Chapter 3: The Motivated and Emotional Brain (PDF)

# Chapter 3 - The Motivated and Emotional Brain ## Neuroscience Neuroscience is the scientific study of the nervous system and the human brain in particular. This chapter does not discuss the basic components of the nervous system. Instead, it will focus on the *motivated* and *emotional* brain in...

# Chapter 3 - The Motivated and Emotional Brain ## Neuroscience Neuroscience is the scientific study of the nervous system and the human brain in particular. This chapter does not discuss the basic components of the nervous system. Instead, it will focus on the *motivated* and *emotional* brain in action -- how its neural structures and pathways generate cognitive, motivational, and emotional events. ## The Human Brain The human brain is the marvel of the universe. It contains approximately 3 pounds of gray matter (neurons and synapses) and white matter (connecting fibers and axons) that are home to 80 billion neurons that support 80 trillion neuron-to-neuron connections. Most people say that the brain is important because it carries out cognitive and intellectual function, including thinking, learning, remembering, decision making, and problem-solving. Other groups, such as physicians and special education experts, say the brain is important to understand clinical conditions, such as autism, dyslexia, and stuttering. Still others study the brain as a sensory-perceptual organ, because much of what the brain does is make sense of the environment (e.g., the huge occipital lobe processes vision). While these functions are important, the brain does more: it is also the center of motivation and emotion. It generates cravings, needs, desires, preferences, pleasure and pain, liking and wanting, and emotions and feelings. ## Day-to-Day Events Activate Specific Brain Structures - **Warm Smile: ** A small brain structure in the back, right of the brain - the posterior supperior temporal sulcus - is activated when someone flashes a warm smile. It is linked to knowing the person is happy and friendly. - **Angry Facial Expression:** The amygdala is activated when someone flashes an angry facial expression, signaling that threat and danger are coming. ## Regions of the Brain * **Subcortical Brain Regions:** associated with motivational processes like "Ice cream - I want it!". * **Cortical Brain Regions:** associated with matters such as self-control, resisting temptation, decision-making, assessing risk, and self-regulation. The **dual-process model** explains the bidirectional forces between basic motivations and cognitive control over those basic motivations and emotions and is especially informative in understanding motivation, addictions, and risk-taking during childhood and adolescence. During childhood, **subcortical brain processes** (reward-driven affective impulses) tend to dominate the cortical brain and its reflective cognitive capacities, because childhood is an age in which cortical brain structures are still developing and maturing. This explains why adolescents take more risks than do adults, at least in the use of alcohol, tobacco, legal and illegal drugs, dangerous driving, unprotected sex, and criminal behavior. **The basic neurological problem underlying adolescent risk-taking is that mature subcortical brain structures are cold and less actively involved in decision-making.** The affective subcortical brain and the cognitive cortical brain are two interacting systems (i.e., dual processes) that are sometimes in competition and conflict with each other. With greater development and maturation of the cortical brain, children, adolescents, and young adults become increasingly able to control strong motivations and emotional processes (e.g., urges, impulses, and addictions) and to delay immediate gratification for the benefit of long-term goals. ## Individual Brain Structures in Motivation and Emotion ### Subcortical Brain | Brain Structure | Motivational or Emotional Function | |:---:|:---:| | Reticular Formation | Arousal, alertness, wakefulness | | Amygdala | Detects, learns about, and responds to emotionally significant environmental objects, including both threat and reward | | Striatum, Nucleus | The brain's reward center. Responds to signals of reward (dopamine release) to produce pleasure, wanting, liking, and approach. | | Ventral Tegmental Area | Starting point in the brain's dopamine-based reward center. Manufactures and releases dopamine. | | Basal Ganglia | Motivational modulation of movement and action. | | Hypothalamus | Responsive to natural rewards in the regulation of eating, drinking, and mating. Regulates both the endocrine system and the autonomic nervous system. | ### Cortical Brain | Brain Structure | Motivational or Emotional Function | |:---:|:---:| | Insular Cortex | Monitors bodily states to produce gut-felt feelings. Processes feelings associated with empathy, intrinsic motivation, risk, uncertainty, pain, and personal agency. | | Prefrontal Cortex | Makes plans, sets goals, and formulates intentions. Right hemispheric activity is associated with negative affect and “no-go" avoidance motivation. Left hemispheric activity is associated with positive affect and "go" approach motivation. | | Orbitofrontal Cortex | Evaluates and stores the reward-related value of environmental objects and events to formulate preferences and make choices between options. | | Ventromedial Prefrontal Cortex | Evaluates and stores the unlearned emotional value of environmental events internal bodily states. Responsible for emotional control. | | Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex | Evaluates and stores the unlearned emotional value of environmental events and possible courses of action. Responsible for control over urges and evaluates risk during the pursuit of long-term goals. | | Anterior Cingulate Cortex | Monitors motivational conflicts. Resolves conflicts by recruiting other cortical brain structures for executive (cognitive) control over basic urges and emotions. | ## Subcortical Brain Structures ### Reticular Formation The reticular formation monitors and regulates arousal, alertness, and the process of awakening the brain to process incoming sensory information. It is a cluster of neurons within the brain stem about the size of your little finger. It is located at the apex of the spinal cord (the final upper portion of the spinal cord) where the spinal chord ends and the subcortical brain begins. It consists of two parts: the ascending-activating system and the descending-regulating system. The reticular activating system projects its nerves upward to alert and arouse the brain. The descending reticular formation projects its nerves downward to regulate the body. It is the reticular activating system that wakes, alerts, and arouses the brain to ready it to process incoming sensory and proprioceptive information. Once aroused, the alerted brain processes that information (e.g., makes a decision about what to do) and, a second later, responds with appropriate action and coping. ### Amygdala The amygdala (meaning "almond-shaped") is a collection of interconnected nuclei associated with emotion and motivation. Its key function is to quickly process the rewarding or punishing value of environmental stimuli. The amygdala automatically and instantaneously detects, learns about, and responds to emotionally significant events, though each of its different nuclei serves a different function. Stimulation of one part of the amygdala generates emotional anger, while simulation of another part generates emotional fear and defensive behavior. Impairment of these same amygdala nuclei will produce striking changes, including an overall tameness, affective neutrality, a lack of emotional responsiveness, a preference for social isolation over social affiliation, and a willingness to approach previously frightening stimuli. One key function of the amygdala is to generate stimulus-emotion associations related to self-preservation, such as fear, anxiety, and anger. If there is an aversive, emotionally charged stimulus in the environment, the amygdala will quickly detect and respond to it. The amygdala detects environmental threat and generates threat-elicited defensive responses. Fear is the conscious realization of threat-elicited bodily reactions such as heart rate acceleration, muscular tension, behavioral freezing, and "fear face" facial expressions. As the person encounters and detects a threatening object, amygdala stimulation occurs and activates neighboring brain structures that release neurotransmitters (dopamine, serotonin, noradrenaline, and acetylcholine) to instigate and regulate a coordinated defensive response, including rapid breathing, heart rate acceleration, and high blood pressure, as well as hormonal discharge and emotional facial expressions. What the amygdala does is (1) detect and respond to the aversive characteristics of environmental objects and (2) rely this emotion-laden information to neighboring cortical and subcortical brain regions. ### Reward Center The brain's reward center consists of several subcortical brain structures that communicate with each other through the dopamine network. Dopamine is crucial for motivation and movement. This network translates reward-based motivation into action. Through the activation of the dopamine network, we learn what to like, what to prefer, and what to want. Reward is fundamental to motivation. It is fundamental to survival. It is fundamental to learning. It is fundamental to well-being. It is fundamental to the generation of goal-directed effort. When a person encounters an environmental object (e.g., orange juice), its stimulus characteristics are processed in the amygdala and ventral striatum (sweet taste and cool temperature), and the experience of rewarding and pleasurable feelings occurs in the nucleus accumbens (e.g., "I like it."). The nucleus accumbens is active during the experience of a pleasant taste, a pleasant image, social acceptance, and several addictive drugs. When you anticipate good, exciting news, dopamine release occurs. It is not the good news or the exciting event itself that causes the release of dopamine but is, instead, the *anticipation* of rewarding news and the *anticipation* of a rewarding event. That is, dopamine is released when we first learn that we are about to receive some money (reward anticipation), and not when we actually receive the money (reward receipt). Dopamine release is therefore greatest when rewarding events occur in ways that are unpredicted ("Wow, I'm surprised how nice that flower smells.") or under-predicted ("That flower smells much nicer than I thought it would."). For this reason, we typically experience more pleasure in thinking about eating chocolate chip cookies than we do when actually munching on the cookies. Of course, if things go better than expected during the eating, then the dopamine release continues and so does its corresponding positive feeling and approach motivation. ## The Pleasure Cycle Felt pleasure rises and falls over time. *Behavior* begins with initiation, as we explore for food at the grocery store or look for someone interesting to talk to at a party. Pleasure is low at this point in the pleasure cycle, while *wanting* is high. If an attractive stimulus is found, it is approached and engaged. At this point in the pleasure cycle, *pleasure* and "liking" are high. Finally, consumption of an attractive object produces reward. At this point in the pleasure cycle, *liking* declines while a strong learning effect is produced (i.e., one learns where the good food and the interesting people are). So, the pleasure cycle is characterized, in order, by (1) wanting, (2) liking, then (3) learning. ## Motivated Action: Basal Ganglia The essence of motivation and emotion is energized and persistent goal-directed behavior. Motivated people *move* and *take action*. Movement and action flow out of neural activity in the motor cortex. The motor cortex sends "go" signals to the body's muscles to produce movement. Before such movement occurs, however, the presupplemental and supplemental motor areas, which are located at the very top of the head (where you might pat a young child on the head), largely send motor instructions to the premotor and motor cortex and are therefore more related to movement and action than they are to motivation and emotion per se. **Basal ganglia are a cluster of many different small nuclei in the subcortical brain that collectively provide movement and action with a motivational and an emotional punch.** Here action is prepared motivationally and emotionally; a planned action is made more or less potent (more or less energized or invigorated). They are active, for instance, for the game show contestant as she eagerly presses the answer buzzer and for just anyone in the anticipatory pursuit of rewards and gains. ## Hypothalamus The hypothalamus is a small subcortical brain structure that comprises less than 1% of the total volume of the brain. Despite its small size, it is a motivational giant. The hypothalamus regulates a range of important biological functions, including eating, drinking, and mating (via the motivations for hunger, satiety, thirst, and sex). The hypothalamus is responsive to natural rewards (e.g., food, water, and sexual partners). The hypothalamus is also able to regulate the body's internal environment (e.g., heart rate and hormone secretion) in order to adapt optimally to the environment (e.g., cope with a stresser). ## Cortical Brain Structures ### Insula The insula is a rather large and highly interconnected structure that lies deep within the brain. The insular cortex (or insula) consists of two roughly equal halves an anterior and a posterior part. The posterior insula receives, monitors, and becomes aware of changes in bodily states such as changes in heart rate, fatigue, temperature, touch, muscle tone, arousal, and cravings. The anterior insula monitors, evaluates, and consciously represents (becomes aware of) the subjective feelings that arise from these changes in bodily states. Hence, the anterior insula monitors and becomes aware of "gut" (bodily based) feelings. The insula allows the person to mentally construct a consciously aware representation of how he or she feels. When people have "a feeling about that thing" (e.g., this person is untrustworthy, my homework is boring, traveling is enjoyable), it is actively the anterior insular cortex that gives rise to this feeling. So, the first function of the insula is to receive, process, and allow the person to become aware of "raw feelings", gut-felt feelings, and intuitive hunches (e.g., women's intuition"). Pain is one bodily feeling the insular monitors, but insular activity seems to be involved in practically all subjective feelings, including not only negative feelings but positive feelings as well. The right anterior insula processes "energy-consuming" negative emotions (e.g., pain, disgust, anger, and fear), while the left anterior insula processes “energy-nourishing" positive emotions (e.g., pleasure, happiness, and satisfaction). It is also in the anterior insula that people consolidate their internal bodily feeling state information with external social-contextual information about the task they are involved in at the moment and the social context in which they are in to form a more gestalt conscious feeling state during that task. The striatum-based reward center governs the seeking and consuming of "extrinsic rewards" (e.g., food, money, and social approval), when it comes to "intrinsic rewards", the anterior insula is the key brain structure, intrinsic motivation arises from "intrinsic rewards". *Intrinsic rewards -subjective feelings of interest and enjoyment- are the "spontaneous satisfactions" one feels while engaged in a task (e.g., satisfaction from a job well done).* In this sense of task-generated satisfaction that allows the activity to be experienced as interesting, enjoyable, and fun. When people engage in intrinsically motivating activities, the greater their anterior insula activity is, the greater will be the "intrinsic satisfaction" they feel. What this means is that when a person engages in a task "for fun" or "because it is interesting", the task creates anterior insular stimulation. The anterior insula is not only involved in the processing of one's own feelings but also involved in the processing of the feelings of others. The anterior insula is the key brain structure involved in empathy, which is the ability to perceive and share another person's emotional state. If you see another person in pain, you too will feel that pain, at least to the extent that anterior insula activity occurs while you are observing the other's pain, you too will feel that pain, at least to the extent that anterior insula activity occurs while you are observing the other's pain. If anterior insula activity does not occur while you observe another in pain, then you will likely not experience empathy for that other person. That is, anterior insula activity is necessary for an experience of empathy. This finding has led to some interesting speculation that a key neurological deficit of people who lack a capacity for empathy is an insensitive or a damaged anterior insula -for instance, people with autism, conduct disorder, or borderline personality disorder. The insula also processes and learns about risk and uncertainty. As one considers the consequences of one's actions and as one considers the surrounding situational factors, the insula forecasts a risk prediction that guides decision-making. Much of that global feeling state exists as anxiety or a feeling of uncertainty. ### Prefrontal Cortex Asymmetry in the prefrontal lobes leads to two interesting findings. First, people generally have greater activity in one lobe than in the other. This is assessed when the person is in a resting state. People with relatively greater *left asymmetry* (left prefrontal cortex is chronically more active than is right prefrontal cortex) tend to engage in approach-oriented behaviors, such as reward-seeking, impulsivity, and aggression-dominance. People with relatively greater *right asymmetry* tend to engage in avoidance-oriented experiences, such as fear, depression, and internalization symptoms. Second, prefrontal cortex asymmetry is both trait-like and state-like. People who squeeze a rubber ball with their right hand for a couple of minutes, for instance, will show greater left prefrontal lobe activity and report a more positive mode, while people who squeeze a rubber ball with their left hand will show greater right prefrontal lobe activity and report a more negative mode. Biologically basic personality differences exist between people that open them up to optimism, positive emotionality, and approach motivation in their day-to-day thinking and planning (people with more sensitive left prefrontal lobes), while other people are open or vulnerable to pessimism, negative emotionality, and avoidance motivation in their day-to-day thinking and planning (people with more sensitive right prefrontal lobes). So more sensitive left prefrontal cortex catalyzes a behavioral activation system, which is similar to neuroticism. The prefrontal lobe works closely with the amygdala to determine which goals in life are worth pursuing. The amygdala computes costs and benefits to determine which goals are worth pursuing, while the prefrontal lobe generates and evaluates possible action plans to realize those goals. For instance, as the person pursues a goal, he or she generates multiple action plans in the prefrontal lobe (e.g., to attain my goal, I could do X, Y, or Z). Input from the amygdala gives values to these options so that the best option can be selected and pursued. ### Orbitofrontal Cortex The orbitofrontal cortex lies beneath the prefrontal cortex, just above the eyes. It is the cortical brain structure that stores and processes reward-related information about environmental objects. This stored information helps people formulate their preferences and make their choices between options, such as which product to buy or whether to drink orange juice or water. As we make our way through the day and compare the incentive (or reward) value of the possible objects and events that might guide our behavior, some objects and some events attract our attention more than others. ### Ventromedial Prefrontal Cortex The ventromedial prefrontal cortex groups together a set of interconnected brain areas that integrate affective-based information from sensory and social cues. It represents the affective qualities (or value) of basic sensory rewards, such as tastes, and it is constantly updating affective representations of internal bodily states. If a stimulus is inherently appealing (has value), such as a smiling face or a candy bar when one is hungry, extent of ventromedial prefrontal cortex activity correlates rather well with how attractive, valuable, or tempting we find that object to be. In clinical cases in which the person's ventromedial prefrontal cortex has been damaged (e.g., from a stroke), these individuals show emotional impairments and destructive social judgments. This is because the ventromedial prefrontal cortex works for cognitive valuing and revaluing of emotional inputs that lead to effective decision making. ### Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex While the ventromedial prefrontal cortex evaluates the emotional value of basic sensory (unlearned or natural) rewards, the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex evaluates the learned emotional value of environmental events and possible courses of action. If someone were to ask you to take a sip of mango juice and evaluate it emotionally in terms of likes and preferences, you would taste the sensory properties of the drink in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex, but you would also "taste" and evaluate the mango juice brand itself in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. The idea is that we have a great deal of learned emotional value and meaning for the objects and events around us, and these emotional memories are largely stored in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex to help us make an emotionally informed decision. Optimal decision making requires self-control and the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. The dorsolateral prefrontal cortex is involved in the effort to resist temptation during the pursuit of long-term goals. Sometimes, we find ourselves offered an indulgent temptation or a risky opportunity, and neural activity in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex contributes important inhibitory forces during decision making. Basically, the opposite of urge-based (subcortical) risk-taking is (cortical) self-control. Dorsolateral prefrontal cortex activations occur (to signal that self-control is occurring) when a person pursues a long-term reward in favor of a short-term ventral striatum-based reward. ### Anterior Cingulate Cortex Anterior cingulate cortex is recognized as an important cortical center of integrations of pain with emotional and situational cues. It has a crucial role in fundamental cognitive processes, including motivation, decision making, learning, cost-benefit calculation, as well as conflict and error monitoring. It is most involved in registering the experience of pain. It is associated with the integration of cognition, emotion, and behavioral expression. It is involved in regulation of attention and emotion, inhibitory control, error monitoring, and motivation. Anterior cingulate cortex damage can result in different cognitive, emotional, and even physical effects. For example, someone with damage to the anterior cingulate cortex may sustain cognitive impairments such as poor decision-making skills or they may develop emotional effects such as a lack of empathy. Anterior cingulate cortex is involved in emotion assessment, emotion-related learning, and automatic regulation. It is a limbic structure involved in emotion, with major inputs from structures such as the amygdala and orbitofrontal cortex, and activations that are correlated with the pleasantness or unpleasantness of stimuli. It carries a wealth of value-related information necessary for regulating behavioral flexibility and persistence. It signals error and reward events informing decisions about switching or staying with current behavior. # Chapter 4 - Nature of Emotions ## What is emotion? Emotion has proved very difficult to define, partly because emotions are not easy to identify, and partly because the feeling and expression of emotion is so relative. The definition of emotion in the Oxford English Dictionary is: "any agitation or disturbance of mind, feeling or passion; any vehement or excited mental state". Likewise, the definition in Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary incorporates basic elements of the suggested characterization: an emotion is "a psychic and physical reaction subjectively experienced as strong feeling and physiologically involving changes that prepare the body for immediate vigorous action". All psychologists are in agreement about emotion as a complex state of excitement or perturbation, marked by strong feeling, and usually an impulse toward a definite form of behavior. If someone were to come up to you and say, "how do you feel?", what would you say? You might refer to your physical state, but you might be just as likely to reply with some reference to your emotional state. For example, "I'm happy enough", or "I'm fed up/bored". Both of these examples can be applied to those things we call emotions. Whilst these two may not be the first things that come to mind when we consider what emotions are, they would almost certainly fall into the category of emotion. Emotions typically occur when we perceive positive or negative significant changes in our personal situation. A positive or negative significant change is that which significantly interrupts or improves a smoothly flowing situation relevant to our concerns. Emotions arise because events are appraised by people as favorable or harmful to their own interests. From an information-processing perspective, emotions are viewed as outcomes of the process of assessing the world in terms of one's own concerns, which, in turn, modify action readiness. Emotions may be viewed not merely as an expression of our profound vulnerability but also as a way to cope with it. Emotions serve to monitor and safeguard our personal concerns; they give the eliciting event its significance. Emotions involve some appraisal of inner thoughts, feelings and memories, sometimes combined with an assessment of the environment and psychological changes, most often involving a behavioral response. Consider the emotion of fear, this will often involve: - An assessment of a particular situation - An appraisal of our memory will provide a clue as to whether or not the situation is dangerous - This is followed by a cognitive appraisal of our thoughts about the situation; physiological responses (such as increased heart rate) - Will guide our feelings. This will lead to a behavioral response, i.e. running away. An agreed list of emotions that are common to all individuals is very difficult to create. Theories of emotion combine the appraisal of a stimulus, the feeling of being scared, physiological reactions and behavior in order to explain the emotional experience. Unfortunately, they all do it in slightly different ways, so that there is no agreement over which of these comes first, or indeed if any one of them comes before the others. ## Theories of Emotions It is one thing to be able to identify an emotion, but it is somewhat more complicated to explain what it is that brings about physical changes that are usually associated with an emotional state (facial expressions, sweating, etc.). Each of the theories that follows provides some combinations offour factors: feelings, bodily reactions, appraisal of environmental stimuli and behavior. Each one provides some combinations of a scenario involving a stimulus (the sight of a bear or ferocious dog), feelings (I'm scared), bodily reactions (increased heart rate or muscle tension) and behavior (running away or playing dead). - Stimulus → feelings → bodily reactions → behavior - Stimulus → bodily reactions → feelings → behavior - stimulus - Feelings → behavior → bodily reactions - stimulus - Feelings → behavior → bodily reactions - ↑ - → other factors (situational) - ↑ **Explanation:** - a- Represents the view that emotions begin with the subjective feeling (fear), which in turn leads to physiological changes (increased heart rate), followed by an appropriate behavior (running away). - b- Represents the view that emotions begin with physiological changes, which cause the subjective feeling of fear. - c- Represents the view that physiological changes and subjective feelings occur simultaneously. - d- Represents the view that the whole process is far more complex tan the other sequential representations suggest. The process should be seen as an interaction between cognitive factors, the environment and the nervous system. All of which will have an effect on our behavior, in ways that are far from predictable or sequential. **Consider, for example, the experience of taking exams (a common experience for most students). These theories will provide very different explanations for the emotions exhibited by each student:** - a- If the student has not prepared well for the exam, this will cause them to worry about the exam, which could lead to physical reactions, sweating, raised heartbeat, general anxiety. All of this could have effects on his/her performance in the exam. - b- The student notices that some of the physical changes mentioned above are happening as he/she gets closer to doing the exam. This causes the student to wonder what the cause of these changes might be leading to either feelings of worry and fear and consequent effects on performance. - c- The student is feeling worried and afraid at the same time as experiencing these physical changes leading to effects on performance. - d- This rather more complex approach suggests that the behavior of the student will be influenced by his/her cognitive appraisal of these feelings and physical changes. The student may well feel physically aroused when approaching the exam, but may interpret this arousal as excitement rather than fear, due to his/her long hours of preparation and confidence in his/her ability. Such an appraisal will have an effect on his/her behavior, which in this instance is likely to be more positive than the other three explanations suggest. ## The Complexity of Emotions Emotions are highly complex and subtle phenomena whose explanation requires careful and systematic analysis of their multiple characteristics and components. ## Reasons for the complexity of emotions The major reason for the complexity of emotions is their great sensitivity to personal and contextual circumstances. The manner in which we conceive of a certain context or a certain person plays a crucial role in the generation of our emotions. The emotional susceptibility to contextual and personal attributes makes it difficult to define the characteristics common to all emotions; hence, no single essence is necessary and sufficient for all emotions. Classic definitions in terms of sufficient and necessary conditions are not very useful in the study of emotions. An emotion may be generated in one situation but not generated in another situation that is identical to the first apart from one aspect: it is not experienced for the first time. Macbeth is horrified the first time he commits murder, but grows increasingly immune to emotional response in his subsequent murders. Looking simply at the "objective" nature of the situation is not sufficient for predicting the generation of emotions. Such prediction is much more complex and should refer to other personal and contextual features. A pound attained because of good luck could elicit surprise; a pound earned by hard work might produce pride; and a pound received from a friend when in need is likely to beget gratitude. Another major reason for the complexity of emotions is that they often consist of a cluster of emotions and not merely a single one. Thus, grief may involve anger, guilt, and shame; guilt may be associated with fear; love may incorporate jealousy, hope, and admiration; and hate may be connected with fear, envy, and contempt. These connections are not accidental; rather they express the fact that the emotional situation is unstable and that our emotions are directed at imaginary and not merely actual situations. Hence, great love and joy are associated with jealousy and fear which stem from the possibility of losing the beloved. The complexity of emotions is further compounded when we consider that each separate emotion appears in a variety of forms with great differences between them. There are many types of love, sadness, fear, and other emotions; these types express the variety of emotional circumstances. An emotional term usually refers to a highly complex and interactive cluster of emotional states rather than to a single and isolated entity. An emotion involves an ongoing activity in which we are constantly evaluating new information and acting accordingly. Being in love or being angry is not an isolated internal entity; rather, it is a continuous state of the person as a whole. Emotions should not be described as pictures inside our heads, but as ongoing dynamic experiences that spread over time and may be modified during the course of that time. An emotion is a complex phenomenon describable on different levels, for example, physiological, biological, psychological, sociological, or philosophical. The physiological level, for instance, consists of neurotransmitters an autonomic and somatic activities of the nervous system involving changes that are primarily associated with the flow of adrenaline, blood pressure, blood circulation, heart rate, respiration, muscular tension, gastrointestinal activity, bodily temperature, secretions, and facial coloring. On the psychological level, an emotion consists of feeling, cognition, evaluation, and motivation. For example, fear is associated with the feeling of dread, some information about the situation, the evaluation of the situation as dangerous, and the desire to avoid the peril. The philosophical level of description considers issues such as emotions and morality and the rationality of emotions. ## Characteristics of Emotions Instability, great intensity, a partial perspective, and relative brevity are considered as the basic characteristics of typical emotions. This characterization refers to "hot emotions", which are the typical intense emotions. The more moderate emotions lack some of the characteristics associated with typical emotions. Hot emotions, or, simply, emotions, should be distinguished from other affective experiences such as moods, affective disorders, and sentiments. ### Instability In light of the crucial role that changes play in generating emotions, instability of the mental (as well as the physiological) system is a basic characteristic of emotions. Emotions indicate a transition in which the preceding context has changed, but no new context has yet stabilized. Emotions are like a storm: as unstable states which signify some agitation, they are intense, occasional, and of limited duration. Another popular metaphor compares emotions to fire. The instability associated with intense emotions is revealed by their interference with activities requiring a high degree of coordination or control. When we are not in the grip of a strong emotion, our intellectual faculties no longer function normally, with the result that we “lose our heads” and act in ways which differ from our norm. ### Intensity One of the typical characteristics of emotions is their relative great intensity. Emotions are intense reactions. In emotions the mental system has not yet adapted to the given change, and owing to its significance the change requires the mobilization of many resources. No wonder that emotions are associated with urgency and heat. One basic evolutionary function of emotions is indeed that of immediate mobilization. This function enables us to regulate the timing and locus of investment in the sense of allocating resources away from situations where they would be wasted, and toward those where investment will yield a significant payoff. In intense emotional states, we are somewhat similar to children. A young child will promise to jump off a tower tomorrow if you give her a cake today, not only because the child does not understand the concepts of tomorrow and promise but because the child's interest is mainly focused on the immediate partial situation. Therefore, young children have difficulties in working out that someone watching scene from a different vantage point may not be able to see all they see. Like children, our emotional perspectives are highly partial and involved. Our immediate situation, no matter how grave or insignificant it is, is the only thing that concerns us when we are in intense emotional states. We may believe that the world is pointing its fingers at a pimple on our nose. No intellectual explanations concerning broader perspectives are relevant in these circumstances. ### Partiality Emotional partiality may sometimes lead to distorted proportions. Finding the right proportion between the partial emotional perspective and more general perspectives is difficult, but nevertheless the presence of both is crucial for human life. The partiality typical of emotions is less dominant in other mental capacities, such as perception, memory, and thinking: these capacities are usually directed at more objects and they typically include a less personal perspective. For example, although perception is limited in its scope to events and objects currently confronting us, we are able to perceive many things simultaneously. Similarly, memory may be limited to things we have experienced or learned in the past, but in brief period we can remember quite a few people. Emotional partiality does not diminish emotional complexity and diversity; a focused and partial attitude may express complex phenomena and be conveyed in multiple forms. Emotional partiality is related to the other major characteristics of typical emotions, namely, instability, great intensity, and brief duration. A partial perspective is less stable than an impartial one. Since a partial perspective does not take into account many circumstances, there are more circumstances which represent significant changes for it and thereby upset the system's stable equilibrium. Partiality is also correlated with great intensity. In light of their intense nature, emotions require resources such as time and attention. Since these resources are finite, emotions must be partial and discriminative. Focusing upon fewer objects increases the resources available for each and hence increases emotional intensity. It is like a laser beam which focuses upon a very narrow area and consequently achieves high intensity at that point. ### Brevity Typical emotions are essentially transient states. An emotional event may be compared to a large rock being thrown into a pool of still water: for a short time, emotional chaos reigns before calm gradually returns. If emotions were to endure for a long time regardless of what was occurring in our environment, then they would not have an adaptive value. The exact duration of emotions is a matter for dispute. Paul Ekman believes that emotions are typically a matter of seconds, not minutes, hours, or days. His view is based, among other things, on the duration of both expressive and physiological changes; thus, most adult facial expressions last from approximately half a second to four seconds. He argues that when people report experiencing an emotion for longer periods, they summate in their report what was actually a series of repeated but discrete emotion episodes. Other studies indicate that emotions last longer. A cross-cultural study found that fear rarely lasted for more than a few minutes, but rarely more than a few hours. Sadness and happiness lasted over one hour in many cases; in fact, sadness lasted even longer than a day in more than half of the cases studied. Emotions such as love and jealousy can last longer. Some emotions have concrete, usually negative, specifications with respect to their duration. An attitude cannot be regarded as grief or love if it lasts for only five seconds; nor can anything lasting for years count as pleasure-in-others'-misfortune or relief. Other emotions, however, do not have such temporal specifications and can last for different periods of time. The transient nature of emotion does not imply that emotions must last no more than a few seconds: sometimes the transition from one stabilized state to another takes longer. Such a transition is not just a switch from one state to another; it involves profound changes in our plans and concerns and, as such, it may occupy us for some time. The typical temporal structure of an emotional response involves a swift rise-time, taking less than half a minute in most cases, followed by a relatively slow decay. After an emotional response reaches its peak, it can take hours, or even days, to get back to the stable, normal state again. Consequently, the dispute concerning the duration of emotions can be settled by claiming that all typical and diagnostic features of emotions are indeed present for a very short time-typically a matter of seconds. The longer an emotion lasts, the more such features drop away. The fact that emotions are transient states does not imply that their impact is merely transient -a brief emotional state can have profound and long-lasting behavioral implications. Moreover, our emotional values have a persistent impact on what we do and what we do not do. # Chapter 5 - Basic Components of Emotions There are basic components of emotions: intentional dimension, feeling dimension. ## The Intentional Dimension The intentional dimension includes several references to objects, such as those involved in perception, memory, thoughts, dreams, imagination, desires, and emotions. ## The Feeling Dimension The feeling dimension is a primitive mode of consciousness associated with our own state. It is the lowest level of consciousness; unlike higher levels of awareness, such as those found in perception, memory, and thinking, the feeling dimension has no meaningful cognitive content. It expresses our own state, but is not in itself directed at this state or at any other object. Since this dimension is a mode of consciousness, one cannot be unconscious of it; there are no unfelt feelings. In the intentional domain we play a more active role; feelings, on the other hand, just seem to surface, and can overcome us when they are intense. Feel