In this section we propose a biological view of schemas based on recent research on emotion and the biology of the brain (LeDoux, 1996). We stress that this section advances hypotheses about possible mechanisms of schema development and change. Research has not yet been undertaken to establish whether these hypotheses are valid.
Recent research suggests that there is not one emotional system in the brain but several. Different emotions are involved with different survival functions—responding to danger, finding food, having sex and finding mates, caring for offspring, social bonding—and each seems to be mediated by its own brain network. We focus on the brain network associated with fear conditioning and trauma.
Studies on the biology of the brain indicate locations at which schema triggering based on traumatic childhood events such as abandonment or abuse might occur in the brain. In his summary of the research on the biology of traumatic memories, LeDoux (1996) writes:
During a traumatic learning situation, conscious memories are laid down by a system involving the hippocampus and related cortical areas, and unconscious memories established by fear conditioning mechanisms operating through an amygdala-based system. These two systems operate in parallel and store different kinds of information relevant to the experience. And when stimuli that were present during the initial trauma are later encountered, each system can potentially retrieve its memories. In the case of the amygdala system, retrieval results in expression of bodily responses that prepare for danger, and in the case of the hippocampal system, conscious remembrances occur. (p. 239)
Thus, according to LeDoux, the brain mechanisms that register, store, and retrieve memories of the emotional significance of a traumatic event are different from the mechanisms that process conscious memories and cognitions about the same event. The amygdala stores the emotional memory, and the hippocampus and neocortex store the cognitive memory. Emotional responses can occur without the participation of the higher processing systems of the brain—those involved in thinking, reasoning, and consciousness.
According to LeDoux, the amygdala system has a number of attributes that distinguish it from the hippocampal system and higher cortexes.
• The amygdala system is unconscious. Emotional reactions can be formed in the amygdala without any conscious registration of the stimuli. As Zajonc (1984) claimed over a decade ago, emotions can exist without cognitions.3
• The amygdala system is faster. A danger signal goes via the thalamus to both the amygdala and the cortex. However, the signal reaches the amygdala more rapidly than it reaches the cortex. By the time the cortex has recognized the danger signal, the amygdala has already started responding to the danger. As Zajonc (1984) also claimed, emotions can exist before cognitions.
• The amygdala system is automatic. Once the amygdala system makes an appraisal of danger, the emotions and bodily responses occur automatically. In contrast, systems involved in cognitive processing are not so closely tied to automatic responses. The distinguishing feature of cognitive processing is flexibility of responding. Once we have cognition, we have choice.
• Emotional memories in the amygdala system appear to be permanent. LeDoux writes: “Unconscious fear memories established through the amygdala appear to be indelibly burned into the brain. They are probably with us for life” (p. 252). There is survival value in never forgetting dangerous stimuli. These memories are resistant to extinction. Under stress, even fears that appear to be extinguished often spontaneously recur. Extinction prevents the expression of conditioned fear responses but does not erase the memories that underlie the responses. “Extinction … involves the cortical control over the amygdala’s output rather than a wiping clean of the amygdala’s memory slate” (p. 250). (Thus we say that schemas can probably not be completely healed.)
• The amygdala system does not make fine discriminations. The amygdala system is biased toward evoking conditioned fear responses to traumatic stimuli. Once an emotional memory is stored in the amygdala, later exposure to stimuli that even slightly resemble those present during the trauma will unleash the fear reaction. The amygdala system provides a crude image of the external world, whereas the cortex provides more detailed and accurate representations. It is the cortex that is responsible for suppressing responses based on cognitive appraisals. The amygdala evokes responses; it does not inhibit them.
• The amygdala system is evolutionarily prior to the higher cortexes. When an individual confronts a threat, the amygdala fires a fear response that has changed very little through the eons and that is shared across the animal kingdom and perhaps even in lower species. The hippocampus is also part of the evolutionarily older part of the brain but is connected to the neocortex, which contains the later developing higher cortexes.
Let us consider some possible implications of this research for schema theory. As we have noted, we define an Early Maladaptive Schema as a set of memories, emotions, bodily sensations, and cognitions that revolve around a childhood theme, such as abandonment, abuse, neglect, or rejection. We might conceptualize the brain biology of a schema as follows: Emotions and bodily sensations stored in the amygdala system bear all the attributes previously listed. When an individual encounters stimuli reminiscent of the childhood events that led to the development of the schema, the emotions and bodily sensations associated with the event are activated by the amygdala system unconsciously; or, if the individual is conscious of them, the emotions and bodily sensations are activated more rapidly than the cognitions. This activation of emotions and bodily sensations is automatic and is likely to be a permanent feature of the individual’s life, although the degree of activation might lessen with schema healing. In contrast, conscious memories and cognitions associated with the trauma are stored in the hippocampal system and higher cortexes.
The fact that the emotional and cognitive aspects of traumatic experience are located in different brain systems may explain why schemas are not changeable by simple cognitive methods. In a related point, the cognitive components of a schema often develop later, after the emotions and bodily sensations are already stored in the amygdala system. Many schemas develop in a preverbal stage: They originate before the child has acquired language. Preverbal schemas come into being when the child is so young that all that is stored are the memories, emotions, and bodily sensations. The cognitions are added later, as the child begins to think and speak in words. (This is one of the therapist’s roles: to help the patient attach words to the experience of the schema.) Thus emotions have primacy over cognitions in working with many schemas.
When an Early Maladaptive Schema is triggered, the individual is flooded with emotions and bodily sensations. The individual may or may not consciously connect this experience to the original memory. (This is another of the therapist’s roles: to help patients connect the emotions and bodily sensations to childhood memories.) The memories are at the heart of a schema, but they are usually not clearly in awareness, even in the form of images. The therapist provides emotional support as the patient struggles to reconstruct these images.
The first goal of schema therapy is psychological awareness. The therapist helps patients identify their schemas and become aware of the childhood memories, emotions, bodily sensations, cognitions, and coping styles associated with them. Once patients understand their schemas and coping styles, they can then begin to exert some control over their responses. They can increase the exercise of their free will in regard to their schemas. LeDoux says:
Therapy is just another way of creating synaptic potentiation in brain pathways that control the amygdala. The amygdala’s emotional memories, as we’ve seen, are indelibly burned into its circuits. The best we can hope to do is to regulate their expression. And the way we do this is by getting the cortex to control the amygdale. (p. 265)
In this light, the goal of treatment is to increase conscious control over schemas, working to weaken the memories, emotions, bodily sensations, cognitions, and behaviors associated with them.
Early childhood trauma affects other parts of the body. Primates separated from their mothers experience elevated plasma cortisol levels. If the separations are repeated, these changes become permanent (Coe, Mendoza, Smotherman, & Levine, 1978; Coe, Glass, Wiener, & Levine, 1983). Other long-lasting neurobiological changes that result from early separation from the mother include changes in adrenal gland catecholamine synthesizing enzymes (Coe et al., 1978, 1983); and hypothalamic serotonin secretion (Coe, Wiener, Rosenberg, & Levine, 1985). Primate research also suggests that the opioid system is involved in the regulation of separation anxiety and that social isolation affects the sensitivity and number of brain opiate receptors (van der Kolk, 1987). Evidently, early separation experiences result in physical changes that affect psychological functioning and that might well be lifelong.