Behavioral Social Neuroscience Seminar

Recent models of emotion propose that emotions arise from the combinations of multiple processes, many of which are not emotion specific. These models attempt to describe both the homogeneity of instances of an emotional "kind" (why are fears similar? ) and the heterogeneity of instances (why are different fears quite different?). In the first part of my presentation, I will show how motivations and goals shape neural processing and propose a more general view of amygdala functioning based on appraisal theory and psychological constructivism. In the second part of my presentation, I will review the Iterative Reprocessing Model of affect, and suggest that emotions, at least in part, arise from the processing of dynamical unfolding representations of valence across time. Critical to this model is the hypothesis that affective trajectories – over time – provide important information that help build emotional states.