Parsing affective space: Perspectives from neuropsychology and psychophysiology.

Abstract

This article reviews selective behavioral, psychophysiological, and neuropsychological research bearing on how affective space should be parsed. Neither facial expression nor autonomic nervous system activity is found to provide unique markers for particular discrete emotions. The dimensions of approach and withdrawal are introduced as fundamental systems relevant to differentiati ng affective space. The role of frontal and anterior temporal asymmetries in mediating approach- and withdrawal-related emotion is considered. Individual differences in tonic anterior activation asymmetry are present and are relatively stable over time. Such differences are associated with an individual's propensity to display different types of emotion, mood, and psychopathology. The conceptual and methodological implications of this perspective are considered. The purpose of this brief article is to review theory and data derived mostly from neuropsychological and psychophysiological analyses that bear on the issue of how affective space should be parsed. Included within this inquiry is how emotions are organized and differentiated from one another and the nature of the relations among the various subcomponents that compose emotions. Within this context I consider such issues as whether emotion is best understood as categorical or dimensional, the relation between facial expressions of emotion and emotional states, and psychophysiological differentiation among emotions. Space constraints preclude an exhaustive treatment of these topics. Studies are cited for illustrative purposes with an emphasis on recent research from my laboratory.1 My principal goal is to build a case for the importance of the approach versus withdrawal dimension

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