Human higher nervous activity peculiarities (emotions, motivations, the highest nervous activity types)

External and internal stimuli may cause such reactions that initiate one or other behaviour and reflect organism needs expression. Such behaviour is called motivational. Motivation is a purposeful behaviour. Aim is main motivation link. There are many aims in our everyday life. They may be constant, repeated or changeable. One can tells about 2 main aims types:

· The nearest- isntant satisfaction (tasty food). They don’t need in durable preparing, activity and award are simultaneous at them. But they are not durable.

· Farther – they are directed (consciousely or unconsciousely) to love achievement of people close to us. They are achieved by hard work and are accumulated in course of a whole life.

Consciouse aims:

· admiration for the strong (God, Allach, king,country, town, parents, spouse, children);

· to be strong (glory, power, applause of mass, award et al.);

· to present joy (desire to help to others unselfishely);

· to receive joy (it is reached at satisfaction of your deed).

Neither the nearest nor farther aims are not the real ending goal. Ending goal – to open yourself in all aspects of your life; to express yourself and to reach the feeling of confidence and security. One should strive for the highest skill because it receives respect, disposition and love (not only of your relatives but other people).

Hypothalamus, amygdala and cortex are responsible for motivational behavour. Biochemical base of motivation forming are biologically and physiologically active substances: neuromediators (acetylcholine, noradrenaline, serotonin, dophamine and others), hormones (catecholamines, vasopressine et al.) and neuropeptides (angiotensine, morphine and others). Emotions have a significant place in motivational structure.

 

Emotions - is a language of feelings inherent both in animals and human beings. Emotional may be expressed by their internal (subjective) signs:

· joy;

· grief;

· admiration;

· disgust;

· hatred;

· love et al.

And external (objective) signs:

· mimic;

· gestures;

· voice reactions;

· vegetative reactions.

Some interesting information about gesture.

Although we are not normally aware of it, most of us use our hands when we are talking. You can see this by turning down the sound of your TV set. Notice how much the speakers use hands as they talk. Our hands can show the shape and size of things (try describing a spiral staircase without your hands usage!) and emphasize what we are saying. Some gestures, though have special meanings; what do these people seem to be saying?

These gestures are not made naturally: we have to learn them and they vary from one country to another. For example, how do you call someone to you? In Spain and many other countries you beckon someone with your palm down, which can look like the English sign for sending someone away. In Italy wave goodbye with the back of your hand which can look like the English sign for beckoning someone!

What do you mean when you nod or shake your head? Nodding seems to be one of the few gestures found in nearly every country; it seems to mean “yes” almost everywhere but in some parts of India shaking the head also means “yes”. In Greece and Southern Italy and many other parts of the world, throwing the head back which can look like a nod, means “no”.

When you see your friends, how do you greet them? People in many countries find the English cold and unfriendly because they often do no more than say “hello”. Even adults shake hands usually only the first time they meet. French people, including schoolchildren, shake hands with their friends or kiss them on bolth cheeks if they are close friends, each time they meet and when they leave one another. At home they do not go to bad without kissing everyone in the family good night on both cheeks, and shaking hands with any visitors. The same thing happens in the morning. How do you think a French child might feel staying in your family?

Other countries have different ways of greeting. The Eskimos rub noses. In Samoa people sniff one another and in Polynesia you take hold of your friend’s hands and use them to stroke your face. In Tibet it is very polite to stick your tongue out at someone; you are saying “there is no evil thought on my tongue”!

In some parts of East Africa it is considered very unlucky to point with your fingers and so people turn their heads and pout their lips in the directions they mean. In Britain some people “cross their fingers” for good luck but in Austria and Germany they hold their thumbs. In Britain if the people in an audience do not like a performer and if they are not very polite thay may clap their hands slowly to “go away”! In other parts of Europe the slow hand clap is a great compliment! In Britain people may stand up as a sign of respect. In some other countries they sit down to show that they look up to the person.

There are many other signs used in different countries, and what is an insult in one country may not be understood or may have quite a different meaning in another. The English do not use gesture as much as many other people and it is very easy for misunderstandings to arise.

The head toss

One of the common body gestures is the head toss. This is when the head is tossed quickly upwards and backwards and then it is lowered again more slowly. The eyebrows, the line of hairs above the eyes, are usually raised and often the eyes are rolled back. Sometimes the eyes are closed. The person may make a soft noise with their tongue which we call a “click”. However, the head toss does not mean the same in every country. Most people use it to mean No. Researchers asked 1200 people in 40 places whether they used the “head toss”. 584 said they did not use this gesture, 302 people said they used it and it mean No. 314 people used it for seven other different meanings. This means that the “head toss” is often misunderstood. So when we are talking with people from other cultures we must learn to interpret their body gestures correctly.

There are polarities between emotions (positive and negative). One can say that alive organisms have positive and negative emotions.

Positive emotions (main):

· pleasure;

· joy;

· interest;

· agiotage et al.

Main negative emotions:

· distress-grief;

· misfortune;

· disgust;

· wrath-fury;

· disregard-contempt;

· surprising-fright;

· shame-shyness-humiliation;

· fear-horror.

But you should remember that positive emotions have negative aspects (joy, enjoyment without any measure - is an unhappiness). At the same time some negative emotions have positive aspects. For example, grief unites people, fear or wrath mobilize our spirit and our forces. Positive part of all negative emotions is named as sthenic, and really negative – asthenic.

Now some words about fear. “Are you a man or a mouse?” When people ask this question they want to know if you think you are a brave person or a coward. But will never really know the answer to that question untill you are tested in real life. Some people think they are brave, but when they come face to face with real danger, they act like cowards. Other people think of themselves as cowardly, but when they meet danger, act like heroes.

When you are in a very dangerous situation and feel afraid, the body automatically produces a chemical in the blood. This chemical is called adrenaline. With adrenaline in the blood system, you actually feel stronger and are ready to fight or run away. However, when you are absolutely terrified, the body can produce too much adrenaline. When this happens, the muscles become very hard and you find that you cannot move at all. You are then paralysed with fear. That is why, when we are very frightened, we sometimes say that we are “petrified”. This word comes from the Greek word “petros” which means “stone”. We are so frightened we have become like stone.

Stress and anger

Every day you read in newspapers, books and magazines that it is important to avoid stress. Stress can kill, they say. Stay calm. Be relaxed. Slow down. Don’t worry so much and don’t work so hard. Unfortunately, this is difficult. There are always many problems in our everyday life. Our cities are full of traffic and noise. Stressful situations seem to be everywhere.

When people are under stress they react in different ways. Signs of stress you can quickly recognize include poor sleep, over-eating or drinking, repetitive mannerism like nail-biting or pencil-tapping. Some people find it difficult to stay calm and often become tense. Little things, like a baby crying, can make them irritated. They get very annoyed if they have to wait just a few minutes too long – in a shop, stop or restaurant. These people are usually very moody. One minute they are fine and the next they can be really angry- absolutely furious. Other people seem to stay calm almost all the time, and rarely get angry. For example, if they are caught in bad traffic, they don’t get frustrated. They sit calmly in their cars, telling themselves that there is nothing they can do about the situation. These people are not moody at all. They don’t change from moment to moment, but always seem to be in control of their emotions.

Some doctors give names to these 2 personality types. Type A people and type B people. Type A people work very hard, worry a lot and are often bad-tempered. Type B people are the opposite. They don’t worry. Work is not so important to them and they don’t get angry easily. They like to relax a lot and have fun. These doctors say it is better for your health and your heart if you are a type B person.

Stress can be alleviated by mental discipline, conscious relaxation and the right kind of food. First of all, it’s necessary to try to get rid of the feeling of worry that often make us tense. Before going to bed, aid to empty your mind of worries. Take paper and pencil and dreg them out into the open, writing down every nag in your mind. Having written them down, study them carefully. Can you do anything about this one, for example? No? Then take your pencil and strike it out. The very act of putting your pencil through it will get it off your mind. This worries now? You can do something about that!

Well, write down just what you can do and resolve to do it on such and such a date. Do this every night, clearing your mind of worried feelings and watch your stress symptoms disappear.

Stress stages:

· adaptive – it increases organism internal reserves and we can perform one kind of work;

· sthenic negative - with tension growth in course of activity all organism reserves are used and “vegetative storm” occurs – blood pressure and heart beats increasing, fury et al.

· asthenic negative - energetic and intellectual abilities are inhibited leading to fear, horror, boredom, anguish;

· neurosis - highest nervous activity disruption and diseases possible development.

How to be at emotional tension development and not to lead youself to the 3^rd and moreover to its 4^th stage? The best discharging – physical loading, communication with interesting people, sometimes – falling in love.

“Emotional” brain:

· reticular formation;

· hypothalamus;

· limbic system;

· cortex.

One can tell about emotional hemispheres asymmetry. Temporary left hemisphere switching off (in everyday life and in clinics) is accompanied by movement towards negative emotions (bad mood, pessimism); right one – good mood, irresponsibility, complacency, carelessness. Thus, right hemisphere is responsible for negative emotions, left one – for positive. Interhemispherical interrelations are usually disturbed at shizophrenia, maniac-depressive psychosis, brain traumas. There exists so-called lateral therapy which allows to release suffering of such patients by selective switching injured hemisphere off and thus by changing the profile of their interhemispherical asymmetry.

Sense organs are significant for emotions formation. First place has vision organ (up to 90 per cent of all emotional states are connected with it), then auditory organ and others. Vision gives us the presentation about colour, environment changings and subjects dysposition. It provides corresponding emotional state to us (red colour- excitement; blue – grief). Remember your state when sun is shining or it is raining. Hearing – high sounds excite, low- cause fear, monotonous – inhibit all the emotions; rock-music intensive hearing leads to mental abilities decreasing; classical one – one the contrary; it also may be used at different diseases (music-therapy, art-therapy). Smell also forms different emotional states (for example, smell of chocolate increases immunity, stinking or smelly – decrease it). It is well-known that 40 minutes of everyday listenting to the lovely music is a brilliant anti-stressful therapy.

Emotions are essential for work reproductiveness. Positive emotions and sthenic part of negative emotions increase it; negative emotions in their asthenic stage – decrease it.

There are interrelations between emotional state and morbidity. Fear emotions cause heart diseases, wrath – liver, anguish – stomach.

Keeping healthy life style, we create all conditions for emotional tension relaxing.

Emotions depend on individual (typologic) subject features. People under one and same situations have different behaviour. But one can differentiate common behaviour schemas or types despite all multiple reactions.

This phenomenon was seen long long ago. It was the base of Greek medicine according to which there were 4 elements (air, water, fire and earth) or matters (blood, lymph, bile and black bile). Combination of them determines temperamentum of behaviour. Theses data were the base of Hippocrate’s temperaments classification. He considers that human availability level depends on correlation of all these liquids (fluids) in organism. These fluids mixture (taking into account translating from Greek into Latin the word “mixture” sounds as “temperamentum”) and defines individual peculiariry of any person. According to this learning, one can differentiate:

· sanguine person – with blood (sanguis predominance in this mixture);

· choleric – with bile (chole) predominance in this mixture;

· melancholic – with black bile (chole) predominance in this mixture;

· phlegmatic- with mucus (phlegma) predominance in this mixture.

These names are actual till nowadays.

I.P.Pavlov (1910-1935) connects temperamentum’s types with such nervous system features as force, stediness and motility. People are divided into strong and weak types according to force. Strong type – acts to the irritation according to the law of force interrelations; weak – doesn’t act according to it. According to steadiness – steady and unsteady. Steady – person in which excitement and inhibition processes are equal (in equillibrium). Unsteady – if excitement process predominates over inhibition. According to motility – agile and inert (sluggish). Agile type – excitement and inhibition processes changing occurs quickly. Inert type – if inhibition is predominant comparatively to excitement.

According to these data next combinations were done:

· Sanguine person – strong, steady, agile.

· Choleric – strong, unsteady, agile.

· Phlegmatic – strong, steady, inert.

· Melancholic – weak type.

One can also differentiate properly human types of the highest nervous activity:

· Artist – first sygnal system (and right brain hemisphere) is dominant.

· Mental – second sygnal system (and left brain hemisphere) is dominant.

· Mixed – without any dominance.

There are many new classifications during last years:

· Extraverts: people with orientation to environment – sanguine person (stable) and choleric (unstable).

· Intraverts: people with orientation to their internal world – phlegmatic (stable) and melancholic (unstable).

Of course, to determine human type finally is rather difficult. Moreover, every human being, depending on the situation, can express the features of all mentioned 4 types. In addition, every person in course of his or her life comes through age and temperamentum periods: childdhood – sanguine person, adolescence – melancholic, adulthood – choleric, elderness – phlegmatic. Children can express individual typologic peculiarities from 6 months of their life but especially brightly in 5-6 years. Children are different according to excitement and inhibiting processes force, steadiness and motility signs. But they are changed in course of human ageing. One can see similar regularity due to seasons changing: spring - choleric, summer – melancholic, autumn – sanguine person, winter – phlegmatic. Human biorhythms are also essential for this. Our behaviour depends on biorhythms in big extent. Biorhythms – are harmony, phenomena periodically repeated. Biorhythms types:

a) High-freaquened – from msec till 30 min:

· breathing,

· heart activity et al.

b) Middle-freaquened:

· ultradian – up to 20 hours;

· circadian – 20-28 hours;

· infradian – more than 28 hours;

· circaseptan – up to 7 days.

Examples:

· sleep and waking state;

· metabolism changes near 24 hours;

· hormonal changes near 24 hours et al.

c) Low-freaquened - up to months, years:

· seasonal;

· year;

· sunny et al.

There are several important terms in medicine delt with biorhythms – chronogram and chronotherapy. Organism, its separate organs and systems activity chronogram is essential at patients diagnosis. Chronotherapy should be taken into account at medicines application.

Learning about highest nervous activity types is very important for doctor from different aspects. At diagnosis statement, patients location in a ward, therapy. But it is also of great significance in other spheres of our life: marriage, people groups creation, interrelation head-subordinate and so on.

 

Lecture 10