Canonical · Neuroscience & Biology · Model

Fight-or-Flight & the Amygdala Hijack

Walter Cannon / Joseph LeDoux · 1915

"Cannon's fight-or-flight describes the body's rapid mobilization under threat, and LeDoux showed the amygdala can route a fear signal before conscious cortex catches up — so you react before you have a reasoned perception of what you're reacting to."

The idea

Cannon named fight-or-flight in 1915. Seven decades later LeDoux traced why you flinch at a stick that looks like a snake — the amygdala fires before visual cortex finishes identifying the object.

Why it works

The takeaway — recall it first

Mirror Neurons & Embodied Simulation

"Rizzolatti's team found neurons that fire both when a macaque grasps and when it watches another grasp — suggesting understanding others is not abstract inference alone but embodied simulation of their actions and intentions."

Giacomo Rizzolatti · PaperContinue→