Complex issue. There are more reasons behind a scream than our vain philosophy dreams. But let’s try to put order in this whirlwind of sensations. The center of it all is the limbic system, the region of the brain that controls our emotions. In dramatic situations, a series of information that stimulates a lot of glands and muscles in the body departs from there. That’s why tears can be accompanied by a fluttering in the stomach, hair standing on end, tachycardia and even a beautiful stomach ache.
These stimuli vary in intensity from person to person and even depend on factors such as education and culture. “The Germans, for example, learn to interpret emotions in a colder way and manage to ‘erase’ much of what we call emotional coloring”, says psychologist José Roberto Leite, from the Federal University of São Paulo (Unifesp). This explains why some people cry more than others. On the other hand, you can also condition crying, as artists do, which probably trigger the limbic system with sad memories.
Realize, Serginho, that, although the tears of sadness are the same as those that fall when we cut an onion, the mechanisms related to “opening the faucet” are quite different. In the case of onions, the lacrimal glands respond only to a mechanical stimulus, a reflex resulting from the irritation of the mucosa in that region. It is also possible to shed tears by pressing on the tear glands. It’s what happens when we give a nice yawn or when we cry from laughing so hard.
See too:
Why do people cry when peeling onions?
So many emotions Brain region sends order to tear glands to come into action
1. The “production” of tears begins with an emotional stimulus, which can be something that the person sees, hears, feels, remembers… Let’s say, for example, that a girl looks at a sweet that her grandmother always made
2. The image of the candy reaches the brain and reaches the limbic system, which controls emotions. It is there that the association between the candy and the death of the girl’s grandmother occurs, producing a feeling of sadness. An area of the limbic system called the amygdala is in charge of passing on this interpretation.
3. The “emotional coloring” that the brain produced travels through electrical impulses to the facial nerve. A branch of this nerve then triggers the lacrimal glands, which are just above the eyes. Stimulated, the girl’s glands eliminate the tears and hence the downpour.