Wrap-Up: Embodied Emotion

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From the course by The University of Chicago

Understanding the Brain: The Neurobiology of Everyday Life

652 ratings

The University of Chicago

Understanding the Brain: The Neurobiology of Everyday Life

652 ratings

Learn how the nervous system produces behavior, how we use our brain every day, and how neuroscience can explain the common problems afflicting people today. We will study functional human neuroanatomy and neuronal communication, and then use this information to understand how we perceive the outside world, move our bodies voluntarily, stay alive, and play well with others.

From the lesson

Neural Communication + Embodied Emotion

Neurons are the cells of the nervous system responsible for communicating, relaying, and integrating information. Neurons "talk" to other neurons through a special type of language that involves electrical signaling within individual neurons, and the use of chemical compounds known as neurotransmitters to communicate between neurons. In this module, you will learn more about how a neuron functions at rest, how information is relayed within a neuron, and how neurons relay information to other neurons or target tissues. In the second half of this module, you will be learning about how the body and emotions work together to produce our everyday emotional experiences. We will look at the enteric nervous system and learn how to discern whether the sympathetic or parasympathetic system is impacting our current emotional state.

Introduction to Embodied Emotion3:46

Enteric Nervous System5:34

Parasympathetics & Sympathetics6:32

Parasympathetic/Sympathetic Balance3:53

Autonomic Pharmacology: Adjusting the PS/S System7:29

Spinal Cord Injury7:44

Wrap-Up: Embodied Emotion5:39

Meet the Instructors

Peggy Mason
Professor
Neurobiology

[MUSIC]

So in this module we've talked about, a lot about the autonomic nervous system,

but we've talked about it in the context of embodied emotion.

In other words our bodies expressing emotion.

The emotion is, is executed by the autonomic nervous system in large part not

exclusively, but in large part, and that in turn, that,

that body experience influences our emotions.

And what I'd like to, to end with here is that there are a couple of, of,

I'm going to give you a couple questions.

So the first is is not a question but a, an example.

Here we have I I think the natural ex, the natural example of a post traumatic,

of a animal that's going to have a post traumatic stress disorder.

So there are two animals in this shot, one is Savi

my late cat and the other one is a chipmunk who actually didn't die

it was playing dead probably a very unpleasant experience for this chipmunk.

But then Savi let it go and it ran away and presumably had a life,

with per, perhaps probably a post traumatic stress disorder.

And so, let's talk about how we can use what we've learned to think about

how we might actually treat an individual with post traumatic stress disorder.

So under normal circumstances memories are,

are made primarily about emotional events.

If I ask you where you put your keys, that's not particularly emotional and

you are, you may very well forget where you put your keys.

Which is why most of us put our keys in the same place every time so

we don't have to think about it.

We don't have to remember it.

But if I ask you where you were when you were when some big event happened.

If I ask my father where he was when President Kennedy was assassinated or

I ask a slightly younger person where they were when during the 9/11 attacks.

They're going to be able to tell me exactly where they were.

Where they may not be able to tell me what they had for

breakfast on, on September tenth, let's say.

So emotion is a great facilitator of memory formation.

So, every time we remember something, we actually make that memory again.

So we make the initial memory and then we reconsolidate that memory.

So using just that information you can now understand why now some

health professionals are treating post traumatic stress disorder by

administering exposing individuals with PTSD to a trigger

in the presence of a beta blocker.

So the beta blocker is preventing the sympathetic arousal, so preventing

the heart rate increase, and preventing the, the, the blood pressure increase.

So now you've triggered a memory.

But the person can't get all worked up about it.

Their body is unresponsive.

We pharmacologically prevented that arousal.

And consequently now, when they remember it, they,

they reconsolidate it without all that body memory.

And if we do this a number of times, perhaps we can we can stop

the, the really incapacitating way in which being triggered about a,

a former traumatic event basically hijacks our body into a high sympathetic

arousal system situation state.

So so in this way what we're doing is we're separating body and emotion.

We're preventing the body from getting all worked up and

therefore dampening the emotion.

In this slide this is a friend of mine who had just fallen out of a kayak.

And you can see that he's laughing somewhat hysterically.

And I choose this slide because his entire body,

his posture, his facial expression everything about him

speaks to sort of joy, and hysteria, and fun.

I don't know that he could feel the same emotion if he

was not in that posture with a wet t-shirt with a big smile on his face.

Would the experience of the emotion be different for

him if he didn't have that body?

State accompanying the emotion.

[MUSIC]

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