Biology Mystery -- red faced anger / "blood boiling" - what is the chemical mechanism?

Has there ever been any research on what is happening biologically when someone gets so angry that there face turns all red? Or heck - even when someone blushes in embarassment. Any emotion I guess where there is a "surge" of XXX chemicals in the body.

We've all experienced it I imagine --- when something / someone starts to make us angry and we can feel a surge of some chemical (In our bloodstream) and then it comes out in various forms - shouting, physical action, whatever..

reply to post by dontneedaname


adrenaline?

Blood vessel dilation particularily visible in people with light skin.
If you don't agree go find an African with a red face.


For anger/shame etc a hormonal increase which increases epidermis blood cappilary dilation....can't remember off the top of my head exactly but evolutionary biologists think flushing is just another form of none vocabular communcation.

Originally posted by Gwampo
reply to post by dontneedaname

 

adrenaline?

Yea, but I think what he is wondering is what is causing the release of those hormones/chemicals....

A which came first type of situation...the "emotion" or the "chemical release"??

If the "emotion triggered the glands to release certain chemicals then emotions are something in and of themselves that are not caused by chemicals but are the cause of chemicals...

or does the release of chemicals from glands create the emotions? In which case I have to ask...WHAT exactly is telling the glands to secrete chemicals that make you "angry" etc..

What is the progenitor of "emotion"? or is emotion the progenitor?

I say adrenalin is the root cause. being embarrassed could biologically to the nervous system be interpreted as a type of threat thus the adrenalin dump and the blushing/flushing of blood. Also may be true for anger. it just knows the person is angry and issues adrenalin to counter any preceived threats that are causing the anger.

Blushing from embarrassment is governed by the same system that activates your fight-or-flight response: the sympathetic nervous system. This system is involuntary, meaning you don't actually have to think to carry out the processes. In contrast, moving your arm is a voluntary action; You have to think about it, no matter how fleeting the thought is. This is good, because if moving your arm was involuntary, people would end up buying a lot of stuff they don't want at auctions.

Adrenaline also causes your blood vessels to dilate (called vasodilation), in order to improve blood flow and oxygen delivery. This is the case with blushing. The veins in your face respond to a signal from the chemical transmitter adenylyl cyclase, which tells the veins to allow the adrenaline to do its magic. As a result, the veins in your face dilate, allowing more blood to flow through them than usual, creating the reddened appearance that tells others you're embarrassed. In other words, adrenaline causes more local blood flow in your cheeks.

tlc.howstuffworks.com...

reply to post by Sly1one


Reaction to stimuli. The fight or flight response happens without thought. You're not going to release adrenaline without the body seeing a need for it to be released first.

Originally posted by RealSpoke
reply to post by Sly1one

 

Reaction to stimuli. The fight or flight response happens without thought. You're not going to release adrenaline without the body seeing a need for it to be released first.

So what happens when someone gets super angry by simply thinking/imagining a situation that angers them...even though they are sitting comfortably in the safety of their living room???

There is no real percieved threat, just an imagined one. Even if we are conscious of the fact we are imagining a "fake sitution" we still trigger the fight or flight response?

Perhaps the " mind " makes it real enough to fool our own senses to a point where we stop discerning reality.



Reality takes place within your own mind but it takes it's clues from external sources .

Emotions are like the harbinger of motions to come perhaps ?

reply to post by Sly1one


Well playing video games or watching TV activates the flight or fight, all stimuli, like a thought would be. Even though not physical, it doesn't have to be.

The thought is conscious but the reaction to it isn't

Originally posted by RealSpoke
reply to post by Sly1one

 

Well playing video games or watching TV activates the flight or fight, all stimuli, like a thought would be. Even though not physical, it doesn't have to be.

The thought is conscious but the reaction to it isn't

Perfect answer. Studies confirm that our brains do not know the difference, even if we do.

Originally posted by Sly1one

Originally posted by Gwampo
reply to post by dontneedaname

 

adrenaline?

Yea, but I think what he is wondering is what is causing the release of those hormones/chemicals....

A which came first type of situation...the "emotion" or the "chemical release"??

If the "emotion triggered the glands to release certain chemicals then emotions are something in and of themselves that are not caused by chemicals but are the cause of chemicals...

or does the release of chemicals from glands create the emotions? In which case I have to ask...WHAT exactly is telling the glands to secrete chemicals that make you "angry" etc..

What is the progenitor of "emotion"? or is emotion the progenitor?

edit on 29-3-2012 by Sly1one because: (no reason given)

Yes, not only what is causing it (Something electrical triggering chemical me thinks)..but what is in that mix of chemicals rushing to the face?. Ok...adrenaline could be one component - but "chemical mix including adrenaline" when someone gets angry vs when someone reacts to some life/death situation cannot be the same.

Different facial movements for one, so different electrical signals being sent to trigger different muscles /expressions. That is just the face..

It would be interesting if someone could take the blood/chemical mix sample right at the anger moment and test it for bacteria load, etc...our body is full of bacteria.

I came upon this idea after watching a PBS documentary on the unseen world where they found fish whose behavior was controlled by a bacteria that had taken over their minds - different behavior compared to fish who were not infected.

The question might be better also be phrased -- What is emotion - biologically? One part electrical, one part chemical...feelings are stored separate from memories...that I am 100% sure of. Which is why we can learn from traumatic events of the past without the trauma affecting us present day.

Thus simple emotion equation : emotion = feeling + memory

Following on that --

A clue perhaps lies in the phrase -- "Time heals all wounds" -- what is it about "time" that heals emotional wounds. My working theory is that exposure to more sunlight kills off "feeling bacteria" -- meaning feelings are bacteria linked to memory in the brain via electrical signals or something like that. I haven't fully thought out a "complete theory." So feelings get reduced over time just as UV light is used to treat bacteria/viruses in water.

Of course, if we reexpose ourselves to what caused the "feeling bacteria" in the 1st place, time will not heal the feelings/event in question.

TED Talk about bacteria in our bodies....

made some more revelations today about how feelings/emotional reactions could possibly work from a more detailed standpoint....seems like I lost a few of the readers though here on ATS......watching that video though would be helpful to understanding though...

It's called vasodilation, and it's when blood vessels expand/dilate to accommodate an increase in blood flow to allow more oxygen to reach cells. If this happens as a result of an emotion such as anger, that anger is triggering the sympathetic nervous system to react to a perceived threat and the stress response occurs (vasoldilation, pupil dilation increased heart rate, short of breath, immobilized digestion, urinary and fecal discharge, to name a few other responses). The stress response is standardized and is activated regardless of what a perceived threat is. It's how we used to survive being eaten alive. Unfortunately, our stress response hasn't adapted to modern living very well, hence the reason for so much anxiety and mood disorders.

reply to post by dontneedaname


Blood pressure rises with anger, and capillaries expand to handle the flow. Embarrassment might involve a different mechanism, not sure.

Originally posted by Sly1one

Originally posted by RealSpoke
reply to post by Sly1one

 

Reaction to stimuli. The fight or flight response happens without thought. You're not going to release adrenaline without the body seeing a need for it to be released first.

So what happens when someone gets super angry by simply thinking/imagining a situation that angers them...even though they are sitting comfortably in the safety of their living room???

There is no real percieved threat, just an imagined one. Even if we are conscious of the fact we are imagining a "fake sitution" we still trigger the fight or flight response?

Yes, this is why some people can have panic attacks just sitting alone in their home relaxing with no real percieved threat. Some people may not be aware that what they have been thinking can be a direct cause of this, or are unaware that they were even thinking anything. But it can be triggered by thoughts real or imagined.

It's the same fight or flight response i believe. It sets off a chain recation of physical events in the body. The chemical reaction is mostly Adrenaline, noradrenaline and cortisol which makes our respitory and heart rate increase, blood cells enlarge slightly to improve blood flow and oxygen (RedSpoke quotes this in an above post). which helps blood get redirected quickly into our muscles and limbs (these are the likely causes of blood boiling sensations/red face/tingling sensations). Our pupils dilate, our sight, hearing and smell heightens, improving our awareness and quickenong our impulses/urges, and we then percieve everything around us as a threat. Preparing us to stand and attack or to flee.

Something like that, if i remember rightly

Histamine are released during nervous system stimulation or other chemicals released into the bloodstream,

ie taking NIACIN supplement or ALCOHOL often cause this facial flushing as well due to histamine release which is vasodilant.