What I'm Reading: Picking Up Where I Left Off...

When last I was reading the book, Emotional Processes in Music Therapy by John Pellitteri, I was starting into the second part of the book - "Foundations." I had explored a bit of emotion theory and some processes that have been mapped in the brain. As I continue to read, I am struck by the amount of research that has been accomplished into understanding emotions and our brains, and, again, by how much we still do not know. For example. Panksepps, in 2000, can identify specific brain areas and associated neurochemicals associated with certain emotions, but at the time of publication, had not mapped those pathways activated during the experiences of said emotions (p.72). What an interesting time we live in.

Moving forward now...

Some things that I want to remember from my reading today:

• p. 73 - "emotional elicitors are closely intertwined with the emotional states that they invoke." external or internal; sensory channels constantly accept information from inside and outside our bodies
• p. 74 - the amygdala interprets stimuli based on potential - we attend to what our amygdala thinks is dangerous or important - the brain is constantly accepting, interpreting, and either rejecting as unimportant or acting upon what we experience.
• pp. 74-75 - nonsocial and social stimuli - interesting way to define these inputs - nonsocial example - loud noise that leads to startle response in contrast to social example - inviting or friendly gesture. Elicitors are defined based on how they fit in society? Lewis, 2000.
• p. 75 - Classical conditioning - linking unrelated response to specific stimulus to gain specific response.
• p. 75-76 - emotional responses can be natural or learned. Elicitors generate a physiological response - it happens whether we are aware of it or not. Our brain acts as a filter to keep us from constantly having to attend to all the things that we are exposed to - our brain decides what is worth conscious attention and what can be filtered. (Not everyone has the same type of filter - figure-ground discrimination)
• p. 76 - physiological, somatovisceral, cognitive activations - often situational in context and in response. 
• p. 77 - we differ in how we respond to stimuli - this often determines how we label personality types (interesting - I had never thought about that, but I can see how someone who appears to be less responsive to stimuli can be given a label. Society makes and enforces the labels - the culture has something to do with it all as well - what is valued in one culture may be "diagnosis" in another setting or cultural view.
• p. 78 - Response to our responses helps to condition our reactions and teach us how to fit in within our particular cultural assignment. We manage to adapt our responses to fit in with the social expectations that surround us - we also change our responses based on where we are - whatever microculture we are in at the moment.
• p. 78-79 - Emotional States - "Emotional states are inferred constructs. These states are defined as particular constellations of changes in somatic and/or neurophysiological activity. Emotional states can occur without organisms being able to perceive these states" (Lewis, 2000, p. 267).
• p. 79 - we don't really know how we come about these particular states - "Different emotional states likely have different mechanisms that create them." Many theories of how we construct emotional states.

That's all my back to school brain can handle this morning. Next week, I will be moving into the different theories of how we construct those emotional states.

Sigh. Only 79 pages into the book...there are so many more to get through, but I will get through them. My goal of reading all sorts of Music Therapy books is not going to be attained this year, but I did get four books finished and one more is in progress, so that should be valued by me...