weekly update #7

Been very busy with designing the Zombie version of Laticia.In the meanwhile I am reading the book 'De emoties' by Nico H. Frijda.

 

I found some interesting things. He defines emotion from 3 different objective perspectives:

• Emotional behavior
• The physiology of emotion
• Neurophysiology of emotion

Emotional behavior
Here Frijda describes emotion as an expressive behavior, he calls it expressive behavior because it is an emotional behavior that we can assign to the person or animal. We assign the emotion ‘concerned’  to a mother who goes looking for a shot loose safety-pin in the diaper of her baby, and ‘fear’ to a child who is frightened of a dog where another is afraid of. Expressive behavior can also be seen as a form of communication for emotion. Like cats hissing and with their backs high communicate "do not come closer, I'll scratch your eyes out", we humans communicate anger by tensing our muscles and leaning forward what makes the other person aware of our moods and intensions. The usefulness of expressive behavior is not only communication, anger tightens our muscles and increases our resistance against physical impact.

The physiology of emotion

Frijda here describes what the physiological conditions for certain emotional appearances. There are three categories which the physiological reactions are distinguished. The first one is autonomous reactions, such as the activity of the muscles and certain organs in certain reactions. The second is the hormone department and the third are the neurological reactions. there are also changes that occur in the chemical composition of fluids in the body, such as saliva and blood. but also breathing is of relevance. An example is that the heart rate goes up when we are startled by an unexpected event. But also when we head count or count backwards, also with motorists when we are catching up. these are indications and side effects of different emotions (fear, surprise).

 

Neurophysiology of emotion
He describes here the important neurophysiological mechanisms that play a role in the emotional process. The three main structures that play a role are the brainstem, including certain parts of the diëncefalon, the limbic system and the neocortex. The hypothalamus is the main control center of the emotional arousel and the need-based behavior. Research showed that when this part of the brains were removed in cats, normal responses to threatening situations disappeared. In the brainstem, the mid- brains and the diëncefalon run a number of important nerves that substances noradrenalin, dopamine or serotonin secrete through the limbic system far into the neocortex. These are important in regulating emotion.