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Knol

certainly can not demonstrate such a connection. We’re simply observing that the description of the mirror neuron facility from the literature seems to match well with the noted function.

At the instinctive end of the emotion spectrum are the appetites for air, water and food. Given the varying time frames that drive these basic, physiological needs, the emotions derived from each range in intensity. When deprived of air for a few seconds, or at most tens of seconds, a strong emotional response ensues; if an individual does not directly control a release of the deprivation, then it will likely reach a panic state in a very short order. When faced with the lack of water, being driven by a longer time-frame need, the mind will instill an emotion of mild desire which, if unfulfilled for many hours, or extending into a day or two, will reach a state of near irrationality, again a state made stronger if a person does not directly control the means to quench the thirst. The need for food, based on an even longer time frame, evokes a range of emotions that begins with a mild hunger after a few hours and that progresses to ever-stronger desires after days have passed. Of course, literally not knowing where your next meal is coming from induces a very different emotional response from suffering hunger pangs from being on a restricted diet. At all levels, the stimulus of emotions is subject to progressive learning by the higher cognitive functions of the mind. A point to keep in mind, of course, is that the emotions, derived to a large extent from cognitive processes, provide a degree of controlled access to the autonomic nervous system. At this level, the body actually can’t tell the difference between a lack of food due to starvation and being on a restricted diet.

If one is deprived of air unexpectedly, then an irrational response may ensue. People who are trained to act in high stress situations, however, can learn to override their instinctive emotional stimuli and proceed through various, ordered alternative approaches to rectifying the situation. For example, military training may entail going into a closed room filled with tear gas and being ordered to remove a gas mask. The goal of the training is to instill an appreciation for how long one can act rationally in the face of the debilitating gas and the benefit of acting in a rational manner to relieve the situation. Similar training is used for other stress inducing environments: sleep deprivation, cold or hot environments, and the like.

Emotions derive from the limbic system of the human midbrain. As we will see in a bit more detail in Chapter 8, this particular system of the vertebrate brain has evolved in the progression of reptiles to mammals. Various levels of emotional response are an evolutionary enhancement of mammals particularly suited to the development of a strong bond between parent and infant in order to insure care for the infant while it is at its most vulnerable stage.

Sustenance for the Body

The provision of energy to drive the life engine of living material has evolved to keep pace with the complexity of the organisms that have resulted from the interplay of the earth’s physical ecosystem. At the most basic level, in order to support the replication of the DNA molecule, sufficient excess energy must be present in the material that surrounds the initial parent DNA. This energy exists in the form of chemical compounds in a state suitable for extraction to support first the cell replication process and then the sensory and motor functions that each cell performs.

Human physiology supports two distinct macroscopically observable systems through which cells can obtain the necessary energy to procreate and to operate. These are termed the aerobic and the anaerobic systems and they work very much in concert with the body’s response system to threats. Specifically, the anaerobic system provides a very rapidly metabolized energy source that can

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