extremely excited state of mind and body that is not under conscious control.

panic attacks: An unprovoked activation of the brain that produces an extreme fear response.

parasympathetic nervous system: One of the coordinators of our body. It affects digestion, blood pressure, heart rate, and so on. The parasympathetic and sympathetic systems usually work in opposite directions, thus allowing for modulation of the body's functions.

phobia: An inappropriate fear response, generated by the a.s.sociation of an unconditional fear stimulus with any other stimulus.

phonological loop: The part of working memory that rehea.r.s.es verbal information.

physicalism: The belief that physical symptoms have a physical cause.

potentiation: Refers to the increase in magnitude of a glutamate driven post-synaptic response.

prefrontal cortex: The front part of the brain used for evaluation and a.s.sessment and intimately connected to the emotional system, including the amygdala. It has several subcomponents that perform different functions. See http://en.Wikipedia.org/wiki/ Prefrontal_cortex.

procedural memory: The earliest form of memory that helps us get food to our mouths and learn to walk. It is also involved with emotional learning.

psychopharmacotherapy: The use of drugs to alter dysfunctional behavior, mood and thinking.

psychosensory therapy: The application of sensory input on either an activated mind or a quiet mind designed to alter brain functioning. Psychosensory stimuli can change the brain temporarily or permanently.

psychosocial: Aspects of attachment related to culture and society, such as the sense of belonging, acceptance, and being appreciated.

psychotherapy: The treatment of a mental or emotional disorder or of related bodily ills by psychological means.

reactive emotions: Fear and defensive rage are hardwired and innate emotions that are produced by threatening stimuli.

reflective emotions: These require a.s.sessment of our circ.u.mstances, such as feelings of revenge, guilt, and hatred.

resilience: The ability of a body to recover it original state after a stressor has modified it.

routine emotions: These arise as a natural consequence to our circ.u.mstances, such as happiness and sadness.

salience: A state where an object becomes of great importance at that moment.

sensation: Activation of a receptor organ by a stimulus, including thought. This activation is converted to a common electrochemical language and processed.

serotonin: A neurochemical that is transmitted by efferents from the brain stem raphe nuclei and spread to certain areas, most notably the frontal cortex, amygdala, hippocampus, the locus coeruleus and the nucleus acc.u.mbens. It is speculated that it carries the release of GABA in the amygdala and generates a low frequency wave.

somatic experiencing: A therapeutic intervention that involves physiological arousal followed by an imaginary escape to a safe place.

somatization: The encoding of a somatosensory or visceral component of a traumatizing event that is experienced after the traumatic moment has pa.s.sed.

somatosensory: Sensed in the body.

stimulus (pl. stimuli): An event that triggers a sensory response.

storage: The process by which a component of an event is consolidated in the brain such that retrieval can occur.

stress: A change of our internal or external environment that alters homeostasis.

subconscious: Mental content, generated by internal or external stimuli, that is not consciously registered but may nonetheless stimulate somatic symptoms and affect arousal.

SUD score: Subjective unit of distress (SUD). A patient-evaluated sense of self-distress. An 11-point scoring scale from 0 to 10, where 0 is no distress and 10 is extreme distress.

sympathetic nervous system: The coordinator of the flight-or-flight response. It affects every organ because the neurochemicals secreted by this system enter the bloodstream. The neurochemicals involved, epinephrine and cortisol, are secreted by the adrenal gland.

TFT: Thought Field Therapy (see www.tftrx.com). A psychosensory therapy developed by Dr. Roger Callahan. Like havening, EFT, and eye movement desensitization and reprocessing, it is an exposure therapy with mild sensory stimulation afforded by touch and other activities.

thalamus: The post office of the brain where sensory input is parceled to other parts of the brain for interpretation and perception generation.

thanatosis: Flaccidity. Playing dead. A state where sensory input is blocked so that it does not reach consciousness.

traditional Chinese medicine: The use of herbs, nutrition, acupuncture, and meditation to help the body heal.

transduced stimulus: The result of transduction; that is, information contained in a stimulus is converted into another form.

transduction: The process of conversion of one type of signal to another.

traumatic memory: A memory composed of four components: cognitive, emotional, autonomic, and somatosensory. These components have a complex relations.h.i.+p. The emotional component is the glue that ties these components together. A traumatic memory can be encoded when an emotional event with the appropriate meaning, landscape, and perceived inescapability occurs.

traumatized: Encoded as a traumatization.

unconditioned fear stimuli (UFS): Stimuli that provoke a fear response that does not require learning, e.g., an eye blink as an object unexpectedly enters the visual field at close range.

unconditioned response: An automatic response to an unconditioned stimulus.

unconditioned stimulus: A pattern that elicits a response without prior learning.

unimodal content: The object or thought directly a.s.sociated with an unconditioned stimulus, e.g. a gun.

vasomotor system: Regulates the size of blood vessels and hence the flow through them. Blus.h.i.+ng is a vasomotor response where blood vessels of the face dilate.

vigilance: A heightened state of mind and body, alertness.

visual-spatial sketch pad: Part of working memory that is engaged when performing spartial tasks (judging distance) or visual ones (counting pennies on the table).

working memory: An area in the frontal cortex that holds thoughts and ideas so that they may be manipulated and acted upon.