IUBio

impacts of aversion on brain chemistry

Zach N. zachn2000 at yahoo.com
Wed Oct 18 13:04:10 EST 2000


In article <17583-39EDE024-10 at storefull-167.iap.bryant.webtv.net>, 
Xoxana at webtv.net (Xuxa Thorson) wrote:

> Irrational attitudes come from the
> reptilian brain, or basal ganglia. 

Please, please, _please_ stop spreading this outmoded view of 
affectivity; it smacks of antiquated philosophies of mind that were
couched in a false dichotomy between "the passions" and "reason". 
Read some articles below for a more accurate representation of 
emotional systems in the brain -- you'll be surprised to discover 
that much of our so-called "higher cognitive functioning" is 
covariant with affective "processing." Emotions are are _not_
"primitive" or "irrational" -- they are, rather, much more complex 
and "rational" as a vital component of the human mind.

Geoffrey Schoenbaum, Andrea A. Chiba and Michela Gallagher, 
   "Orbitofrontal Cortex and Basolateral Amygdala Encode Expected 
   Outcomes During Learning." (Nature Neuroscience 1:2, 1998) 155-9.

Antoine Bechara, Hanna Damasio, Antonio R. Damasio, and Gregory P. Lee, 
   "Different Contributions of the Human Amygdala and Ventromedial   
   Prefrontal Cortex to Decision-Making." (The Journal of Neuroscience 
   19:13, 1999) 5473-5481.

Critchley, Hugo D., Elliott, Rebecca, Mathias, Christopher J., and Dolan 
   Raymond J., "Neural Activity Relating to Generation and 
   Representation of Galvanic Skin Conductance Responses: A Functional 
   Magnetic Resonance Imaging Study." (The Journal of Neuroscience 20:8, 
   2000) 3033-3040.


Zach N.






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