The Hidden Spring- Chap 5, Feelings

Question 1

What does Solms think is the essence of consciousness?

Answer 1

Feelings

Question 2

Consciousness arises through feelings, and feelings indicate which biological needs need to be addressed. How do we know whether or not the biological need was met?

Answer 2

There is a subjective feeling of pleasure or unpleasure.

Ex- If someone is hungry, eating will be pleasurable. However, if that hungry person fulfills another biological need, such has urinating, then that wont be as pleasurable because its not meeting the biological need

Question 3

How are affects and drives related?

Answer 3

Affects helps us become aware of our drives and how much action is needed to meet that biological need.

Ex- A strong urge to urinate would increase one’s impatience, indicating that waste needs to be removed from the body

Question 4

A feeling will always have what characteristic about it?

Answer 4

It will always be conscious, without exception

Question 5

When will a feeling disappear from consciousness?

Answer 5

When the need it was announcing is addressed

Question 6

What is the most fundamental feature of affect?

Answer 6

It’s valence. It indicates how important it is to meet that biological need.

This need is met through voluntary behavior, in order to increase chances of survival

Question 7

How are feelings prioritized in the body?

Answer 7

According to the relative strength of the need in the context of opportunities afforded by current circumstances.

Ex- Someone’s bladder distends during their public speaking, however they don’t feel the urge to urinate until they are done speaking

Question 8

What is the law of affect and how does that affect voluntary behavior?

Answer 8

Law of Affect tells us that one’s behavior is determined by the felt consequences of their actions.

This means voluntary behavior would become reinforced given the affective experience of eating a biological drive

Question 9

How do feelings drive behaviors during times of uncertainty?

Answer 9

The affective outcome of behavioral responses during times of uncertainty will influence the voluntary behaviors one puts forward. The subjective feeling of affect in response to a behavior will either encourage or discourage one from continuing to act in that manner

This is crucial for survival, the ability to voluntary act in attempts to resolve biological drives (potentially compromised)

Question 10

The ability to feel and register our own states has led to what new thing arising in the universe?

Answer 10

The subjective being

Question 11

Along with affect, there are 2 more subtler states. What are they?

Answer 11

Emotion and mood

Question 12

What does Solms believe emotions are?

Answer 12

More complex versions of affects. Similar to affect, they are ultimately error signals that register deviations from biologically preferred states

Question 13

Since there is no unified understanding of affect, Solms uses Panskepps taxonomy to describe it, and in it Panskepp describes 3 kinds of affects. What are they?

Answer 13

Homeostatic (interoceptive)- hunger and thirst

Sensory (exteroceptive)- pain and shock

Emotional

All are felt in the body, but to differing degrees

Question 14

What did Panskepps research with animals find in regards to emotional affects of humans?

Answer 14

Across all mammals, 7 emotional affects were found and they were all activated by stimulating the same brain regions and circuits.

These 7 emotional affects form the entire human emotional repertoire, and have for the past 200 million years

Question 15

How does culture influence our innate biological reflexes and instincts?

Answer 15

It influences the expressive ability and adaptability of one’s behaviors because of the context that is created

Question 16

What are the 7 instinctual emotions in Panskepps taxonomy?

Answer 16

Lust, seeking, rage, fear, panic/grief, care, play

Question 17

How does lust activate?

Answer 17

A sexual feeling is aroused which is then followed by erotic feelings, leading to behaviors.

Question 18

Why are emotional needs more difficult to meet than bodily needs?

Answer 18

Emotional needs require another sentient being who is willing to meet those emotional needs

Question 19

In both males and females, where does the lust circuitry start and finish neuroanatomical?

Answer 19

Starts in the hypothalamus and ends in the periaqueductal grey

Question 20

What system becomes activated secondary to the lust circuitry?

Answer 20

The seeking system

Question 21

What conscious feeling state is generated by the seeking system and what kind of behaviors ensue?

Answer 21

A feeling state of interest, curiosity, exploration drives foraging/searching behaviors

Question 22

What is a humans default emotion, when no other tasks are being prioritized?

Answer 22

Seeking

Question 23

Describe the neuroanatomical circuitry of the seeking system?

Answer 23

Begins in the ventral tegmental area of the brain stem, travels up through the lateral hypothalamus, to the nucleus accumbens, amygdala and frontal cortex

Question 24

Our emotional needs not only orient us, but they also protect us from running into trouble. What circuitry is responsible for helping us stay away from troubling circumstances that threaten survival?

Answer 24

The rage system

Question 25

What range of feelings ensue when the rage circuitry is activated?

Answer 25

Mild irritation to intense fury

Question 26

Where is the RAGE circuitry located in the brain and where does it end?

Answer 26

Its circuitry is entirely subcortical, and like other affective circuits, it concludes in the PAG

Question 27

Rage is a reflection of a fight response, which is mediated by the amygdala. What other emotion helps form the defense dichotomy for a person, while also being managed by the amygdala?

Answer 27

Fear

Question 28

What is the biological value of fear and what benefit is there to its intrinsic nature?

Answer 28

Fear prevents us from engaging in things that make us extinct.

The benefit of it being inherent prevents us from having to learn what annihlates us, therefore preserving us while protecting us.

Question 29

What are some of the normal behavioral responses when the fear circuitry is activated?

Answer 29

Desperation and urgency

Question 30

Why is consciousness a necessary component of experiencing fear?

Answer 30

Because without consciousness one won’t be able to undergo the learning needed to prevent danger or resolve dangerous circumstances

Question 31

Since responding to fear requires consciousness, does that indicate that it occurs in the cortex?

Answer 31

No, because conditioned responses can occur absent of declarative memory.

For example, someone may not remember why they shouldn’t do something, but they get a strong feeling discouraging them so they follow that.

Question 32

This circuitry is responsible for maintaining proximity to caretakers in early years.

Answer 32

Panic/grief

Question 33

What is the stereotyped sequence that mammals go through when they are separated from their caretakers?

What happens in each phase?

Answer 33

Protest, followed by despair

During protest, the infant frantically searches for the caretaker.

During despair, hopelessness ensues and one becomes withdrawn and depressed

Question 34

What emotion is associated with the protest phase of panic/grief?

Answer 34

Rage, its associated with the anger of the caretaker not being present

Question 35

What secondary emotion that becomes learned in order to inhibit rage and maintain proximity to caretaker?

Answer 35

Guilt

Question 36

Like guilt, what are other secondary emotions that arise from conflictual situations?

Answer 36

Shame, jealousy, envy

Question 37

What emotion does depression show up in opposition of and why does this occur chemically?

Answer 37

The opposite of depression is seeking, which is not an activity a depressed person will engage in. This occurs because in periods of despair/hopelessness, a flood of opioids occurs which shuts down dopamine.

Question 38

Where does the neuroanatomy of the panic/grief system originate and terminate?

Answer 38

Originates in the anterior cingulate gyrus and terminates in the PAG (this is where all emotions terminate)

Question 39

Along with panic/grief, what other instinctual emotion/circuit is associated with attachment?

Answer 39

Care

Question 40

What evolutionary benefit does the care system provide?

Answer 40

It ensures that those in need will not be left alone, regardless of how they make another person feel.

Ex- A mom who is angry at her kid for doing something wrong but still cares to help him/her

Question 41

What instinctual emotion is responsible for helping one understand what’s socially tolerable and permissible? aka social boundaries/limits

Answer 41

Play

Question 42

What is the 60:40 rule of reciprocity and how does it apply to play?

Answer 42

During play, one usually takes a lead and the other follows. The 60:40 rule indicates the healthy ratio between leader and follower and if this balance is kept then play is beneficial for both parties

Question 43

How does play contribute to viable social formations?

Answer 43

Play requires compromising with those around you in order to feel involved, otherwise you feel left out. Its a skill one must learn in order to retain involvement with a group.

Question 44

What important quality comes to development through play?

Answer 44

Empathy

Question 45

What is the primary thing cognitive scientists are missing when it comes to the mind?

Answer 45

Understanding the role feelings have in governing our cognition. Feelings give way to cognition, according to the state those feelings put one in.