"The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear"

Every medical student (actually, nowadays it's probably more like every middle school student) learns about the so-called "fight or flight" response, first described by the Harvard physiologist, Walter Bradford Cannon in the early 1900's.  Even if you can't remember the name of it, trust me that you've all experienced it.  Whether it is a physical emergency (such as running away from a bear in the woods) or a psychological one (speaking before a large audience for the first time), the body's response is the same. 

Stress, anxiety, fear, or danger all activate the body's sympathetic nervous system, which increases our heart rate, shunts blood flow to our muscles, releases glucose to the bloodstream (glucose is the fuel that drives our muscles to work), and causes our pupils to dilate (leading to so-called "tunnel vision" so that we focus on the danger ahead and nothing else).  Basically everything we need to "take care of business" (e.g., run away from the bear, which is the "flight" response or to at least put up a good "fight" against the bear).  All of these effects are mediated by the chemicals norepinephrine and epinephrine.

As it turns out, our body's "fight or flight" response does a great job of preparing us to "fight" or "flight."  The effect of stress on performance is so well-known, there is a name for it - it's called the Yerkes-Dodson Law - also sometimes referred to as the "Inverted U Hypothesis."  Think of it this way.  If you graph performance on the y-axis and arousal (a measure of the body's "fight or flight" response, if you will), you get something that looks like an upside down letter "U". 

Basically, if our "fight or flight" response has not been activated (see the far left-side of the graph), we don't do a very good job at fighting or running away (or the modern-day equivalent, speaking in front of a large audience).  Our peak performance actually depends upon having a fairly high degree of arousal.  Too much activation of our "fight or flight" response, however, leads to worse performance, as shown by the far right-side of the graph.

What's perhaps less well known is the fact that this same "fight or flight" response has important effects on our brains too.  For example, why is it that we always seem to be able to remember a time in our lives when we were extremely nervous, scared, or in danger?  As it turns out, the same chemicals that activate the physiological "fight or flight" response, norepinephrine and epinephrine, acts on our brain's cognitive networks to not only better focus our attention on the danger in front of us, but also to place the event in our memory banks for better recall at a later date. In other words, we remember these events - some times in exquisite detail - so that we can react accordingly when faced with a similar event in the future. 

Researchers at the University of California conducted a series of experiments to show that norepinephrine helps shape our memories of past traumatic or otherwise anxiety- or fear-provoking events in our past.  In the first set of experiments, college undergraduate students were shown a series of photographic slides involving a traumatic event (for example, a young child being hit by a car) or an emotionally neutral event (say, just a car).  One week later, the students were asked to recall the details of the slides that they were shown.  The students shown the traumatic slides remembered details much better than those shown the emotionally neutral slides.  In order to prove that it was the "fight or flight" response that increased the student's recall the details of the slides, these researchers treated them with a drug called propranolol, which inhibits norepinephrine's effects (again, recall that norepinephrine mediates the "fight or flight" response).  Students that were treated with propranolol remembered a lot less of the information in the slides and in fact did not differ from those shown the emotionally neutral slide.

A follow-up study drives the point home.  Rather than blocking norepinephrine this time, researchers treated the college students with a drug that increased the body's norepinephrine levels right before showing the photographic slides.  This time both the students shown the emotionally neutral slides remembered the details one week later just like the college students shown the traumatic slides in the first experiment!  As one researcher suggested, if you want to "make mild moments memorable, add a little arousal".

If you have ever read my blog in the past, you know what's coming next - what's the take home message for leaders?  Here I would say this.  Don't be afraid of fear or anxiety.  Your body is actually helping you out with the "fight or flight" response.  The South African dissident, Nelson Mandela, spent over 27 years in prison for "conspiring to overthrow" a corrupt, racist government.  During all of his years, he learned the simple fact that "courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it...The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear."  We will never (hopefully) experience the level of fear or oppression that Mandela felt.  But his words ring true nonetheless.