Chemistry Of Emotions Essay

The Chemistry of Emotions

Even though we often think of our emotions as part of our own conscious, they are simply chemical reactions to stimuli in the mind, and depending on the event and who we are the chemicals released and emotions we perceive as result are always different.The emotions in our brain our vital to our survival. Emotions are simply the quickest way to get our body to react with the environment around it. For example, if we feel fear we are able to react to the oncoming danger. Chemicals dictate most of what we do and is how the brain communicates with itself, and is very complex, but in the case of emotions we will focus on a couple of main chemicals like serotonin and dopamine. First we will do a brief overview of how these neurotransmitters work and then we will look into the composure of …show more content…
When we feel an emotion it is simply a chemical reaction in the brain,and our most basic emotions occur in the limbic system. The limbic system is one of the less evolved system of our brains that came after the development of the “old brain”. This small portion of your brain is vital in perception of emotions. The Hippocampus, Thalamus and Amygdala are two parts of this system whose main purpose is to control emotion. The hippocampus is in charge of memories, and how we perceive them , the amygdala is responsible for perceiving fear, and the thalamus processes sensory data. All of these emotions are controlled by neurotransmitters. Neurotransmitters are chemical substances that cause impulses in one nerve cell to another. The next cell will receive it by using a receptor site on the outermost rim of the cell. Neurotransmitters are the key to the chemical reaction to take place,and they are vital to cells communication. However, any surplus or lack of neurotransmitters, is not a good thing. Neurotransmitters include dopamine, serotonin, histamine, glutamic acid, GABA, and noradrenaline. These neurotransmitters come from nerve cells, called