Areas of the brain involved in Control of emotion
-By Timothy Lyons
It seems that one way that emotions are controlled in areas of the brain involved in Control of emotion is through extinction of emotional responses. From (Carson & Birkett, 2017) the ventral medial prefrontal cortex has an inhibitory action on the amygdala. This has some relationship to the fact that as the learner begins to differentiate between moments that need the emotional response and moments that do not the emotion no longer appears. The evidence for this is in the conditioning of the emotional responses of fear in mice paired with the sound of a bell combined with a fear provoking situation. The sound of the bell is given several times without the fear involving situation and the mouse no longer responds to the bell with the emotion of fear.
Another area of emotional control is the body’s production of hormones. This can affect emotional responses which result in aggression. The production of certain compounds such as additional serotonins are linked with reduced risk taking behaviors that might be as a result of emotions (Carson & Birkett, 2017).
A large role in emotion regulation comes from the areas of the brain involved in Control of emotion that is the prefrontal cortex (PFC). There have been studies that show when certain medications are administered that promote activity in this area of the brain, there is greater emotional control. This is done through the PFC’s ability to make humans understand and learn the possible negative consequences of their reactions to charged emotional situations (Carson & Birkett, 2017).
The fact that there is a learning process that takes place brings to mind the control factor of behavior change that might help with emotion regulation. It is possible to manipulate the Areas of the brain involved in Control of emotion. There are many behavioral techniques that involve the use of morals or values to enhance behavior change and help persons with emotion dysregulation to deal better with those same emotions. One such therapy, Acceptance and commitment therapy (Hayes, Strosahl, & Wilson, 2012), uses techniques such as values training in a moral capacity to change a person’s contextual view of the emotions that are taking place. In this way the emotions negative effects and resultant behavior are lessened which can be considered an example of control. It is quite plausible that the same learning principles like those of learned fear responses are taking place so that the PFC is able to exert more control over the amygdala.
References for areas of the brain involved in Control of emotion
Alvandi, E. O. (2016). A Review on Meanings of Emotions: Steps to a Neural-Informational Notion of Semantics. Cognition, Brain, Behavior, XX(1), 45-63.
Britannica.com. (n.d.). Sexual dimorphism. Retrieved January 29, 2017, from https://www.britannica.com/science/sexual-dimorphism
Carlson, N. R., & Birkett, M. A. (2017). Physiology of Behavior (12 ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson Education.
Hayes, S. C., Strosahl, K. D., & Wilson, K. G. (2012). Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (2nd ed.). New York, NY: Guilford Press.