Corpus Striatum to Brainstem

• Core of the Central Assembly Located!!! by Don Nathanson, 3/26/98
  
  

No one has answered any of my e-mail messages for further colloquy on this fascinating matter, so I thought I'd let you know what I've learned so far. There is a direct link between the corpus striatum, the nucleus of spiny neurons that assesses data about the rate at which events take place, to the brainstem. This would provide everything we need to demonstrate Tomkins's theories for innate affect.

Recall that the simulation of innate affect (what happens when we re-map our face in the pattern set by one of the nine innate affects) produces a weaker episode of affect than that produced by the innate mechanism. Since the innate affect is set in motion by brainstem nuclei, we can understand why it includes alterations of the microcirculation of the face (the tools for that kind of alteration are available there). You will remember that Tomkins thought that the face was favored above all other sets of muscles available in the body because the patterned muscular contractions and relaxations seen in innate affect took place while subtle changes in the microcirculation of the face altered the way the muscle action was perceived or experienced.

It is this sort of observation that makes me so excited about the work of Meck and his colleagues, for I suspect that it would not take much more work for someone to demonstrate the large part of Tomkins's theories now.

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