Exuberance: The Passion for Life (46 page)

76.
A mouse born without the genes: J. B. Eells, “The Control of Dopamine Neuron Development, Function and Survival: Insights from Transgenic Mice and the Relevance to Human Disease,”
Current Medicinal Chemistry, 10
: 857–70 (2003); R. E. Nally, F. N. McNamara, J. J. Clifford, A. Kinsella, O. Tighe, D. T. Croke, A. A. Fienberg, P. Greengard, and J. L. Waddington, “Topographical Assessment of Ethological and Dopamine Receptor Agonist-Induced Behavioral Phenotype in Mutants with Congenic DARPP-32 ‘Knockout,’ ”
Neuropsychopharmacology
, 28: 2055–63 (2003).

77.
extraverts are exquisitely sensitive: Larsen and Ketelaar, “Extraversion, Neuroticism and Susceptibility”; Clark, Watson, and Mineka, “Temperament, Personality”; Lucas et al., “Cross-Cultural Evidence.”

78.
thirty-nine countries: Lucas et al., “Cross-Cultural Evidence.”

79.
most pathological manifestation: R. A. Depue and W. G. Iacono, “Neurobehavioral Aspects of Affective Disorders,”
Annual Review of Psychology
, 40: 457–92 (1989); R. A. Depue, M. Luciana, P. Arbisi, P. Collins, and A. Leon, “Dopamine and the Structure of Personality: Relation of Agonist-Induced Dopamine Activity to Positive Emotionality,”
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
, 67: 485–98 (1994).

80.
Amphetamines promote the release of dopamine: D. Jacobs and T. Silverstone, “Dextroamphetamine-Induced Arousal in Human Subjects as a Model for Mania,”
Psychological Medicine
, 16: 323–29 (1986).

81.
dopamine precursor L-dopa: F. K. Goodwin, D. L. Murphy, H. K. Brodie, and W. E. Bunney, “L-dopa, Catecholamines, and Behavior: A Clinical and Biochemical Study in Depressed Patients,”
Biological Psychiatry
, 2: 341–66 (1970); D. L. Murphy, H. K. Brodie, F. K. Goodwin, and W. E. Bunney, “Regular Induction of Hypomania by L-dopa in ‘Bipolar’ Manic-Depressive Patients,”
Nature
, 229: 135–56 (1971); H. M. Van Praag and J. Korf, “Endogenous Depression With and Without Disturbances in 5-hydroxytryptamine Metabolism: A Biochemical Classification?”
Psychopharmacologia
, 19: 148–52 (1971).

82.
an antidepressant effect: R. H. Gerner, R. M. Post, and W. E. Bunney, “A
Dopaminergic Mechanism in Mania,”
American Journal of Psychiatry
, 133: 1177–80 (1976); T. Silverstone, “Response to Bromocriptine Distinguishes Bipolar from Unipolar Depression,”
Lancet
, 1: 903–4 (1984).

83.
therapeutic effect against mania: Summarized in F. K. Goodwin and K. R. Jamison,
Manic-Depressive Illness
(New York: Oxford University Press, 1990), pp. 419–21, 578–79, 622–23.

84.
Greater activation in the left frontal area: Paradiso et al., “Cerebral Blood Flow Changes”; D. H. Zald, D. L. Mattson, and J. V. Pardo, “Brain Activity in Ventromedial Prefrontal Cortex Correlates with Individual Differences in Negative Affect,”
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
, 99: 2450–54 (2002).

85.
activate the left amygdala: Hammann et al., “Ecstasy and Agony.” In nonhuman studies, the amygdala has been implicated in conditioning and addiction to reward stimuli; see M. Gallagher and P. C. Holland, “Understanding the Function of the Central Nucleus: Is Simple Conditioning Enough?” in
The Amygdala: Neurobiological Aspects of Emotion, Memory, and Mental Dysfunction
, ed. J. P. Aggleton (New York: Wiley-Liss, 1992), pp. 307–21 B. J. Everitt, J. A. Parkinson, M. C. Olmstead, M. Aroyo, P. Robledo, and T. W. Robbins, “Associative Processes in Addiction and Reward: The Role of Amygdala-Ventral Striatal Subsystems,” in J. F. McGinty, ed.,
Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences: Advancing from the Ventral Striatum to the Extended Amygdala
, vol. 877: 412–38 (1999).

Amygdalar activation in response to viewing happy faces is significantly correlated with levels of extraversion. The activation was located within the left hemisphere, the one associated with positive emotions and approach behavior: T. Canli, H. Sivers, S. L. Whitfield, I. H. Gotlib, and J. D. E. Gabrieli, “Amygdala Response to Happy Faces as a Function of Extraversion,”
Science
, 296: 2191 (2002).

86.
damage in the left frontal areas: Goodwin and Jamison,
Manic-Depressive Illness
, pp. 503–40.

87.
right frontal region: ibid.

88.
reduction in gray-matter volume: W. C. Drevets, J. L. Price, J. R. Simpson, R. D. Todd, T. Reich, M. Vannier, and M. E. Raichle, “Subgenual Prefrontal Cortex Abnormalities in Mood Disorders,”
Nature
, 386: 824–27 (1997); V. Sharma, R. Menon, T. J. Carr, M. Densmore, D. Mazmanian, and P. C. Williamson, “An MRI Study of Subgenual Prefrontal Cortex in Patients with Familial and Non-familial Bipolar I Disorder,”
Journal of Affective Disorders
, 77: 167–71 (2003).

89.
Carl Schwartz, Jerome Kagan, and their colleagues: C. E. Schwartz, C. J. Wright, L. M. Shin, J. Kagan, and S. L. Rauch, “Inhibited and Uninhibited
Infants ‘Grown Up’: Adult Amygdalar Response to Novelty,”
Science
, 300: 1952–53 (2003).

90.
the amygdala is primarily responsive: letter from Jerome Kagan to the author, October 17, 2003.

91.
“A merry heart”: Proverbs 17: 22.

92.
“purgeth the blood”: Robert Burton quoting Vives in
The Anatomy of Melancholy
, ed. Holbrook Jackson (New York: New York Review Books, 2001), pt. 2, p. 119; first published in 1621.

93.
induced a high-arousal: B. L. Fredrickson and R. W. Levenson, “Positive Emotions Speed Recovery from the Cardiovascular Sequelae of Negative Emotions,”
Cognition and Emotion
, 12: 191–220 (1998).

94.
positive attitudes such as optimism: S. E. Taylor and J. D. Brown, “Positive Illusions and Well-being Revisited: Separating Fact from Fiction,”
Psychological Bulletin
, 116: 21–27 (1994); S. E. Taylor, R. L. Repetti, and T. L. Seeman, “Health Psychology: And How Does It Get Under the Skin?”
Annual Review of Psychology
, 48: 411–47 (1997); S. E. Taylor, M. E. Kemeny, G. M. Reed, J. E. Bower, and T. L. Gruenewald, “Psychological Resources, Positive Illusions, and Health,”
American Psychologist
, 55: 99–109 (2000).

See also: Lionel Tiger,
Optimism: Biology of Hope
(New York: Simon & Schuster, 1979); Richard S. Lazarus,
Emotion and Adaptation
(New York: Oxford University Press, 1991); G. Affleck and H. Tennen, “Construing Benefits from Adversity: Adaptational Significance and Dispositional Underpinnings,”
Journal of Personality
, 64: 899–922 (1996); P. Salovey, A. J. Rothman, J. B. Detweiler, and W. T. Steward, “Emotional States and Physical Health,”
American Psychologist
, 55: 110–21 (2000); B. L. Fredrickson and T. Joiner, “Positive Emotions Trigger Upward Spirals Toward Emotional Well-being,”
Psychological Science
, 13: 172–75 (2002).

95.
A study of 180 nuns: D. D. Danner, D. A. Snowdon, and W. V. Friesen, “Positive Emotions in Early Life and Longevity: Findings from the Nun Study,”
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
, 80: 804–13 (2001).

A study of 839 patients referred to the Mayo Clinic obtained similar results. Patients who were assessed as optimistic by a series of psychological and physical tests had a 19 percent increase in their expected life span when compared with patients who were classified as pessimists. See T. Maruta, R. Colligan, M. Malinchoc, and K. Offord, “Optimists vs. Pessimists: Survival Rates Among Medical Patients over a 30-Year Period,”
Mayo Clinic Proceedings
, 75: 140–43 (2000).

96.
“passion, imagination, self-will”: William Hazlitt, “On the Love of Life,” in
The Collected Works of William Hazjitt
, ed. A. R. Waller and Arnold Glover (London: J. M. Dent & Co., 1902), vol. I, p. 3.

97.
“Lively passions”: David Hume,
Treatise of Human Nature
(1739; Amherst, N.Y.: Prometheus, 1992), p. 427.

98.
more likely to make decisions: D. Aderman, “Elation, Depression, and Helping Behavior,”
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
, 24: 91–101 (1972); A. M. Isen and B. Means, “The Influence of Positive Affect on Decision-Making Strategy,”
Social Cognition
, 2: 18–31 (1983); M. Carlson, V. Charlin, and N. Miller, “Positive Mood and Helping Behavior: A Test of Six Hypotheses,”
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
, 55: 211-29 (1988); R. A. Baron and J. Thomley, “A Whiff of Reality: Positive Affect as a Potential Mediator of Pleasant Fragrances on Task Performance and Helping,”
Environment and Behavior
, 26: 766–84 (1994); A. M. Isen, in M. Lewis and J. M. Haviland-Jones,
Handbook of Emotions
(New York: Guilford, 2000), pp. 417–35.

99.
more actively explore: N. H. Frijda,
The Emotions
(Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press, 1986); B. L. Fredrickson, “The Broaden-and-Build Theory of Positive Emotions,”
American Psychologist
, 56: 216–26 (2001).

100.
a larger number of responses: A. M. Isen and K. A. Daubman, “The Influence of Affect on Categorization,”
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
, 47: 1206–17 (1984); A. M. Isen, M. S. Johnson, E. Mertz, and G. F. Robinson, “The Influence of Positive Affect on the Unusualness of Word Associations,”
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
, 48: 1413–26 (1985); A. M. Isen, K. A. Daubman, and G. P. Nowicki, “Positive Affect Facilitates Creative Problem Solving,”
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
, 52: 1122–31 (1987); A. M. Isen, “On Creative Problem Solving,” in
Affect, Creative Experience, and Psychological Adjustment
, ed. S. Russ (Philadelphia: Taylor and Francis, 1999), pp. 3–17.

101.
in a global way: A. M. Isen, “Positive Affect, Cognitive Process, and Social Behavior,” in
Advances in Experimental Social Psychology
, ed. L. Berkowitz (San Diego: Academic Press, 1987), pp. 203–53; H. Bless and K. Fiedler, “Affective States and Knowledge,”
Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin
, 21: 766–78 (1995); M. R. Basso, B. K. Schefft, M. D. Ris, and W. N. Dember, “Mood and Global-Local-Visual Processing,”
Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society
, 2: 249–55 (1996); G. L. Clore, R. S. Wyer, B. Dienes, K. Gasper, C. Gohm, and L. Isbell, “Affective Feelings as Feedback: Some Cognitive Consequences,” in
Theories of Mood and Cognitive
, ed. L. L. Martin and G. L. Clore (Mahwah, N.J.: Erlbaum, 2001), pp. 27–62; K. Gasper and G. L. Clore, “Attending to Local Processing of Visual Information,”
Psychological Science
, 13: 34–40 (2002).

102.
“Not by constraint”: Henry David Thoreau, June 23, 1840, journal entry, in
Journal
, vol. 1: 1837–1844, gen. ed. J. C. Broderick, ed. E. H. Witherell, W. L. Howarth, R. Sattelmeyer, and T. Blanding (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1981), p. 140.

103.
In a typical study: T. R. Greene and H. Noice, “Influence of Positive Affect upon Creative Thinking and Problem Solving in Children,”
Psychological Reports
, 63: 895–98 (1988).

104.
incompatible with anxiety: G. Mandler, “Stress and Thought Processes,” in
Handbook of Stress: Theoretical and Clinical Aspects
, ed. L. Goldberger and S. Breznitz (New York: Free Press, 1982), pp. 88–104; G. Keinan, N. Friedland, and Y. Ben-Porath, “Decision Making Under Stress: Scanning of Alternatives Under Physical Threat,”
Acta Psychologia
, 64: 219–28 (1987); D. Derryberry and M. A. Reed, “Anxiety and Attentional Focusing: Trait, State and Hemispheric Influences,”
Personality and Individual Differences
, 25: 745–61 (1998).

105.
the way in which cognitive material is organized: F. G. Ashby, A. M. Isen, and K. Turken, “A Neuropsychological Theory of Positive Affect and Its Influence on Cognition,”
Psychological Review
, 106: 529–50 (1999).

106.
Surges in dopamine: ibid.

107.
nor is it inconsistent across studies: Not all investigators find that positive mood necessarily improves cognitive functioning; for example, G. Kaufman and S. K. Vosburg, “ ‘Paradoxical’ Mood Effects on Creative Problem Solving,”
Cognition and Emotion, 11
: 151–70 (1997); L. Clark, S. D. Iverson, and G. M. Goodwin, “The Influence of Positive and Negative Mood States on Risk Taking, Verbal Fluency, and Salivary Cortisol,”
Journal of Affective Disorders
, 63: 179–87 (2001).

108.
It is relatively common: The lifetime prevalence for the severe form of bipolar illness is about 1 percent, but estimates for the milder forms range from 5 to nearly 9 percent. L. N. Robins and D. A. Regier, eds.,
Psychiatric Disorders in America: The Epidemiologic Catchment Area Study
(New York: Free Press, 1991); R. C. Kessler, D. R. Rubinow, C. Holmes, J. M. Abelson, and S. Zhao, “The Epidemiology of DSM-III-R Bipolar I Disorder in a General Population Survey,”
Psychological Medicine
, 29: 1079–89 (1997); J. Angst, “The Emerging Epidemiology of Hypomania and Bipolar II Disorder,”
Journal of Affective Disorders
, 50: 143–51 (1998); L. L. Judd and H. S. Akiskal, “The Prevalence and Disability of Bipolar Spectrum Disorders in the U.S. Population: Re-analysis of the ECA Database Taking into Account Sub-threshold Cases,”
Journal of Affective Disorders
, 73: 123–31 (2003).

109.
“the blood becomes changed”: quoted in F. Walker,
Hugo Wolf: A Biography
(London: J. M. Dent & Sons, 1968), p. 359.