Waubonsee Community College

Passion & fury, the emotional brain, [produced, directed and written by Hugh Piper]

eng

videorecording

Passion & fury

989791461

[produced, directed and written by Hugh Piper]

44

the emotional brain

Drawing a distinction between the lasting state of happiness and the pursuit of instant pleasure, the program explores the evolutionary role of happiness, and asks what happens in the brain, and possibly in the genes, that makes some people happy and others sad. Since depression is the fastest growing epidemic worldwide, research on the stimulation of positive feelings has momentous possibilities. Dopamine generated in the brain is responsible for making people happy. Rats who have become addicted to dopamine disregard food in their attempt to get more dopamine and may die of starvation for their addiction. Science has shown that monks during meditation have increased levels of dopamine. An advertising executive describes how positive images in ads trigger the brain, stimulating pleasurable feelings and often overriding the rational side of the brain. The connection between food and dopamine is being researched in the Brookhaven National Laboratory obesity studies. Scientists are searching for ways to stimulate the rational side of the brain to suppress the inclination to overeat. Many people say they benefit emotionally and physically from laughter clubs started by the Indian Madan Kataria. Serotonin has proven to be a mood stabilizer, and the sales of pharmaceuticals have burgeoned worldwide since 1988. But many question whether drugs are really the answer to achieving happiness

adult