Regulation of the Stress Response by Corticotropin-Releasing Factor Receptors

Abstract

Late in the 19th century, William James, the American philosopher and psychologist, and the Danish scientist Carl Lang, independently concluded that human emotion is the perception of material changes in bodily states generated by the impact of external stimuli. James believed that one could not think of fear unless “... feelings of quickened heart-beats [or] of shallow-breathing, ... of trembling lips [or] of weakened limbs, ... of goose-flesh [or] of visceral stirring, were present.” This idea that cognition can be influenced by “hot” emotional experiences can be traced from Aristotle to Descartes to James to Walter Cannon. From this general concept, the theory evolved that physiological systems mediate emotion. In a classic paper published in the American Journal of Insanity in 1913, Harvey Cushing expanded the concept of the interdependence of bodily and emotional states by suggesting that a “primary derangement of the nervous system” generates “glandular hyperplasias” and, reciprocally, that a “primary secretory derangement” of the pituitary gland causes “psychic disturbances.” Cushing’s ground-breaking hypotheses constituted an important cornerstone of contemporary psychoneuroendocrine research.