IUBio

evolutionary significance of emotions !!

Pam Blundell pjw106 at york.ac.uk
Mon Feb 28 12:09:20 EST 2000


"John H." <johnhkm at netsprintXXXX.net.au> wrote in message
news:88qlhh$1gq4$1 at news1.wire.net.au...
>
> <cerebrolat at my-deja.com> wrote in message
> news:88p1dr$g32$1 at nnrp1.deja.com...
> > In article <88e6a4$1h13$1 at news1.wire.net.au>,
> >   "John H." <johnhkm at netsprintXXXX.net.au> wrote:
> > > Clearly because depression is associated with creativity

Where on earth did you get this gem from?  Depression results in people not
getting enjoyment out of life, not feeling motivated to do things they
normally would, sleeping differently to normal (more or less) and thinking
of suicide.  At no point in DSM does it say that depressed people are more
likely to write a symphony!


<snip>

> I was referring to seasonal affective disorder, a condition more frequent
> (?) in North European climates. The inescapable electric shock
demonstrates
> my point. In the face of danger that cannot be challenged, the best
survival
> is to hide.

What has this got to do with helplessness?  When a rat is given
uncontrollable electric shocks, it cannot subsequently learn to make an
action which will reduce the probability of a shock.  In what way is this
adaptive?  Strangely enough, theres more seasonal effective disorder when
there is less sunlight in the winter months - hence Northern European (don't
know the stats for Canada - I presume they have the same problem?)








More information about the Neur-sci mailing list

Send comments to us at biosci-help [At] net.bio.net