The cognitive-emotional amalgam

Abstract

In the précis to The Cognitive-Emotional Brain, I summarize a framework for understanding the organization of cognition and emotion in the brain. Here, I address six major themes that emerged in the commentaries: (1) emotional perception and automaticity; (2) the status of cognition and emotion: together or separate? (3) evolutionary implications for the understanding of emotion and cognition; (4) the diverse forms of cognitive-emotional integration; (5) dual process theories; and (6) functional diversity of brain regions/networks and cognitive ontologies. The central argument is, again, that cognition and emotion are so highly interactive, and indeed integrated, that these two elements blend into a new amalgam.