Chapter 11 - THE COMMUNICATION OF EMOTION: THEORY OF SENTICS

Abstract

Theories and sentographic methods of measurement of the biologic basis of emotion communication are given. Specific biologic dynamic forms programmed into the CNS for the communication of specific emotions have been isolated and are called essentic forms. They may be produced through any motor output of sufficient dynamic flexibility, including the tone of voice and appear to be produced and recognized symbiotically. Essentic form and its corresponding emotion are seen to be a single entity with inherent feedback interaction between the expression and the emotional state. Essentic form and the corresponding emotional state exhibit the property of coherence so that only one essentic form can and does correspond to the experience of a particular emotion state. The theory predicts a new form of laughter, called motoric laughter, in which the voice is replaced by a suitable motoric pattern. Only when the motoric pattern replacing the voice corresponds in frequency to the“ha's” of laughter does the new laughter provide the same experience, confirming the coherence principle. Similar essentic forms have been isolated in various cultures for similar emotions. This, combined with the apparent impossibility to retrain individuals to express particular emotions with altered essentic forms, indicates a biologic rather than cultural origin of essentic form. It is proposed that emotion and its essentic form evolve simultaneously.