Emotions are emergent events constrained by affective and conceptual processes

Boston College, Chestnut Hill MA

Investigators

Linked publications & trials

Abstract

Emotional states are central to mental and physical health. NIH invests[unreadable] tremendous resources in research on emotion, much of it devoted to animal models.[unreadable] Ironically, this research is guided by a scientific paradigm that is grounded in human[unreadable] experience. People experience fear and see it in others, so scientists assume there[unreadable] must be a literal (modular) neural circuit for fear in the mammalian brain. Rats freeze[unreadable] when they hear a tone paired with a foot shock, so they are presumed to be in a state of[unreadable] fear (versus surprise, anger, or even a general state of alarm) and undergoing ?fear[unreadable] learning.? Scientists also presume that a map of the neural circuitry of freezing behavior[unreadable] will yield a neural mechanism for fear that is largely preserved in humans, and a decade[unreadable] of neuroimaging studies have focused on locating a homologous neural circuit in the[unreadable] human brain. In the last five years, I have traced the roots of this ?natural kind? model,[unreadable] conducted a comprehensive review of the literature to examine its veracity, and found it[unreadable] wanting (Barrett, 2006a).1 In response, I have fashioned a new systems-level model,[unreadable] called the Conceptual Act Model, grounded in the neuroanatomy of the human brain. My[unreadable] model parsimoniously incorporates neuroscience findings from rats, primates, and[unreadable] humans, and explains the mechanisms that produce the range and variety of behavioral[unreadable] and introspective instances that we call ?emotion? (Barrett, b, c; Barrett, Mesquita,[unreadable] Ochsner, & Gross, 2007; Barrett, Ochsner, & Gross, 2007; Duncan & Barrett, 2007).[unreadable] The Conceptual Act Model asks different ? and perhaps better ? questions about what[unreadable] emotions are and how they function in mental and physical health. The NIH Director?s[unreadable] Pioneer Award will allow me the intellectual freedom and resources to continue building[unreadable] evidence for the Conceptual Act Model of emotion, thereby shaping a new paradigm to[unreadable] guide the scientific study of emotion.[unreadable]