adult brain :: essays research papers

The study of emotion was once relegated to the backwaters of neuroscience, a testament to the touristed conception that what we feel exists outside our mental capacitys, acting only to intrude on normal thought. The science has changed Emotion is now considered integral to our over-all mental health. In mapping our emotions, scientists accept found that our randy intelligence overlays our thinking brain The two exist forever intertwined.      There is a critical interplay amidst reason and emotion. We atomic number 18 well aware of how brain malfunctions can exploit pain, depression, and emotional paralysis. We must also understand that the brain affects positive emotional responses such as laugh, excitement, happiness, and love. Scientists have been able to pinpoint the section of the brain that causes joke.     Some clues for the physiological basis of laughter have come from the great unwashed who pineed brain injuries, strokes o r neurological diseases. C.B., a landscaper in Iowa, is cardinal of them. Three years ago, at the age of 48, C.B. suffered a stroke. Fortunately, he corned quite well and was expected to return to his normal life. However, since the stroke, C.B. and those around him, have been perplexed by certain changes in his behavior. Though he seems healthy, and doesnt suffer any pain, occasionally, for no noticeable reason, he bursts out into uncontrollable, wild laughter. In other cases, out of the blue, he is swept into tears in a similar attack.     C.B. has joined a long list of clinical cases that are described in medical literature as pathological laughter and crying (PLC). All of these patients suffer from brain damage that has destroyed or impaired small areas in their brains. Usually, the lesions are no bigger than a few cubic millimeters. However, since the lesions do not always occur scarce in the same spot in the brain, it is hard to determine found on these cases, which brain areas are in charge of laughter. Nevertheless, PLC suggests an interesting gene linkage the same tiny lesion can cause both laughter and crying. That representation that the same brain regions are involved in both laughter and crying. But most surprisingly, these laughter and crying are not associated with mirthfulness or sadness. PLC patients suffer from "mechanical laughter". The pleasant feelings, happiness, amusement or joy that usually accompanies laughter are absent. Patients like C.B. often change surface suffer anxiety and fear with their laughter.      The case of a French fair sex who suffered from Parkinsons disease sheds more light on the association amid laughter, crying and emotions.