Self And The Phenomenon Of Life: A Biologist Examines Life From Molecules To Humanity

Self and Emotion 197

“9x6” b2726 Self and the Phenomenon of Life: A Biologist Examines Life from Molecules to Humanity

without an outward sign. The stimulus can also be endogenous, such
as physical illness (e.g., indigestion) or brain chemistry imbalance
(e.g., depression and anxiety). Furthermore, recall of an earlier expe-
rience, with input from the hippocampus, can also activate a feeling,
a mood, or an outright expression. In some instances, emotion can be
evoked with only subliminal awareness, bypassing the higher cortical
functions.^37
The two-way traffic between the cerebral cortex and the emo-
tional centers permits a mutual influence between rational thinking
and emotion. Thus, not only can reasoning reign over animal impulse,
as in deferred gratification which we so often see at the human level,

Fig. 9.6. Mechanism of emotion, showing the interactions between the cerebral
cortex (rational thinking), the emotional centers (impulsive drive), the hypothalamic
sympathetic discharge (emotional expression), and the interoceptive feedback from the
visceral organs (emotional experience). Most sensations, external and internal, arrive at
the cortex at the conscious level, but some go directly to the deep emotional centers,
such as the amygdala, eliciting a response without awareness. Note that some emotional
centers are in the cerebral cortex.