What is happiness in terms of neurophysiology

There is no universal definition of happiness, a single for the representatives of all countries and cultures, and even the word for "happiness" in different languages, have different meanings. However, happiness is actually even more subjective.

From the perspective of cognitive science, it is impossible to develop a reliable methodology that would allow to study, what happiness, because for every person it depends on various factors. Dimension amenable only some aspects of our behavior and emotional state, but maybe they can give a clue to the processes occurring in the brain of a happy man.

Our good mood control individual incentives that can cause different people have different intensity of positive emotions (joy from mild to euphoria). Therefore, a systematic study of the brain of a happy man, to answer the question, what kind of happiness, almost impossible.

For someone happiness - this wealth, for someone - love, someone will say that happiness is to have goals in life.

The subjective experience of happiness, however, can be divided into two relatively objective component: the emotional (the intensity of the bad and good feelings) and cognitive (the integrity of our consciousness). The "recipe" happy life thus consists of two components: positive emotions (and, inter alia, the absence of negative emotions) and a sense of meaning of what is happening in the world around us and themselves. Below, we will focus primarily on the first of them.

lever pleasure

Emotion - a mental status (positive or negative) for the appearance of which largely corresponds to a complex set of structures brain - the limbic system (which is also responsible for the regulation of a basic human functions such as smell and circadian rhythms). In simple terms, an emotion - it is the human reaction to certain external (from the environment) or internal (eg, mental) stimulus and the fact that behind this incentive may follow.

Negative emotions such as fear or disgust, traced in the human brain is easy enough: responsible for them amygdala or amygdala. And if the fear and disgust are basic emotions, developed in the course of evolution, everything is much more difficult with positive emotions.

Psychologists have for a long time believedTowards a functional neuroanatomy of pleasure and happiness. That positive emotions are largely related to obtaining pleasure.

To trace the processes occurring in the human brain joyous or happy, scientists studying the human emotional response satisfied.

fun exploration and neural correlates associated with its acquisition, its origins in the experiments behaviorists beginning of XX century. The object of study like psychology biheviorizma direction is the behavior, in particular - the behavior of the individual reaction to a specific stimulus (external or internal). Famous experiment conducted by American psychologists, behaviorists James Olds and Peter Milner in 1954, led to the discovery of important parts of the brain, which has been called by them the "center fun. "

The experiment involved a rat who sat in a special boxSkinner box. implanted into a region of the limbic system electrodes. Scientists wanted to find out what kind of reaction to the stimulation lead individuals of different parts of this area. Low current level were started on the electrodes every time the rats entered in a certain corner of the cage.

Scientists have found that, after receiving the stimulation, the rat began to come back into the corner again and again. Later, scientists have tested whether the effect is maintained, if the animal is responsible for the remuneration itself, and gave him the opportunity to receive stimulation by pressing a lever. Rat, ignoring the need for the survival action, press the lever until then, until she died from exhaustion.

Based on this, Olds and Milner concluded that stimulation of the brain in mice caused pleasure, and the electrical stimulus was a good positive reinforcement. Two brain areas subject stimulation, scientists have been named part of a large aggregate structures of the brain, named "Pleasure centers": septal region adjacent to the corpus callosum, as well as a small part of the striatum - accumbens nucleus.

Later experiments with implantation of electrodes into the brain in an area of ​​"pleasure center" tried to hold on people (psychology 60s was not very ethical for today's standards), but soon this practice They refused. Later study of "pleasure centers" led to the discovery of a substance released into the brain in the process of obtaining pleasure - dopamine.

"Pleasure centers" in the brain more: in addition to the mentioned sections of the limbic system, scientists also allocate some parts of the cerebral cortex (eg, orbitofrontal cortex and insula share). The exact function of each of them has not yet been established. In addition, the "pleasure centers" often considered as part of a part of a more complex system - a set of brain structures called the reward system. This system is responsible for several aspects of obtaining compensation: the desire to pleasant stimuli, positive emotions (pleasure) in response to a nice incentive, as well as the consolidation of the behavior that led to the preparation of this incentive.

The molecules of happiness

For getting pleasure in the brain are responsible several neurotransmitters - chemicals, through which the signal is transmitted between two neurons through synapses, the place of contact between two neurons. We consider the properties and functions of the most basic.

dopamine - a neurotransmitter of monoamine groups, the biochemical precursor of norepinephrine. There are several dopamine many different functions, including control of the motor and the executive (cognitive) activity. Dopamine is a neurotransmitter are also involved in the activation of the reward system.

Neurons "pleasure centers" secrete dopamine in response to a specific person for a nice incentive, as well as in anticipation of receiving it.

Stimulus could be anything: sex, touch, external, internal. This can be a meal, and maybe - the face of a loved one. All that we are pleased causes us pleasure; pleasure, in turn, causes joy.

Another important neurotransmitter involved in the formation of positive emotions is serotonin. Like dopamine, serotonin is derived from the group of monoamines. Among the functions under the responsibility of the production of serotonin, in addition to the regulation of mood, - memory and sleep.

Dysfunction of serotonergic pathways is one of the causes of clinical depression and restlessness - a kind of "antonym" happiness. That is why many antidepressants work on the principle of inhibiting the reuptake of serotonin: in mentally unhealthy brain serotonin as a neurotransmitter slows down, and these drugs are able to restore the process.

Another group of neurotransmitters, endorphinsIt refers to neuropeptides that act on opioid receptors. Neuropeptides produced in response to stress as a protective mechanism, as well as to reduce pain. Some opioids (e.g., morphine and analogs thereof) also act on opioid receptors and induce the same response from pain relief to euphoria. That is why the pursuit of easy happiness people start to use opioid drugs.

The feeling of euphoria from the drug available only the first time, then their use is necessary for the removal of withdrawal symptoms, or simply "break".

Also worth noting endocannabinoid neurotransmittersSuch as anandamide and 2-arachidonoylglycerol. They take part in the control reactions to stress and the regulation of excitability level. Cannabinoids - the active ingredients of cannabis, which is obtained from marijuana - also acting on cannabinoid receptors.

neuropeptide oxytocinProduced in the hypothalamus, is responsible for the establishment of social networks and the production of warm, positive feelings toward anyone. Thus, oxytocin is released in large quantities in the delivery time, which helps to establish a strong bond between mother and child, and also helps the mother during nursing. The small amount of oxytocin is also released during orgasm, so it is considered that it plays an important role in getting the pleasure during sex.

Finally, the last neurotransmitter that we will look at it norepinephrine (Also known as norepinephrine) - monoamine, which is a precursor of epinephrine. This neurotransmitter, along with adrenaline, plays an important role in the regulation of fear and other negative emotions, It increases blood pressure and heart rate, and also is the main neurotransmitter responsible for the stress response body.

Stress is linked to many negative emotions and happy life under constant stress seems impossible. Does this mean that the excess production of norepinephrine - a barrier to happiness? Definitely not. Some people find happiness under constant stress: they include both amateurs extreme sports and gambling, as well as those for whom the main joy in life - is a constant Job.

Control the stress response also helps to gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA for short) - the main inhibitory ( "Brake") neurotransmitter whose primary function - to reduce nervous excitability. GABA-benzodiazepine receptors act - psychoactive substances possessing anti-anxiety and sedative effect. Benzodiazepines are part of many drugs prescribed to treat anxiety and panic disorders.

Relatively recently, in 2012, the Swedish scientist Hugo Lovheym offeredA new three-dimensional model for emotions and monoamine neurotransmitters. a three-dimensional model of communication combined action of three monoamines - dopamine, serotonin and norepinephrine - and displays of emotion, called "emotional cube." According to this model, joy and satisfaction caused by high levels of dopamine and serotonin, and a low - norepinephrine, and anxiety and anguish - on the contrary, high levels of norepinephrine and low - two others. However, for a person to experience the excitement or arousal (excitement), all three monoamine must be produced in large quantities.

Chemistry and will

Various psychoactive substances affect the emission of different emotional mediators: for example, cocaine effect on the exchange of dopamine, serotonin and norepinephrine, and nicotine can take part in the exchange of dopamine. The action of these substances, however, is short-lived, it is dangerous and, as you know, can lead to addiction.

However, there are less drastic methods direct effects on receptors associated with the operation of various neurotransmitters. Exercise, for example, increaseEffects of exercise and physical activity on depression. effect of β-endorphin, thereby improving mood.

Increased physical activity can even be a good prevention of depression.

brain regions containing dopaminergic neurons are activatedIntensely pleasurable responses to music correlate with activity in brain regions implicated in reward and emotion. For example, people experiencing pleasure when listening to music.

Today we can say with certainty that those sections of the cognitive sciences, which are responsible for the study complex emotional states (and to them just refers happiness), are still in the process of development. Many psychologists, such as Oxford University professor Morten Kringelbah tryThe Functional Neuroanatomy of Pleasure and Happiness. to follow a systematic link between pleasure and happiness, and to identify the neural correlates responsible for a happy life and a good mood.

Kringelbah and his colleague, an American psychologist Kent Berridge, are three component system works reward "propensity» (liking), responsible for the objective and "chemical" human response to stimulus; «Desire» (wanting), responsible for the strong-willed human effort to get the stimulus; and "learning» (learning), is responsible for building associations with yield stimulus.

"Addiction" to getting stimulus being satisfied, gives us pleasure, but a pleasure to be happy enough. "Desire" stimulus provides the motivation for its preparation, that is, the component adds to our life goal, but only one "wish", being nothing restrained, leads to dependence on the stimulus. "Education" links these two components, and encourages us to find ways to have fun again.

Happiness, according Kringelbaha and Berridge, is reduced to a balance of three components: a "propensity", "desire" and "learning."

But how to achieve this balance, the researchers do not write. :(

Thus, the modern neuroscience can give us an idea of ​​only one component of happiness - a positive emotional response to the stimulus. The second component - a sense of understanding what is happening, having a goal in life - it is a question rather philosophical and at the moment is outside the systematic objective possibilities study.