Research on mice and flies has drawn a connection between animals and human emotions.
For more, stream KCBS Radio now.
David Anderson, a biology professor at the California Institute of Technology and author of "The Nature of the Beast: How Emotions Guide Us" told KCBS Radio people can learn to understand animals by watching them and living with them.
Anderson explained that he could not study the animals feeling part of emotion because that requires "conscious awareness" and there is no information on whether animals are conscious.
"Studying the roots of emotion in animals and what we study are internal states of the brain which we think are patterns of electrical and chemical activity that control their behavior in a way that looks from the outside that it has properties of emotion," Anderson said.
The study focused on emotional behavior and how long emotions like fear and aggression stay in our system after the "stimulus that activated them is long gone."
"We can see evidence of this lingering effect and also of the escalation of the behaviors in fear-related behaviors in mice and flies, and also aggressive behaviors in mice and flies because believe it or not even male fruit flies fight with each other over females or food or territory," he said.
The research on animal brains may help us understand human brains and how our emotions adapt. Anderson added that some mental illnesses like phobias or Post-traumatic stress disorder might "represent maladaptations" of the emotional system that controls fear or defensive behaviors.
"We can do experiments to understand exactly what cells in the brain and what circuits are controlling the factors that make fear last longer or get stronger," he said. "So, if we can understand that in animals and identify similar cells in humans we might be able to develop new therapies for disorders like PTSD in the future."
LISTEN to KCBS Radio
FAVORITE KCBS Radio
Facebook | Twitter | Instagram
Related
