Sarah Weiss
Liz Johnston and Leah Olson
The Feeling Brain
21 January 2007

The Evolution of Emotions

Throughout each of the readings assigned for this week, there was a common theme in topic – both animal and human emotions – much like the body - have gone through a long evolutionary process that has developed over time into what is so commonly viewed by psychologists and biologists today. Proof of our emotional evolution can be seen in our cross-cultural recognition of the emotions present in facial expressions, our common physical responses to our felt emotions, and from this, the way in which “…emotion and cognition are…separate but interacting mental functions mediated by separate but interacting brain systems” (LeDoux 69).
In the article “Pan-Cultural Elements in Facial Displays of Emotion,” we are shown that the human recognition of facial expressions is not socially learned, but rather an evolutionary trait that spans across cultures. Indeed, the findings from Ekman, Sorenson, and Friesen’s research unquestionably “…support Darwin’s suggestion that facial expressions of emotion are similar among humans, regardless of culture, because of their evolutionary origin” (Ekman, Friesen, Sorenson 4). This was witnessed through the respondents’ (who were selected from New Guinea, Borneo, Brazil, Japan, and the United States) “…similar recognitions of happiness, anger, and fear in all samples, and for disgust, surprise, and sadness in two out of three samples” (Ekman, Friesen, Sorenson 5).
In the chapters read from Charles Darwin’s The Expression of Emotions in Man and Animals, we are introduced to the strong connection between the instinctual physical reactions both humans and animals have in response to emotions and the evolutionary purpose of this link. Darwin’s work clearly emphasizes that many habitual physical reactions “…are of direct or indirect service under certain states of the mind…to relieve or gratify certain sensations [or] desires” yet are also tend to “…take place without any sensation or consciousness on our part, though often thus accompanied” (Darwin). These types of responses are witnessed in almost all forms of animal life, from the tendency of a young child who is learning to write to “…twist about [his tongue] as [his] fingers move” to the “…involuntary closing of the eyelids when the surface of the eye is touched,” to a dog’s inclination before going to sleep to “…turn round and round and scratch the ground with their 
fore-paws in a senseless manner, as if they intended to trample down the grass and scoop out a hollow, as no doubt their wild parents did, when they lived on open grassy plains or in the woods” (Darwin).
In the chapters read from Joseph LeDoux’s The Emotional Brain, he both re-illustrates the evolutionary aspects of emotions and goes on to explore its link to cognition. By this, LeDoux aims to show how emotions interact with the brain’s cognitive functions – seen in such examples as the brain’s ability to detect “…the emotional meaning of a stimulus…before the perceptual systems have fully processed the stimulus,” and how this serves as evolutionary purpose for the brain to “…know [whether] something is good or bad before it knows exactly what it is” (LeDoux 69).
In essence, each reading has shown that the evolution of emotions has and continues to guide the daily reactions of humans and animals to common stimuli from the environment, and while perplexing at times, has unquestionably aided the survival of animal life.

Darwin, C. (1872). The expression of the emotions in man and animals. http://www.darwin-literature.com/The_Expression_Of_The_Emotions_In_Man_And_Animals/0.html.

Ekman, P., et al. (1969). Pan-cultural elements in facial displays of emotion. In Science Magazine, iss. 164, pp.86-88.

LeDoux, J. (1996). The emotional brain: The mysterious underpinnings of emotional life. New York: Simon & Schuster.