Neuroscience projections to current debates in emotion psychology

Abstract

Possible contributions from different branches of the neurosciences to current debates in emotion psychology are discussed. The controversial issues covered in the paper include the nature of emotion, cognitionemotion interaction, the evaluative criteria used in emotion-antecedent appraisal processes, sequential vs. parallel processing in appraisal, differential patterning of discrete emotions, and possible entry points into the emotion system. Examples for neuroscience work that may be pertinent to these issues are drawn from neural network modelling, comparative studies of brain architecture and functional pathways in animals, experimental work in cognitive psychology, and case studies of braindamaged patients in clinical neuropsychology.