Emotion Explained

by Rolls, Edmund T.

• ISBN13: 9780198570042
• ISBN10: 019857004X
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2007-06-07
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

What produces emotions? Why do we have emotions? How do we have emotions? Why do emotional states feel like something? This book seeks explanations of emotion by considering these questions. Emotion continues to be a topic of enormous scientific interest.Emotion Explaineddescribes the nature, functions, and brain mechanisms that underlie both emotion and motivation. However it goes beyond examining brain mechanisms of emotion, by proposing a theory of what emotions are, and an evolutionary, Darwinian, theory of the adaptive value of emotion. It also shows that there is a clear relationship between motivation and emotion. The book also examines how cognitive states can modulate emotions, and in turn, how emotions can influence cognitive states. It considers the role of sexual selection in the evolution of affective behavior. It also examines emotion and decision making, with links to the burgeoning field of neuroeconomics. The book is also unique in considering emotion at several levels- the neurophysiological, neuroimaging, neuropsychological, behavioral, and computational neuroscience levels.

Author Biography

Edmund T. Rolls is Professor of Experimental Psychology at the University of Oxford, and a Fellow and Tutor of Corpus Christi College, Oxford. He read preclinical medicine at the University of Cambridge, and now performs research in neuroscience at Oxford. His research links neurophysiological and computational neuroscience approaches to human functional neuroimaging and neuropsychological studies in order to provide a fundamental basis for understanding human brain function and its disorders. He is author of The Brain and Emotion (1999, Oxford University Press), with A.Treves of Neural Networks and Brain Function (1998, Oxford University Press), and with G.Deco of Computational Neuroscience of Vision (2002, Oxford University Press).

Table of Contents

Introduction: the issues

Introduction

Rewards and punishers

Approaches to emotion and motivation

Outline

The nature of emotion

Introduction

A theory of emotion

Different emotions

Refinements of the theory of emotion

The classification of emotion

Other theories of emotion

Individual differences in emotion, personality and emotional intelligence

Cognition and emotion

Emotion, motivation, reward and mood

The concept of emotion

Advantages of the approach

The functions of emotion: reward, punishment and emotion in brain design

Introduction

Brain design and the functions of emotion

Selection of behaviour: cost-benefit 'analysis'

Further functions of emotion

The functions of emotion in an evolutionary, Darwinian, context

The functions of motivation in an evolutionary, Darwinian, context

Are all goals for action gene-specified?

The brain mechanisms underlying emotion

Introduction

Overview

Representations of primary reinforcers

Representing potential secondary reinforcers

The orbitofrontal cortex

The amygdala

The cingulate cortex

Human brain imaging investigations of mood and depression

Output pathways for emotional responses

Effects of emotion on cognitive processing and memory

Laterality effects in human emotional processing

Summary

Hunger

Introduction

Peripheral signals for hunger and satiety

The control signals for hunger and satiety

The brain control of eating and reward

Obesity, bulimia and anorexia

Conclusions on reward, affective responses to food, and the control ofappetite

Thirst

Introduction

Cellular stimuli for drinking

Extracellular thirst stimuli

Control of normal drinking

Reward and satiety signals for drinking

Summary

Brain-stimulation reward

Introduction

The nature of the reward produced

The location of brain-stimulation reward sites in the brain

The effects of brain lesions on intracranial self-stimulation

The neurophysiology of reward

Some of the properties of brain-stimulation reward

Stimulus-bound motivational behaviour

Conclusions

Apostasis

Pharmacology of emotion, reward and addiction; the basal ganglia

Introduction

The noradrenergic hypothesis

Dopamine and reward

The basal ganglia

Opiate reward systems, analgesia, and food reward

Pharmacology of depression in relation to brain systems involved in emotion

Pharmacology of anxiety in relation to brain systems involved in emotion

Cannabinoids

Overview of behavioural selection and output systems involved in emotion

Sexual behaviour, reward and brain function; sexual selection of behaviour

Introduction

Mate selection, attractiveness and love

Parental attachment, care and parent-offspring conflict

Sperm competition

Concealed ovulation and its consequences for sexual behaviour

Sexual selection of sexual and non-sexual behaviour

Individual differences in sexual rewards

The neural reward mechanisms that might mediate some aspects of sexualbehaviour

Neural basis of sexual behaviour

Conclusion

Emotional feelings and consciousness: a theory of consciousness

Introduction

A theory of consciousness

Dual routes to action

Representations

Discussion

Conclusions and comparisons

Conclusions and broader issues

Conclusions

Decision-making

Emotion and ethics

Emotion and literature

Close

Neural networks and emotion-related learning

Reward reversal in the orbitofrontal cortex - a model

Table of Contents provided by Publisher. All Rights Reserved.