Primitive caregiving instincts to nurture and protect our young originate in the limbic system, while the neocortex gives us skills that are unique to humans: reflection, regulation of our emotions, and intuition (the ability to read emotions in others), or what Daniel Siegel calls mindsight.2 The limbic system is referred to as the emotional brain, the neocortex as the thinking brain. When parents have heightened anxiety, the limbic system (the emotional brain) suppresses the functions of the neocortex (the thinking brain).
