The DOI matches its Crossref record; 399 of the 409 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
Rethinking the Emotional Brain
Open accessAbstract
I propose a reconceptualization of key phenomena important in the study of emotion-those phenomena that reflect functions and circuits related to survival, and that are shared by humans and other animals. The approach shifts the focus from questions about whether emotions that humans consciously feel are also present in other animals, and toward questions about the extent to which circuits and corresponding functions that are present in other animals (survival circuits and functions) are also present in humans. Survival circuit functions are not causally related to emotional feelings but obviously contribute to these, at least indirectly. The survival circuit concept integrates ideas about emotion, motivation, reinforcement, and arousal in the effort to understand how organisms survive and thrive by detecting and responding to challenges and opportunities in daily life.
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“This error, assuming that an action is equivalent to an emotion, which I call the mental inference fallacy (Barrett, 2017), has wreaked havoc with the scientific accumulation of knowledge about emotion (also see Barrett, 2012; LeDoux, 2012).”
From The theory of constructed emotion: an active inference account of interoception and categorization (2016) · cites this paper as LeDoux, 2012
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“Defensive survival circuits are evolutionarily wired to detect and respond to innate threats and to respond to novel threats that have been learned about in the past (35,36).”
From A higher-order theory of emotional consciousness (2017) · cites this paper as [36]
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“Approximately 153 billion GB of data were generated in 2013, with projected growth of 48% per year.67”
From Artificial Intelligence and Surgical Decision-making. (2020) · cites this paper as [67]
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredIn the citing paper
“This fear circuit is involved in evaluation and detection of threat cues, eliciting and regulating emotional responses, and fear learning and extinction (LeDoux, 2012).”
From Anxiety and attention to threat: cognitive mechanisms and treatment with attention bias modification (2016) · cites this paper as LeDoux, 2012
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Cites
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“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).”
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“…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).”
LeDoux, J. E. (2000) · Annual Review of Neuroscience · doi:10.1146/annurev.neuro.23.1.155 · Cited by 8,444
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“As noted above, when threat levels rise, feeding is suppressed (Gray, 1987; Lima and Dill, 1990; Blanchard et al., 1990; Fanselow, 1994).”
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Cited by
Sorted by citations
Emotion regulation: current status and future prospects
Gross, J. J. (2015) · Psychological Inquiry · doi:10.1080/1047840x.2014.940781 · Cited by 5,229
“For many, the core of emotion is the subjective experience (Barrett, Mesquita, Ochsner, & Gross, 2007; LeDoux, 2012).”
BackgroundUsing social and behavioural science to support COVID-19 pandemic response
Bavel, J. J. V., Baicker, K., Boggio, P. S., Capraro, V., Cichocka, A., Cikara, M., Crockett, M. J., Crum, A. J., Douglas, K. M., Druckman, J. N., et al. (2020) · Nature Human Behaviour · doi:10.1038/s41562-020-0884-z · Cited by 4,964
Berridge, K. C., & Kringelbach, M. L. (2015) · Neuron · doi:10.1016/j.neuron.2015.02.018 · Cited by 1,730
“…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,…”
BackgroundInfluentialThe theory of constructed emotion: an active inference account of interoception and categorization
Barrett, L. F. (2016) · Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience · doi:10.1093/scan/nsw154 · Cited by 1,426
“2017), has wreaked havoc with the scientific accumulation of knowledge about emotion (also see Barrett, 2012; LeDoux, 2012).”
Ventromedial hypothalamic neurons control a defensive emotion state
Kunwar, P. S., Zelikowsky, M., Remedios, R., Cai, H., Balban, M. Y., Meister, M., & Anderson, D. J. (2015) · eLife · doi:10.7554/elife.06633 · Cited by 1,130
“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…”
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Metadata
- Authors
- LeDoux, J.
- Affiliations
- New York University (US)
- Corresponding author
- LeDoux, Joseph
- ORCID
- LeDoux, Joseph
- Venue
- Neuron
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2012-02
- Volume
- 73
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 653-676
- ISSN
- 0896-6273 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC3625946
- OpenAlex
- W2108845151
- Cited by
- 1,594
- References
- 409
- Citations by year
- 2026: 110 · 2025: 85 · 2024: 111 · 2023: 115 · 2022: 118 · 2021: 120 · 2020: 140 · 2019: 132 · 2018: 127 · 2017: 107 · 2016: 118 · 2015: 118 · 2014: 87 · 2013: 74 · 2012: 30
- FWCI
- 49.96
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Update notices
- erratum (2012-03-08)
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Neuron (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (acceptedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- Funders
- National Institute of Mental Health (R01MH038774, R01MH046516)
- National Institute on Drug Abuse (R01DA029053)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neural and Behavioral Psychology Studies
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Memory and Neural Mechanisms
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience › Neurotransmitter Receptor Influence on Behavior
- Keywords
- emotions, emotional brain, motivation, reinforcement, arousal, animal emotions, neural circuits, survival function
- MeSH terms
- Animals, Brain, Brain Mapping, Emotions, Humans, Motivation, Neural Pathways, Survival
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