Walter cannon theory
Cannon Bard Theory and How Does It Work?
Written by WebMD Editorial Contributors
Medically Reviewed by Jabeen Begum on June 22, 2021
In this Article
- Impact of Fight or Flight on Your Health
- Examples of the Cannon-Bard Theory
- Tips to Manage a “Fight or Flight” Situation
- When “Fight or Flight” Becomes a Problem
The Cannon-Bard theory of emotion proposed the idea of the fight or flight response. It’s leading question: When faced with a potentially dangerous scenario, what do your instincts tell you to do?
The Cannon-Bard theory states that the lower part of the brain, also called the thalamus, controls your experience of emotion. At the same time, the higher part of the brain, also called the cortex, controls the expression of emotion. It is believed that these two parts of the brain react simultaneously. This theory was proposed in the 1920s and early 1930s by Walter B. Cannon and Philip Bard. It’s also referred to as the “fight or flight” response.
Impact of Fight or Flight on Your Health
Stress begins in your brain and your senses communicate potential dangers to it. For example, you may see a car coming toward you or hear a sudden loud sound. The Cannon-Bard theory proposes that your amygdala processes what you see and hear, translating possible danger to the hypothalamus.
Your amygdala processes emotions. When it communicates potential danger, your brain has a stress response to stay and fight the danger or run away.
Once your amygdala initiates a distress signal, your hypothalamus alerts your sympathetic nervous system by sending signals to your adrenal glands. Adrenaline begins pumping through your veins, quickly resulting in:
- Faster heartbeat
- Higher pulse rate
- Increased blood pressure
- Faster breathing
- Heightened senses
- Alertness
Each of these physiological responses happens so quickly that you aren’t aware at first. Instead, you’re acting instinctively.
Hundreds of years ago, our instincts kept us safe. Today, we face fewer real dangers, yet our fight or flight response may still be triggered by something.
Examples of the Cannon-Bard Theory
Fight or flight response adapts as your environment does. Hundreds of years ago, you may have been scared of wild animals that threatened to attack you. Instead of spending time making a logical choice based on your scenario, your brain decided for you — run, or stay and fight.
In today’s world, the fight or flight response may come in less dangerous situations. For example, your boss at work asks you to come into their office. You immediately think something is wrong, and it triggers your glands to release adrenaline. You become defensive and may feel the need to walk into the office with your guard up, ready to fight.
Alternately, past trauma or PTSD can elicit a fight or flight response. Your memories are often grounded in your senses. You remember what you saw, felt, and heard at a particular time.
If you see or hear something that reminds you of a traumatic experience, your brain may trigger the fight or flight response.
This happens in an effort of self-preservation to protect you from the same trauma again. Fortunately, repeated trauma will likely not occur. Therefore, you have to focus on calming yourself down so that the stress doesn’t continue to affect your day.
Tips to Manage a “Fight or Flight” Situation
Relaxation techniques. In establishing the theory of fight or flight, concerns were raised about the amount of time your body spends under stress. The Cannon-Bard theory states that if you find yourself experiencing the symptoms of fight or flight, take a minute to calm down.
Training your mind. Over time, you can train your brain to react with less eagerness if there isn’t any danger around.
When “Fight or Flight” Becomes a Problem
Mental stress. Fight or flight is great because it’s an innate survival mechanism.
However, if you are constantly facing “threats” that cause you stress, it can lead to poor health outcomes. Stress can become chronic if not properly managed.
Nervous system issues. When your body focuses its energy on responding to threats, your nervous system takes a hit. This may leave you feeling unstable and lead to chronic health problems.
If you pay attention to your subconscious response to threatening situations, you can learn a lot. If your stress levels remain too high, it’s a sign that your sympathetic and parasympathetic systems aren’t working together. You can seek help from a professional mental health provider to learn how to better manage stress.
Cannon-Bard Theory of Emotion: Basic Principles
Have you ever wondered where emotion comes from? The Cannon-Bard theory says there’s a physiological explanation for it.
The Cannon-Bard theory proposes that outside events can cause emotional and physical responses at the same time.
The theory directly challenges the James-Lange theory of emotion, which states that emotions are the result of a physical reaction to a stimulating event.
Instead, the Cannon-Bard theory proposes that the feeling and the physiological expression of emotion occur independently but exactly at the same time.
Walter B. Cannon and Philip Bard developed the theory in 1927 as a direct response to the then-popular James-Lange theory of emotion.
The Cannon-Bard theory is also known as the thalamic theory of emotion related to the thalamus, a part of your brain related to sensory and motor functions. This theory suggests that external (outside the body) stimulation — negative or positive — can trigger both an emotional and physical response that starts in the thalamus.
For example, if you have a fear of spiders, seeing one crawling near your bed may cause you to feel fear and start trembling at the same time.
According to the Cannon-Bard theory, you’re not trembling because of the fear you feel and you’re not feeling fear because your body started trembling.
Both happened independently at the same time as a response to the stimulus (the spider).
In other words, the theory says that it’s not the experiencing of the emotion that causes the reaction in your body or vice versa. Instead, both responses to an external stimulus happen at the same time.
The Cannon-Bard theory suggests that emotions are primarily controlled by your thalamus, an area of your brain that communicates with your peripheral nervous system and cerebral cortex.
The peripheral nervous system refers to all the nerves of your body outside of the brain and spinal cord. The cerebral cortex is the wrinkly cover, or outer layer, of your brain that regulates important functions, from your five senses to speech and memory.
According to the theory, the experience of the emotion (feeling it) starts in the thalamus, and the expression of that emotion (how your body reacts) comes from the hypothalamus. The cerebral cortex can either “allow” or “suppress” the physical expression of the emotion.
Here are a few examples of how the Cannon-Bard theory would explain emotional responses in real-world situations.
Deer runs in front of your moving car
Picture driving down the road at night, when a deer runs out in front of your car.
You experience the emotion of fear and a physical response to the threat at the same time.
You feel panic at the possibility of hitting the deer and causing damage to the car or injury to yourself. At the same time, your heart starts beating much faster and you slam on the brakes to avoid the deer.
Meeting someone you like
You have a first date with someone you may like romantically.
You hear the knock on your door and immediately experience butterflies in your stomach as you feel excited and happy.
Seeing your child run out into the road
You’re spending some time in the park with your child. Suddenly, you see your little one run after a ball that’s heading in the direction of a nearby road.
You feel a sudden jolt of fear as your heart beats fast and you scream and run after your baby.
The James-Lange theory proposes that emotions result from a physical reaction and as a result are tied to physiological responses to stimuli. So, emotion cannot exist without a previous physiological reaction.
Here’s how the James-Lange theory would explain a real-world scenario, compared with the Cannon-Bard theory.
Go back to the example of the car and the deer.
In the James-Lange theory, the first reaction to seeing the animal is to slam on the brakes. This physical response (slamming the breaks) then causes the emotions tied to that physical response — in this case, fear.
The Cannon-Bard theory rejects the idea that fear comes from the act of slamming on the breaks. Instead, in this theory, the same stimulus (the deer in the road) triggers both an emotional response (fear) and a physical response (slamming the brakes) at the same time.
In short, the theories are competing points of view on the same responses and processes.
The Cannon-Bard theory has been challenged multiple times. One of the main criticisms it has received is that it gives too much importance to the thalamus when explaining emotions.
Even though research does show that the thalamus is involved in the experience of emotions, other brain regions not considered by the theory also play an important part.
According to a literature review published in 2014, one major flaw in the Cannon-Bard theory is that it doesn’t take into account that a person’s physical reactions can, in fact, influence emotional experiences. Multiple studies suggest this is possible.
Studies in the review have shown that asking someone to hold specific facial expressions can influence how that person feels. In other words, if you hold a “sad expression,” you may begin to feel down after a while, even if no stimulus has been presented.
Another theory, published in 1962, is known as the Schachter-Singer or two-factor theory of emotion. It takes elements of both the Cannon-Bard and the James-Lange theories.
It states that physical reactions to stimuli occur before experiencing an emotion, but these reactions can be similar for different emotions.
According to the two-factor theory, you “will assign an emotion to a physiological change based on the available emotions in the social situation.” In other words, you experience a physical reaction first and then later assign an emotional value to it.
Return to the case of a deer running into the road. In the Schachter-Singer, you first experience a physical reaction: trembling, rapid heartbeat, and slamming on the brakes. Once you have a chance to process these reactions, you realize you feel fear.
The Schachter-Singer theory has also been criticized, since as early as 1967.
Current emotion theorists and researchers do not agree on assigning an order to emotional responses, but they generally accept there are three aspects involved in emotions, including:
- the experiences, or stimuli
- behavioral responses, or the expression of emotion
- physiological responses, or the physical change that occurs
The Cannon-Bard theory of emotions states that you experience emotional and physical responses to stimuli independently but at the same time, and that the thalamus is the main actor in this process.
The theory has been widely refuted, since research has shown that other regions of the brain besides the thalamus are involved in the experience of emotions. Other studies have also shown that physical responses can influence how you feel, which would mean that experience and expression of emotions don’t always happen at the same time.
Cannon Walter Bradford | |
1871-1945 | CV |
XPOHOCPROJECT INTRODUCTIONCHRONOS FORUMCHRONOS NEWSCHRONOS LIBRARYHISTORICAL SOURCESCVINDEXGENEALOGY CHARTSCOUNTRIES AND STATESETHNONYMSRELIGIONS OF THE WORLDHISTORICAL ARTICLESTEACHING METHODOLOGYSITE MAPAUTHORS OF CHRONOSRelated projects:RUMYANTSEV MUSEUMDOCUMENTS OF THE XX CENTURYHISTORICAL GEOGRAPHYRULERS OF THE WORLDWAR OF 1812WORLD ISLAVYETHNOCYCLOPEDIAAPSUARARUSSIAN FIELD | Walter Bradford Cannon Cannon, Walter Bradford (1871-1945), American physiologist and psychophysiologist. Kondakov I.M. Psychology. Illustrated dictionary. // THEM. Kondakov. - 2nd ed. add. And a reworker. - St. Petersburg, 2007, p. 241-242. Read more:US historical figures (biographical guide). Compositions: Organization for psychological homestasis // Psychological Review. 1929.V. 9; The Wisdom of the Body. N.. Y: Norton, 1932. Literature. W. B. Cannon // Psychology: Biographical Bibliographic Dictionary / Ed. N. Sheehy, E.
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Biography. Graduated from Harvard University (M.D., 1900), where he later worked as a professor of physiology (1906-1942). Member of the US National Academy. honorary member of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR (1942). Research. Conducted research on neurohumoral regulation of body functions. Proposed theory of emotions , in which the main role was recognized for sympathetic nervous system and hormonal regulation (The James-Lange theory of emotion: A critical examination and alternative theory // American Journal of psychology. 1927. No. 39). It provided an experimental refutation of the theory James-Lange, It has been shown that during emotional arousal, the release of adrenaline, which mobilizes the body to active actions. This increases the heart rate, increases blood sugar levels, pupils dilate, digestion slows down. Developed a theory body homeostasis (Bodily Changes in Pain, Hunger, Fear and Rage (2nd ed.) N. Y: 19 Appleton-Century-Crofts29), in which he interpreted the functions of the autonomous nervous system as follows.
Parasympathetic department, in his opinion, controls the vegetative reactions of everyday life: nutrition, excretion and reproduction (maintains a moderate heart rate and normal blood pressure, ensures the activity of the gastrointestinal activity and secretion of glands), and the sympathetic department performs an activating function in extreme situations in which it is necessary to "flight or fight" (reinforces heart rate, slows down digestion, speeds up metabolism). 
J. Chapman, W. A. Conroy. St. Petersburg: Eurasia, 1999; Glegtman G., Friedlund A., Pauc6e.pt D. Fundamentals of psychology. St. Petersburg: Rech, 2001. List of all teaching materialsState and lawDemography History International relations Pedagogy Political sciences Psychology Religious studies Sociology | § 3. 3.2. Cannon's Theory - Barda Walter Cannon concluded that the James-Lange theory was not convincing. He developed the concepts of homeostasis and the fight-or-flight response and showed that physiological arousal can occur without the experience of any emotion (such as vigorous exercise). In addition, Cannon argued that visceral changes are so slow that they cannot precede the conscious experience of emotions. Finally, he argued that people experiencing completely different emotions, such as fear, joy, or anger, show almost the same patterns of autonomic arousal.    Copyright © · The Wright Initiative · Articles · Site Map 
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As mentioned earlier, the limbic system, the hypothalamus, and other neurological structures are associated with emotions. Nevertheless, most modern theorists share the Cannon-Bard point of view, according to which emotions originate in the subcortical structures of the brain. 
