Rethinking the Emotional Brain

“In spite of beingwell known andwidely applied in research, the basic emotions point of view has been challenged on various grounds (e.g., Averill, 1980; Ortony and Turner, 1990; Russell, 1980, 2003; Barrett, 2006a; Barrett et al., 2007).”

“…and recognized in people around the world, conserved in our close animal ancestors, and supposedly hard-wired into brain circuits by evolution (Darwin, 1872; Tomkins, 1962; Ekman, 1972, 1980, 1984, 1992, 1999a, 1999b; Izard, 1992, 2007; Damasio, 1994, 1999; Panksepp, 1998, 2000, 2005; Prinz, 2004).”

“As noted above, when threat levels rise, feeding is suppressed (Gray, 1987; Lima and Dill, 1990; Blanchard et al., 1990; Fanselow, 1994).”

“For many, the core of emotion is the subjective experience (Barrett, Mesquita, Ochsner, & Gross, 2007; LeDoux, 2012).”

“…Darwin's logic, modern affective neuroscience also posits brain mechanisms of emotional reactions to mediate evolved ''survival functions'' (LeDoux, 2012), with emotional ''core features that can form the basis for studies of emotion across phylogeny'' (p. 198) (Anderson and Adolphs,…”

“2017), has wreaked havoc with the scientific accumulation of knowledge about emotion (also see Barrett, 2012; LeDoux, 2012).”

“However, different subdivisions of the amygdala and hypothalamus are thought to control learned vs innate responses, in a parallel manner (Figure 1A; reviewed in [Davis, 1992; Fanselow, 1994; LeDoux, 1995, 2000; Gallagher and Chiba, 1996; Fanselow and LeDoux, 1999; Canteras, 2002; Rosen, 2004; Swanson, 2005; Gross and…”

“D ow nloaded from https://academ ic.oup.com /scan/article-abstract/12/1/1/2823712 by guest on 04 M ay 2020 2017), has wreaked havoc with the scientific accumulation of knowledge about emotion (also see Barrett, 2012; LeDoux, 2012).”

“In turn, CeA has direct connections to periaqueductal gray (PAG), a fundamental area that organizes the threat response (LeDoux, 2012).”

“…fear extinction see Milad and Quirk (2012), for fear acquisition and extinction across development see Shechner et al., 2015; for disparities between affective and cognitive neuroscience in general see Panksepp et al., 2017; for fear vs. threat responses see LeDoux, 2012; LeDoux and Pine, 2016).”

“…given the central role of the amygdala in aversive learning, threat detection, and the mobilization of defensive responses to external stimuli (LeDoux 2003, 2012), although it is well established that the amygdala responds not only to threatening cues but also to a wide variety of stimuli…”

“…life events (Bolger, 1990); how significant others aid in coping with life-threatening events, such as cancer onset (Bolger, Foster, Vinokur, & Ng, 1996); or how contextual threat cues are encoded into memory, leading to behavior change, in animal models (LeDoux, 2012; Phillips & LeDoux, 1992).”

“…achieve a consensus definition that is accepted across fields from neuroscience to psychology to philosophy have repeatedly failed, to the extent that at least one prominent emotion researcher has suggested that we excise the word “emotion” altogether from our scientific vocabulary (LeDoux, 2012).”

“Nonetheless, the belief that emotions can be localized somewhere in the brain is very strong (see [11 ,12 ] for discussions), and efforts at topographical localization have given way to the hypothesis that emotions can be localized to specific brain networks (e.”

“71, 72 Intuition can also identify patients with life-threatening conditions that would be underappreciated by traditional clinical parameters alone.”

“This third theme goes hand in hand with current developments in the neurobiology of consciousness, and it may bring back to the scientific study of emotions a topic that, ever since Behaviorism, has been excluded (despite the fact that many modern neurobiological views on emotion now mention it [12,13,15,24,25]).”

“In humans, the highly developed ability to envisage, simulate and predict future scenarios allows us to modify our current behavior to prepare, escape, or even avoid possible future dangers (Suddendorf andCorballis, 2007).”

“The distributionist view argues that no single anatomical structure uniquely specializes for individual emotion categories [40, 41].”

“As a prototypical network subject to 5-HT-induced modulation, the circuitry of experience-dependent associative and emotional learning has been implicated in social cognition and emotion, including the associated phenomena of contextual fear responses (Figure 6; LeDoux, 2012).”

“efensive reactions to threat stimuli are a basic survival mechanism in all vertebrates 1 .”

“Decades of animal and human neuroscience research supports the presence of neural circuits, conserved across species, that respond to environmental threats and orchestrate defensive responses (LeDoux, 2003, 2012; Phelps & LeDoux, 2005).”

“Specific neural circuits, identified in animal models (LeDoux, 2003, 2012) and conserved across species (Milad & Quirk, 2012; Phelps & LeDoux, 2005), respond to potential threats, orchestrate defensive responses, and support aversive learning – encompassing amygdala, hippocampus, and dorsal and…”

“Additionally, the amygdala is involved in the learning and consolidation of emotional memories and has an essential role in conditioned responses (Davis, 1992; LeDoux, 2012).”

“This fear circuit is involved in evaluation and detection of threat cues, eliciting and regulating emotional responses, and fear learning and extinction (LeDoux, 2012).”

“The importance of distinguishing between instinctive behaviours generated by the brainstem and felt emotions generated by the cortex has been previously discussed extensively (LeDoux, 2012; LeDoux, 2013; LeDoux, 2014a; LeDoux, 2014b; Rolls, 2014a; Rolls, 2014b; Scott, 2014).”

“Most fundamental are the desires associated with basic behaviors required for survival and reproduction, such as hunger, thirst, and sex (Freud, 2001; Hull, 1943; LeDoux, 2012; Maslow, 1943).”

“LeDoux has described a theory of the neural basis of emotion (LeDoux 1992, 1995, 1996, 2012) that is probably conceptually similar to that of Rolls (Rolls 1999, 2000a, 2005, 2014a, 2018) except that he focuses mostly on the role of the amygdala in emotion (and not on other brain regions such as the…”

“The tools of modern neuroscience have provided the basis for a broader understanding and precise dissection of brain networks that process survival-related stimuli [7] and have clarified the impact of biologically relevant stimuli on brain networks related to motivation, pleasure, and learning [8].”

“…evidence for hypereactivity in core nodes of the salience network (e.g. amygdala and insula), which presumably reflects increased sensitivity to conditioned fear-cues and elevated interoceptive monitoring of arousal and aversive states (Etkin et al., 2011; LeDoux, 2012; Pessoa and Adolphs, 2010).”

“In other articles, ingredients also include basic behavioral adaptations like freezing, fleeing, and fighting, although there is no necessary one-to-one correspondence between a behavior and an emotion category (e.g., Barrett, 2012; LeDoux, 2012).”

“…rats is just one of many lines of evidence, including research on humans, demonstrating a relationship between emotions and feelings comparable to that between nociception and pain (see Rose 2002; Berridge and Winkielman 2003; Damasio 2005; Rose 2007; LeDoux 2012 for a more detailed explanation).”

“The central nucleus plays a role in the modulation of autonomic and endocrine responses for a host of visceral functions (LeDoux, 2000, 2012).”

“Evidence that there are distinct circuits for behavioral adaptations does not falsify the CAT because we do not define emotions as actions (Barrett, 2012; for a similar view, see LeDoux, 2012).”

“In contrast, the amygdala may be crucial for learning associations between aversive events (signaled in part by PAG) and other sensory cues (LeDoux, 2012).”

“Internal states of arousal, motivation, and emotion exert a major influence on how the brain processes sensory information to control behavior (Berridge, 2004; Bargmann, 2012; LeDoux, 2012; Anderson and Adolphs, 2014; Anderson, 2016).”

“The term emotion has been notoriously difficult to define (Hamann, 2012; LeDoux, 2012) and it has even been asked how meaningful a categorical distinction between cognition and emotion (or “cognitive” and “affective” brain areas) is (Pessoa, 2008).”

“SOCIAL APPROACH Several models of emotion and social cognition (e.g., Phillips et al., 2003a,b; Lieberman, 2007; LeDoux, 2012) include core processes subserving rapid or automatic (sometimes even unconscious) processing of information in terms of safety versus danger, which are intrinsically linked with behavioral ten…”

“Thus, by gaining control over US delivery, subjects successfully inhibit the expression of deeply instated behavioral reactions that normally prevail in situations of expected threat (Fanselow and Lester, 1988; Blanchard et al., 2005; LeDoux, 2012).”

“Such states, for example, can be referred in terms of neural activity in a defensive survival circuit (rather than in a fear circuit) [4].”

“Prevailing models have localized fear learning largely to nuclei in the BLA (Phelps et al, 2004) although recent studies have asserted a possible role for the CMA (LeDoux, 2012).”

“Thus, in spite of groundbreaking advances in understanding the circuitry underlying basic behavioral adaptations for safety and reproduction (including ‘ threat ’ behaviors; [11]), there is no comprehensive model of the neurophysiological basis of emotional experience in humans.”

“Three general factors determining defensive behavioral patterns in response to threats have been proposed4: (1) environmental context (e.”

“The importance of distinguishing between instinctive behaviours generated by the brainstem and felt emotions generated by the cortex has been previously discussed extensively (LeDoux, 2012; LeDoux, 2013; LeDoux, 2014a; LeDoux, 2014b; Rolls, 2014a; Rolls, 2014b; Scott, 2014).”

“and there are important homologues of these mechanisms in invertebrates too [4].”

“Food-deprivation creates a type of “global organismal state change” (Kim et al., 2013; LeDoux, 2012) that is multi-dimensional: it involves multiple physiological and behavioral changes.”

“Defensive behaviors are immediate responses (LeDoux, 2012) triggered by activity in survival circuits that detects threats (LeDoux, 2014) and leading to the conscious emotion of fear that follows immediately.”

“mal neuroscience (LeDoux, 2012), but I think there is a simpler solution: do the same thing we as scientists do when we study”

“This assumption would likewise hold for anxiety disorders where the vmPFC has been shown to be essential for the top-down control (suppression) of a threat response (Cain and Ledoux, 2008; Sullivan, 2003; Ledoux, 2012), which inference is also supported by Rauschecker et al.”

“Carvalho, 2013; Panksepp, 2010), levels of arousal, actions (Bernroider and Panksepp, 2011; Gardiner, 2015), hedonics (pleasure and pain (Buck, 1985; Damasio and Carvalho, 2013; LeDoux, 2012; Panksepp, 2010), drives (Alcaro and Panksepp, 2011), cognitions (including per-”

“Emotions can be considered as being composed of two components: one being tightly related to the production of behavioural responses necessary for survival or maintenance of well-being [27], the other being the subjective feeling associated with an emotional stimulus or an emotional situation [15].”

“Other models of emotion that are not explicitly identified as psychological constructionist views but that share some of this tradition’s assumptions have also emerged (e.g., Boiger & Mesquita, in press; Coan, 2010; LeDoux, 2012).”

“As such, these areas that contribute to the emotional brain processes, ‘‘reflect functions and circuits related to survival’’ that integrate ‘‘motivation, reinforcement, and arousal’’ (LeDoux, 2012).”

“As alluded to above, one influential hypothesis has suggested that unconscious processing of emotional stimuli may arise through a subcortical pathway to the AMY, which involves the superior colliculus and the pulvinar (LeDoux, 2012).”

“Extensive work over the last two decades has focused on determining the brain substrates underlying fear and its behavioral sequelae (LeDoux, 2012; Seymour & Dolan, 2008), and similar efforts have been directed towards examining the central substrates of hunger, food intake and energy balance…”

“The restructuring of sexual behaviour —and other survival behaviours 124 —into these three phases is critical in order to achieve a meaningful species comparison; although introspection and subjective feel­ ings are major topics in human research, it is impossible to know how animals perceive the…”

“This system consists of a set of nuclei located in the hypothalamic medial zone: the anterior hypothalamic nucleus (AH), the dorsomedial portion of the ventromedial hypothalamus (VMHdm), and the dorsal premammillary nucleus (PMD).”

“These structures are critical in the detection of, as well as in the physiological and behavioral response to, aversive events and potential threats (Sehlmeyer et al., 2009; Schlund et al., 2010; LeDoux, 2012).”