What is an emotion? Neuroscientists say a state with a job, not a feeling
Caltech's David Anderson and Ralph Adolphs and education neuroscientist Mary Helen Immordino-Yang each define emotions as functional states built on the body's survival machinery, with measurable properties such as intensity and persistence, of which the conscious feeling is only one part. Thinking of an emotion as a state that is doing something explains why it lingers after its cause is gone and why regulating it can be trained.
How do these three neuroscientists define an emotion? Show answer
As a state of the brain and body that changes what you do. The conscious feeling is only one part of it.
What is David Anderson's iceberg image? Show answer
The emotion state is the large part below the water. The feeling is the tip above the surface of consciousness.
What does persistence mean for an emotion? Show answer
The state outlasts its trigger. After hearing a rattlesnake, your heart keeps pounding once the snake is gone, unlike a reflex.
What does generalization mean for an emotion? Show answer
A state triggered in one situation carries into another, as when a bad day at work changes how you respond to a crying child.
How does Anderson separate emotion from motivation? Show answer
Motivational states like hunger are specific and end once the need is met. Emotions like anger persist and spread to other situations.
What features define an emotion for Ralph Adolphs? Show answer
Priority over other behavior, a range from pleasant to unpleasant, intensity that scales, and persistence over time. He thinks priority is necessary.
Why do emotions exist at all, according to Adolphs? Show answer
No animal can carry a reflex for every threat. A flexible state is needed between fixed reflexes and deliberate planning.
What did the amnesia study show? Show answer
Patients who could not remember a sad film still felt sad five minutes later. The emotional state continued without memory of its cause.
Why does Adolphs say the amygdala is not a fear center? Show answer
A patient without working amygdalae felt no fear of outside threats but still had panic attacks from inhaled carbon dioxide. Fear and panic are separate systems.
How does Mary Helen Immordino-Yang distinguish emotions from feelings? Show answer
Emotions are basic physiological states. Feelings are the complex elaborations of them and the stories we tell about what they mean.
What is Adolphs's main principle for regulating emotion? Show answer
The earlier the better. The earliest step is arranging your surroundings so you avoid the triggering situation.
What is Immordino-Yang's rule for learning? Show answer
Whatever you are having emotion about is what you are thinking about, and so what you learn. Point the excitement at ideas, not grades.