The concept of lagom is Swedish, and means “just
enough”. But how does the brain know
when enough is enough?
By Dr Samantha J. Brooks Ph.D.
In cognitive science, the Goldilocks Dilemma is about how we
learn when we’ve had ‘just the right Our brains are geared towards
homeostasis – the technical term for keeping biological balance. We eat food when our body needs nutrition and
protein to re-organise replenish and fuel our cells; we drink when our body
becomes dehydrated as the water composition drops below 60% (e.g. via sweating,
urination), and we rest when our bodies are exhausted – just like Goldilocks
did! However, our brains also learn - through trial and error - how to gauge
when our body feels satisfied with our actions and when it doesn’t. Many of us
have had the experience of eating or drinking too much at a party and living to
regret the feeling of being too full afterward!
On the opposite side, many people live below the poverty line and never
get enough to eat. In modern Westernised societies we have grown used to industries
that provide for our every whim through the increasing availability of food and
illicit substances, or the lure of sexual images in the media. As such, many of
us have lost the ability to regulate our actions to maintain homeostasis. This has led to huge rises in obesity,
cardiovascular disorders, addiction, aggression, poverty and damages to the
planet. Our out-of-control behaviours
are not showing any sign of abating any time soon. But not all countries are losing the knack of
being able to tell when enough is enough – in some areas of the world people
can teach us a thing or two about self-regulation.
In Sweden – one of the Scandinavian countries in the
Northern Hemisphere – the people are often rated top of happiness and
prosperity surveys, and they have a word that sums up the feeling of ‘enough’ –
lagom (pronounced [ˈlɑ̀ːɡɔm]). The word originated from the Vikings, who would
pass around Mead (a type of fruity, sweet, alcoholic drink) while sitting by
the campfire after a day of battle or roaming out in the cold. To ensure that everyone in the camp was
happy, the merry Mead-makers – to the chorus of “laget om (around the team)” –
would take a swig or two from the horn, just big enough to satisfy their taste
buds and quench their thirst, before passing it on to a neighbour. Such jolly
behaviour meant that everybody got a fair share, and aggression – even between
those fearsome Vikings – was kept to a minimum!
The Swedes really embrace the notion of lagom today – to the point where
there is a high level of trust in one’s neighbour – so that there are always
enough resources to go around. As such,
Sweden is often synonymous with high life quality, education for all, excellent
health, low obesity and low crime.
Where then, might we find this mysterious lagom quality in
the brain? Firstly, in the more
primitive
The ventral medial (“bottom-middle”) hypothalamus works when we are
hungry and need to eat – excessive activation of this area has been linked to
obesity. Conversely, the lateral
(“side”) hypothalamus activates when we no longer want to eat, and has been
associated with starvation and anorexia nervosa. Another interesting point about the
hypothalamus, in relation to the stressful nature of modern society, is that it
is part of a larger stress-related network, called the
Hypothalamic-Pituitary-Adrenal (HPA) axis.
The HPA axis is overactive during acute and chronic stress, and leads to
the release of adrenalin (increasing aggression), and cortisol (shutting down
the body’s non-essential systems, like digesting food in the gut) to give the
body higher energy levels. These systems happen in the mid-brain, and in the
adrenal glands (located above the kidneys), but the prefrontal cortex also
plays a huge part in learning to control our actions to achieve balance.
The prefrontal cortex, in the front of the brain (under the
forehead), consists of various sub-regions, including: dorsolateral (DLPFC),
ventromedial (VMPFC), orbitofrontal (OFC). The DLPFC is responsible for
attending to and inhibiting actions, the VMPFC remembers what the outcome was
of our previous actions, and the OFC evaluates the value (positive or negative)
of those actions. Activation of these
regions reflects an ability to learn from trial and error, and to predict
whether something will satisfy us, become overwhelming, or leave us wanting
more. As we gather more information
about our day-to-day experiences of the world, we build a memory that is
constantly updated, as we – and the world – change. People with damage – or under-development –
to the prefrontal cortex may not be able to learn from their mistakes in order
to lead a balanced life. An unbalanced
life is an unhappy life – take it from the Swedes – and may result in long-term
physical or mental illness.
So, the key is to try to exercise lagom in our everyday
lives – by only eating a few, and not the whole
The take-home message is this: balance is the key to a
happy, healthy life! Lagom!
Dr Samantha Brooks is a neuroscientist at the UCT Department
of Psychiatry and Mental Health, and at Uppsala University, Sweden,
specialising in the neural correlates of impulse control from eating disorders
to addiction. For more information on
neuroscience at UCT and to contact Samantha, see www.drsamanthabrooks.com.
Note: Images royalty free, courtesy of https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki.
