FEAR AND ANGER.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXX, Issue 5392, 25 February 1929, Page 1

FEAR AND ANGER.

EFFECTS ON THE SYSTEM. MEDICAL JOURNAL’S VIEWS. Tiic seat of' certain emotions has been located in a definite part of the animal brail), we are told in an editorial in the “Journal of the American Medical Association” (Chicago). The part, of the' brain is- pare that >s found in th e ear lY stages of animal development, so that fear and anger may be considered very primitive emotions. To Quote the editorial: “A recent writer has interpreted the -mind as an expression of activity of the brain to the same degree that, digestion is the function Of the alimentary tract, and that embryo and infant are the product of the reproductive organs. In other words, the mind is not something separate from the body, but is a function of One of its v organs. The brain, he adds, ‘secretes’ the mind uo less than the glandfe of the mpiu.th saliva and the kidneys secrete urine. The mind is as dependent on the integrity of the anatomic, structure and the normal physiologic, f motioning of the brain as the circulation of the blood is on the normality of .the, heprt, its valves, and rhythmic action. Thus normal cerebral activity, consisting of the transmission of nerve impulses this way and that among the centres, is the process underlying the mind, or intelligence. Disturbances of the mind. Haggard concludes, are to be regarded as the psychic and behaviouristic aspects and expressions of abnormal cerebral functioning, “From this standpoint it becomes logical to seek to locate the seat of psyc.hic processes' in dfefinite parts the nervous system. The association of impressions that constitute thought, memory, imagipatioin, and the process of willing acts’has been referred to the cerebral hemispheres. The: emotions, which., play a large part in human life, are not. merely reflected in consciousness, but also lead! to physiological phenomena of varied sorts. What is the seat of the emotions ? Are they to be relegated to thq cortical (outer) areas of the brain.? “It has been established) that, in certain mammals deprived of their, cerebral hemispheres symptoms resembling anger and rage may still be elicited by appropriate stimuli. Interest in the responses provoked by emotions is no. longer restricted' to a few external reactions involving obvious changes of posture and expression. We know to-day, particularly as the result of Cannon’s- interprets tions, that emotional excitement is attended! by markejd visc,eral changes. Thus,' in fear and rage the viscera are dominated by a discharge of impulses, over the sympathetic nervous system. The arterial pressure and the sweat glands may become affected. The viscosity of the blood i® altered.

“Worfcng in the physiological laboratories of the Harvard Medical School, Bard has attempted, to ascertain the locus, of the nervous system where the emotional activities of deeortic,ate animals are generated.”

The method used was that of removal of varying portions of the brain stem in the cat after removal of the hemispheres. In acute experiments it was found! that, typical sham rage regularly developed even after the removal of „a large part 'of th® brain. Jt invariably failed! to appear after other parts hafli been, removed. This leads to the conclusion that the expression of anger in the cat is dependent cm central mechanicism located in these latter parts. To quote further:

“Bard! points out that the behaviour attending the major emotions, fear and rage, is called forth by the urgency of. certain deflnit circumstances, andi it is plainly directed towards the preservation of the individual. It constitutes, as he states, a reaction that js primitive, energetically purposive, and cpimmon to the divergent members of the vertibrate series. From an evolutionary standpoint it is significant that the reaction is dependent, as Bard has found, on the older divisions of the nervous system.”