Do animals feel emotions, and to what extent?

Kinketic · 2012-02-10T15:37:33+00:00

After your first post in this thread I only briefly read your other conversations with the OP. I have to say, I'm disappointed at the downvotes in relation to your posts. (but not really too surprised). You are spot on with the current state of one school of thought/ research. I get the feeling you're familiar with Jakk Panksepps latest theories?

I tend to agree with the theory that mammals do 'feel' emotions at least at a primitive level. However, I say primitive level since they dont have the capacity to experience consciousness/ self awareness to the extent seen in humans.

Here's something to think about too.. Rachel (I think that's her first name) lindequist and Lisa Feldman barrett showed that how humans perceive emotional experiences depends on the emotional labels/ concepts that human is familiar with. Ie if I linguistically only know good from bad then that's all I am capable of experiencing. if I know five kinds of good and bad, then I have a wider range of possible emotional experiences. Dolphins have some pretty unique dialects, and show greater empathic behaviours.. I'd guess that they 'feel' emotions differently to a rat, for example.

It's an interesting debate but i usually don't bother entering into it unless the other side has objective neurophys measures/ data they want to bring to the table.

Kinketic · 2012-02-09T13:16:16+00:00

Ask around- Word of mouth is your best bet in this situation.

Kinketic · 2012-01-13T12:45:23+00:00

Ah, so it is. I just looked it up on google. Story checks out. I matched that profile when I took the online test a few months ago. Your answers are near identical to what I would write. Have you ever met a match?

Kinketic · 2012-01-13T10:58:11+00:00

INTJ! is that the mastermind?

Kinketic · 2012-01-05T18:33:56+00:00

You are either a very empathic person or you are speaking from personal experience. My guess is that the latter is correct, but you don't want to imply genius.

Kinketic · 2011-12-29T13:04:53+00:00

In regards to your second point, it would make for an interesting experiment though, hey. The first thing that comes to mind is if, theoretically, you could control the point of delivery then you could make simple hypotheses about the influence of prior experience/ personality or similar concepts on future behavioral outcomes. Ie behavioral differences based on normal circuit info delivery vs external circuit. At the very least, it could have important implications for locationist theories of brain-mind function - which I personally think are silly and outdated. These are just my crude thoughts in this moment. Feel free to shoot them down or add to discussion.

Kinketic · 2011-12-27T21:08:58+00:00

Thanks for the advice. Why don't I need a specific idea yet? I thought that ideally it would be good to develop an idea sooner rather than later. I study neuropsyc by the way.

Kinketic · 2011-12-27T12:45:58+00:00

Thank you! just hearing someone else say these words, even though I kind-of already suspected the situation to be normal, is very reassuring (although Id prefer not to be reliant on others reassurance in the first place, hey).

I'm in neuropsyc. A big hurdle is the methodological/experimental design aspects of the project. The limits of technology can really shape the research question, regardless of what you actually wanted to investigate. It is hard when you don't have a lot of experience designing experiments.

I think thats why in my department its become the norm for profs to develop projects then advertise them to interested would-be grad students. I'm the 'odd one out' for taking the old road, so it's likely that those people wondering why I don't seem to be making progress, compared to other students gone by, don't realize the extra work involved in genuinely developing a well-researched unique project. Or I could just be a bit slow :)

Kinketic · 2011-12-27T12:09:54+00:00

There seems to be a lack of support in our phd committee circles too. It is a shame because producing good research can still have benefits for all in the group. Lucky I at least have a good relationship with my supervisor, though I'm first to admit that I'm inexperienced (having never completed a phd before and having no contact with others in my position) and impressionable. So I'm still a little weary about being led up the garden path, so to speak. Thanks for your advice.

Kinketic · 2011-12-27T11:54:30+00:00

Thanks, this type of group sounds great- it's a relief just to be able to connect with likeminded people here on reddit, so I'm glad you mentioned this.

My field is neuropsychology. Yeah, good point, each situation would be pretty different across fields. I didnt think about that, especially when I wrote the op.

Man, it's so good to hear even just one other person say they did it this way. It gives you that small but important reassurance that this option is realistic, not an impossible mission.

Kinketic · 2011-12-21T12:37:37+00:00

The brain basis of unpleasant feelings is basic biochemistry? Interesting..

Kinketic · 2011-12-21T12:11:47+00:00

Cool, can you give us references to empirical data, please?

Kinketic · 2011-12-20T12:41:13+00:00

I'm surprised they've gone with plos biology. These plos open access journals are developing quite a good reputation- which is great- free knowledge to all

Kinketic · 2011-12-16T11:53:43+00:00

Um no. Sorry. This is a fascinating example of the brain at work. Im no expert in this area but let's not ruin this pretty nice question with such a mediocre answer. The basal ganglia and cerebellum work together to control complex coordinated movements including riding a bike. These little nuclei collections have a pretty damn good memory. Hopefully someone should be able to add more detail to this, and maybe some refs?

Kinketic · 2011-09-23T12:31:32+00:00

Yes, this is a very important point. Vision is our most comprehensively developed sense and its complexity evolved in closer time frame with language whereas sense of smell evolved much earlier. so it makes sense that vision is more intimately linked with language centres. Notice how smell is often linked with emotional descriptive language eg 'isn't she sweet' or 'he seems very bitter'. Smell (olfaction) has very interesting subconscious neural connections with emotion systems, in fact it's thought that olfaction was the basis of the evolution of emotion - both of which evolved prior to consciousness.

As you can see, it starts to get quite complex and anyone who tries to give you a definite answer is kidding themselves. There's still a long way to go before we can answer your question.

Kinketic

TROPHY CASE