RAJGOPAL NIDAMBOOR
The expanding realm of neuroscience has spurred a luminous surge — scientists have turned their compass and radar to brain activity that represents our emotional ‘flow.’ So, what in more ways than one, did not so much engage our ancients has, thus, undergone a huge sea-change. As neurologists define emotions as a brain process — a process that ‘computes’ the value of all our life’s experiences — it is also, in more aspects than one, unlike the past. It is no longer a question of thinking what was ‘good’ and what was ‘bad’ too.
The rule of the thumb in modern thought is epitomised by cataloguing emotions with our sensory perceptions, pleasure quotient and biological vigour. Besides, our emotional repertories embrace natural valour, self-control, integrity, collaboration, allegiance, and humility, aside from feelings of sexual awakening and justified angst. Put simply, this means the quest of and for the concurrence of sensory enchantment and ascendancy is more than connected to human physiology. It brings home philosopher Plato’s sublime maxim — that each of us should constantly aim at expanding our knowledge, wisdom, courage, self-control, candour and contentment.
It must be emphasised, however, that contentment is not just sensory gratification enhanced, or swapped, with feelings of power, virility, or success. Complete contentment calls for self-respect, a high regard for family, friends and colleagues. Of following and adhering to the laws of the universe. Of the harmony of the spheres — of the mind, body and spirit. Of ‘jazzed-up’ feelings of virtue and spirituality. It should also include changing one’s perception when required — giving the other individual the chance to surmount past behaviour.
All emotions consist of action, cognitive processes and bodily feelings. This is, in a complexity of modes, true to our brain’s organisation and physiology. There are as many questions on the subject as there are answers — for example, whether we should think of motor activity in terms of muscle systems involved, their voluntary, or involuntary character, or their projected objectives? Or, should our memory of emotions be organised in terms of information catalogued, or information reclaimed, along with their consequences, origin, brain profile, or semantic narrative?
A new study, published in Nature, has unravelled the baffling mind-body phenomenon, such as why anxiety makes certain people want to pace back and forth, or have ‘butterflies in the stomach’ feeling; or, why stimulating the vagus nerve, which regulates internal organ functions, such as digestion and heart rate, may ease depression; or, why people who exercise regularly report of a more positive, also calm, outlook on life. The practices, as the study underlines, may be helpful for people with anxiety, for example, albeit there hasn’t been much scientific evidence for how exactly it works. The new study has interestingly found a connection — there’s a highly active, goal-oriented ‘go, go, go’ part of your mind that connects to parts of the brain that control breathing and heart rate. If you calm one down, it should have feedback effects on the other.
Picture this too — a school of scientific thought avers that it is the mind’s job to detect all primary and secondary forms of emotions in the course of a thought. For this to happen, all one needs are a set of ideas, supposed references, valid, or natural idioms. Put simply, these are collated emotions, emerging in contexts, as wave particles of human imagination, whose causes, consequences and patterns are evident for everyone to perceive, distinguish and understand without ado. What comes next is summarising such contexts and patterns that one has observed. Scientists think of such entities as ‘dark matter’ in the cosmos — in the human dimension. They are nothing but ‘reward’ centres in the brain illustrating emotions, or patterns. The best thing is — human nature is incalculably entwined in a maze of collective symphonies and also discord with each thread connected by a premise that makes us comprehend familial, also societal, issues and norms of our time.
Emotions, any which way you look at it, offer a host of choices — right from a simple to a pretty idea, or the most convoluted to the most complex, yet plain enough for one to understand for one’s day-to-day usage. This is because every physical, or intellectual effort, be it the sciences, the arts, or the humanities, brings about a balance between a central concept and its periphery. It is, therefore, no quirk that ancient philosophers waxed far more extensively about emotions, human nature and divinity as three great mysteries — because, our emotions are tangible, understandable and yet remarkably intangible.
— First published in India First
