Dr. Justin Coulson

But if this input comes in from somebody who's saying something slanderous or just something unkind online, it hits our brain and it gets to the emotional part of our brain and it kind of stops there.

The emotional part of the brain says, hold on, we've got this.

This requires our focus, our attention.

It's not going any further.

And I'm kind of being a little bit loose with the neuropsychology, but it's close enough.

Or neurobiology.

What's really going on here is all the blood...

which therefore means all the oxygen that your brain needs to function and do what it's supposed to do, kind of goes back there.

Your thinking brain therefore is starved of oxygen and starved of blood and it doesn't get to kick in because it's all happening back here.

And your talking brain, like the bit where you, right now you're listening to me, Ella, and you're hearing my words and your brain's computing the words, it's processing the words and you're getting ready to say stuff.

That's all happening just here in front of or above your left ear.

So you know how when somebody says something and it's just so sharp, so cutting and you go, oh, I need to come back and you can't think of one.

And then 20 minutes later, you think of the great comeback.

That's because once again, there's no blood and oxygen happening up here in this left hand above the ear part of the brain because back there.

So essentially to answer your question, your brain goes into overload.

It goes into fight or flight.

It goes into emotional overdrive.

and therefore you stop thinking well.

There's this thing that I talk to parents about all the time, and that is that high emotions equals low intelligence.

The more emotional you become, the dumber you become, basically.