Abstract
Emotions arise from activations of specialized neuronal populations in several parts of the cerebral cortex, notably the anterior cingulate, insula, ventromedial prefrontal, and subcortical structures, such as the amygdala, ventral striatum, putamen, caudate nucleus, and ventral tegmental area. Feelings are conscious, emotional experiences of these activations that contribute to neuronal networks mediating thoughts, language, and behavior, thus enhancing the ability to predict, learn, and reappraise stimuli and situations in the environment based on previous experiences. Contemporary theories of emotion converge around the key role of the amygdala as the central subcortical emotional brain structure that constantly evaluates and integrates a variety of sensory information from the surroundings and assigns them appropriate values of emotional dimensions, such as valence, intensity, and approachability. The amygdala participates in the regulation of autonomic and endocrine functions, decision-making and adaptations of instinctive and motivational behaviors to changes in the environment through implicit associative learning, changes in short- and long-term synaptic plasticity, and activation of the fight-or-flight response via efferent projections from its central nucleus to cortical and subcortical structures.
Highlights
Emotions played a major role in survival during human evolution and in effective psychological functioning in human societies [1]
According to the higher-order theory of emotion, a subjective experience of emotions should be generally different in subjects with damage to the first-order circuits associated with emotions and patients with damage to higher-order circuits associated with emotions, such as patients with alexithymia, for example, but this remains to be determined
Both anxiety disorders and depressive disorder share a common feature of increased amygdala activation since in both conditions, the amygdala and entorhinal cortex in the right hemisphere are more active compared to healthy individuals, especially when performing tasks related to the induction of fear or unpleasant emotions in general [225]
Summary
Emotions played a major role in survival during human evolution and in effective psychological functioning in human societies [1]. Most contemporary theories of emotion are based on the assumption that emotions are biologically determined [3] Consistent with this biological approach is the finding that some basic, primary emotions, such as anger, fear, joy, sadness, disgust, and surprise, are innate, expressed in the first six months of life, and associated with specific facial. As such, they have been recognized in different cultures around the world [5]. Darwin was probably the first to study the evolution of emotional reactions and facial expressions systematically and to recognize the importance of emotions for the adaptation of the organism to various stimuli and environmental situations [10]. Emotions allow for the coordination of a whole range of different processes with the goal of resolving immediate and urgent issues [12,13,14]
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