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Jaak Panksepp (June 5, 1943 – April 18, 2017) was an Estonian-American
neuroscientist A neuroscientist (or neurobiologist) is a scientist who has specialised knowledge in neuroscience, a branch of biology that deals with the physiology, biochemistry, psychology, anatomy and molecular biology of neurons, neural circuits, and glial ...
and psychobiologist who coined the term "
affective neuroscience Affective neuroscience is the study of how the brain processes emotions. This field combines neuroscience with the psychological study of personality, emotion, and mood. The basis of emotions and what emotions are remains an issue of debate wit ...
", the name for the field that studies the neural mechanisms of emotion. He was the Baily Endowed Chair of Animal Well-Being Science for the Department of Veterinary and Comparative Anatomy, Pharmacology, and Physiology at Washington State University's College of Veterinary Medicine, and Emeritus Professor of the Department of Psychology at
Bowling Green State University Bowling Green State University (BGSU) is a public research university in Bowling Green, Ohio. The main academic and residential campus is south of Toledo, Ohio. The university has nationally recognized programs and research facilities in the ...
. He was known in the popular press for his research on laughter in non-human animals.


Early life and education

Panksepp was born in Estonia on June 5, 1943. His family escaped the ravages of post-WWII Soviet occupation by moving to the United States when he was very young. He studied initially at
University of Pittsburgh The University of Pittsburgh (Pitt) is a public state-related research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The university is composed of 17 undergraduate and graduate schools and colleges at its urban Pittsburgh campus, home to the univer ...
in 1964, and then completed a Ph.D. at the
University of Massachusetts The University of Massachusetts is the five-campus public university system and the only public research system in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The university system includes five campuses (Amherst, Boston, Dartmouth, Lowell, and a medical ...
.


Research

Panksepp conducted many experiments; in one with rats, he found that the rats showed signs of fear when cat hair was placed close to them, even though they had never been anywhere near a cat. Panksepp theorized from this experiment that it is possible laboratory research could routinely be skewed due to researchers with pet cats. He attempted to replicate the experiment using dog hair, but the rats displayed no signs of fear. In the 1999 documentary ''Why Dogs Smile and Chimpanzees Cry'', he is shown to comment on the research of joy in rats: the tickling of domesticated rats made them produce a high-pitch sound which was hypothetically identified as laughter. Panksepp is also well known for publishing a paper in 1979 suggesting that opioid peptides could play a role in the etiology of autism, which proposed that autism may be "an emotional disturbance arising from an upset in the opiate systems in the brain". In his book ''Affective Neuroscience'', Panksepp described how efficient learning may be conceptually achieved through the generation of subjectively experienced neuroemotional states that provide simple internalized codes of biological value that correspond to major life priorities .


Primary affective systems

Panksepp carved out seven biologically inherited primary affective systems called SEEKING (expectancy), FEAR (anxiety), RAGE (anger), LUST (sexual excitement), CARE (nurturance), PANIC/GRIEF (sadness), and PLAY (social joy). He proposed what is known as "core-SELF" to be generating these affects.


Death

Panksepp died on April 18, 2017 from
cancer Cancer is a group of diseases involving abnormal cell growth with the potential to invade or spread to other parts of the body. These contrast with benign tumors, which do not spread. Possible signs and symptoms include a lump, abnormal bl ...
at his home in
Bowling Green A bowling green is a finely laid, close-mown and rolled stretch of turf for playing the game of bowls. Before 1830, when Edwin Beard Budding of Thrupp, near Stroud, UK, invented the lawnmower, lawns were often kept cropped by grazing sheep ...
,
Ohio Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The s ...
at the age of 73.


Books

*Panksepp, J., and Davis, K. (2018). ''The Emotional Foundations of Personality: A Neurobiological and Evolutionary Approach''. New York: W. W. Norton & Company
W W Norton page
*Narvaez, D., Panksepp, J., Schore, A., & Gleason, T. (Eds.) (2013). "Evolution, Early Experience and Human Development: From Research to Practice and Policy". New York: Oxford University Press

*Panksepp, J., and Biven, L. (2012). ''The Archaeology of Mind: Neuroevolutionary Origins of Human Emotion''. New York: W. W. Norton & Company
W W Norton page
*Panksepp J (Ed.) (2004) ''A Textbook of Biological Psychiatry'', New York, Wiley *Panksepp, J. (1998). ''Affective Neuroscience: The Foundations of Human and Animal Emotions''. New York: Oxford University Press. *Panksepp, J (Ed.) (1996). ''Advances in Biological Psychiatry, Vol. 2'', Greenwich, CT: JAI Press. *Panksepp, J (Ed.) (1995). ''Advances in Biological Psychiatry, Vol. 1'', Greenwich, CT: JAI Press. *Clynes, M. and Panksepp, J. (Eds.) (1988). ''Emotions and Psychopathology'', New York, Plenum Press. *Morgane, J. P., and Panksepp, J. (Eds.). (1981). ''Handbook of the Hypothalamus: Vol. 4 : Part B. Behavioral Studies of the Hypothalamus''. New York: Marcel Dekker, Inc. *Morgane, J. P., and Panksepp, J. (Eds.). (1980). ''Handbook of the Hypothalamus: Vol. 3 : Part A. Behavioral Studies of the Hypothalamus''. New York: Marcel Dekker, Inc. *Morgane, J. P., and Panksepp, J. (Eds.). (1980). ''Handbook of the Hypothalamus: Vol. 2 : Physiology of the Hypothalamus''. New York: Marcel Dekker, Inc. *Morgane, J. P., and Panksepp, J. (Eds.). (1979). ''Handbook of the Hypothalamus: Vol. 1 : Anatomy of the Hypothalamus''. New York: Marcel Dekker, Inc.


See also

*
Affective neuroscience Affective neuroscience is the study of how the brain processes emotions. This field combines neuroscience with the psychological study of personality, emotion, and mood. The basis of emotions and what emotions are remains an issue of debate wit ...
*
Empathy Empathy is the capacity to understand or feel what another person is experiencing from within their frame of reference, that is, the capacity to place oneself in another's position. Definitions of empathy encompass a broad range of social, co ...
*
Laughter Laughter is a pleasant physical reaction and emotion consisting usually of rhythmical, often audible contractions of the diaphragm and other parts of the respiratory system. It is a response to certain external or internal stimuli. Laughter ...
*
Neuroscience Neuroscience is the scientific study of the nervous system (the brain, spinal cord, and peripheral nervous system), its functions and disorders. It is a multidisciplinary science that combines physiology, anatomy, molecular biology, deve ...
*
Social neuroscience Social neuroscience is an interdisciplinary field devoted to understanding the relationship between social experiences and biological systems. Humans are fundamentally a social species, rather than solitary. As such, ''Homo sapiens'' create emerge ...


References


External links


Jaak Panksepp's Bowling Green State University website

Jaak Panksepp's Washington State University website





Empathy and the action-perception resonances of basic socio-emotional systems of the brain
Panksepp, Jaak; Gordon, Nakia; Burgdorf, Jeff
Behavioral and Brain Sciences ''Behavioral and Brain Sciences'' is a bimonthly peer-reviewed scientific journal of Open Peer Commentary established in 1978 by Stevan Harnad and published by Cambridge University Press. It is modeled on the journal ''Current Anthropology'' (whic ...
, Vol 25(1), Feb 2002, 43–44. {{DEFAULTSORT:Panksepp, Jaak 1943 births 2017 deaths American neuroscientists Bowling Green State University faculty Estonian expatriates in the United States People from Tartu Washington State University faculty Recipients of the Order of the White Star, 4th Class Estonian neuroscientists