![]() James, Lange, and Sergi independently assumed, counterintuitively, that subjective emotional experience is caused by changes in the body. Some of the first theories of emotion attempted to explain the close relation between physiological changes and the subjective experience of an emotion or a feeling. From an evolutionary perspective, emotions allow for the coordination of a whole range of different processes with the goal of resolving immediate and urgent issues. By presenting the findings that certain emotional facial expressions have universal meaning for people in different parts of the world, Darwin anticipated research of facial expressions that would not begin until more than a century later. After a detailed description of individual facial expressions as well as the motor apparatus involved in the expression of each individual emotion in his 1872 book, The expression of emotions in man and animals, he concluded that emotions in humans, just as in animals, have a common evolutionary history. ![]() ĭarwin was probably the first to study the evolution of emotional reactions and facial expressions systematically and to recognize the importance of emotions for the adaptation of the organism to various stimuli and environmental situations. Photographs by Andrea Piacquadio, taken from. Although individual emotions can be recognized and analyzed even from the microexpressions of facial muscles, for the sake of clarity the expressions of emotions in these photographs are accentuated. In the bottom row, facial expressions of anger, joy, and fear are shown, respectively. At the top is a neutral facial expression. An illustration of facial expressions of the three primary emotions is shown in Figure 1.Įmotional facial expressions of three basic, primary emotions. Although people in different cultures are relatively equally successful at recognizing facial expressions of basic, primary emotions, estimating the intensity of these expressions, however, depends on the cultural context. According to Ekman and others, different facial expressions of primary emotions are interpreted and reproduced similarly across different cultures. ![]() As such, they have been equally recognized in different cultures around the world. Consistent with this biological approach is the finding that some basic, primary emotions, such as anger, fear, joy, sadness, disgust, and surprise, are innate, expressed in the first six months of life, and associated with specific facial expressions. Most contemporary theories of emotion are based on the assumption that emotions are biologically determined. It has been speculated that emotions initially arose when reflexes were “decoupled” to include another layer of nerve cells on top of them-the evolutionary emergence of central emotional states. Among others, adaptive abilities to find food, water and shelter, to find sexual partners (mates), to provide adequate protection, nurturing, and care for offspring, and most importantly, to avoid danger and escape from life-threatening situations were probably critical. Unlike reflexes-automatic and uncontrollable narrowly-tuned responses to specific stimuli-emotions emerged and were selected in evolution because they better addressed problems of adaptation to a constantly changing environment. The amygdala participates in the regulation of autonomic and endocrine functions, decision-making and adaptations of instinctive and motivational behaviors to changes in the environment through implicit associative learning, changes in short- and long-term synaptic plasticity, and activation of the fight-or-flight response via efferent projections from its central nucleus to cortical and subcortical structures.Įmotions played a major role in survival during human evolution and in effective psychological functioning in human societies. Contemporary theories of emotion converge around the key role of the amygdala as the central subcortical emotional brain structure that constantly evaluates and integrates a variety of sensory information from the surroundings and assigns them appropriate values of emotional dimensions, such as valence, intensity, and approachability. Feelings are conscious, emotional experiences of these activations that contribute to neuronal networks mediating thoughts, language, and behavior, thus enhancing the ability to predict, learn, and reappraise stimuli and situations in the environment based on previous experiences. ![]() Emotions arise from activations of specialized neuronal populations in several parts of the cerebral cortex, notably the anterior cingulate, insula, ventromedial prefrontal, and subcortical structures, such as the amygdala, ventral striatum, putamen, caudate nucleus, and ventral tegmental area.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |