Eli5: why is it so hard to recall a heated argument play by play of what happened? Sort of like blackout rage. Why does it feel like the brain turns off?
In: Biology
Because your brain turns off. When we give in to rage (or other strong emotions) we’re basically letting a much lower level, less evolved part of our brain take over our behavior. Our brain isn’t really one thing, it’s a series of progressively more complicated and sophisticated layers sitting on top of the stuff we inherited from less advanced brains. The part of our brain responsible for rational higher-level thinking is basically cut out of the loop and just “along for the ride” when we freak out.
Among other things, this is why telling people who are panicking to “calm down!” doesn’t do squat…the part of their brain that can hear and process us saying “calm down” isn’t the one in charge at the time.
>Why does it feel like the brain turns off?
Because it essentially does, at least in some respects. Emotions and hormones (ever slept with someone you *knew* you shouldn’t have?) have a tendency to override the logical aspects of our brain…and that can, and usually does, affect memory as well:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4050437/
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