I don't think any of my facial expressions are real.
Consciously, I flash my eyes down, then up, and pull in the right corner of my mouth to indicate momentary guilt; simultaneous concentric contraction of my right corrugator supercilii and orbicularis oculi with a cocked head and narrowed eyes tell you I'm skeptical. A controlled, subtle left head turn with slightly raised right eyebrow means I find the fact that you think your work is credible enough for me to trust slightly amusing, and a slightly dropped jaw with wide eyes means I'm shocked.
I guess I've fine-tuned these skills in lecture classes, so I can communicate with a professor without being verbal, but I've reached the point where all of them are of my own creation and nothing feels real anymore. I haven't been overcome by emotion since the ninth grade, so since then I think I've observed and adapted a set of nonverbal gestures to give the false impression that I'm capable of feeling. I don't feel typical emotions much of the time, but I know I should, so I've created a mechanical facade to reflect what should be involuntary.
Hmm.
2 comments:
Hmm. Finding out what real is.
On another note, how do I move my finger? How does electricity/chemistry in the brain translate into a thought that orders my index finger to move?
Do you know?
Sure. Take a reflex arc, for example.
The short version:
An afferent (sensory) neuron fires off a nerve impulse, which travels through myelinated axons to an interneuron (in the spinal cord), which directs the impulse to an efferent (motor) neuron, which stimulates an effector (muscle of movement).
A chemical analysis would take a lot more time, and we'd have to really get into the nature of neurotransmission. (in short: neuron reaches threshold potential, sodium and chlorine rush in, potassium leaves, depolarization/repolarization/refractory period, release of synaptic vesicles, neurotransmitter action, cycle continues)
If you really care, though, ask me sometime.
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