The neural systems of emotion

Abstract

This paper addresses the question "Is emotion a special process and does it have its own neural structures and system?".  Modern reviews assume that there are special neural centres for emotion.  Much depends on what is meant by "emotion" and the concept of emotion has to be properly specified before its neural basis can be elucidated and most reviews fail to do this unambiguously.  This paper uses the Thwarted Action-State Signalling (TASS) definition of emotion (Salzen 1991) to determine and outline the likely neural systems specifically involved in emotional behaviours and feeling states.