7-11 July 2019
EV49 - PEP 3C: What Neurosciences Can Tell us about Radiation Safety Decisions (Johnson)Lake Down 14:00 - 16:00 |
| The past 15 years have seen tremendous growth in in the fields of neuroscience and neurobiology that have resulted in many new insights on how our minds acquire information, how we process that information, and how we make decisions. Interpersonal neurobiology shows how the structure and function of the mind and brain are shaped by experiences, especially those involving emotional factors. Perhaps there is no greater emotional factor in our lives than the motivation for survival. We are also social creatures with brains and minds that are part of larger organisms called families, communities, and cultures. There is not only safety in numbers but we share the fundamental human experience of inhabiting an incomprehensible and often frightening universe. Given our dependence on groups for our very survival, we have evolved elaborate neural networks for interacting with others. The fundamental behavioral tendency of all organisms is to approach what is life sustaining and avoid that which is dangerous. The success of rapid and accurate approach/avoidance decisions determines whether we live long enough to reproduce or not. During stressful situations, such as deciding on the risks of radiation, much of the brain’s functioning is based upon primitive fight-or-flight mechanisms as opposed to conscious and compassionate decision making. Although we are born with certain survival instincts, for example, infants are automatically startled by loud noises, other survival instincts are acquired from modeling of our parents. If a parent is fearful of spiders, the child may also be fearful. If parents are fearful of radiation, the children may inherit those fears. As these children become adults they may respond with aversion to radiation automatically without knowing why. The big question today is whether those automatic responses can be changed by our interventions? While the simple answer to this question is YES, there are many factors that go into decisions for radiation safety, only part of which are the ingrained biases from our early lives. During our lifetimes, our subconscious minds continuously store knowledge, impressions, and feelings as we assess the outer world for signs of danger. Because we cannot experience radiation by any of our five senses we have to rely on what the community tells us. The media has done a good job of creating a general mindset against radiation by the frequent use of the words “Deadly Radiation.” For many people those words are sufficient for decisions to avoid radiation exposure at all costs. Since radiation fears are largely automatic, it may not be helpful to tell people, “You do not have to be afraid.” While these words are intended to be helpful and allay fears they may be heard by a frightened person as if we are telling them, “Your feelings are wrong and it’s not OK to be fearful of radiation.” Anxiety is contagious and it activates fear and alarm circuitry through the amygdala that spreads throughout our body. Conscious processing may become inhibited by the amygdala, making us have a difficult time being rational, logical, and in control of our emotions when making decisions for radiation safety. |
