How does the brain affect behavior and regulate emotional states?
The complex interaction between various brain components and the environment regulates emotions in a feedback loop that allows for both the environment to impact brain structure and function and the brain to impact on the environment through action. More than being a two-way street, though, the brain is more like a superhighway consisting of a variety of environmental inputs (some of which are available to our consciousness but many of which are not) and our ultimate responses to those inputs. Environmental inputs available to our consciousness are those we typically associate with the five senses: sight, smell, taste, hearing, and touch. The mere words conjure up a myriad of emotional memories for past experiences. A certain odor or song can suddenly take a person back to a previous relationship or situation. The connection between a current environmental cue and memories are due to actual structural changes in the brain. In fact, longterm memories are long term because of those struc
