The following is a particularly intriguing abstract from the 1998 Tucson III Consciousness conference. One of the more subtle dynamics involved with a system's self-sentient "ego-structure" formation and maintenance (according to Integrity Paradigm notions) is the monitoring of option-space versus encounter/survival within that space. Associated with "survival" is release and/or re-direction of the energy and tension stored during the monitoring process. That "release mechanism" is a function in its own right whether there is alert awareness of the substrata associations or not and its connection with other sensory pathway systems as well. However, the mere presence of the function-system is indicative of "self-else" ("self-world") consciousness no matter how sophisticated the comprehension and cognition or not. The work by Panksepp, abtracted here, is seminal in the enunciation of this connection. June 1998

Affective consciousness and the neural origins of the self: The case of animal laughter

J.Panksepp (Department of Psychology, Bowling Green State University, Bowling Green, OH 43403, USA< jpankse@bgnet.bgsu.edu>)

The conceptual framework for our ongoing work on the nature of affective consciousness is based on the potential existence of primal SELF-organizing neural networks in posterior thalamic, deep tectal and underlying periaqueductal regions of the mesencephalon. The interactions of basic emotional circuits and primal representations of the body may provide a primordial body image which is the foundation not only for affective consciousness but higher forms of perceptual and ideational consciousness. The empirical evaluation of such propositions depends heavily on the identification of the neural substrates for basic affective processes, and in this presentation, I will summarize data indicating that other mammals, including lower mammals such as rats, express joy through vocal and related bodily patterns of laughter. This work is premised on the supposition that in humans, laughter and giggling are the best objective indicators of joyful positive affect, since they occur most abundantly during playful social interactions. An understanding of such positive emotions has been hampered by the lack of simple measures of joyful social engagement in "lower" animals. Since the simplest way to induce laughter in children is tickling, we have sought evidence for a comparable phenomenon in young rats by studying their ultrasonic "chirping" during vigorous bodily stimulation. Indeed, such vocalizations (in the 50 KHz range) are common during juvenile play, and we have now discovered that they can also be evoked by rapid manual stimulation (i.e., tickling) . There are differential bodily sensitivities of this response. Stimulation of anterior body areas, which are especially important for arousing playfulness yielded more chirping than stimulation of posterior zones, and full body stimulation yielded the most of all. Analyses of these vocalizations suggest relationships to primate laughter: Tickling is a positive incentive state, as indexed by classical conditioning and instrumental approach tests; it is also correlated to natural playfulness and is inhibited by fearful arousal. These data suggest that a primal form of "laughter" evolved early in mammalian brain evolution, and provide a new way to study the neural sources of positive social-emotional processes (i.e., joyful affect) in other mammals. Since affective feelings may represent one of the earliest forms of consciousness, the understanding of the brain substrates for such responses can help place the study of higher forms of consciousness on a firmer neurological foundation than presently exists. Ongoing studies to analyze the subcortical neural substrates will be discussed. Specific thalamic and mesencephalic areas, and glutamatergic neural systems are presently implicated. We believe these results can be related to new and specific neural conceptions of the primordial SELF, as is more fully discussed in Panksepp (1998, Affective Neuroscience: The Foundations of Human and Animal Emotions, Oxford University Press) .

NEUROSCIENCE

Emotion

Affective consciousness and the neural origins of the self: The case of animal laughter

J.Panksepp (Department of Psychology, Bowling Green State University, Bowling Green, OH 43403, USA< jpankse@bgnet.bgsu.edu>)