“CURT: WHERE DO EMOTIONS COME FROM?” Thalamus and hypothalamus are both parts of

“CURT: WHERE DO EMOTIONS COME FROM?”
Thalamus and hypothalamus are both parts of the brain segment called the diencephalon. They sit on top of and in front of the brain stem. Differences between them are: Thalamus (the directory) coordinates sensory and motor functions and regulates them by consciousness, sleep, and alertness then the Hypothalamus works together with the pituitary gland to regulate the secretion of hormones to maintain homeostasis that regulates body state. The neocortex is a vast parallel processing engine that disambiguates and organizes nerve impulses into a 3d world model (our sixth sense) and the Hippocampus integrates that information and produces a competitive prediction engine by auto-association. These Predictions compete for attention in the Thalamus, based on gains or losses, which communicates to the hypothalamus and the combination results in alertness and preparation of body state for predicted conditions – the experience of which we call ’emotions’.

It’s really not that complicated. But before we had computers and neural networks it was hard for us to think of our brains with the operational examples available to us. Hence all the pseudoscience and nonsense in philosophy and psychology.

Cheers
Curt Doolittle
The Natural Law Institute