Feeling States in Emotion

doi:10.1017/CBO9780511806582.013

13 - Feeling States in Emotion

Functional Imaging Evidence

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012

Joel S. Winston and

Raymond J. Dolan

Edited by

Antony S. R. Manstead ,

Nico Frijda and

Agneta Fischer

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Joel S. Winston: Affiliation:
University of London
Raymond J. Dolan: Affiliation:
University College London Wellcome
Antony S. R. Manstead: Affiliation:
University of Cambridge
Nico Frijda: Affiliation:
Universiteit van Amsterdam
Agneta Fischer: Affiliation:
Universiteit van Amsterdam

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ABSTRACT

An essential feature of emotional states is their association with change in autonomic function. The importance of these changes lies in the fact that in many theoretical accounts of emotion the realization of autonomic states is a primary means through which feeling states are realized. The issue addressed in this chapter is how the brain generates and represents autonomic states of the organism and their importance in feeling states. A distinction will be drawn between brain systems that mediate relatively automatic responses to emotional stimuli and systems that are involved in what can be termed conscious feeling states. These distinctions will be illustrated by observations from functional neuroimaging and patients with focal brain lesions and pathology of the autonomic nervous system.

Despite the impact of William James at the end of the nineteenth century, for the best part of several decades in the middle of the twentieth century, neuroscientists treated “emotion” and “feeling” as interchangeable terms. This approach to the language of emotion, coupled with the behaviorist movement prevalent in twentieth century psychology, meant that the neuroscientific study of emotion was grossly neglected, often seen as conceptually ragged and its practitioners as pursuing “soft science” (Damasio, 1999; Damasio, 1994; Damasio, 1998; LeDoux, 1996; LeDoux, 2000). Recent efforts, however, have put the study of emotion center stage in understanding the workings of the brain, proposing roles in cognition (Zajonc, 1980), decision making (Damasio, 1994), perception (Anderson & Phelps, 2001), and even consciousness (Panksepp, 1998; Damasio, 1999).

Type: Chapter
Information: Feelings and Emotions
The Amsterdam Symposium
, pp. 204 - 220

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511806582.013 [Opens in a new window]

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Print publication year: 2004

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