Page 61 - Coespu Magazine 2018-2

1. Primary-process, basic-primordial affects (sub-neocortical)
i) Emotional affects (emotion action systems; intentions-in-actions

ii) Homeostatic affects (hunger, thirst, etc via brain-body interoceptors)
iii) Sensory affects (sensorially triggered pleasurabledispleasurable feelings

2. Secondary-process emotions (learning via basal ganglia)
i) Classical conditioning
ii) Instrumental and operant conditioning

iii) Emotional habits
3. Tertiary affects and neocortical “awareness” functions

i) Cognitive executive functions: thoughts and planning
ii) Emotional ruminations and regulations

iii) “Free-will” or intention-to-act

A primary process and respective basic emotion may prevail in many subcortical regions, and
constructivist/dimensional approaches may effectively parse higher emotional concepts as processed by
the neocortex. Affects are the subjectively experienced aspects of emotions, commonly called feelings.
Critical evidence now indicates that primary-process emotional affects are mammalian/human
birthrights that arise directly from genetically encoded emotional action circuits that anticipate key
survival needs. They mediate what philosophers have called “intentions-in-action”.
Brain research supports the existence of at least seven primary-process (basic) emotional systems—
SEEKING, RAGE, FEAR, LUST, CARE, GRIEF (formerly PANIC), and PLAY—concentrated in
ancient subcortical regions of all mammalian brains. In sum, affective neuroscientific analysis of basic
emotions is based on several highly replicable facts:
• coherent emotional-instinctual behaviors can be aroused by electrically stimulating very specific
subcortical regions of the brain;
• wherever one evokes emotional action patterns with ESB, there are accompanying affective
experiences. Again, the gold standard for this assertion is the fact that the brain stimulations can
serve as “rewards” when positive-emotions are aroused—eg, SEEKING, LUST, CARE, and aspects
of PLAY. When negative emotions are aroused—RAGE,FEAR, GRIEF—animals escape the
stimulation;
The above behavioral and affective changes are rarely, if ever, evoked from higher prefrontal
neocortical regions, suggesting that higher brain areas may not have the appropriate circuitry to
generate affective experiences, although the neocortex can clearly regulate (eg, inhibit) emotional
arousals and, no doubt, prompt emotional feelings by dwelling on life problems. The emotional primes
will be summarized in next news.

Written by:
Doctor Davide Perego
Neuroscientist, Psyco-Neuro Physiologist,
expert in psychopathology and neuropsychology

59