A to Z Blogging Challenge: H is for Hindbrain



Alligators in H2O at St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge



H is for Hindbrain

Hindbrain thinking isn't a hot topic, I'll wager. Everyone these days seems to know what left- and right-brain thinking are all about. You've probably seen that image of a dancer spinning around. Supposedly, if you see her spinning clockwise, you're more right-brain oriented, meaning that your imagination rules your thoughts. You're also more impetuous and not opposed to taking risks. Yes, I can see that. But thought can't be that simple. And the brain isn't political. It's not one side or the other.

The brain, after all, isn't composed of just two halves. It has other lobes, other parts which affect thought and reason. Here's a document that explains much better than I can what all the parts do for you and where they are located. Take that hindbrain, for instance. Pons, medulla, and cerebellum. Together, these structures keep us moving, staying upright, sleeping when it's time to do so, breathing, and carrying on all those other bodily functions necessary to life that we're not usually aware of, like digestion. So what about emotions and feelings of love, hate, aggression...?

You've probably watched that scene with Adam Sandler and the professor in The Waterboy:

Contrary to what the professor says about the medulla oblongata (maybe the waterboy was justified in tackling him), and according to medical experts, it's what's happening in the amygdala and limbic system that makes us happy, sad, or whatever. We're a bit more complicated than alligators and maybe more than what those experts claim.

If thinking isn't dominated by just one lobe or the other but comes from a combination of activities going on simultaneously throughout the brain, then writing must do the same. It should be as automatic as breathing, as hidden and mysterious as blood cell formation, as simple as sleeping, as complicated as playing the piano. Or acting the part of a hilariously funny, swamp-dwelling football player in a comedic film. How many alligators--or medical experts, for that matter--can do that?

Please see A to Z Blogging Challenge for links to more "H's" from Challenge sponsors and other writers.