The semantic basis of basic human emotions and their neurophysiological substrate

[Teacher]

Emotions are a special class of psychophysiological processes and states associated with needs, reflecting the significance of phenomena and situations acting on an individual in the form of direct subjective experiences (joy, sadness, anger, and others).

In other words, emotions are the body's response to changes in the environment, or within the person himself. It is a dynamic system that subtly reacts to changes in each of its components. Some emotions can extinguish others, interact, merging into new emotional and sensory states such as joy and anger, fear, sadness and others.

Understanding what emotions are and what triggers them contributes to a more conscious understanding of your own emotions and can help in managing and controlling them.

Emotion of joy
The emotion of joy is one of the most important emotions of the body, which plays a significant role in the process of behavior and motivation, as well as in the process of forming a holistic perception of the world. The emotion of joy acts as a reinforcement that forces us to repeat the actions that lead to this state of joy. Joy is "generated" in those moments when the needs of our body are being satisfied.

The needs of the body can be conditionally divided into three main groups: vital, social and self-development needs.

Vital needs include all vital and necessary personal needs - the need for food, water, safety, sleep, body care and others. Social needs include needs aimed at social interaction: behavior aimed at procreation, territorial and hierarchical behavior, etc. The needs of the self-development group are directed towards the future, and it is here that the needs for learning new things, in achieving freedom, in repetition after others and others, are included.

When satisfying any of the needs, we experience positive emotions. And the process of increasing needs or taking actions that ultimately did not lead to the expected effect is accompanied by negative emotions. We rejoice when we eat, when we are praised, when we learn something new.

The structures of the brain that play a major role in the process of positive emotions are the ventral tectum of the midbrain (structure of the brainstem), where positive emotions arise, the nucleus accumbens of the transparent septum (a structure included in the limbic system ) and the hypothalamus (structure of the diencephalon, also related to the brain stem), which is responsible for most of our needs. In addition, there are a number of other structures involved in the process of positive emotions, such as the blue spot, substantia nigra, cingulate gyrus, and others. The main neurotransmitters in this process are dopamine, norepinephrine and serotonin.

The emotion of sadness
Sadness is equal in importance to the emotion of joy. Sadness informs us of many needs and behavior problems. If our actions did not lead to the result that we expected, then negative emotions are triggered, which allow us to make adjustments or even change the behavioral program. This process involves the cingulate gyrus - the region of the limbic system responsible for comparing the expected and actual results of our behavior.

In addition, sadness acts as an emotion that signals to us about activation and growing needs. If we are without food or people close to us for a long time, we begin to feel sad because the need for food or the need for social interaction is not being met. Prolonged stay in this state can lead to a more serious psycho-emotional state - depression.

Emotions of fear and anger
The main protective emotions of the body are fear and anger (aggression). Fear is a state associated with the activation of the centers of passive-defensive behavior (flight), while aggression is a state associated with the activation of the centers of active-defensive behavior (attack).

When we find ourselves in a situation requiring defensive behavior, the centers of passive-defensive need are activated, due to which the body begins to prepare for flight. If flight is not enough to avoid a dangerous situation, or it is impossible, then the brain turns on the centers of active-defensive need and the body goes into a state of readiness for a fight. Both of these processes carry serious hormonal and psychophysical changes - there is a large release of cortisol, norepinephrine, adrenaline, and other substances.

The emotions of fear and anger are accompanied by stress. Stress is the body's response to a strong impact (both physical and psychological), as well as the corresponding state of the nervous system and the body as a whole. The source of stress is information from the cerebral cortex about the approach (or immediate onset) of a potentially significant (not necessarily dangerous) situation. Also, a source of stress is unmet needs and lack of resources (hunger, thirst, lack of freedom). This is where the emotional manifestations of anger and fear take their roots. At the same time, these emotions require large resource costs of the body, therefore, a long stay in a state of stress, fear or anger has a destructive effect on the human body.

Emotion of disgust
Disgust is perhaps one of the few behavioral responses that have their origins in learning and experience. Disgust acts as a "mild" defensive reaction based on negative experiences already experienced, and acts as a reaction to stimuli that do not present immediate danger.

Let us explain with an example. If you love chocolate, then you will feel joy eating it. If you overeat it and you feel bad, then just the next mention of chocolate will make you disgusted with it.

At the same time, disgust is also manifested in many less obvious stimuli, for example, the bright sun that hits the eyes, an unpleasant odor, bitter taste, ideological or behavioral manifestations of subjects that run counter to personal value systems, and others. Each of these reactions will have its own "background" in the form of negative experiences.

The emotion of surprise
The last emotion, which can be described in just a few words, is the reaction to novelty. It is directly related to the centers of self-development needs: every time we receive or learn something unexpectedly new, we pass through this emotion.

In conclusion, we note that emotions play an important role in a person's life and in themselves are a kind of paints that make up a rainbow. If we lost any emotion from our behavioral arsenal, then we would become internally poorer, and the world a little grayer. If you are sad, try to understand the reason for your sadness. Perhaps one of your basic needs is not being met: if you feel overwhelmed by fear or anger, try to change the environment and calm down, because you probably do not need health problems!

And most importantly - never forget the basic rule of competent and successful thinking - to look for and understand the causes of certain phenomena around or within us.

 

[Father]

Physiology of emotions​

Significant interest in the phenomenon of the relationship between emotional reactions and the activity of internal organs arose after the results of the experiments of Egon Brunswick became known.

During the experiments, rubber balloons were placed in the gastrointestinal tract (stomach and duodenum), which recorded the dynamics of the activity of the digestive system. Emotional stimuli in the course of the research were sharp and unexpected sounds (pistol firing), physical painful effects (for example, an electric shock), and even bringing a rat to the subject's face.
The dependence of the significance of changes in the activity of the digestive organs on the strength of the emotional response was established. However, it turned out that the physiological reaction depended not only on the strength of the stimulus, but was also determined by the "color" of the affective-emotional reaction. Emotions of fear, jealousy, disappointment, irritation, grief and pain caused the relaxation of muscle tension in the walls of the stomach and duodenum. Surprise increased the tension, and delight, amazement and joy did not affect the gastrointestinal tract.
The modality of emotional manifestations also had its own specifics. Emotions associated with readiness for action (tension, anger) caused an increase in blood pressure. When, under the influence of a critical factor, a person experienced a feeling of hopelessness, a hopelessness of the situation, the hopelessness of his own powerlessness, the blood pressure dropped. In this regard, I would like to mention an interesting conversation between one of the authors of the book with a well-known professional, head of the Ural Bureau "Polygraph" Oleg Vyacheslavovich Shcherbatykh, on the sidelines of a conference held by the International Academy of Lie Research at the end of 2021.

The latter was interested in why only the parameter of an increase in blood pressure is an informative sign of reactions (according to American approaches). According to his observations, a diametrically opposite process very often occurred - the pressure dropped. The co-author of the publication honestly admitted that he does not have sufficient knowledge in this area, since he uses plethysmogram and photoplethysmogram channels in testing practice. It seems that the phenomena observed by Oleg Vyacheslavovich can be explained in some way by the content of this paragraph.
Ax's research revealed that the emotions of fear and anger have different effects on the functional state of the subjects. Anger increased diastolic pressure more significantly (with frequent cases of temporary slowing of the heart) and abrupt changes in skin conduction. The emotion of fear was accompanied by a more significant decrease in skin resistance, sharp jumps in muscle tension, and a decrease in the duration of respiratory cycles (an increase in breathing rate).

Ax put forward the assumption that anger is associated with the release of the hormone norepinephrine into the bloodstream, and the emotion of fear with adrenaline expansion of the body, which caused this difference. However, studies by other scientists have shown that all these studies cannot explain all the phenomena in each case. The specificity of the response has always been associated with the individual characteristics of a person, and with those organs and systems that were influenced.

The most systematized data on this kind of manifestations can be found in the work of J. Reikovsky.
According to Reikovsky, traces of emotional arousal are most strongly reflected in changes in the circulatory system. This applies to blood pressure, heart rate, vascular lumen. Surprise and surprise are often caused by a short-term increase in blood pressure, vasodilation of skeletal muscles and the brain, vasoconstriction in the abdominal region, and only sometimes an increase in heart rate.
Threats to life and health, pain stimuli cause an increase in blood pressure. Strong positive emotions cause a noticeable increase in heart rate, and a state of apathy and depression, on the contrary, lower the heart rate.

Short-term emotional processes in breathing are most indicative of its frequency and amplitude, as well as the ratio between inhalation and exhalation (Storring-Benussi index). A strong emotional reaction of any modality makes breathing quicker and deeper. Sudden and abrupt impacts cause short-term breath holding, which may subsequently be accompanied by disorganization of the respiratory process. The threat causes an increase in the duration of inspiration.

Under the influence of psychogenic factors, a change in the composition of the blood occurs: an increase in globulin, fibrinogen, multinucleated lymphocytes is observed, and the content of lymphocytes and hemoglobin decreases. Non-localized changes also take place, expressed in changes in body temperature, dilated pupils, a decrease in the amount and even a change in the composition of saliva.

From all that has been said, very important conclusions should be drawn:
1. Changes in the activity of internal organs are characterized, as a rule, by a high degree of lability. The same measured parameter at different points in time and in different situations gives different information about the strength, modality and "color" of the emotional process.

2. The dynamics of the physiological activity of organs and systems of an individual is not identical for all people. In the general combination of physiological reactions inherent in a particular type of emotional-affective manifestations, significant differences can always be observed, due to the individual characteristics of a person. In addition, the same emotion will cause various configurations of changes in the activity of internal organs, depending on its (emotion) expression (strength) and modality.

In this regard, in our opinion, one very important remark should be made that is significant for the practice of polygraph examiners. It is completely incomprehensible that a part of professional specialists (an American-oriented audience) are so-called “Kirscher's parameters”. The complete inconsistency of American technologies and the validity of their validity, accuracy and reliability from the point of view of the adequacy of the chosen mathematical model, compliance with the laws of psychology have already been written in the book by A.Yu. Molchanova "NotUtah" An alternative view of the theory and practice of polygraph tests ".

An excerpt from the book "Pharmacology for polygraph examiners" by A. Yu. Molchanov, NA Molchanova, 2018 International Academy of Lie Research