Ｑ32.What is emotional memory?

Ａ.It is the memory of a behavior pattern based on genes.<br>
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　　These emotional circuits develop according to experiences when growing from an infant to a child, and to an adult. In this sense emotions can be called a kind of memory.<br>
　　It might be unexpected that emotion is memory. First I will explain why it should be called memory.<br>
　　Emotion is a particular response pattern to environmental information. It is a combination of a situation and an action such as when you are insulted you become angry.<br>
　　People say that most people will become more affable as they grow older. This means the input leading to the actions of anger have decreased. The combination of input and output can change by life experience.<br>
　　For a more simple example, if you are afraid of dogs because you were bitten when you were a child, you have the memory of "dogs ⇒ fear".<br>
　　Emotion is remembering the combination of input and output in life, in other words memory.<br>
　　A unique feature of emotional memory is that it does not start from 0. If you are terribly insulted, you will be angry. This pattern is universal to all mankind. In other words core patterns are already decided by genes, and those patterns will gradually change. The most variable period is childhood, therefore people say that character is decided during childhood.<br>
　　The base of emotions is in genes, so it can be compared to seeds. In other words genes which are related to emotions are like seeds.<br>
　　We cannot know exactly what shape this plant will become. Human beings also vary from each other according to their environment. As we cannot imagine how much fruit a seed will make, a person's character is not completely decided.<br>
　　However, as the type of plant is decided by the seed, things that aren't in the genes won't appear.<br>
　　Likewise, if a seed has problems, even if you water it properly it might not grow. The way of growing a plant depends on the type of seed.<br>
　　Watering would be comparable to parents, the amount of sunlight and precipitation would be comparable to the circumstances a person lives in. Emotions grow in this way while receiving various influences.