Lecture Notes: Understanding Feelings and Emotions
Overview
Feelings make life worth living (range from cheap thrills to mystical experiences).
Feelings can also make life unbearable (e.g., lead to suicide).
Feelings are categorized into three types: tactile, internal sensations, and emotions.
Types of Feelings
1. Tactile Feelings
Relate to the outside of the body.
Examples: warmth of a coffee mug, icy snowstorm, typing on a keyboard.
Term derived from Latin 'Tangier' (related to tangible).
2. Internal Sensations
Sensations from within the body.
Examples: pain from an empty stomach, strain from exercise, pleasure from food or warmth.
3. Emotional Feelings
Emotions like anger, joy, fear, love.
Emotions feel physical (e.g., grief feels like physical pain).
Physiology of Emotional Feelings
Emotions involve both mental and physical aspects.
Panic attacks and rage show the intense physical nature of emotions.
Emotional turmoil can lead to physical health issues (e.g., ulcers).
Neurobiological Foundations
Interoceptive Cortex
Responsible for mapping, interpreting, and experiencing bodily sensations.
Spans insular cortex and cingulate cortex.
Works with brain stem, midbrain, and sensory regions.
Insular Cortex
Integrates sensory signals about the body's state.
Important for experiencing emotional feelings.
Arthur D. Craig's model explains insula's role in generating emotions.
Process of Emotional Feeling Generation
Sensory nerve fibers send signals about body’s state to the brain (homeostasis).
Information passes through spinal cord → brain stem → thalamus → insular cortex.
Combined with tactile sensations, body position, outside environment, motivation, pleasure, physiological arousal, self and social context, goals, and plans.
Feelings become emotional when integrated with other signals.
Reverse is also true: emotionally relevant thoughts can generate bodily feelings.
Cingulate Cortex
Associated with motivation to act on feelings.
Motivational side of emotion (e.g., wanting to remove pain).
Electrical stimulation can create a drive to accomplish something.
The Question of What is an Emotion?
Several schools of thought in emotion science (genetically hardwired vs. cultural norms).
All agree interoception is important.
Questions remain about how emotions are constructed and their purpose.
Further Exploration
Episode 5 of "The Social Brain" podcast discusses prominent schools of thought.
Encouraged to investigate the neural basis of feelings and emotions further.
Conclusion
Understanding feelings and emotions is complex and multifaceted.
Emotions intersect with both mental and physical states, guided by neurobiological processes.