The Science behind Emotional Intelligence - Medical Research

The medical laboratory also provides us with clues about how emotions operate in our brains and bodies. Consider these examples:

Some years ago the accepted "cure" for mental illness was to do a prefrontal lobotomy (removal of a section of the brain that connects the emotional and cognitive brains). The procedure worked in that severe emotional distress was indeed relieved, but the severing of the circuitry destroyed the patient's emotional life, as well. With no ability to feel or express emotion, these patients appeared dull and lifeless.

If the limbic brain is injured or surgically removed due to disease, the individual will lose emotional memory, and lose all feelings. He or she will have no capacity for relationships and, in fact, will not be able to remember friends and relatives. They won't be able to make even simple decisions because they no longer have any memory of likes and dislikes.

The removal of the amygdala in animals causes them to lose fear, rage, and the urge to cooperate or to compete. This is a strong indication that the amygdala, a part of the emotional brain, controls our passions.

Biofeedback is effective in controlling certain chronic diseases. This merging of the first brain, the limbic brain, and the thinking brain results in measurable changes at the cellular level, and improves the functions of bodily systems.

Our rational minds give us information about people and things, yet preferences and why we have them are based on the limbic brain's storage of emotions. Without access to that information, we are unable to make even the simplest of decisions because all choices are equal. Emotions are always present in our lives, whether we recognize them or not.