THE SCIENCE OF HUMAN EMOTIONS (and shadowy exploitation of findings)

"There is no fire like passion, there is no shark like hatred, there is no snare like folly, there is no torrent like greed" (Buddha)

Fake news, sly salivating sensationalist journalists, climate denial, ego-driven media, on-line trolls, canned celebrity. These, together with pandemic hope & panic, deeply absorb our thoughts - yet also importantly our feelings.

Many of these manifestations can be processed logically. However there is a known but less public human brain function known as Affective System; a secret "Siamese Twin" of the more commonly ever voiced yet narrow Cognitive Function.

So what is this other function - and so what? Let's consider the long term research led by Jaak Panksepp a US neuroscientist. In the 1970's as a young engineering undergraduate he puzzled over the lack of research into human emotions.

So Jaak's 40 years' lab experimentation, research papers and studies began unexpectedly with tickling lab rats. This led Jaak to form an hypothesis there was a partner to cognitive (thinking) systems. This was affective (feeling) systems. He began this by electrical stimulation, pharmacological observations and sadly brain dissections and decided there are systemic pre-cerebellum centres for emotions. He demonstrated repeatedly, scholastically, experimentally, there are centres for mammalian (therefore human?) emotions. Their function is to process sensory inputs (sensations) into our lower brain stems before channelling them to our higher brain functions (cognition). These higher levels are our domain for rational thinking, memory, data processing; the lower levels he said are for feelings which actually stimulate action even pre-empting our thinking, he said.

For example rats he found can feel/seek joy through play. Tickling them elicited squeaks at ultra-high frequencies "as if laughing/chuckling". These studies led to the discovery of other "base" emotions. Later these studies became "The Science of (Human) Emotion".

Fast forward to present day papers, presentations and several TED talks, Jaak's "7 Primal Human Emotions" are now published.

The 4 Rewarding/Positive Emotions The 3 Aversive/Negative Emotions

*SEEKING (expectancy/hope/enthusiasm) *RAGE (anger

*LUST (arousal) *FEAR (anxiety)

*CARE (loving/tenderness) *PANIC (sadness/despair)

*PLAY (social joy)

There are of course many applications of this so called "Affective System"; yet also manipulations. Next time you read or hear communications, identify which "ancestral voice" is playing you - irresistible rewarding positivity or aversive prejudice - hate or love? Sunny meadows of positive Affective Systems or the shadowy snakes of aversion. Your call.

"It's Leadership Spock but not as you would like it" (Klingon Commander (plausibly)).