1 Introduction to the Emotions Lecture 5:The Science of Emotion Rachel Paine (website: philosophylives.com)website: philosophylives.com.

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Introduction to the

Emotions

Lecture 5:The Science of Emotion

Rachel Paine (website: philosophylives.com)

The Science of Emotion

What does science have to say about the emotions?

neurobiology: emotions are affective states caused by neurochemical activity.

Evolutionary views:

Emotions are survival mechanisms and problem solvers.

Emotions give us the capacity to engage with others.

Neuropeptides and feelingsGalanine – MemoryNPY – HungerCRF - Stress, Panic, AnxietyDynorphin - HungerDSIP - Sleep, StressB-Endorphin - Pain, Pleasure, Social feelingsMet- & Leu Enkephalin - Pain and PleasureNeurotensin - Arousal, SeekingBombesin - Satiety, memoryLH-RH - Female sexual arousalTRH - Arousal, PlayfulnessProlactin - Maternal Motivation, Social feelingsCCK - Satiety, Panic, SexBradykinin - Paina – MSH - Attention, CamouflageVasopressin - Male sexual arousal, Dominance, Social memoryInsulin - Feeding, Energy balance regulationACTH - Stress, AttentionOxytocin - Social processes – Orgasm, Maternal behaviour, Social memoryAngiotensin - ThirstSubstance P – Pain and Anger

Primary Emotions:

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What babies feel

• This baby, Victoria Bateman, was subjected to experiences that made her jealous at 6 months.

• Up until the age of 3 months, a baby can recognize a scramble picture of her mother.

• Empathy is present from birth: one new born next to another will respond to the other’s cry by crying. By 6 months they no longer cry, but grimace at the discomfort of others. by 13 to 15 months they will try to comfort the other or bring their own mothers over to comfort other children.

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Sadie

What Makes Sadie So Happy?

She has no language, no concepts, no particular stimuli – except a very happy mother! So, what?

Oxytocin: the magic behind love, lust, and social bonds

• Love:

Expressing warmth and intimacy... aiming for sympathetic connection with the other person.

• Lust:

Expressing desire.... aiming for physical satiation.

• Social warmth:

• Expressing bonding in culturally determined ways

• Familial bonds:

• Expressing unconditional bonds between carers and infants.

• Empathetic bonding in stressful situations.

The Magical Oxytocin

“In humans, oxytocin is thought to be released during hugging, touching, and orgasm in both sexes. In the brain, oxytocin is involved in social recognition and bonding, and may be involved in the formation of trust between people, and generosity.”

(from science journals cited.... see bibliography)

Music for lifeMusic enhances well-being, reduces stress.

Music improves moods, enhances quality of life for medical and surgical patients.

Music benefits patients physiologically, psychologically and emotionally.

Classical music increases heart rate variability, a measure of cardiac autonomic balance reflecting less stress and greater resilience.

Music decreases cortisol levels for those involved in stressful situations (students, for instance)

Exposure to harp music resulted in significantly lower cortisol levels and lower respiratory rates, inducing a quiet mood and enhanced sleep.

(From Kemper, K. and S.C. Danhauer (2005) “Music as Therapy”, Southern Medical Association.)

Jaak Panksepp,Affective Neuroscience: The Foundations

of Human and Animal Emotions • Given that human beings are social by nature (social

organization IS our natural environment) Panksepp charts the basic affective systems in terms of these relationships:

• SEEKING/expectancy• RAGE/anger• FEAR/anxiety• LUST/sexuality• CARE/nurturance• PANIC/separation• PLAY/joy

Candace Pert

Challenging the view that “the body is unintelligent, a bundle of mass and matter stimulated by electrical impulses in a predictable way” Pert also supports Panksepp and others whose neurological work emphasizes that we interact with the environment at the level of our molecules: their activity gives rise to the basic structure of our emotional experience. (see C. Pert, Molecules of Emotion)

The emotional brain

• Our brains are built from the bottom up and we respond to sensory experience that way.... from the instinctual to the emotional to the cognitive. While the cognitive assessment is slower and later than the emotional response (via the limbic system), it can intercept, modulate and redirect the emotions initially motivating us to act.

Unconditioned Fear Stimluli: edges, snakes, fearful faces

Conditioned fear Stimuli

Body memory

• Our emotions are etched in our bodies, so that past experiences are still present in us, influencing our current responses to events.

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PTSD

• In Post Traumatic Stress Disorder we are unable to modify our emotional responses through cognitive assessments.

• WHY?

One theory is that the entire emotion system has been interfered with through trauma and it no longer can be modulated or redirected.

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PTSD

• Our cognitive capacities are able to shape but not abolish our emotions. That is an advantage, since the emotions give us a quick, unmediated motivational source for actions that may well be life-saving.

• We rely on our instincts and emotions, for “quick and dirty” responses to situations that require fast action.

• The cognitive system is more representational than motivational.

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Neurobiological effects of PTSD

• Persistent and profound alterations in stress hormones secretion and memory processing such that:

• Physiological responses produce reactions that bypass current cognitive processing so that reactions are not appropriate: they misinterpret or just miss actual current signals, responding instead to the body’s memory of the traumatic incident.

When we are emotionally harmed

Sufferers: victims of rape, combat trauma, natural disasters, kidnapping, imprisonment, accidents

•Observable features:•Nightmares and flashbacks•Generalized anxiety•Hypersensitivity to particular events•Can’t put trauma behind •Can’t learn from experience•Fixated on the past, feeling ‘traumatized’ over and over again without knowing why.

“The Body Keeps the Score : Memory and the evolving Psychobiology of PTSD” (by Bessel van der Kolk)

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Evolutionary PsychologyWe can make sense of emotional responses as adaptations that had a specific value in our ancestral history:

•Love exists because we need to commit to our mate.

•Jealousy exists because we need to secure our mate for ourselves.

•Women like men with muscles because they will protect them.

•Men like women with a certain hip to waist ratio because they will bear children easily.

•Men compete with other men to prove that they are the best mate.

•Women compete with other women in order to be preferred by the most men (so they can choose the best mate).

•Women have children outside of their marriage to maximize the gene pool. A mate may be chosen for his ability to support the family, while a lover may be chosen for his ability to produce attractive, intelligent children.

•And so it goes....31

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Evolutionary Biology• The framework is the same: emotions are adaptations that

aided our survival in ancestral conditions. But this adaptation remains a generalized social one: we are suited, as emotional creatures, to living in a complex social environment. Our emotional nature protects us from and connects us to others we encounter in our world.

• The specific emotions we experience may be culturally determined. In fact, it is useful that they are. We are emotionally flexible, and so able to fit in with the environment/culture we live in.

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