007: Musings on the centrality of a neuroception of sufficient safety

What this episode covers

The architecture and design of our autonomic nervous system means that certain parts are going to work depending on the needs of the situations. We'll run for our lives if we have to and digest our food while chatting all night if we get to. The perception of what the situations demands or allows is made by our organism, at an involuntary level, and it centers around the question: how safe am I right now? "Is it okay for me to engage, or should I be fighting or fleeing or immobilizing like an ice cube?" They call that assessment process "neuroception" and in a word, it's: human.

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