Monday, November 5, 2012

Stress and Emotions

Decision Making


   Ever wondered how our emotions have an affect on our decision making? In fact, our emotions are linked to a certain part of our brain which in turn helps us distinguish what is morally right or wrong. This area of the brain is called the prefrontal cortex. The prefrontal cortex according to Wikipedia is the anterior part of the frontal lobes of the brain. The region itself is associated with planning complex cognitive behavior, personality expression, decision making and moderating social behavior. These are where your thoughts and actions develop in accordance with your internal goals.
   If you for whatever reason have some kind of damage done to your prefrontal cortex it was discovered that one can suffer from lack of emotions, irrational thinking, eratic decision making. As mentioned in the book, in the case of the man in 1994 where he experienced damage to his prerefrontal cortex he would almost express no emotions. He understood the consequences of a good or bad decision, but still did not know which one he would choose because he wouldn't know how it would make him feel.They choose the bad decision because of their lack to feel those emotions. In the book it also states that we basically make decisions based on how it will make us feel after the decision is made. So the fact that people with damage to the prefrontal cortex act more on impulse is because those senses have become damaged. 
   We base most of our important decisions on how we think it will make us feel in the long run. When you think about it there is a moral decision making behind it as well. Without having a proper functioning prefrontal cortex we would never be able to distinguish what is morally right and wrong. Like the man who experienced damage to his prefrontal cortex we would have difficulties trying to establish what is right or wrong because we would not know how they made us feel. 

I had a hard time trying to find a video that focused solely on how emotions can be affected if damage to the prefrontal cortex occurred. So, I found this brief video that explains possible cases when damage to the "frontal lobes" occurs...


3 comments:

  1. Your blog post on how the prefrontal cortex relates to decision-making is very interesting. I find this area of the brain most fascinating, mainly because it's what makes us human. Like you said, any sort of damage that impairs or takes away function of the prefrontal cortex makes us lack emotion and distorts our decision-making and judgement. I also found your video on frontal lobe damage and the various consequences resulting from the damage very informative.

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  2. Interesting post. How important our prefrontal cortex is for our decision making. This blog just reminded me of the blog I did in the past where they will try to "fix" a person by doing lobotomies. Imagine the confusion those people went through in making wise choices. People with a full prefrontal cortex have complications already making wise choices now imagine with damage to the prefrontal cortex.

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  3. Very interesting information! Decision making seems to come so easily at times that it never occurred to me to find out how a decision is really made. Though it makes sense to think that we distinguish what is good and bad and then see how it would make us feel. Although not being able to feel which decision is right, can be scary because we can put our lives in danger if we take the wrong decision.

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