by Dylan EvansEmotion: The Science of Sentiment by Dylan Evans is the featured book for this episode of the Brain Science Podcast. Thanks to Kate from the UK for suggesting this book.
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Show Notes
This episode is a short introduction to the idea that our emotions are an essential part of our intellligence.
- We discuss the Basic Emotions based on the work of anthropologist Paul Eckman.
- We learn about culturally learned emotions such as "being a wild pig," which is observed among the Gurumba people of New Guinea
- Paul Griffiths introduced the idea of "higher cognitive emotions"
- Emotions seem to exist on a continuum from the highly innate basic emotions to the culturally specific emotions
- The work of Joseph Ledoux and Antonio Damasio reveal that our emotions are an important element of normal intelligence
- We consider how fear actually follows two pathways in the brain
- We consider the role of the limbic system including the amygdala
- We consider the relationship between emotions and mood
- We consider how mood effects memory and decision making
- This includes Robert Zajonc's discovery of the "mere exposure" effect
- We briefly consider the question of whether computers could ever display emotions
Further Reading
The Feeling of What Happens: Body and Emotion in the Making of Consciousness (2000)
by Antonio Damasio
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