Study of emotion Essay Example for Free

Study of emotion Essay The results of primate studies have developed in the scientific community a common belief that the amygdala plays a central role in mediating emotions, the anxious temperament and fearful responses. From this generalization, it can be further inferred that a fully intact amygdala, with all others that constitute the brain anatomy in a normal condition, could effect a normal reaction in primates upon exposure to a stimulus (i. e. hostility: defensive stance; threat: fear). On the other hand, a lesioned amygdala can result in abnormal or even totally lack of reaction upon exposure to stimulus. In an article by Kalin, et. al. , (2001), the exposure of lesioned monkeys to unfamiliar threats such as snake and an unknown hostile male resulted to blunted fear responses. This confirms the hypothesis on the role of the amygdala in mediating emotional responses. In mediating fear, information first reaches the eye which will then travel to the thalamus and to the amygdala. The result is a quick registration of any perceived danger to effect a quick response. This is the direct subcortical pathway. In the cortical pathway, information passes to the visual cortex first before passing to the amygdala, allowing for conscious consideration of the danger involved after the initial rapid response. Rapid response is made possible by the innervation of the adrenal glands by the sympathetic axons to produce hormones such as adrenalin, noradrenalin or cortisol which hill hasten blood flow (Peacock, 2005). The registration of danger, and thus, fear is slowed or made impossible by the damage in the amygdala in lesioned monkeys. Still, another part of this article shows that lesioned and unlesioned monkeys showed no differences in emotional processing when exposed to a human intruder. This inconsistency poses a challenge on the notion about the role of the amygdala in mediating behaviors and emotional responses. One possible reason for this inconsistency is that the monkeys have been exposed to human since childhoold (Kalin, et. al. , 2001). In the expression of emotions and behaviors associated with retained memories, a functional amygdala is not necessary (McGaugh, et.al. , 1996) because while the amygdala is necessary in mediating fear, other structures have a more direct function in mediating long-term nonspecific anxiety responses (Davis, et. al. , 1997) These include the bed nucleus in the stria terminalis and the orbitofrontal cortex which may not have been damaged during the exposure. With the orbitorfrontal cortex mediating anxious temperaments based on appraised consequences, input from the amygdala becomes uncritical (Kalin, et. al. , 2001). The amygdala, after all, is involved only in the processing of new and ambigious threatening situations (Whalen, 1998) which may not characterize their exposure to the humans. Physiological psychology gives light to a perspective that is almost completely removed from explanations arising from social biases. The subjectivity of social sciences allows more leeway for as many numbers of interpretations as there are interpreters and gives rise to more confusion rather than understanding. A more objective approach allows an in-depth, more scientific, more uniform appreciation of emotion. That is, even without access to a person’s historical background or experiences, one can predict anyone’s actions by mere examination of one’s anatomy and physiology. Works Cited Davis M, Walker DL, Lee Y (1997) Amygdala and bed nucleus of the stria terminalis: differential roles in fear and anxiety measured with the acoustic startle reflex. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci . 352:1675-1687 Kalin NH, Shelton SE, et. al. (2001). The primate amygdala mediates acute fear but not the behavioral and physiological components of anxious temperament. J Neuroscience. 21(6):2067-2074 McGaugh JL, Cahill L, Roozendaal B (1996) Involvement of the amygdala in memory storage: interactions with other brain systems. Proc Natl Acad Sci . 93:13508-13514 Peacock, S. (2005). Behavior, Physiology and Fear. Mind. Retrieved 05 May 2008 from http://mind. in/node/195. Whalen PJ (1998) Fear, vigilance, and ambiguity: initial neuroimaging studies of the human amygdala. Curr Dir Psychol Sci 7:177-188.