The Brain Emotions

Fear is a strong, intense, negative emotion produced in response to a real or perceived threat or stimuli.

Fear is a basic survival mechanism that detects danger and produces responses that will increase the chance of survival.

Anxiety is an unpleasant emotion that can result without an identifiable stimulus; it is characterized by apprehension, distress, fear, and concern.

Anguish is a negative emotional response to danger that is vague but seems imminent; it is characterized by psychic discomfort, uneasiness, and a sense of powerlessness.

Anguish occurs in the form of attacks that are difficult to control.

Although anxiety and anguish are similar, anguish is always accompanied by physiological responses such as sweating, a racing heartbeat, a feeling of suffocating, and the shakes, while anxiety is not.

The behavioral response generated by fear is:

1. Stop what they are doing

2. Turn towards the threat

3. Assess the threat, while refraining from any action

4. Flee or hide

5. Fight (if fleeing is not an option)

This behavioral response is the same among all vertebrates.

the amygdala

The amgydala is an almond-shaped group of nuclei located deep in the anterior inferior temporal lobe of the brain, very close to the hippocampus.

The amygdala are essential for decoding, generating, and perceiving emotions.

The amygdala receive many sensory inputs and send out many axonal projections to cause bodily responses or emotions.

The major brain structures that project axons to the amygdala are the following:

1. The thalamus

2. The various sensory cortices

3. The hippocampus

4. The prefrontal cortex

5. The brainstem

6. The hypothalamus

7. The septum

The major brain structures to which the amygdala projects its axons are the following:

1. The hippocampus

2. The prefrontal cortex

3. The hypothalamus

4. The thalamus

5. The brainstem

6. The septum

The hippocampus is involved with the emotions that accompany memories and the processing of multiple stimuli, making it possible to associate emotions with the entire context of a situation.

The prefrontal cortex deals with the process of extinction, the voluntary planning of emotional responses, and the ability of humans to have conscious control over their emotions.

Extinction is the process by which a stimulus that triggers a conditioned emotional response gradually loses its effect.

Extinction is caused by the repeated presence of the feared stimuli without the initial unconditioned stimulus that originally produced the conditioned emotion.

The ventral amygdalofugal pathway is involved in conditioned learning, or associating particular stimuli with conditioned emotions.

This pathway emerges from the amygdala and projects to many other locations of the brain.

The basal ganglia are involved in voluntary emotional activites, especially the active components of an emotion’s behavioral expression.

1. The long route

2. The short route

The long route begins with an external stimulus, is routed to the thalamus, then to the appropriate sensory cortex, before finally reaching the amygdala, which produces an emotional response.

Because the long route involves the sensory cortex, the stimuli is consciously evaluated and assigned a meaning.

The short route begins with an external stimulus, is carried to the thalamus, then projected to the amygdala, which produces an emotional response.

Because the short route bypasses the sensory cortex, the emotional response is often imprecise and unwarranted.

The primary sensory cortex is involved in the first conscious appraisal of an external stimuli, in which the stimuli’s basic properties are assessed.

The unimodal association cortex is involved with the second method of conscious appraisal of an external stimuli, in which the amygdala is provided a representation of the stimuli.

The polymodal association cortex is involved in the third aspect of conscious appraisal of an external stimuli, in which the stimuli is elaborately conceptualized and compared to explicit memories provided by the hippocampus.

The long route involves the sensory cortex, while the short route bypasses the cortex.

The long route allows the body to consciously assess the presented stimuli and evaluate it as a possible threat, saving oneself from unwarranted negative emotions.

The negative aspect of the long route is that it takes more time for the body to react to the stimulus.

The short route allows the body to resond extremely quickly to an external stimuli that could be a possible threat.

The negative to the short route is that is causes the body to respond and react before consciously processing the stimuli, often resulting in unnecessary emotions.

Children have less control over their emotions because even though the amygdala is developed, the axons that project from the cortex to the amygdala are not fully developed, and therefore children are heavily influenced by irrational emotions.