The brain basis of emotion

The brain’s basis of emotion

 

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The brain’s basis of emotion

According to psychological theory, moods are constant and enduring across time. The feelings ‘float above’ the current state of mind. You may think of your mood as a thermostat that controls how high or low your emotions will go. From what we have learned in the books, we know that the amygdala handles the most intense feelings, like fear, pleasure, and anger, among others (Freberg, 2019, p. 452). It may also cause electrical activity in the part of the brain that controls how we think consciously. The thalamus regulates tissue responses, which send signals to the autonomic nervous system and skeletal muscles. Mood is fundamentally based on the limbic system, an ancient and critical brain network—a group of interconnected brain areas responsible for processing and making meaning of external information. Serotonin and dopamine are only two examples of neurotransmitters employed as chemical messengers in the brain. When these signals reach the appropriate brain areas, we can identify things and circumstances, give them emotional weight to influence our actions, and weigh the risks and benefits of potential courses of action in a split second.

As stated in our textbook’s second chapter, neuroimaging provides us with more information on how the brain works. But what, exactly, does it serve to do? Like other bodily organs like the lungs and heart, the brain performs a specific function in the body. This one is different because its structure bears the marks of evolutionary advancement. Genes that control the functioning of every other organ have the obvious fingerprint of evolution, but the brain is a particular case. Those brain functions that arose first (like the neocortex) are located more dorsally and medially, whereas those that emerged later (like language) are located more caudally and laterally. Even if the human brain is unlike any other physiological organ, we should still think of the mind as something that arises inside it, even though the mind is not independent of the rest of the body.

Our text confirms in Chapter 13 that the cognitive neuroscience of emotions examines the function of emotions in thought processes, their neural basis at the cortical and sub-cortical levels, the way we perceive emotionally evocative stimuli, and the variations among individuals in how they react to such stimuli (Freberg, 2019, p. 459). Accelerating the shift from localization tactics (i.e., mapping individual brain areas to function, often called “neo-phrenology”) to a network-centered approach is necessary for comprehending the connection between emotion and cognition. The cognitive component of the brain is represented by one’s familiarity with social conventions. Emotional processing in the brain transforms these behaviors into expressive gestures. This is a constant activity since we unconsciously use this idea daily. Considering feelings and thoughts, it becomes clear that either one may triumph over the other.

Reference

Freberg, L. (2019).  Discovering Behavioral Neuroscience: An Introduction to Biological Psychology (4th ed.). Boston, MA: Cengage Learning, Inc.