The PFC and PASSION

1. The PFC and PASSION By Joe Dawes, Elizabeth Sherrill, and Terry Nowell

2. Assumed Definitions of PASSION • Any powerful or compelling emotion or feeling, as love or hate. • An outburst of strong emotion or feeling • The state of being acted upon or affected by something external, esp. something alien to one's nature or one's customary behavior

3. Assumed Definitions of EMOTION • An affective state of consciousness in which joy, sorrow, fear, hate, or the like, is experienced, as distinguished from cognitive and volitional states of consciousness. • A mental state that arises spontaneously rather than through conscious effort and is often accompanied by physiological changes; a feeling.

4. Assumed Definitions of INSTINCT • An inborn pattern of activity or tendency to action common to a given biological species. • A natural or innate impulse, inclination, or tendency. • Natural intuitive power.

5. WHERE THE THREE COLLIDE

6. A Little Brain Biology

7. Who the players are Prefrontal Cortex The Limbic System Amagdyla

8. Prefrontal Cortex The basic activity of this brain region is considered to be orchestration of thoughts and actions in accordance with internal goals. The lateral prefrontal cortex (46) helps us choose a course of behavior by letting us assess the various alternatives mentally. The orbitofrontal cortex (11) lets us defer certain immediate gratifications and suppress certain emotions in order to obtain greater long-term benefits.

9. Limbic System • Set of brain structures • Responsible for a variety of functions including emotion, behavior, long term memory and senses • This system is known as the "animal brain" since it is considered to be the structure and functions which all animals have in common.

10. Amygdala Shown in research to perform a primary role in the processing and memory of emotions Instinct, an impulse or powerful motivation from a subconscious source, is a reaction that comes from the amygdala. Flight or Fight Making a decision on what to do before you can consciously think about it Helps decision making

11. Interactions of them all • The brainstem takes in information (sensory), the information then travels to the limbic system (amygdala – emotional response), and then goes to the prefrontal cortex. • The prefrontal cortex decided how to react (usually) and then goes back through the limbic system and then the brainstem tells your muscles to act. Stimuli  Brainstem  Limbic System  Prefrontal Cortex  Action  Brainstem  Limbic System

12. Well Terry,what happens when the prefrontal cortex is destroyed, removed, or cut off from the rest of the brain?????

13. Phineas Gage Happens!

14. Phineas Gage BEFORE: • Well mannered, clean, polite, and hard-working railroad worker. LARGE IRON ROD DRIVEN THROUGH HIS PREFRONTAL LOBES AFTER: • Animalistic, “very childish,” "no longer Gage."

15. Other stories of destruction or lesions of the PFC • Small Lesions • Loss of analytical thinking • Increased impulsivity • Extensive Lesions • Emotional disturbances seen as two principle reactions: • Inhibition • apathy, narrowing of interests, flattered affect, withdrawal • Disinhibition • euphoria, impulsivity, irritability, anxiety, obscene language

16. Feral Children • A feral-child is a human child who has lived isolated from human contact from a very young age, and has no (or little) experience of human care, loving or social behavior, and, crucially, of human language. • Jungle Book shows a (Disney) representation of this.

17. What feral-children teach us • Fortunately there are few historical cases of such abuse to a human being. • However those cases of extreme social deprivation have been pivotal in the understand of development of language and emotion (and as a result passion) • Not only do they provide a window into developmental biology, but they also provide us a glimpse of anatomically modern humans without much of their cultural adaptation

18. Genie • One example is Genie (an alias), who was found in a Los Angels home after 13 years of being trapped in the same room in 1970. • Couldn’t learn language. • Based off of IQ tests not retarded. • Could solve complex geometric puzzles at normal level. • Genie would go into a fit of rage and act out against herself

19. Victor of Aveyron • Another example is Victor of Aveyron. A child found in 1797 outside of a forest in France. • He showed that he was capable of learning a little language (stringing together three of four words), but never progressed farther than a child’s understanding of human emotion. • And as would be expected main of his actions were impulsive and instinctive.

20. Feral Children Overall • This is seen in example in feral children. Because of their limited contact with society, when they are placed into it they can become easily overwhelmed sense wise and in their emotions. • Taking all of this into consideration, I would postulate that society has the most profound effect of the expression of passion in humans. • Early Homo sapiens did not have culture as we know it today. We can probably assume then that acted in a relatively primitive and instinctive way even though they were anatomically modern. • We can assume that passion is created somewhere between instinct, the ability to think in a “higher order,” and the cultural adaptations of man. That is, somewhere in the millions of connections between our (limbic system)? And our PFC, short-circuits can occur and cause passion and these short cuts are caused by cultural stimuli that are uncommon to the individual experiencing passion.

21. DEEPBIOLOGY • EVOLUTION • How has it evolved and changed through the generations? • PHYSIOLOGY • What causes this phenomenon neurologically? What combination of internal and external stimuli cause a particular behavior? • DEVELOPMENT • How does behavior develop or change in time? And how do the experiences effect the way the behavior is expressed? • ECOLOGY • What is the adaptive value and functional utility of Passion? How does it increase the individual's fitness and ability to meet needs?

22. Philosophical Ending Thought • So...if Passion has held a role in the development of  the humans race, and the pre-frontal cortex was developed to control and reason through our impulses, emotions, instincts...have we evolved to learn how to suppress passion? Or did passion develop once our brains became more complex?

23. Works Cited http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maslow's_hierarchy_of_needs https://notes.utk.edu/Bio/greenberg.nsf/c5e71edd1a3e75528525737f000f88cb/e54794eff1b2315f852573bd005608c0?OpenDocument http://library.thinkquest.org/C0114820/emotional/instinct.php3 http://www.matsuishi-lab.org/limbicsystemJ_E(final).htm http://webspace.ship.edu/cgboer/limbicsystem.html http://www.usatoday.com/tech/science/discoveries/2006-08-06-brain-study_x.htm http://thebrain.mcgill.ca/flash/i/i_08/i_08_cr/i_08_cr_dep/i_08_cr_dep.html www.neuroanatomy.wisc.edu/coursebook/neuro5(2).pdf http://neuro.psyc.memphis.edu/neuropsyc/np-l2-pref.htm

24. HAPPY THANKSGIVING