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Precis of "The Brain and Emotion"

Rolls, Edmund T. Precis of "The Brain and Emotion".

Short Abstract:

The topics treated in The Brain and Emotion include the definition, nature and functions of emotion (Chapter 3), the neural bases of emotion (Chapter 4), reward, punishment and emotion in brain design (Chapter 10), a theory of consciousness and its application to understanding emotion and pleasure (Chapter 9), and neural networks and emotion-related learning (Appendix). The approach is that emotions can be considered as states elicited by reinforcers (rewards and punishers). This approach helps with understanding the functions of emotion, and with classifying different emotions; and in understanding what information processing systems in the brain are involved in emotion, and how they are involved. The hypothesis is developed that brains are designed around reward and punishment evaluation systems, because this is the way that genes can build a complex system that will produce appropriate but flexible behavior to increase fitness (Chapter 10). By specifying goals rather than particular behavioral patterns of responses, genes leave much more open the possible behavioral strategies that might be required to increase fitness. The importance of reward and punishment systems in brain design also provides a basis for understanding brain mechanisms of motivation, as described in Chapters 2 for appetite and feeding, 5 for brain-stimulation reward, 6 for addiction, 7 for thirst, and 8 for sexual behavior.

Long Abstract:

The topics treated in The Brain and Emotion include the definition, nature and functions of emotion (Chapter 3), the neural bases of emotion (Chapter 4), reward, punishment and emotion in brain design (Chapter 10), a theory of consciousness and its application to understanding emotion and pleasure (Chapter 9), and neural networks and emotion-related learning (Appendix). The approach is that emotions can be considered as states elicited by reinforcers (rewards and punishers). This approach helps with understanding the functions of emotion, and with classifying different emotions; and in understanding what information processing systems in the brain are involved in emotion, and how they are involved. The hypothesis is developed that brains are designed around reward and punishment evaluation systems, because this is the way that genes can build a complex system that will produce appropriate but flexible behavior to increase fitness (Chapter 10). By specifying goals rather than particular behavioral patterns of responses, genes leave much more open the possible behavioral strategies that might be required to increase fitness. The importance of reward and punishment systems in brain design also provides a basis for understanding brain mechanisms of motivation, as described in Chapters 2 for appetite and feeding, 5 for brain-stimulation reward, 6 for addiction, 7 for thirst, and 8 for sexual behavior.

Keywords:	emotion; hunger; taste; brain evolution; orbitofrontal cortex; amygdala; dopamine; reward; punishment; consciousness
Subjects:	Biology: Evolution Psychology: Consciousness Studies Neuroscience: Neuroanatomy Neuroscience: Neurochemistry Neuroscience: Neuroendocrinology Neuroscience: Neural Modelling Neuroscience: Neurology Neuroscience: Neurophysiology Neuroscience: Neuropsychology
ID code:	bbs00000489
Deposited by:	Edmund T Rolls on 01 May 2001