What is the scientific explanation of human emotions? What are they actually ?

Question

Can we control the subconscious mind directly, what are the basic human emotions? Can human beings be considered as 1st gen AI--Artificial intelligence?

Answer 1

Emotion as the subject of scientific research has multiple dimensions: behavioral, physiological, subjective, and cognitive.

As far as physical effects go, they are often defined as a set of internal bodily changes caused by the smooth muscles and glands. Chemicals secreted by the body's various glands are activated during emotion and spread to other parts of the body, usually by the blood, to act in diverse ways on the nervous system and other organs. Smooth muscles of the digestive system, circulatory system, and other bodily components can shift from their typical level or type of operation during emotion under the effects of chemical and neural action. This component includes some behaviors that can be observed, such as the constriction or dilation of the iris of the eye, possibly piloerection, and sweating, blanching, and flushing of the skin, and other responses that are relatively hidden, such as heart rate, stomach activity, and saliva production.
The neural processes that underlie much of the circumstances that give rise to emotions can be considered a component of the emotion process, especially how the neurons and their emotional concomitants are organized centrally in the brain. Many contemporary research studies, and thus a lot of the research money, is focussed on anatomical and functional aspects of brain activity in regard to emotion.

As far as controlling the subconscious mind, we can effect it with our conscious thoughts, but we cannot totally control the subconscious (hence why it is sub).

As far as a list of basic human emotions, Aristotle's Rhetoric list:

* Anger vs. Calmness
* Love vs. Enmity
* Fear vs. Confidence
* Shame vs. Shamelessness
* Kindness vs. Unkindness
* Pity
* Indignation
* Envy

As far as being 1st gen AI, I would say that'd be a negative. After all, we are natural creatures, not artificial.

Answer 2

No, emotions are absolutely necessary! A good, non-neurological place to look is Reversal Theory, which is a biological theory of the structure of emotion. However, the neurological data is interesting. It appears that people with damaged amygdalas cannot "feel" their emotions. It turns out that without emotions you cannot make rational choices. The reason is that you cannot determine which outcome you prefer. Rationality emerged to control your emotions. You only need rationality to get you from an adverse state to a desirable state. If you are in the state you desire to be in, then you do not need to reason anything through. Economics discusses this as well. All economic problems begin with the structure of your preferences. Although it is impossible for an economist to know what you prefer, it is possible to observe behavior and infer preferences given various price sets. Emotion is the base for all animal survival, it determines response to stimuli. In fact, emotion happens prior to thinking. People react to stimuli before cognition happens. Emotions are the biochemical reactions to stimuli, that then trigger cognition and focusing on that stimuli or ignoring it.

Answer 3

That's something that has been debated for a long time. The best I can show you is an overview on Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emotion

And no we can't be considered 1st gen AI because we aren't artificial. We are the NOT artificial intelligence off which artifical intelligence is judged.

Answer 4

That is a damn good question.I don't think there is a truely scientific explanation.There are philosophical or religious explanations. but when you get into these areas , you are not dealing with science,you're dealing with faith and nonrational explanations.