Zone 3 Is Not Fault: Violence, Cortisol, and the Body in Defense
Zone 3 Is Not Fault: Violence, Cortisol, and the Body in Defense
From the Body to the Brain Bee: Decolonial Neuroscience for Latin American Teenagers
Maybe we need to begin with a simple sentence:
a body in defense is not a defective body.
When a child, teenager, or adult lives in an environment of threat, violence, constant fear, humiliation, abandonment, or insecurity, the body learns to protect itself. It observes more. Sleeps worse. Reacts quickly. Trusts less. Stays alert. Sometimes it explodes. Sometimes it shuts down. Sometimes it avoids feeling.
In BrainLatam2026 language, this is Zone 3.
Zone 3 is not “lack of willpower.”
It is not “laziness.”
It is not “bad personality.”
It is not fault.
It is the body trying to survive.
The stress axis: when the body calls for reinforcement
When the brain perceives threat, it activates a system called the HPA axis: hypothalamus, pituitary gland, and adrenal glands. This axis helps the body release cortisol, an important hormone for mobilizing energy, attention, and response to danger.
Cortisol is not the enemy. It is necessary. The problem begins when the body has to live for too long in defense mode.
The study discussed by Revista Yvirá analyzed exposure to community violence, coping strategies, and cortisol reactivity in young people. The most important point was subtle: exposure to violence alone did not automatically explain a stronger cortisol response. But young people more exposed to violence who used avoidant coping strategies showed stronger cortisol responses during a social stress situation.
This finding is precious because it prevents a simplistic reading.
It is not just “violence increases cortisol.”
It is more complex.
It depends on time.
It depends on age.
It depends on the kind of threat.
It depends on the presence or absence of bonds.
It depends on how the body learned to face or avoid suffering.
Zone 3: the body learns to anticipate danger
In Zone 3, the body may begin to live as if danger is always arriving.
Listening changes.
The gaze changes.
Breathing changes.
Muscle tone changes.
Attention changes.
Trust changes.
A person may seem “difficult,” but often they are defended. They may seem “uninterested,” but they are saving energy. They may seem “aggressive,” but they are anticipating threat. They may seem “cold,” but they learned to shut down in order to feel less.
A 2025 meta-analysis with 129 studies found associations between childhood adversity and changes in the HPA axis in children and adolescents, including higher afternoon cortisol, flatter daily cortisol slopes, blunted stress reactivity, and higher hair cortisol concentration. It also showed that age, type of adversity, and timing of exposure matter.
In our language:
Zone 3 can appear both as excessive response and as a muted response.
Sometimes the body accelerates too much.
Sometimes the body seems not to react.
Both can be defense.
Cortisol does not tell the whole story
Here we need scientific care.
Cortisol is an important measure, but it does not explain everything. A 2024 meta-analysis on childhood adversity and diurnal cortisol regulation showed varied results, with small effects and differences depending on the type, timing, and context of adversity.
This is good for BrainLatam2026.
Because it prevents us from turning a body into a number.
To understand Zone 3, it is not enough to measure cortisol. We need to measure the whole body, the whole territory, the whole bond.
Cortisol helps.
But HRV/RMSSD also helps.
Breathing helps.
GSR helps.
EEG helps.
fNIRS helps.
Eye-tracking helps.
EMG helps.
And, above all, human listening helps.
Violence is not only an event: it is an unsafe territory
Violence does not need to be happening at that exact moment for the body to remain in defense.
The body remembers.
The territory remembers.
The street remembers.
The school remembers.
The house remembers.
The sound remembers.
The gaze of another person remembers.
A longitudinal study with Syrian refugee children and adolescents found that hair cortisol concentration was positively, though weakly, associated with the number of war-related events experienced, especially among those who were at least 12 years old at the time of exposure. The study also found an association between hair cortisol and post-traumatic stress symptoms.
Without entering into harsh details, the lesson is clear:
the body may continue carrying a threat even after the event has passed.
That is why school cannot only ask:
“why is this student not paying attention?”
The fairer question is:
what body arrived here today?
What territory is this student carrying inside?
What defense did this body need to learn before entering the classroom?
Jiwasa: no one leaves Zone 3 alone all the time
If Zone 3 is the body in defense, the way out cannot be only individual demand.
It is not enough to say:
“control yourself.”
“pay attention.”
“be resilient.”
“don’t care about it.”
The way out needs Jiwasa.
No one regulates themselves alone all the time. A child needs predictable adults, safe bonds, a school that does not humiliate, a community that protects, routines that organize, a body that can breathe, a circle that welcomes, and a territory that is not threatening all the time.
The Center on the Developing Child at Harvard defines toxic stress as excessive or prolonged activation of stress-response systems in the brain and body. It also states that supportive relationships with caring adults can buffer this response and support healthy development.
In BrainLatam2026 language:
Jiwasa is a biological buffer.
Bonding is not just “nice.”
Bonding is physiology.
Bonding changes the body.
APUS: when territory helps or harms
APUS reminds us that the body does not end at the skin.
If the territory threatens, the body closes.
If the territory welcomes, the body explores.
If the territory humiliates, the body defends itself.
If the territory allows play, questions, and mistakes, the body can return to Zone 2.
Zone 2 is not the total absence of challenge.
Zone 2 is a challenge that still allows curiosity.
In Zone 2, the child can make mistakes without being destroyed.
Can ask questions without being ridiculed.
Can learn without being in maximum alert.
Can return to the body.
In Zone 3, attention becomes defense.
In Zone 2, attention becomes learning.
The question we can take to the Brain Bee
If a teenager reads this text and becomes interested in neuroscience, we already have a scientific question:
how can we distinguish an inattentive body from a body in defense?
A BrainLatam2026 study could compare adolescents in three conditions:
a cognitive task under social pressure;
a cognitive task with group support and predictability;
a bodily circle activity with breathing, rhythm, and co-regulation before the task.
We could measure attention, working memory, inhibitory control, perceived threat, return to calm, and sense of belonging.
In a multimodal laboratory, we could use:
EEG for attention and alert states;
fNIRS for prefrontal engagement;
HRV/RMSSD and breathing for autonomic regulation;
GSR for physiological activation;
EMG for bodily tension;
eye-tracking for visual vigilance;
salivary cortisol or hair cortisol, with strong ethical care, to observe stress-axis responses.
The BrainLatam2026 hypothesis would be:
when the body leaves threat and enters Jiwasa, attention stops being defense and can become learning again.
DREX Cidadão: violence is also a failure of public metabolism
If children and teenagers live in Zone 3 due to lack of protection, safety, food, bonding, territory, dignified school, and adult presence, this cannot be treated only as an individual problem.
It is also a failure of public metabolism.
Here, DREX Cidadão appears as a metaphor for a State that nourishes its human cells. A society that wants learning must guarantee minimum life energy: food, sleep, school, health, housing, culture, safety, play, critical technology, and prepared adults.
Without this, school demands attention from bodies that are still trying to survive.
And that is not education.
It is abandonment with a test scheduled.
Closing
Zone 3 is not fault.
It is the body in defense.
It is history entering the breath.
It is territory entering the muscles.
It is fear entering attention.
It is cortisol trying to help.
It is the nervous system trying to get through the day.
Decolonial Neuroscience needs to say this clearly:
before calling it indiscipline, we need to ask about defense.
before calling it failure, we need to ask about territory.
before demanding performance, we need to rebuild Jiwasa.
before measuring learning, we need to give the body back.
The child should not be blamed for having learned how to survive.
The task of education, science, and the State is different:
to create conditions so the body does not need to live at war in order to exist.
When the territory protects,
when school welcomes,
when the adult regulates,
when the circle sustains,
when the question does not humiliate,
when the body can breathe,
Zone 3 begins to lose strength.
And Zone 2 can be born again.
Post-2021 References
Revista Yvirá / UNESCO Chair in Science for Education. Como a exposição à violência afeta nosso eixo de estresse? Text on community violence, coping strategies, and cortisol reactivity in young people.
https://yvira.org/artigo/como-a-exposicao-a-violencia-afeta-nosso-eixo-de-estresse/
Niu, L. et al. (2025). Association of childhood adversity with HPA axis activity in children and adolescents: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews.
https://experts.umn.edu/en/publications/association-of-childhood-adversity-with-hpa-axis-activity-in-chil/
Perrone, L. et al. (2024). Meta-analysis of associations between childhood adversity and diurnal cortisol regulation. Development and Psychopathology.
https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/development-and-psychopathology/article/metaanalysis-of-associations-between-childhood-adversity-and-diurnal-cortisol-regulation/4E72E233FAF69EDBBA46043BACF0620C
Smeeth, D. et al. (2023). War exposure, post-traumatic stress symptoms and hair cortisol concentrations in Syrian refugee children. Molecular Psychiatry.
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41380-022-01859-2
Center on the Developing Child, Harvard University. Toxic Stress. Reference on toxic stress, prolonged activation of stress-response systems, and the protective effect of responsive relationships.
https://developingchild.harvard.edu/key-concept/toxic-stress/
