What is the relation between emotion and consciousness?
What is the relation between emotion and consciousness? In their recent paper in TRENDS in Cognitive Sciences, Tsuchiya and Adolphs review recent studies that address this question. Focusing on domains where emotion and consciousness overlap and interact, Tsuchiya and Adolphs suggest that each (emotion and consciousness) is necessary for aspects of the other. They follow […]
What is the relation between emotion and consciousness? In their recent paper in TRENDS in Cognitive Sciences, Tsuchiya and Adolphs review recent studies that address this question.
Focusing on domains where emotion and consciousness overlap and interact, Tsuchiya and Adolphs suggest that each (emotion and consciousness) is necessary for aspects of the other. They follow the common view that emotion and consciousness result from neuronal activity in the brain and they argue that both emotion and consciousness depend on neural representations of one’s own body. Moreover, Tsuchiya and Adolphs argue that these representations arise from structures in the brainstem and medial telencephalon that receive interoceptive information. The authors believe that future work requires not only more data but also further theoretical development of the relevant concepts that are currently under investigation.
Emotion and consciousness
Naotsugu Tsuchiya and Ralph Adolphs
Consciousness and emotion feature prominently in our personal lives, yet remain enigmatic. Recent advances prompt further distinctions that should provide more experimental traction: we argue that emotion consists of an emotion state (functional aspects, including emotional response) as well as feelings (the conscious experience of the emotion), and that consciousness consists of level (e.g. coma, vegetative state and wakefulness) and content (what it is we are conscious of). Not only is consciousness important to aspects of emotion but structures that are important for emotion, such as brainstem nuclei and midline cortices, overlap with structures that regulate the level of consciousness. The intersection of consciousness and emotion is ripe for experimental investigation, and we outline possible examples for future studies.
