Cognitive neuropsychology - Week 6 - Emotions

Emotions are fundamental in every aspect of a person’s life and can regulate behaviour either consciously or unconsciously. It has been reported that the orbito-frontal cortex and sub cortical structures such as the amygdala and hippocamal system are heavily involved in the expressing and recognition of emotions. There is much debate about the meaning of emotion and also the role of emotion but it seems clear that it is anything that in the short-term alters a person’s psychological state. Ekman (cited in Martin, 2006) suggest that there are six 'basic' emotions that are recognised the most across different cultures, these are; Happiness, sadness, anger, fear, disgust and surprise. Emotions are a key way to engage in social interaction and express feelings and can prepare for the fight or flight response. Ekman (1992) suggest that emotions have evolved to help deal with certain life events however some emotional responses can be inhibitory, e.g. if a person often experiences sadness then this would decrease arousal and motivational levels, so if faced with an aversive stimulus the body would have a slower emotive reaction. According to the oxford dictionary of psychology the amygdala's role is "controlling the experience and expression of emotion." (p31). It seems that different subcotical structures play a role and are activated more frequently in some emotions than others, for example the emotion fear has been linked with a high activation of the amgydala however overall these sub cortical structures all interlink and  implement the expressing and recognition of emotion.

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