Emotion and cortical-subcortical function: conceptual developments

Abstract

Biologists have studied the expression of emotions in man and other animals since at least 1806, when Charles Bell published his Anatomy and Physiology of Expression. We trace the main experimental developments since that time, including Darwin's investigations into the evolution of innate forms of expression of emotions, as well as those into cognitive versus precognitive forms of expression of emotions. In particular, contemporary studies by neuroscientists into the origins of emotional experiences are detailed, especially emotional responses to faces showing different expressions, on which much research has been carried out. We examine the various claims made by these researchers as to what their experiments show. Our conceptual analysis indicates that there is considerable confusion as to what experimental work to this time indicates about the role of cortical and subcortical structures in the expression of emotions. We attempt to clarify what can and cannot be justified as established concerning the workings of the brain and emotions.