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Opioid system and human emotions.

Lauri Nummenmaa1, Lauri Tuominen2

  • 1Turku PET Centre and Department of Psychology, University of Turku, Turku, Finland.

British Journal of Pharmacology
|April 11, 2017
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

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The endogenous opioid system, particularly the μ receptor, influences approach and avoidance emotions like anger, pleasure, fear, and sadness. This system plays a role in psychological resilience but doesn't clearly affect surprise or disgust.

Area of Science:

  • Neuroscience
  • Pharmacology
  • Psychology

Background:

  • Emotions are crucial for survival, with distinct basic emotions proposed by categorical models.
  • The opioid system, abundant in emotion circuits, modulates arousal and motivation.
  • The specific role of the opioid system in basic human emotions is not well understood.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To review the contribution of the endogenous opioid system, especially the μ receptor, to human emotional processing.
  • To explore how opioid system activation relates to different emotional states and motivations.

Main Methods:

  • Literature review of studies on the endogenous opioid system and human emotions.
  • Analysis of research on exogenous opioid agonists' effects on emotional responses.

Related Experiment Videos

  • Examination of opioid system's role in social bonding and potential dysfunction due to abuse.

    • Main Results:

    • Opioid system activation is linked to both pleasant and unpleasant emotions.
    • Opioid agonists generally promote approach emotions (anger, pleasure) and inhibit avoidance emotions (fear, sadness).
    • The opioid system modulates social bonding, but abuse can impair social and emotional circuits; no clear effect on surprise or disgust was found.

    Conclusions:

    • The opioid system broadly impacts positive and negative emotions by modulating approach-avoidance motivation.
    • Opioid system-mediated prosociality and positive mood may enhance psychological and psychosomatic resilience.