What does the fearless brain of Alex Honnold tell us about our wellbeing and happiness?

Alex Honnold is a great solo climber. He has no fear in mind. Neuroscientists performed an fMRI scan of his brain and found it strange. Detailed papers written on Alex Honnold’s mind also tend to provide great insight into our well-being and happiness. Here is a brief account of learnings from papers written on Alex Honnold’s brain scan.

NAUTILUS published an article under the column neuroscience by J.B. Mackinnon on August 3, 2016, with some gut-wrenching pictures of Alex Honnold by Jimmy Chin and this took me back to my early childhood when my dad used to take us to Indian Circus where the daredevil acts performed by the circus artists used to be my nightmare. It was difficult for me to withhold the sight of a daring fall, a swing without any support and even walking on a rope placed quite high.

I used to close my eyes. My dad would say that these are acts well-planned and safe as the artists have minimized all possible risks and have trained themselves to perfection. Now when I read Mackinnon’s description of Alex Honnold, it took me to a state of dizziness, a palpitating heart and my mind experienced fear. Alex is not an artist like Indian circus artists, and he is not a risk minimizer. Alex is a risk maximizer. Mackinnon rightly starts by saying, “Alex Honnold doesn’t experience fear like the rest of us.”

Alex Honnold’s Daring Act

Alex is a freehand solo-style climber. Unlike group climbers, Alex prefers climbing steep rocks freehand, without any additional gadgets or rope. Group climbers are risk minimizers, while Alex does just the opposite. Mackinnon writes in his article, “Above about 50 feet, any fall would likely be lethal, which means that, on epic days of soloing, he might spend 12 or more hours in the Death Zone. On the hardest parts of some climbing routes, his fingers will have no more contact with the rock than most people have with the touchscreens of their phones, while his toes press down on edges as thin as sticks of gum. Just watching a video of Honnold climbing will trigger some degree of vertigo, heart palpitations, or nausea in most people, and that’s if they can watch them at all. Even Honnold has said that his palms sweat when he watches himself on film.”

Alex’s approach to life and free living with no fear also shaped his idea of self and how he looks at life. This is thriving in the true sense of the term, which is just the opposite of surviving in life. This is indeed a life full of style. As the poet Maya Angelou said, “My mission in life is not merely to survive, but to thrive; and to do so with passion, compassion, humor, and style.” A super sensation seeker like Alex Honnold would not fear the experiences that go beyond the limits of danger. However, this super sensation-seeking behavior is different from what is commonly found in people having sensation-seeking behavior such as limitless drinking, gambling etc. Alex can ‘tightly regulate the mind and body’s responses’, while it may not be so in later cases.

What is inside Alex Honnold’s Brain?

This is strange and amazing! Risk minimizers have an amygdala quickly activated while in the case of Alex, it stays inert. The amygdala in our brain creates a ‘fight or flight’ response. It is part of our reactive network, which tends to prompt sharp, quick and extreme reactions, including fear. Some of the circumstances when the amygdala would likely react quickly can be: Being excluded or alienated; Bereavement; Being treated unfairly; Being criticized; Change or ambiguity; Being wrong; Being treated disrespectfully and so on. This is our “System 1” which guides almost 95% of reactions. The rest 5% is about the pre-frontal cortex (PFC) or neo-cortex. The PFC is our responsive network as against the reactive network. This is our thinking, reasoning and logical brain. The responsive network gets activated in circumstances such as: Being acknowledged; Being treated fairly; Collaborating with a team; Giving charity; Competence; Having meaning and purpose and so on.

Disconnection Syndrome

What happens when our pre-frontal cortex gives up completely and our actions are fully controlled by the amygdala? This is where we lose control of our actions, and the post-action scenario can ensue regret and urge to reverse the action. The amygdala is also known as the primitive brain as this kind of taking over of our brain helped primitive humans fight dangers or life-threatening situations. However, throughout human evolution and the growth of society, such do-and-die situations are far less in occurrence and for a better living we need to work more from PFC than the amygdala. We need better control of the amygdala by PFC. The disconnection of PFC and amygdala can create havoc and huge stress, which has rightly been called “amygdala hijack” by Daniel Goleman in his famous 1995 book “Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than IQ”. The amygdala hijack occurs when the amygdala takes over in response to our stress and completely disables the frontal lobes. This means that the amygdala has disabled our rational response and activated an auto-pilot fight-or-flight response.

Alex Honnold is in full control of the amygdala and his pre-frontal lobe is so highly trained and activated that it does not allow any fight-or-flight reaction. How did he do it? Is it possible for us to develop PFC supremacy over the amygdala? The answer is yes! And, this is also where the lessons for our wellbeing and happiness lie.

Lessons for our Well-being and Happiness: Ensuring better control of the pre-frontal cortex over amygdala

Slow: Our System 2 as represented by pre-frontal cortex is slow as opposed to the amygdala which is rather fast. This means we need to allow our brain time to generate alternative responses to choose from. For example, when you get angry, instead of reacting immediately, if we allow it to pass and give a chance to PFC to come in, it will present several alternative ways to respond to the situation and also help in picking the most suitable response. This can save us from several regrets that would have followed and hence save us from a bout of bigger stress in the making.

Reflective: The pre-frontal cortex is reflective as opposed to the amygdala which is reflexive. Reflective thinking practices are about becoming more aware of our thought processes. It is based on the analysis of facts rather than merely going by the perceptions. There is likely to be less judgmental error in reflective approach as it is a process of informed decision-making.

Deliberate: The Amygdala is spontaneous, while PFC is a deliberate and consciously chosen path. This is a no-brainer to understand that the PFC activation path is what we should be striving for. Amygdala arousal enhances our blood pressure, increases heartbeats, increases blood sugar and creates a sense of insecurity. All these are not good for our health and well-being.

How to improve control of the amygdala and strengthen PFC? This is clear that any practices which will enhance our ability to wait and watch, weigh alternatives before taking action, and adopt reflective practices would go a long way in controlling amygdala activation and enhancing PFC functions. 

Some of the factors found helpful in improving the functioning of PFC and better control over the amygdala are as follows:

• Sleep: A good sleep of 7-8 hours tends to improve overall mental health, cognitive ability (also delay cognitive decline) and a better functioning of the pre-frontal cortex.
• Exercise: Regular physical exercise of anywhere between 30 minutes to 60 minutes can be very helpful. It not only ensures physical fitness, and improved energy but also reduces mental stress. An almost running-like walk (brisk walk) in the early morning, an empty stomach tends to enhance the amount of endorphin in the body which works as a natural pain-killer and mood enhancer.
• Meditation: Mindfulness meditation is highly recommended and it is found to have altered the brain orientation towards reflexivity, thoughtfulness and non-reactivity. There are many variants and recommended practices for meditation, however, focusing on breathing and deep breathing can go a long way in enhancing PFC active brain.
• Nature Exposure: In a neuroscience trial through an fMRI scan, it has been reported that greenery and green plants tend to generate activities in the pre-frontal lobe area of the brain. Interestingly, even the picture of green plants generated some activity in the pre-frontal lobe area. Nature walk has an amazing impact on mental health and decision-making capability as it adds to much-needed neuro-chemical called endorphins and serotonin in our bodies.

Happy Mind

Our brain has a star-like shape called ‘astrocytes’ which provide energy to neurons and support neurotransmission. We need plenty of such “stars” for the relying of the brain signals, in the absence of which the brain’s cognitive ability hampers. In a study by Ashley P. Taylor published in 2021, it was pointed out that these star-shaped brain cells may also help us understand depression’s biological roots (Emotional Intent Modulates the Neural Substrates Of Creativity: An fMRI Study of Emotionally Targeted Improvisation in Jazz Musicians). Our brain gets more supportive starts when we are less reactive and more inclined to PFC activation.

A better control of the amygdala tends to make us experience happiness. We may not be able to cultivate great control like Alex Honnold, but we can still work to achieve freedom of choice, ability to make informed decisions, appetite for risk taking and search for style, an essential ingredient of a happy mind.