The Archaeology of the Mind, Jaak Panksepp and Lucy Biven (2012)
Ancestral Passions
Science and Emotions. Neuroscientists were not initially interested in studying emotions because they believed that (a) emotions are subjective experiences and (b) objective scientific measurements cannot capture subjective experiences. However, we now know that our emotions arise from subcortical brain regions that we share with other mammals. Given this, we can study emotions by triangulating (a) our knowledge of the brain, (b) our knowledge of animal behavior, especially their instinctual tendencies (i.e., their unconditional responses), and (c) our knowledge of human subjective emotional experiences.
Humans and Animals. Humans and animals share subcortical regions that contain seven affective systems. Each emotional system “controls distinct but specific types of behaviors associated with many overlapping physiological changes.” Moreover, these systems “generate distinct types of affective consciousness.” When “these systems are stimulated in humans,” they “generate abundant memories and thoughts.” Of course, humans have more advanced brains. Consequently, when different emotional systems cross in the human mind, the systems generate “high emotions” like pride, shame, confidence, guilt, jealousy, trust, and disgust.
Affective Consciousness. Our feelings affective consciousness, “an energetic form of consciousness,” “one that is full of affective intensity.” Primal feelings are not intrinsically bright and intelligent, but they were built into our brains because they are remarkably useful for immediately dealing with the world and learning about its potential.”
Affects and Experience. When we’re born, the neocortex is by and large a blank slate; in time, experience “imprints many abilities and skills.” These imprints “include what seem to be ‘hard-wired’ brain functions like our sophisticated hearing and visual abilities.”
The James-Lange theory wrongly claims that the cognitive brain is necessary for emotions. Evidence #1: Babies who are born without cerebral hemispheres, and thus essentially have no neocortex, “can grow up to be affectively vibrant children if they are raised in nurturing and socially engaging environments.” Evidence #2: The animals in decortication experiments “are indistinguishable from normal animals” and are in fact more emotional than normal. Evidence #3: “aphasic stroke victims who have lost the ability to speak or even to think in words (usually due to left neocortical damage) will also retain their affective capacity, which indicates that affective consciousness is independent of language.” Evidence #4: Our thoughts often follow our feelings (Teasdale et al., 1980).
Mammals are born with “unconditional or instinctive affective responses to only a few specific stimuli.” Rats, for instance, have an inborn fear of the smell of predators. For rats, smell is an Unconditioned Stimulus (UCS) that evokes an Unconditioned Response (UCR) of fear; if smell is paired with a neutral cue or Conditional Stimulus (CS), the result will be a Conditioned Response (CR). This is an example of classical conditioning.
Once mammals are born, the “short list of conditionally arousing stimuli soon multiplies exponentially as people and animals undergo conditioning and other learning experiences.” These conditioning experiences “allow animals to acquire an emotional response to a stimulus, which to them was previously neutral. For example, if a cat wears a bell around its neck and a rat has a confrontation with the cat, the rat will soon learn to be afraid and run away when it hears the sound of a bell.”
Purpose of Affects. Affects are “ancient brain processes for encoding value — heuristics of the brain for making snap judgments as to what will enhance or detract from survival.” Put differently, affects can be understood as “ancestral memories of how effectively we play the game of survival and reproduction; these memories are passed down through the collected mindless ‘wisdom’ of our genetic code. Interactions that evoke various pleasant affects — encounters with food, water, a mate, offspring, or playful friends — help animals to survive and reproduce. Life experiences that evoke painful affects — predators, rivals, chaotic weather, and so on — put life and reproductive capacity in jeopardy.
“Affects feel good or bad in a variety of specific ways. Sexual gratification, arising from our capacity for LUST, feels good in a rather different way from the joys of rough-and-tumble PLAY or the tender bliss of caressing, nurturing, and CAREing for one’s infant.” The different “pleasant and unpleasant affects provide guidance for living due to the survival-enhancing advantages each of them has conferred over the course of evolution.” “Thus raw affects provide the essential infrastructure for our most basic behavior patterns — approach and avoidance — without which we could not survive.” We “approach things that evoke pleasant affects,” and we “stay away from things that make [us] feel bad.”
Three processes. Primary-process psychological experiences are “the instinctual emotional responses that generate raw affective feelings.” Secondary processes of the brain are largely unconscious learning and memory mechanisms, an example being fear-conditioning. Tertiary processes are higher mental processes, “the diverse cognitions and thoughts that allow us to reflect on what we have learned from our experiences.”
Unconscious. The “affect that accompanies artificial arousal of the SEEKING system emerges from subneocortical regions, as highlighted by the survival of self-stimulation after massive forebrain damage.” This disproves “read-out theories,” which claim that “affective experience is a neocortical achievement.” Of course, “the neocortex may help construct complex emotions (tertiary-process emotions) from the more primitive affective phenomena.” Similarly, evidence shows that the other primary emotions “arise from subneocortical networks of the brain.”
(1) SEEKING System
Introduction. In the 20th century, James Olds and Peter Milner discovered that animals will “work intensely hard, to the point of exhaustion, in order to obtain electrical stimulation” in the SEEKING system, the medial forebrain bundle-lateral hypothalamic area (MFB-LH). This system produces feelings of euphoric excitement and anticipation. These feelings feel “good in a special way.” They are not “the kind of pleasure that we experience while eating a fine meal, or the satisfaction we feel afterwards” but rather “the kind of excited, euphoric anticipation that occurs when we look forward to eating that meal.”
These feelings propel us to “search for, find, and acquire all of the resources that are needed for survival.” Initially we might not have an explicit goal in mind. If rats are given electrical jolts to the MFB-LH, they will “move about, eagerly investigating their environments, even monotonous ones, such as an empty box. They explore all environments as if they are looking for something.”
The SEEKING system is aroused when we’re in a state of homeostatic imbalance, e.g., when we need food, water, or sex. When we enter this state of imbalance, our MFB-LH is activated, and we experience a “sense of expectant euphoria” that prompts us to search for the environment for the resources we need. When our bodily imbalances are restored to homeostasis, the neural firings in the MFB-LH dramatically slow down, and we experience the pleasure of consummation, feel satisfied, and get sleepy. The SEEKING system can be aroused when our bodily needs are not met and also when we feel that our higher-order emotional needs (e.g., desire for money, desire for information, desire for aesthetic experiences) are not met.
The SEEKING system is the emotional system “most intimately linked to satisfying bodily needs,” although all of our emotional systems require us to seek environmental resources. For these reasons, all the other emotional systems depend upon the SEEKING system to work properly. “To satisfy LUST, one must seek relationships. To feel tender loving CARE, one must seek those who need help, especially babies. To feel full RAGE, one must seek to harm those who would take resources away from you. To respond well to FEAR, one must seek safety. To make your PANIC/GRIEF work for you, you must seek out those who would support your needs. To PLAY with great joy, you must find friends.”
When this system is “chronically underactive, we experience a hopeless form of depression, characterized by lethargy.” This system keeps us going when things are bad. For example, when an animal is hungry, it feels bad, “but the encouraging sense of purpose that emanates from SEEKING arousal still makes the animal curious about its environment and sufficiently optimistic to engage in a focused and energetic search for food.”
Science and Emotions. Neuroscientists were not initially interested in studying emotions because they believed that (a) emotions are subjective experiences and (b) objective scientific measurements cannot capture subjective experiences. However, we now know that our emotions arise from subcortical brain regions that we share with other mammals. Given this, we can study emotions by triangulating (a) our knowledge of the brain, (b) our knowledge of animal behavior, especially their instinctual tendencies (i.e., their unconditional responses), and (c) our knowledge of human subjective emotional experiences.
Humans and Animals. Humans and animals share subcortical regions that contain seven affective systems. Each emotional system “controls distinct but specific types of behaviors associated with many overlapping physiological changes.” Moreover, these systems “generate distinct types of affective consciousness.” When “these systems are stimulated in humans,” they “generate abundant memories and thoughts.” Of course, humans have more advanced brains. Consequently, when different emotional systems cross in the human mind, the systems generate “high emotions” like pride, shame, confidence, guilt, jealousy, trust, and disgust.
Affective Consciousness. Our feelings affective consciousness, “an energetic form of consciousness,” “one that is full of affective intensity.” Primal feelings are not intrinsically bright and intelligent, but they were built into our brains because they are remarkably useful for immediately dealing with the world and learning about its potential.”
Affects and Experience. When we’re born, the neocortex is by and large a blank slate; in time, experience “imprints many abilities and skills.” These imprints “include what seem to be ‘hard-wired’ brain functions like our sophisticated hearing and visual abilities.”
The James-Lange theory wrongly claims that the cognitive brain is necessary for emotions. Evidence #1: Babies who are born without cerebral hemispheres, and thus essentially have no neocortex, “can grow up to be affectively vibrant children if they are raised in nurturing and socially engaging environments.” Evidence #2: The animals in decortication experiments “are indistinguishable from normal animals” and are in fact more emotional than normal. Evidence #3: “aphasic stroke victims who have lost the ability to speak or even to think in words (usually due to left neocortical damage) will also retain their affective capacity, which indicates that affective consciousness is independent of language.” Evidence #4: Our thoughts often follow our feelings (Teasdale et al., 1980).
Mammals are born with “unconditional or instinctive affective responses to only a few specific stimuli.” Rats, for instance, have an inborn fear of the smell of predators. For rats, smell is an Unconditioned Stimulus (UCS) that evokes an Unconditioned Response (UCR) of fear; if smell is paired with a neutral cue or Conditional Stimulus (CS), the result will be a Conditioned Response (CR). This is an example of classical conditioning.
Once mammals are born, the “short list of conditionally arousing stimuli soon multiplies exponentially as people and animals undergo conditioning and other learning experiences.” These conditioning experiences “allow animals to acquire an emotional response to a stimulus, which to them was previously neutral. For example, if a cat wears a bell around its neck and a rat has a confrontation with the cat, the rat will soon learn to be afraid and run away when it hears the sound of a bell.”
Purpose of Affects. Affects are “ancient brain processes for encoding value — heuristics of the brain for making snap judgments as to what will enhance or detract from survival.” Put differently, affects can be understood as “ancestral memories of how effectively we play the game of survival and reproduction; these memories are passed down through the collected mindless ‘wisdom’ of our genetic code. Interactions that evoke various pleasant affects — encounters with food, water, a mate, offspring, or playful friends — help animals to survive and reproduce. Life experiences that evoke painful affects — predators, rivals, chaotic weather, and so on — put life and reproductive capacity in jeopardy.
“Affects feel good or bad in a variety of specific ways. Sexual gratification, arising from our capacity for LUST, feels good in a rather different way from the joys of rough-and-tumble PLAY or the tender bliss of caressing, nurturing, and CAREing for one’s infant.” The different “pleasant and unpleasant affects provide guidance for living due to the survival-enhancing advantages each of them has conferred over the course of evolution.” “Thus raw affects provide the essential infrastructure for our most basic behavior patterns — approach and avoidance — without which we could not survive.” We “approach things that evoke pleasant affects,” and we “stay away from things that make [us] feel bad.”
Three processes. Primary-process psychological experiences are “the instinctual emotional responses that generate raw affective feelings.” Secondary processes of the brain are largely unconscious learning and memory mechanisms, an example being fear-conditioning. Tertiary processes are higher mental processes, “the diverse cognitions and thoughts that allow us to reflect on what we have learned from our experiences.”
Unconscious. The “affect that accompanies artificial arousal of the SEEKING system emerges from subneocortical regions, as highlighted by the survival of self-stimulation after massive forebrain damage.” This disproves “read-out theories,” which claim that “affective experience is a neocortical achievement.” Of course, “the neocortex may help construct complex emotions (tertiary-process emotions) from the more primitive affective phenomena.” Similarly, evidence shows that the other primary emotions “arise from subneocortical networks of the brain.”
The Inadequacy of Words. “Affects do not feel like anything else. They are primary phenomenal experiences that cannot be adequately explained just in terms of accompanying changes in the body, even though there are bound to be many distinct body feelings during an emotional arousal.” Words can explain “the workings of the world around us.” For example, “words can explain that the George Washington Bridge connects New York and New Jersey.” However, words “cannot explain primary experiences.” For example, words cannot “explain the primary perceptual experience of seeing the color red.” And words cannot describe affects. “One cannot explain what it feels like to be angry, frightened, lustful, tender, lonely, playful, or excited, except indirectly in metaphors.”
(1) SEEKING System
Introduction. In the 20th century, James Olds and Peter Milner discovered that animals will “work intensely hard, to the point of exhaustion, in order to obtain electrical stimulation” in the SEEKING system, the medial forebrain bundle-lateral hypothalamic area (MFB-LH). This system produces feelings of euphoric excitement and anticipation. These feelings feel “good in a special way.” They are not “the kind of pleasure that we experience while eating a fine meal, or the satisfaction we feel afterwards” but rather “the kind of excited, euphoric anticipation that occurs when we look forward to eating that meal.”
These feelings propel us to “search for, find, and acquire all of the resources that are needed for survival.” Initially we might not have an explicit goal in mind. If rats are given electrical jolts to the MFB-LH, they will “move about, eagerly investigating their environments, even monotonous ones, such as an empty box. They explore all environments as if they are looking for something.”
The SEEKING system is aroused when we’re in a state of homeostatic imbalance, e.g., when we need food, water, or sex. When we enter this state of imbalance, our MFB-LH is activated, and we experience a “sense of expectant euphoria” that prompts us to search for the environment for the resources we need. When our bodily imbalances are restored to homeostasis, the neural firings in the MFB-LH dramatically slow down, and we experience the pleasure of consummation, feel satisfied, and get sleepy. The SEEKING system can be aroused when our bodily needs are not met and also when we feel that our higher-order emotional needs (e.g., desire for money, desire for information, desire for aesthetic experiences) are not met.
The SEEKING system is the emotional system “most intimately linked to satisfying bodily needs,” although all of our emotional systems require us to seek environmental resources. For these reasons, all the other emotional systems depend upon the SEEKING system to work properly. “To satisfy LUST, one must seek relationships. To feel tender loving CARE, one must seek those who need help, especially babies. To feel full RAGE, one must seek to harm those who would take resources away from you. To respond well to FEAR, one must seek safety. To make your PANIC/GRIEF work for you, you must seek out those who would support your needs. To PLAY with great joy, you must find friends.”
When this system is “chronically underactive, we experience a hopeless form of depression, characterized by lethargy.” This system keeps us going when things are bad. For example, when an animal is hungry, it feels bad, “but the encouraging sense of purpose that emanates from SEEKING arousal still makes the animal curious about its environment and sufficiently optimistic to engage in a focused and energetic search for food.”
Chemistry. The SEEKING system is mainly driven by dopamine. “Drugs of abuse, like cocaine or amphetamines, are addictive because they directly enhance the effects of dopamine and thereby arouse the SEEKING urge.” If we have too much dopamine, we “become intensely interested in very mundane things,” e.g., “women may engage in repeatedly reorganizing their handbags.”
Triggers. The SEEKING system is “briefly aroused by all novel events, which means that it is aroused for a short time by a large number of changes in the environment.” When the stimulus stops being novel, “the SEEKING system no longer responds.” This system also responds to “unexpected rewarding stimuli,” and it “continues to respond repeatedly if rewards are delivered sporadically or every once in a while.”
“The SEEKING system is calmed by consuming things that have been desired, but it will not be calm for long if the satisfaction does not last.” When the system is thwarted — for example, because someone else obtains the thing we’re seeking — we might get angry.
Pathologies. When the SEEKING system is understimulated and we do not receive sufficient dopamine, we will feel depressed. When this system is overstimulated, and we receive too much dopamine, we will experience mania or psychotic delusions. Cocaine and amphetamines increase dopamine and stimulate the SEEKING system. If we take these drugs for too long, our “thinking runs wild, resulting in rampant and often erroneous conclusions.” The mind can become “fertile ground for delusions to sprout.”
Hatred and revenge “are tertiary processes that reflect our capacity to think about the wrongs that we have experienced.” Tertiary processes “are cognitive elaborations built upon and out of the neural energies of our basic emotions.”
Triggers. The SEEKING system is “briefly aroused by all novel events, which means that it is aroused for a short time by a large number of changes in the environment.” When the stimulus stops being novel, “the SEEKING system no longer responds.” This system also responds to “unexpected rewarding stimuli,” and it “continues to respond repeatedly if rewards are delivered sporadically or every once in a while.”
“The SEEKING system is calmed by consuming things that have been desired, but it will not be calm for long if the satisfaction does not last.” When the system is thwarted — for example, because someone else obtains the thing we’re seeking — we might get angry.
Pathologies. When the SEEKING system is understimulated and we do not receive sufficient dopamine, we will feel depressed. When this system is overstimulated, and we receive too much dopamine, we will experience mania or psychotic delusions. Cocaine and amphetamines increase dopamine and stimulate the SEEKING system. If we take these drugs for too long, our “thinking runs wild, resulting in rampant and often erroneous conclusions.” The mind can become “fertile ground for delusions to sprout.”
(2) RAGE System
Introduction. RAGE “is not fundamentally designed to punish but rather to bring others in line, rapidly, with one’s implicit (evolutionary) desires.” Mammals “experience RAGE toward others who are competing for resources.” We all experience frustration when resources are scarce. Different things can arouse RAGE: when physical activity is restricted, when something irritates the surface of the body, when the aspirations of the SEEKING system are thwarted (e.g., “the sudden withdrawal of anticipated rewards,” as when “a vending machine fails to deliver a promised treat”), when you fear your baby sister will take your mother’s love.
Introduction. RAGE “is not fundamentally designed to punish but rather to bring others in line, rapidly, with one’s implicit (evolutionary) desires.” Mammals “experience RAGE toward others who are competing for resources.” We all experience frustration when resources are scarce. Different things can arouse RAGE: when physical activity is restricted, when something irritates the surface of the body, when the aspirations of the SEEKING system are thwarted (e.g., “the sudden withdrawal of anticipated rewards,” as when “a vending machine fails to deliver a promised treat”), when you fear your baby sister will take your mother’s love.
Hatred and revenge “are tertiary processes that reflect our capacity to think about the wrongs that we have experienced.” Tertiary processes “are cognitive elaborations built upon and out of the neural energies of our basic emotions.”
Neural and Chemical Sources. The RAGE system “runs from the medial areas of the amygdala down primarily via the curved pathway of the stria terminalis to the medial hypothalamus and then to specific areas of the periaqueductal gray (PAG).” If you electrically stimulate these regions, “animals will rapidly attack, usually biting objects that are in front of them.” If you do this with humans, they “tend to clench their jaws and to report feelings of intense anger” even though they don’t understand why they feel angry. The RAGE system can be exacerbated by such bodily changes as hunger and high blood pressure. / “Chemicals that can promote RAGE, usually in the presence of other supporting stimuli, are testosterone, Substance P, norepinephrine (NE), glutamate, and nitric oxide synthases.”
Affective Components of Rage. Rage is unpleasant, as “both animals and humans will try to avoid electrical stimulation of this system.” However, some people “display an appetite for RAGE and seem to enjoy feeling angry.” We can enjoy RAGE if it leads to success in interpersonal encounters. We can imagine “that a boxer in the ring might suffer a number of damaging blows that arouse his wrath and that he might then more thoroughly enjoy knocking out his opponent. In other words, there can be many secondary benefits to displays of anger. In a similar way, people may enjoy the experience of FEAR if they know they are in the safety of a movie theater.”
Anger can lessen distress, e.g., “it feels better to hate an abandoning lover than to helplessly endure the pangs of rejected love.” “But for the most part, RAGE feels bad.” Those who appear to enjoy feeling angry might just appear that way, as “anger engenders a vehement demeanor that one can mistaken for enthusiasm.” People might enjoy the secondary benefits of anger, e.g., the feeling of power.
War, Predatory Aggression, Social Dominance. The SEEKING system plays a bigger part in war than RAGE, “as reflected in higher emotional urges such as greed and dominance.” / Predatory aggression occurs when animals hunt for food; this is a manifestation of the SEEKING system, as predatory animals “appear to experience anticipatory pleasure rather than the harsh barbs of RAGE. Of course, if the prey fights back vigorously or should happen to escape, then the animal would reasonably feel frustrated and irritable” because the SEEKING system had been thwarted. / The urge for social dominance is not a manifestation of RAGE. We see this urge when males “establish territorial rights and struggle against each other for sexual supremacy.” “Although RAGE is often employed in the service of social dominance in general and inter-male aggression in general and inter-male aggression in particular, one should not assume that the urge for dominance is a direct expression of the RAGE system.” The urge for social dominance involves a number of emotional systems.
Anger can lessen distress, e.g., “it feels better to hate an abandoning lover than to helplessly endure the pangs of rejected love.” “But for the most part, RAGE feels bad.” Those who appear to enjoy feeling angry might just appear that way, as “anger engenders a vehement demeanor that one can mistaken for enthusiasm.” People might enjoy the secondary benefits of anger, e.g., the feeling of power.
War, Predatory Aggression, Social Dominance. The SEEKING system plays a bigger part in war than RAGE, “as reflected in higher emotional urges such as greed and dominance.” / Predatory aggression occurs when animals hunt for food; this is a manifestation of the SEEKING system, as predatory animals “appear to experience anticipatory pleasure rather than the harsh barbs of RAGE. Of course, if the prey fights back vigorously or should happen to escape, then the animal would reasonably feel frustrated and irritable” because the SEEKING system had been thwarted. / The urge for social dominance is not a manifestation of RAGE. We see this urge when males “establish territorial rights and struggle against each other for sexual supremacy.” “Although RAGE is often employed in the service of social dominance in general and inter-male aggression in general and inter-male aggression in particular, one should not assume that the urge for dominance is a direct expression of the RAGE system.” The urge for social dominance involves a number of emotional systems.
Summary. RAGE “is sensitized when people, especially as children, are subjected to abuse and neglect. A key to recovering from pathological RAGE is to establish or reestablish a person’s capacity to form and sustain warm trusting relationships. Consistently friendly and positive interactions can have a wonderful soothing effect on angry souls.”
(3) The FEAR System
(4) The LUST System
Female Neural Circuitry. Neuroscience has shown that male and female brains are different and that the differences in their sexual preferences cannot be fully explained by social learning. “In males, the anterior hypothalamus is the focus of sexuality and testosterone mediates the production of vasopressin, which accounts for much male sexual behavior.” In females, the ventromedial hypothalamus is part of the primary-process sexual locus of control and the main sexual chemicals are estrogen and progesterone. These hormones in turn mediate the activity of oxytocin, a neuromodulator that significantly governs female sexual responses.” These chemicals make women more “emotionally receptive to and trusting of the advances of suitors by promoting the manufacture of oxytocin, a key chemical that mediates female sexual readiness.”
Testosterone also “plays a crucial role in generating the male’s aggressive urges for social dominance.” When females are given testosterone, they become more assertive, self-confident, and suspicious of others. “Estrogen ‘fertilizes’ oxytocin neural systems in the female brain, while testosterone increases the power of vasopressin in the brains of males.” Oxytocin “exerts a calming effect on the brain,” which appears to “facilitate the formation of positive social bonds in both males and females.” Vasopressin “tends to induce competitiveness in males, but it can also increase sexual bonding and defensiveness (jealousy?) in them, while in females it typically reduces sexual eagerness.”
Human sexual preferences. Men are attracted to “young and beautiful women. Female beauty is certainly related to a variety of facial and bodily characteristics,” e.g., the hourglass figure. Women, “like many other female animals, are often attracted to dominant males — among humans, these are usually those men who are wealthy, powerful (not just muscular, even though that may help), or otherwise accomplished.” Women are probably attracted to dominant men “because of their visible signs of selective advantage — both in terms of genetic legacy to be passed on to individual offspring, and in terms of ability to provide for a family of several offspring.”
The SEEKING system, “as with the pursuit of every other sort of reward,” “is recruited in the task of finding sexual companions. This means, in addition to the sexual chemicals mentioned above, sexual desire and eagerness are promoted by dopamine-fueled SEEKING.”
Female Neural Circuitry. Neuroscience has shown that male and female brains are different and that the differences in their sexual preferences cannot be fully explained by social learning. “In males, the anterior hypothalamus is the focus of sexuality and testosterone mediates the production of vasopressin, which accounts for much male sexual behavior.” In females, the ventromedial hypothalamus is part of the primary-process sexual locus of control and the main sexual chemicals are estrogen and progesterone. These hormones in turn mediate the activity of oxytocin, a neuromodulator that significantly governs female sexual responses.” These chemicals make women more “emotionally receptive to and trusting of the advances of suitors by promoting the manufacture of oxytocin, a key chemical that mediates female sexual readiness.”
Testosterone also “plays a crucial role in generating the male’s aggressive urges for social dominance.” When females are given testosterone, they become more assertive, self-confident, and suspicious of others. “Estrogen ‘fertilizes’ oxytocin neural systems in the female brain, while testosterone increases the power of vasopressin in the brains of males.” Oxytocin “exerts a calming effect on the brain,” which appears to “facilitate the formation of positive social bonds in both males and females.” Vasopressin “tends to induce competitiveness in males, but it can also increase sexual bonding and defensiveness (jealousy?) in them, while in females it typically reduces sexual eagerness.”
Human sexual preferences. Men are attracted to “young and beautiful women. Female beauty is certainly related to a variety of facial and bodily characteristics,” e.g., the hourglass figure. Women, “like many other female animals, are often attracted to dominant males — among humans, these are usually those men who are wealthy, powerful (not just muscular, even though that may help), or otherwise accomplished.” Women are probably attracted to dominant men “because of their visible signs of selective advantage — both in terms of genetic legacy to be passed on to individual offspring, and in terms of ability to provide for a family of several offspring.”
The SEEKING system, “as with the pursuit of every other sort of reward,” “is recruited in the task of finding sexual companions. This means, in addition to the sexual chemicals mentioned above, sexual desire and eagerness are promoted by dopamine-fueled SEEKING.”
(5) CARE System
Mammals would not exist “unless their brains and bodies were prepared to invest enormous time and energy in the care of their offspring.” Three systems generate nonsexual bonds: CARE, GRIEF, and PLAY. CARE inhibits GRIEF, and GRIEF inhibits PLAY. The SEEKING system “is essential for much of what mothers do in order for their offspring to thrive, including building nests and retrieving young. Thus, a great deal of the positive affect of CARE is probably due to the arousal of brain dopamine, in conjunction with opioids, as well as oxytocin, prolactin, and many brain chemistries yet to be identified.”
When parents hear their infants cry, “the separation-distress (GRIEF) regions of parental brains light up.” It seems that GRIEF arousal activates CARE.
Neural Circuitry and Chemistry. Females produced more oxytocin than males. “Estrogen mediates production of oxytocin” in the anterior hypothalamus, including the paraventricular nucleus (PVN) and the dorsal preoptic area (dPOA). “Lesions on the PVN can dramatically reduce maternal behavior in first-time mother rats,” and lesions on the dPOA can destroy maternal behavior for all rats. Although females tend to be more maternal and caring, “males are also constitutionally able to nurture.” For example, you can induce nurturing behaviors in young male rats “by simply exposing them to infant rat pups on a daily basis.”
Human Bonding. Human infants can “readily bond to nonparental caretakers.” “It is reasonable to believe that in our ancestral environments childrearing was much more of a spontaneous group activity than it is in many of our modern cultures. For instance, in traditional cultures it is not unusual for babies to be cared for by an extended family.” Although mothers tend to bond with their infants almost immediately, attachments in infants “are not typically fully formed until they are about one year of age, allowing them to be fostered to supportive families until then without much worry. Once formed, however, the security of attachment is all-important.”
There is reason to believe that soothing music can release oxytocin in the brain and thus facilitate social bonding. Music has been shown to reduce “separation-induced crying in young chickens.” Young chicken who have oxytocin infused into their brains and those exposed to soothing music exhibit high levels of these behaviors “(i) very frequent lateral head shaking, (ii) vastly increased rates of yawning, suggesting a relaxed state of mind, and (iii) moderately elevated wing-flapping, suggested decreased social inhibition.”
Mammals would not exist “unless their brains and bodies were prepared to invest enormous time and energy in the care of their offspring.” Three systems generate nonsexual bonds: CARE, GRIEF, and PLAY. CARE inhibits GRIEF, and GRIEF inhibits PLAY. The SEEKING system “is essential for much of what mothers do in order for their offspring to thrive, including building nests and retrieving young. Thus, a great deal of the positive affect of CARE is probably due to the arousal of brain dopamine, in conjunction with opioids, as well as oxytocin, prolactin, and many brain chemistries yet to be identified.”
When parents hear their infants cry, “the separation-distress (GRIEF) regions of parental brains light up.” It seems that GRIEF arousal activates CARE.
Neural Circuitry and Chemistry. Females produced more oxytocin than males. “Estrogen mediates production of oxytocin” in the anterior hypothalamus, including the paraventricular nucleus (PVN) and the dorsal preoptic area (dPOA). “Lesions on the PVN can dramatically reduce maternal behavior in first-time mother rats,” and lesions on the dPOA can destroy maternal behavior for all rats. Although females tend to be more maternal and caring, “males are also constitutionally able to nurture.” For example, you can induce nurturing behaviors in young male rats “by simply exposing them to infant rat pups on a daily basis.”
Human Bonding. Human infants can “readily bond to nonparental caretakers.” “It is reasonable to believe that in our ancestral environments childrearing was much more of a spontaneous group activity than it is in many of our modern cultures. For instance, in traditional cultures it is not unusual for babies to be cared for by an extended family.” Although mothers tend to bond with their infants almost immediately, attachments in infants “are not typically fully formed until they are about one year of age, allowing them to be fostered to supportive families until then without much worry. Once formed, however, the security of attachment is all-important.”
There is reason to believe that soothing music can release oxytocin in the brain and thus facilitate social bonding. Music has been shown to reduce “separation-induced crying in young chickens.” Young chicken who have oxytocin infused into their brains and those exposed to soothing music exhibit high levels of these behaviors “(i) very frequent lateral head shaking, (ii) vastly increased rates of yawning, suggesting a relaxed state of mind, and (iii) moderately elevated wing-flapping, suggested decreased social inhibition.”
(6) PANIC-GRIEF System
Attachment Theory. Bowlby argued that our “earliest social bonds, when firm and secure, nourish our psychological health for a lifetime. A secure and warm maternal relationship is the primary key for a happy life.” Put negatively, without “stable social care and secure bonds to loving others, human infants will pine away and die.” Social loss during the first six years of life — “excessive separation distress/GRIEF — sensitizes the child to chronic anxiety and insecurity, often heralding depression later in life.”
Pain. The GRIEF system, responsible “for feeling the sting of social isolation,” “appears to have arisen evolutionarily from brain systems that mediate the affective intensity of physical pain.” Panksepp originally called this the PANIC system because “when young animals are abandoned, they experience a special form of alarmed anxiety — an agitated panicky state.”
Two Aspects. This system has “two prominent and opposing facets”: (1) “the arousal of the GRIEF system makes us feel bereft and miserable,” (2) when our distress “is alleviated — when we once again are emotionally enfolded in our secure attachments — we feel a deep sense of comfort and security, probably through the release of CARE chemistries such as endogenous opioids and oxytocin.”
Distress Vocalizations. Young animals “emit distress vocalizations (DVs) when separated from their mothers.” This feels “appears to have little to do with the angst that can be generated by our FEAR system. The child does not hide or flee as it would from a source of danger. It does not freeze in an effort to avoid notice by a predator. Rather, the child is apt to run around frantically, crying and attracting attention.” These cries are adaptive, alerting parents “to come rescue them.”
20th Century. Many believed early in the century that parent-child social bonds resulted from the parent providing for the child’s physical nourishment. Rene Spitz showed that “human babies failed to develop normally when reared in orphanages that provided good physical care but little affection.” Bowlby argued that poor parent-child attachments can lead to psychopathologies. Harry Harlow showed that when infant rhesus monkeys are separated from their mothers, “they cry for hours, even days. They no longer eat, and isolated monkeys fall into a deep despair that resembles severe depression.” They will “seek out any comfort they can find, including soft inanimate ‘terry-cloth mothers,’ in preference to hard, wire mothers that provide nourishment but no solace. When this type of social isolation was sustained for a few months, the monkeys exhibited lifelong problems in social adjustment.”
Maturity. Adults, especially adults, cry considerably less than children. Guinea pig studies inform us that distress circuits still exist in adults: “Targeted electrical stimulation of the right places in the brain can still make adults cry like babies.” However, it is more difficult to activate these circuits as the guinea pig ages. This change begins with puberty and occurs most significantly in males.
Chemicals. Three major brain chemicals have been shown to reduce GRIEF: endogenous opioids, oxytocin, and prolactin. “In short, if brain opioids, oxytocin, and prolactin are elevated in distressed infants, DVs will diminish and the infants will relax and exhibit signs of comfort usually displayed while enjoying the soothing attentions of a mother.” This explains why so many lonely people become addicted to narcotics. Positive social interactions, “such as play, result in the release of endogenous opioids in the brain, which may have further implications for natural ways to reduce addictive behaviors and other psychiatric problems.” “The fact that endogenous opioids, so similar to opiate drugs of addiction [e.g., morphine and heroin], mediate social relationships indicates that mammals, especially the very young who are dependent on others, are literally addicted to social relationships.”
More on Opioids. Some environmental stimuli can “result in the secretion of opioid ꞵ-endorphin and other comforting brain chemicals.” Being touched, being warmed, “familiar maternal odors, soothing voices, suckling, and even sweet sugar water will cause cries to abate in many young mammals, including humans.” Additionally, opioid release becomes “subject to conditioning and various learning experiences.” For example, “if a mother regularly plays music while nursing her baby, the sound of the music alone might in time cause the release of opioids in the infant’s brain, thereby producing soothing affects.”
“As well-bonded children grow up into adulthood, they learn social skills that keep them close to friends and relations. This learning process must surely involve the development of higher order social feelings — from shame and shyness to empathy — that play their roles in these relationships. For example, if a child appears foolish in the eyes of others, she may feel ashamed. If she is unsure of the response of others she likes, she may feel shy, and, of course, a child’s desire to feel close to those she loves encourages empathy. Children also develop skills that enable them to cope with inevitable periods of loneliness — perhaps by distracting their attention or by engaging in gratifying fantasies and games.”
Stress Chemicals. While “a dearth of endogenous opioids and oxytocin may result in feelings of loneliness and even panic,” when GRIEF is aroused, some brain chemicals become more active, “especially the stress neuropeptides, corticotrophin-releasing factor (CRF) and glutamate, an excitatory neurotransmitter that participates in every emotional response.” “CRF is the hormone involved in the classic stress response.” Extreme stress can “cause the hippocampus to become overstressed to the point of being permanently impaired,” resulting in memory loss. This phenomenon has been found in “abused children,” “adult who have chronically suffered sexual abuse,” “soldiers who have experienced wartime stress,” and “monkeys that have been raised without nurturing relationships.” This in turn impairs our cognitive functioning.
Stress and Depression. When our cortisol levels are high for a long period of time, other brain chemicals get depleted, including “norepinephrine (NE), serotonin, and dopamine (DA).” when this happens, we’re more likely to feel depressed. Medications that “counteract the low availability” of these chemicals “tend to have antidepressant effects.” Most of these medications block these chemicals reuptake mechanisms, thus allowing them “to linger for longer periods at the synapses, which are the gaps between neurons where these chemical messengers are released and received. The most widely used antidepressants are selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), such as Prozac. As their name implies, the SSRIs have selective effects that make serotonin alone more available at the synapses.”
These antidepressants are now favored over opioids because opioids tend to be so addictive. However, “neuroscientists should reconsider the possibility that depression is largely due to deficits in chemicals in the brain, particularly those that support the security of social bonds.” If “periods of intense and sustained grief promote depression,” we should consider drugs that “promote mu-opioid activity without severe dangers of addiction.” Placebos are often used in antidepressant trials, and placebos might be so effective because “[p]ositive social interactions release brain opioids, providing positive social feelings, and placebo effects may reflect, in part, the perception that mental health professionals and other significant others are caring about one’s depressive feelings. This perception of care may increase the release of brain opioids, which makes depressed people feel better.”
The “shift from intense grief to despair and depression is also accompanied by the diminished arousal of the SEEKING system.” This is an adaptive effect of depression. Even though “depression can have various deleterious effects on the psychic economy, some level of depression when social support is lost may promote survival. For instance, after a period of intense separation distress with vocal protest, indicative of an initial panic response, which helps parents find lost offspring, it may be adaptive to regress into a behaviorally inhibited despair or despondency phase in order to conserve bodily resources. Such a depressive state might serve to discourage helpless organisms from wandering even farther from safety. Silence would also minimize detection by predators.”
Grief and Fear. GRIEF and FEAR both arouse anxieties — the former arousing “isolation panic,” the latter “the fear one feels when anticipating injury, death, or some other impending aversive event.” We can feel afraid at the prospect of being abandoned. The GRIEF and FEAR systems “can be distinguished on both anatomical and chemical grounds.”
Attachment Theory. Bowlby argued that our “earliest social bonds, when firm and secure, nourish our psychological health for a lifetime. A secure and warm maternal relationship is the primary key for a happy life.” Put negatively, without “stable social care and secure bonds to loving others, human infants will pine away and die.” Social loss during the first six years of life — “excessive separation distress/GRIEF — sensitizes the child to chronic anxiety and insecurity, often heralding depression later in life.”
Pain. The GRIEF system, responsible “for feeling the sting of social isolation,” “appears to have arisen evolutionarily from brain systems that mediate the affective intensity of physical pain.” Panksepp originally called this the PANIC system because “when young animals are abandoned, they experience a special form of alarmed anxiety — an agitated panicky state.”
Two Aspects. This system has “two prominent and opposing facets”: (1) “the arousal of the GRIEF system makes us feel bereft and miserable,” (2) when our distress “is alleviated — when we once again are emotionally enfolded in our secure attachments — we feel a deep sense of comfort and security, probably through the release of CARE chemistries such as endogenous opioids and oxytocin.”
Distress Vocalizations. Young animals “emit distress vocalizations (DVs) when separated from their mothers.” This feels “appears to have little to do with the angst that can be generated by our FEAR system. The child does not hide or flee as it would from a source of danger. It does not freeze in an effort to avoid notice by a predator. Rather, the child is apt to run around frantically, crying and attracting attention.” These cries are adaptive, alerting parents “to come rescue them.”
20th Century. Many believed early in the century that parent-child social bonds resulted from the parent providing for the child’s physical nourishment. Rene Spitz showed that “human babies failed to develop normally when reared in orphanages that provided good physical care but little affection.” Bowlby argued that poor parent-child attachments can lead to psychopathologies. Harry Harlow showed that when infant rhesus monkeys are separated from their mothers, “they cry for hours, even days. They no longer eat, and isolated monkeys fall into a deep despair that resembles severe depression.” They will “seek out any comfort they can find, including soft inanimate ‘terry-cloth mothers,’ in preference to hard, wire mothers that provide nourishment but no solace. When this type of social isolation was sustained for a few months, the monkeys exhibited lifelong problems in social adjustment.”
Maturity. Adults, especially adults, cry considerably less than children. Guinea pig studies inform us that distress circuits still exist in adults: “Targeted electrical stimulation of the right places in the brain can still make adults cry like babies.” However, it is more difficult to activate these circuits as the guinea pig ages. This change begins with puberty and occurs most significantly in males.
Chemicals. Three major brain chemicals have been shown to reduce GRIEF: endogenous opioids, oxytocin, and prolactin. “In short, if brain opioids, oxytocin, and prolactin are elevated in distressed infants, DVs will diminish and the infants will relax and exhibit signs of comfort usually displayed while enjoying the soothing attentions of a mother.” This explains why so many lonely people become addicted to narcotics. Positive social interactions, “such as play, result in the release of endogenous opioids in the brain, which may have further implications for natural ways to reduce addictive behaviors and other psychiatric problems.” “The fact that endogenous opioids, so similar to opiate drugs of addiction [e.g., morphine and heroin], mediate social relationships indicates that mammals, especially the very young who are dependent on others, are literally addicted to social relationships.”
More on Opioids. Some environmental stimuli can “result in the secretion of opioid ꞵ-endorphin and other comforting brain chemicals.” Being touched, being warmed, “familiar maternal odors, soothing voices, suckling, and even sweet sugar water will cause cries to abate in many young mammals, including humans.” Additionally, opioid release becomes “subject to conditioning and various learning experiences.” For example, “if a mother regularly plays music while nursing her baby, the sound of the music alone might in time cause the release of opioids in the infant’s brain, thereby producing soothing affects.”
“As well-bonded children grow up into adulthood, they learn social skills that keep them close to friends and relations. This learning process must surely involve the development of higher order social feelings — from shame and shyness to empathy — that play their roles in these relationships. For example, if a child appears foolish in the eyes of others, she may feel ashamed. If she is unsure of the response of others she likes, she may feel shy, and, of course, a child’s desire to feel close to those she loves encourages empathy. Children also develop skills that enable them to cope with inevitable periods of loneliness — perhaps by distracting their attention or by engaging in gratifying fantasies and games.”
Stress Chemicals. While “a dearth of endogenous opioids and oxytocin may result in feelings of loneliness and even panic,” when GRIEF is aroused, some brain chemicals become more active, “especially the stress neuropeptides, corticotrophin-releasing factor (CRF) and glutamate, an excitatory neurotransmitter that participates in every emotional response.” “CRF is the hormone involved in the classic stress response.” Extreme stress can “cause the hippocampus to become overstressed to the point of being permanently impaired,” resulting in memory loss. This phenomenon has been found in “abused children,” “adult who have chronically suffered sexual abuse,” “soldiers who have experienced wartime stress,” and “monkeys that have been raised without nurturing relationships.” This in turn impairs our cognitive functioning.
Stress and Depression. When our cortisol levels are high for a long period of time, other brain chemicals get depleted, including “norepinephrine (NE), serotonin, and dopamine (DA).” when this happens, we’re more likely to feel depressed. Medications that “counteract the low availability” of these chemicals “tend to have antidepressant effects.” Most of these medications block these chemicals reuptake mechanisms, thus allowing them “to linger for longer periods at the synapses, which are the gaps between neurons where these chemical messengers are released and received. The most widely used antidepressants are selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), such as Prozac. As their name implies, the SSRIs have selective effects that make serotonin alone more available at the synapses.”
These antidepressants are now favored over opioids because opioids tend to be so addictive. However, “neuroscientists should reconsider the possibility that depression is largely due to deficits in chemicals in the brain, particularly those that support the security of social bonds.” If “periods of intense and sustained grief promote depression,” we should consider drugs that “promote mu-opioid activity without severe dangers of addiction.” Placebos are often used in antidepressant trials, and placebos might be so effective because “[p]ositive social interactions release brain opioids, providing positive social feelings, and placebo effects may reflect, in part, the perception that mental health professionals and other significant others are caring about one’s depressive feelings. This perception of care may increase the release of brain opioids, which makes depressed people feel better.”
The “shift from intense grief to despair and depression is also accompanied by the diminished arousal of the SEEKING system.” This is an adaptive effect of depression. Even though “depression can have various deleterious effects on the psychic economy, some level of depression when social support is lost may promote survival. For instance, after a period of intense separation distress with vocal protest, indicative of an initial panic response, which helps parents find lost offspring, it may be adaptive to regress into a behaviorally inhibited despair or despondency phase in order to conserve bodily resources. Such a depressive state might serve to discourage helpless organisms from wandering even farther from safety. Silence would also minimize detection by predators.”
Grief and Fear. GRIEF and FEAR both arouse anxieties — the former arousing “isolation panic,” the latter “the fear one feels when anticipating injury, death, or some other impending aversive event.” We can feel afraid at the prospect of being abandoned. The GRIEF and FEAR systems “can be distinguished on both anatomical and chemical grounds.”
(7) PLAY System
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