Biopsychology Coursework Example

Biopsychology
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1. What is an emotion? What is love? What in particular, is going on in our brain when we are in love?
According to the English dictionary, emotion is defined as a strong feeling of an individual that emanates from one’s mood as well as the relationship with neighbors. Notably, love can also be a mental reaction that is usually experienced as intensive feeling to a given object or individual. It is normally characterized by behavioral and physiological changes in the mind and body of an individual.
To be precise, it is an internal feeling of affection (Gerhardt, 2006). When we are in love, the ventral tegmental area and caudate nucleus in our brain activate. These regions of our brain are mainly associated with our mesolimbic pathway or our reward pathway. Love causes a release of dopamine which then activates the reward circuit, causing love to be a pleasurable experience. This is a euphoria feeling very similar to being drunk or being on drugs. Physical and emotional responses also accompanied with love: increased heart rate, preoccupying thoughts, and passion; are attributed to increased levels of cortisol and the decrease of serotonin (Bartels & Zeki, 2004).
2. What is the relationship between hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal function, health, and well-being?
The hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal work together to release adrenocorticotropic hormone and then cortisol which enhances metabolic activity elevates blood levels of sugar and increases alertness (Lightman et al.

2002). The chemicals affiliated with stress also can trigger the immune system; especially when fighting off illnesses and fight in situations where your body feels like it is in crisis. However, prolonged stress can cause harm to the hypothalamus, pituitary gland, and adrenal cortex with imbalances of hormones and chemicals in the body (Zaloga & Marik, 2001).
Response to question one
I agree with the above definition of love since it is true that love is more of affection and a feeling. Love is usually a feeling directed to a given object or another individual as we always feel it. I concur with the fact that love is a mental reaction that motivates one to have a positive feeling towards an object. I find the concept of what is going on in our mind as being true since I tend to compare this with my feelings. It is true to say that when we are in love, the ventral tegmental area and caudate nucleus in our brain activate. This is because our mind is the only reward pathway that directs our emotions such as love. The reward circuit causes a euphoric feeling in our minds.
Response to question 2
It is true that there exists a close relationship among the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal function as far as our body reaction, health and wellbeing are concerned. We need to understand that both hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal work in unison to release adrenocorticotropic hormone and then cortisol. These hormones are responsible for altering the metabolic reaction of our body. Interestingly enough, these hormones can increase the alertness of our body and raise the sugar level. I see it important to note that the connection between the adrenocorticotropic hormone and then cortisol can also trigger our immune system hence interfering with our wellbeing. It is in this aspect that I tend to agree that the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal can cause stress especially when the body is in crisis.
Response to Jimmy Mitchell
I do agree with Mitchell on the definition of emotion since it is a strong feeling of pleasure or surprise. Conversely, Mitchell is right to indicate that love is a feeling of happiness. It is also true to say that the limbic system works best when the brain is subjected to love. Indeed, Mitchell is true to elaborate that the internal thalamic nuclei are a portion of the brain that that works best when one is happy or in love. Our brain works best to relieve and suppress stress when subjected to love. Ideally, Jimmy puts it clear that to understand stimuli our brain should be subjected to love and positive emotions.

References
Bartels, A., & Zeki, S. (2004). The neural correlates of maternal and romantic love. Neuroimage, 21(3), 1155-1166.
Gerhardt, S. (2006). Why love matters: How affection shapes a baby’s brain. Infant Observation, 9(3), 305-309.
Lightman, S. L., Windle, R. J., Ma, X. M., Harbuz, M. S., Shanks, N. M., Julian, M. D. & Ingram, C. D. (2002). Hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal function. Archives of physiology and biochemistry, 110(1-2), 90-93.Zaloga, G. P, & Marik, P. (2001). Hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal insufficiency. Critical care clinics, 17(1), 25-41.