Abstract
How emotions are represented in
the nervous system is a crucial unsolved problem in the affective neuroscience.
Many studies are striving to find the localization of basic emotions in the
brain but failed. Thus many psychologists suspect the specific neural loci for
basic emotions, instead, some proposed that there are specific neural
structures for the core affects, such as arousal and hedonic value. The reason
for this widespread difference might be that basic emotions used previously can
be further divided into more “basic” emotions. Here we review brain imaging
data and neuropsychological data, and try to address this question with an
integrative model. In this model, we argue that basic emotions are not contrary
to the dimensional studies of emotions (core affects). We propose that basic
emotion should locate on the axis in the dimensions of emotion, and only
represent one typical core affect (arousal or valence). Therefore, we propose
four basic emotions: joy-on positive axis of hedonic dimension, sadness-on
negative axis of hedonic dimension, fear and anger are twin emotions and locate
on the top of vertical dimensions. This new model about basic emotions and
construction model of emotions is promising to improve and reformulate
neurobiological models of basic emotions.