Darcia Narvaez, in her book, Neurobiology and the development of human morality, writes that early life care supports the development of the right hemisphere of the brain which is responsible for self-regulatory and prosocial systems and functioning. When early care is less than optimal these capacities become limited. Excessive stress may create a tendency in the organism towards self-protection and away from social connection and moral behaviour.
How we become determines who we become, writes Narvaez. This refers to the relational systems in which we grow and whether these systems are supportive or rejecting leading to whether we become oriented around compassion or self-protection. Whitehead observed that how a living entity becomes determines what that entity is. When this early become is suboptimal, marked by under-care, it sets a trajectory that leads to a different becoming. Under-care of our evolved needs leads to deficiencies in our biological and sociality systems. Early stress is toxic because it undermines the development of systems in the brain and body, with negative impacts on long-term well-being.
Early life establishes thresholds for many systems including homeostasis, the balance that body and mind then aim for as normal. Systems operate to achieve the same set point and find stability. In later life our body’s systems are responding in ways we have learned are appropriate for the context presented.
The stress response is a homeostatic mechanism that aims for stability and survival. This ability reaches back 500 million years. The stress response occurs throughout the organism and is central to the functioning of the brain-body. Stress hormones affect immune response, cardia activity, metabolism, appetite and behaviour. The HPA axis is central to the stress response and increased activity here is linked with chronic depression, disease, malnutrition, diabetes, obesity, and obsessive-compulsive disorder. Chronic stress inhibits learning because it damages memory systems. Oxytocin calms the stress response – the former can be activated through rough-and-tumble play and cuddling with trusted others.