Neuroception

“I just walked into the room and felt completely at home” “There was something about it…I can’t put my finger on it…I felt really, really uncomfortable. And I don’t know why.” 

That feeling, that bodily sensation when you sense a hostile atmosphere? You can’t say exactly why, but you have a sense of unease, maybe a prickling sensation, an inexplicable sense of threat. Or, you walk into a room full of strangers, perhaps feeling full of nervous anticipation – and then somebody gifts you a warm smile, allowing you to instantly feel at ease. Your shoulders come down, you wander over and engage in that (some would say utterly incomprehensible) small talk thing, as you actively seek connection with another human being. 

Our nervous system is a wonderful thing, zipping away, working diligently to protect us and keep us safe: Checking out the environment, clocking anything that might threaten us. Checking out inside our bodies, noticing if anything is amiss. Checking in with the person in front of us: are they dangerous, or are they OK? 

Welcome to the wonderful world of neuroception. 

We are going to dive down, down, down to a place way below the level of our cognition and consciousness, where we find our nervous system taking in and interpreting information from micro-moment to micro-moment. 

Bzzzz bzzzzz bzzzz…information coming in from the environment….bzzzzzzzzz…information coming in from inside the body….bzzzzz information coming in from another person. 

From micro-moment to micro-moment, messages are zipping up the information super highway that is our autonomic nervous system, telling the brain what is going on, as it scans for signs of safety, threat and danger. 

Oh-oh! That shade of blue…THREAT

Oh-oh! Unfamiliar taste, ugh what IS it...must be DANGER. 

Hurray! That soothing sound… aaaand relax... safe. 

Deep, deep below our consciousness, we notice without noticing that we are noticing. 

Our neuroception is our internal surveillance system, constantly taking in sensory information - from our internal organs, from the outside environment and from the other nervous systems that happen to be around us. Neuroception perpetually tracks signals from our entire body: every organ, every muscle, every bone, our skin, our sense organs, the whole of our brain. It reviews data from our immediate environment and the people in it and our nervous system responding accordingly: to defend, or not to defend? 

Our bodies will effectively shut down if our neuroception believes that there is an immediate threat to life. If neuroception is saying ‘ah, there’s something that’s dangerous’, then our bodies will get ready for action – to run away or to fight. Or if our neuroception says – stand down, you are safe and you are welcome in this space with these people, then our bodies will relax, we will be able to digest our lunchtime sushi and will feel connected to the world and people around us. 

Imagine the scene: you are out in the most beautiful ornamental gardens, the grounds of a stately home. You are taking a stroll, soaking in the dusky colours of the hydrangeas, the delicately scented jasmine, the fat, velveteen humming of a bumblebee. Noticing that the sun is starting to set, you stop, admiring the glorious bursts of colour radiating down through the twilight sky. Surrounded by nature, the sensations of the summer evening, you feel safe, you feel serene, you even feel a sense of gentle awe at the sights and sounds of nature. Your body feels soft, your breath easy. 

Then – a rustling. Instantly, you stiffen. Your nervous system kicks into ‘fight or flight’. Your heart rate increases. You notice your breath quickening, becoming shallower. You freeze – listening intently. There’s a tension in your limbs, a coiled spring ready to leap into action as your eyes try to penetrate the half-darkness. 

Zip, zip, zip, sensory messages shoot up to the brain, our bodies respond – and then our minds make a story up about it (more of that later). Our neuroception has ‘decided’ that there is a threat: defensive action may be required: stay alert, soldier! 

In the next micro-moment, our mind is racing through possible explanations to explain why our bodies have reacted like this. That rustle in the bushes could be a wild animal – oh my god, a SNAKE?! It could be a masked assassin: I’m sure I’ve heard they’re rife in this part of the Shire. Oooh – it could be a GHOST – the stately home must be haunted!!! 

Bounce, bounce, bounce, the mind speeds up as it asks: nervous system WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS??????? And it will come up with any old nonsense to explain why we are feeling the way we are feeling.

Does it matter to the nervous system if our mind is telling us porkies? 

No it does not – our nervous systems are wired to keep us safe, to make sure that everything inside the body is ready to respond to potential danger.

What keeps us safe? Bad news. Think about it: even fake bad news will keep us safe. 

Here’s a little fact to dwell on – when we receive a neuroceptive signal of danger, we lose our ability to reliably read faces – and so we will respond to a neutral face as though it is threatening. Bad news keeps us safe – and it is wise, says our nervous system, to err on the side of caution. 

A couple of things to know: 

Firstly, the ‘decision’ whether incoming sensory information is to be translated as ‘danger’ or ‘safe’ is not a conscious one. Past experience may influence it: for example, if a chicken pecked me painfully last week, then the sound of clucking may invoke a ‘flight’ response in me today. Unfamiliar input will influence it. None of us consciously choose our nervous system responses. 

Secondly, we can be in the safest place in the world, surrounded by people who love us unconditionally and absolutely – and yet our neuroception can pick up a signal and decide that we are not safe. Our bodies will not, then, feel safe. Our bodies may feel fighty or flighty, as though a bear was peeking out from behind a chair. We will then lose our ability to fully connect with the people around us – you don’t start talking about the weather with the smiley bloke standing next to you if you are about to be attacked by a bear - your nervous system would feel that you have more pressing things to attend to in that particular moment. 

So it’s perhaps worth dwelling on this: when we are thinking about the nervous system, there is a difference between actually being safe – no bears, tigers or masked assassins in sight – and truly feeling safe. Chronic and repeated stress and trauma can cause our neuroception to get a bit biased, to make that decision that we are in danger when there is no actual danger to be seen. Life lived on high alert, waiting for the next snake to leap out of the wash basket or the sky to fall on our head – sound familiar? 

We are all living, responsive nervous systems in a constant flow of tuning and retuning with the body’s quest to live long and maybe even prosper. And where does that fine tuning start? 

With neuroception: eternally buzzing away, quietly, imperceptibly, tireless in its single minded mission to keep us safe.