Where do Emotions Begin?

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Dr. Jaak Panksepp (click to play audio)In his new book The Archaeology of Mind: Neuroevolutionary Origins of Human Emotions Jaak Panksepp set out to make his life's work more accessible to a general audience. To be honest, reading this book requires a significant commitment, but I think he does a wonderful job of updating his classic textbook Affective Neuroscience. Anyone who is interested in this field will definitely want this book as a reference. The other strength of Archeology of Mind is its evolutionary approach. The primary emotional processes that Panksepp has spent his career studying have their origins in the ancient parts of the brain that are shared by all mammals. This contradicts longstanding assumptions in neuroscience, but it has important implications for both humans and other animals.

In Episode 91 of the Brain Science Podcast Dr. Panksepp and I talked about some of the new information contained in Archeology of Mind with a particular focus on FEAR, which contrary to what many researchers claim, does NOT begin in the amygdala, but begins much lower. We do talk briefly about the experimental evidence, but this was covered in more detail during Dr. Panksepp's previous appearance on the Brain Science Podcast in BSP 65.

listen-to-audio Listen to Episode 91

Click here for detailed shownotes and free transcript.

CEUs for Psychologists

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Disgust with Rachel Herz (BSP 86)

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Disgust is an universal emotion, but unlike emotions like fear and anger, disgust must be learned. This is the main conclusion of Dr. Rachel Herz's latest book That's Disgusting: Unraveling the Mysteries of Repulsion. In a recent interview (BSP 86) Dr. Herz told me why she spent the last several years studying this rather unusual subject. We also discussed what the study of disgust can tell us about how our brains process emotion.

This is Dr. Herz's second visit to the Brain Science Podcast. Back in BSP 34 we talked about her first book The Scent of Desire: Discovering Our Enigmatic Sense of Smell.

Listen to Episode 86

Episode Transcript (Free PDF)

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Annoucements:

 

Jaak Panksepp Explores Animal Emotions (BSP 65)

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Episode 65 of the Brain Science Podcast is an interview with Jaak Panksepp, PhD, author of Affective Neuroscience: The Foundations of Human and Animal Emotions. Dr. Panksepp has done pioneering work on the neural origins of emotions. In this interview we discuss how his work challenges some of the common assumptions about emotions and some of the important implications of his discoveries. New listeners may want to go back and listen to Episode 11 for an introduction to the neuroscience of emotion. listen-to-audio Listen to Episode 65
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Mirror Neurons (BSP 35)

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Mirrors in the Brain Brain Science Podcast #35 is a discussion of Mirrors in the brain: How our minds share actions, emotions, and experience by Giacomo Rizzolatti and Corrado Sinigaglia. Mirror neurons were discovered in Rizzolatti's lab in Parma Italy in the early 1990's and his book is a detailed to discussion of the experimental evidence in both monkeys and humans. Direct single neuron recordings have been made in monkeys. The evidence in humans is indirect since it is based on mainly on neuroimaging studies like PET scans and fMRI scans. Even so mirror neurons appear to be essential to our ability to understand both the actions and emotions of others. Listen Now. In this episode we also explore the evidence that there are other neurons in the motor areas of the brain that have sensory properties and that the areas of the brain traditionally thought to be devoted to sensory functions also contain neurons with motor properties. Another fascinating discovery is the fact that there are neurons that respond not only to somatosensory inputs (such as being touched) but also to visual or auditory inputs from objects within our peri-personal space. For background on these body maps I recommend listening to Episode 21 and Episode 23. If you are new to the Brain Science Podcast you may want to listen to those episodes first because this week's episode is a little more technical than most. I will be exploring the importance of these discoveries in future episodes.

Listen to Brain Science Podcast Episode 35 (mirror neurons) NOW.

Links: Giacomo Rizzolatti- University of Parma Mirror neurons (wikipedia entry) Mirror neurons (Scholarpedia entry written by Dr. Rizzolatti)

Listen to Brain Science Podcast #35 (mirror neurons) Now

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Rachel Herz talks about Smell (BSP 34)

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rachelherz.jpgRachel Herz Episode 34 of the Brain Science Podcast is an interview with Rachel Herz author of The Scent of Desire: Discovering Our Enigmatic Sense of Smell (2007). Dr. Herz teaches at Brown University and she is a leading authority on the psychology of smell. We talk about the how smell works, its role in emotion and memory, why it is so vulnerable, and why smell is much more important than most of us realize. We also consider some of the questions that remain unanswered. Listen to the Rachel Herz interview now. (Right click to download.) Links and References: Rachel Herz The 2004 Nobel Prize for Medicine and Physiology was awarded to Richard Axel and Linda B. Buck for their discoveries of "odorant receptors and the organization of the olfactory system." BuckL, Axel R "A novel multigene family may encode odorant receptors: a molecular basis for odor recognition." Cell. 1991 Apr 5;65(1):175-87. "The (Shocked) Nose Knows" by Gisela Telis ScienceNOW Daily News 27 March 2008 scentofdesire.jpgThe Scent of Desire: Discovering Our Enigmatic Sense of Smell (2007) by Rachel Herz Listen to Episode 34 (Right click to download) Share your comments on the Discussion Forum Audience Survey itunes-chicklet.gif Subscribe via iTunes™ Subscribe in a reader or podcatcher Subscribe to Brain Science Podcast with Dr. Ginger Campbell by Email Donations and Subscriptions are appreciated

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Brain Science Podcast celebrates its 1st Anniversary (BSP 27)

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brainscience-logo1.jpg Episode 27 is a look back on the first 26 episodes of the Brain Science Podcast. I look back on some of the main topics that we have explored including memory, consciousness, emotions, decision-making, body maps, and plasticity. Then I talk a little about what I hope to do in the covering year. This episode is a little more personal than most, and will mainly be of interest to regular listeners. It includes some ideas about how you can help the Brain Science Podcast grow and prosper. However, in preparing this episode I went back over the past year's episodes and I have prepared a list of all the episodes so far and the main topics. This should help both new listeners and regulars to find episodes that pertain to particular topics. Click here for a brief summary of episode 1-26 with links to the audio files. Go to Brain Science Podcast #27 Share your comments on the Discussion Forum Audience Survey itunes-chicklet.gif Subscribe via iTunes™ Subscribe in a reader or podcatcher Subscribe to Brain Science Podcast with Dr. Ginger Campbell by Email

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Body Maps (BSP 21)

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Featured in this episode: The Body has a Mind of Its Own: How Body Maps in Your Brain Help You Do (Almost) Everything Better (2007), by Sandra Blakeslee and Matthew Blakeslee. (Also available on from Audible.com) Listen to the podcast now

SHOW NOTES Topics:
  • Body Maps and the role of embodiment
  • Basic ideas about the body maps in the brain
  • Mapping the world around us
  • How Body maps differ between species
  • Body Schema and Body image
  • The role of body maps in disease
  • The role of belief in health and illness
  • How body maps explain non-traditional healing methods and unusual experiences
  • The role of motor imagery in improving motor skills
  • Mirror Neurons
  • Place and grid neurons in the hippocampus (see more on Scholarpedia)
  • How sensation and emotions come together (the role of the insula)
Scientists mentioned in the podcast: Other scientists mentioned in The Body has a Mind of Its Own: Note: This list is not exhaustive. I know I left off VS Ramachandran and several others, but those listed above did work that was addressed, directly or indirectly, in my podcast. Brain Structures (links include diagrams of the brain): Listen to the podcast now

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