Concepts and Mechanisms of Generalized Central Nervous System Arousal

Abstract

A concept of generalized arousal of the CNS is presented and given an operational definition that leads to quantitative physical measures. Because this primitive arousal function underlies all motivated behavioral responses, cognitive functions, and emotional expression, disorders of generalized arousal can be associated with a large number of problems in medicine and public health, including vegetative states, attentional disorders, depression, occupational hazards, and problems with sleep and anesthesia. Some of its known mechanisms are briefly reviewed, at the levels of neuroanatomy, neurophysiology, and functional genomics. Generalized arousal contributes to the excitement and the activation of behaviors during specific arousal states. Data are summarized for four genomic/neurochemical systems through which changes in generalized arousal could affect sexual arousal, two of which heighten, and the other two of which reduce arousal.

Scale invariance in the dynamics of spontaneous behavior

“…Note, that in our analysis we do not distinguish between purposeful and motivated behaviors such as eating or drinking and apparently "purposeless" movements. The fact that activation of the aggregation of motor acts, regardless of their specifics, is governed by scale-free dynamics suggests the existence of an elementary undifferentiated process in the nervous system that governs activation of all behaviors (27).…”

Atypical eye contact in autism: Models, mechanisms and development

“…Such emotional arousal is commonly associated with visceral, autonomic and endocrine changes in the body, induced by subcortical structures, particularly the amygdala, and generally activates widespread cortical structures (Adolphs, 2003;Pfaff et al, 2008). In the field of autism research, two distinctive models, the hyperarousal model and the hypoarousal model, have been developed based on the affective arousal model.…”

Learning Out Loud (LOL): How Comics Can Develop the Communication and Critical Thinking Abilities of Engineering Students

“…The attention-getting techniques recommended to teachers, variously termed "hooks," "attention-getters," "triggers," and "anticipatory sets," are all external stimuli designed to heighten arousal, which "underlies all motivated behavioral responses, cognitive functions, and emotional expression" (Pfaff, Ribeiro, Matthews, and Kow, 2008, p. 11). 21 Rosegard and Wilson (2013, p. 2) 25 point out that arousal, like boredom, has both physiological and psychological elements. In the process of arousal, sensory input (a stimulus) is processed by the brain's limbic system 2 and both activates and regulates numerous mechanisms including attention and memory.…”

“…21 It is increased by novelty, incongruity, ambiguity, and surprise (which are collectively referred to as "collative properties"). It is decreased by stimuli that are familiar, simple, clear, and expected.…”