Are emotional states based in the brain? A critique of affective brainocentrism from a physiological perspective
Colombetti, G; Zavala, E
Date: 21 August 2019
Article
Journal
Biology and Philosophy
Publisher
Springer
Publisher DOI
Abstract
We call affective brainocentrism the tendency to privilege the brain over other parts of the
organism when defining or explaining emotions. We distinguish two versions of this tendency.
According to brain-sufficient, emotional states are entirely realized by brain processes.
According to brain-master, emotional states are realized ...
We call affective brainocentrism the tendency to privilege the brain over other parts of the
organism when defining or explaining emotions. We distinguish two versions of this tendency.
According to brain-sufficient, emotional states are entirely realized by brain processes.
According to brain-master, emotional states are realized by both brain and bodily processes,
but the latter are entirely driven by the brain: the brain is the master regulator of bodily
processes. We argue that both these claims are problematic, and we draw on physiological
accounts of stress to make our main case. These accounts illustrate the existence of complex
interactions between the brain and endocrine systems, the immune system, the enteric
nervous system, and even gut microbiota. We argue that, because of these complex brainbody interactions, the brain cannot be isolated and identified as the basis of stress. We also
mention recent evidence suggesting that complex brain-body interactions characterize the
physiology of depression and anxiety. Finally, we call for an alternative dynamical, systemic,
and embodied approach to the study of the physiology of emotions that does not privilege the
brain, but rather aims at understanding how mutually regulating brain and bodily processes
jointly realize a variety of emotional states.
Social and Political Sciences, Philosophy, and Anthropology
Faculty of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences
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