The alarm and the brake

The alarm and the brake

Your brain has an alarm that goes off fast when something looks dangerous, and a brake that checks the alarm and calms it down. The two lines are equally tall, but the green line has a strong brake and settles quickly, while the red line stays up. How fast you come back matters as much as how big the feeling is.

Why?The alarm is an almond-sized part deep inside your head, behind your temples. The brake is the front part of the brain, just behind your forehead. It asks, “Is this really dangerous?” and turns the alarm down. That front part keeps growing slowly until the mid-twenties, which is one reason feelings can swing harder in the teenage years.

Go furtherThe alarm is called the amygdala, and the brake is the prefrontal cortex. Researchers see the link between the two as one reason people settle at different speeds. The two lines on screen are an illustrative model.