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Exploring Emotion Essay

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Emotions have developed along with the sophistication of the brain as an organ throughout the process of evolution. Instinctive feelings necessary for survival, such as thirst, hunger, and sex drive, are the oldest and most primitive “emotions”, and they are present in many non-human creatures. The monitoring systems in an animal’s body send signals to the brain when the body is in need of food or water, and this triggers the firing of neurons that in turn advise the creature to search for these necessities. Because these instinctual feelings are reflex related, they originate in the brain stem of primitive creatures (do Amaral). As animals progressed and their brains advanced from just a brain stem into the cerebellum and …show more content…

For example, a man walking down a dark street is startled by a stranger who jumps out in front of him. His body goes into fight or flight mode, his heart rate and blood pressure increase, and he starts to sweat. These physiological reactions are interpreted in the brain as “fear” or “danger”. James concluded that the body’s physical reaction occurs before the emotional response, as expressed in his saying, “We feel frightened because we’re running away”. (Rolls 59)

Thirty years later, Walter Canon and Phillip Bard came up with an alternative theory. They asserted that, when one is affected by a significant experience, one’s emotional response occurs at the same time as its manifestation as a physical reaction (Boeree). A sensory message travels to the thalamus (see diagram on last page) in the brain where it splits off and continues toward two separate regions of the brain. The message is sent to the cortex, where the emotional feelings get expressed, and to the hypothalamus, where the brain decides what “physiological reaction” is appropriate (do Amaral). This theory came closer to realizing the significant roles various areas of the brain play in the sensation of emotion, but it is flawed in that it assumes the majority of emotional

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