THEORIES OF EMOTIONS, AUTHORS AND CHARACTERISTICS - NEUROPSYCHOLOGY - 2025

The best known and most influential theories of emotions are the Charles Darwin theory, the James-Lange theory, the Cannon-Bard theory, the categorical, dimensional, and single component theory.

Emotional psychology studies how emotions manifest in human beings. They do this through physiological activation, behavioral responses, and cognitive processing.

Each emotion causes a certain level of physiological activation. This activation manifests itself with changes in the autonomic nervous system (ANS) and the neuroendocrine. The behavioral responses are usually motor, especially the facial muscles are activated.

Cognitive processing is done before and after feeling the emotion, before to evaluate the situation and after to be aware of the emotional state in which we find ourselves.

What are emotions?

The 6 basic emotions of the human being

Emotions are behavioral, cognitive and physiological patterns that occur when faced with a certain stimulus. These patterns differ in each species and allow us to adjust our response depending on the stimulus, its context, and our previous experience.

For example, if we see someone crying we can feel both positive and negative emotions and act accordingly. You may be crying with grief or joy. In the first case we would feel a negative emotion and we would go to comfort him and in the second we would feel a positive emotion and we would become happy.

In human beings, emotions are special, as they are accompanied by feelings. Feelings are private and subjective experiences, they are purely cognitive and are not accompanied by behaviors. A feeling is, for example, what we feel (worth the redundancy) when we see a painting or listen to a song.

Feelings are believed to be specific to humans because they do not fulfill an adaptive function, since feelings are not preceded by a behavioral response to stimuli. For this reason, it is believed that in phylogenetic evolution (evolution of species) emotions appeared earlier and later feelings.

Another function of emotions is to modulate memory, since the way in which we store information depends to a great extent on the emotion we feel when obtaining it. For example, we will remember better the telephone number of a person that we like than that of a house for rent.

Emotions are elicited by stimuli that are relevant, either because of their biological importance, because of their physical characteristics or because of the individual's previous experience. In humans, emotions can be triggered even by thoughts or memories.

3 components of the emotional response

The emotional response is made up of three components: musculoskeletal, neurovegetative, and endocrine. These components lead us to a certain activation state (arousal) to prepare the organism to give an adaptive response to the stimulus and to communicate our emotions to the individuals around us.

The musculoskeletal component encompasses the patterns of behavioral responses adapted to each situation. Besides giving a response to the stimulus, these patterns also serve to give information to others about our state of mind.

For example, if a stranger enters a field and there is a dog that is showing its teeth, the person will know that the dog has identified him as an intruder and that, if he goes further, he may attack him.

The neurovegetative component encompasses the responses of the autonomic nervous system. These responses activate the energy resources necessary to carry out the appropriate behaviors for the situation in which the person finds himself.

Taking the example above, the sympathetic branch of the dog's autonomic nervous system would increase its activation to prepare the musculature, which would kick in if it finally had to attack the intruder.

The main function of the endocrine component is to reinforce the actions of the autonomic nervous system, secreting hormones that increase or decrease the activation of this system as the situation requires. Among other hormones, catecholamines, such as adrenaline and norepinephrine, and steroid hormones are often secreted.

Classical theories of emotion

-Darwin's theory

Throughout history, many authors have developed theories and experiments to try to explain how emotions work.

One of the first theories described in this regard is included in the book The expression of emotions in man and animals (Darwin, 1872). In this book, the English naturalist explains his theory on the evolution of the expression of emotions.

This theory is based on two premises:

1. The way in which species currently express their emotions (facial and body gestures) has evolved from simple behaviors indicative of the response that the individual usually gives.
2. Emotional responses are adaptive and fulfill a communicative function, so that they serve to communicate to other individuals what we feel and what behaviors we are going to carry out. Since emotions are the result of evolution, they will continue to evolve adapting to circumstances and will last over time.

Later, two psychologists developed two theories about emotion separately. The first was the American psychologist William James (1884) and the second the Danish psychologist Carl Lange. These theories were combined into one and today it is known as the James-Lange theory.

-James-Lange theory

The James-Lange theory establishes that, when we receive a stimulus, it is first processed sensually in the sensory cortex, then the sensory cortex sends the information to the motor cortex to trigger the behavioral response, and, finally, the sensation of the emotion. it becomes conscious when all the information from our physiological response reaches the neocortex (see figure 1).

Figure 1. James-Lange theory (adapted from Redolar, 2014).

Although there are studies whose results support the James-Lange theory, it seems that it is not complete, since it cannot explain why in some cases of paralysis in which it is not possible to give a physiological response, people continue to feel emotions with the same intensity.

-Cannon-Bard theory

In 1920, the American physiologist Walter Cannon created a new theory to refute that of James-Lange, based on the experiments carried out by Philip Bard.

Bard's experiments consisted of making progressive lesions in cats, from the cortex to the subcortical areas, and studying their behavior when presented with an emotional stimulus.

Bard found that when the lesions occurred in the thalamus, the animals suffered a reduction in the expression of their emotions. In turn, if the lesions were produced in the cortex, they had an exaggerated reaction to the stimuli, compared to the responses given before the lesion occurred.

As the theory was made based on these experiments, it was called the Cannon-Bard theory. According to this theory, in the first place, the information of the emotional stimulus would be processed in the thalamic areas, with the thalamus in charge of starting the emotional responses.

The processed sensory information would also reach the cortex through the ascending thalamic pathways and the emotional information already processed would go to the cortex through the hypothalamus pathways.

In the cortex all the information would be integrated and the emotion would be made conscious (see figure 2).

Figure 2. Cannon-Bard theory (adapted from Redolar, 2014).

This theory differs mainly from that of James-Lange, in that, while the first argued that the conscious sensation of feeling an emotion would be preceded by physiological activation, in the second theory the conscious sensation of the emotion would be felt at the same time as physiological activation.

-Papez theory: the first specific circuit for emotion

The first specific circuit for emotion was developed by Papez in 1937.

Papez based his proposal on clinical observations made in patients with lesions in the medial temporal lobe and on animal studies with the injured hypothalamus. According to this author, once the information about the stimulus reaches the thalamus, it is divided into two ways (see figure 3):

1-The way of thought: It carries the sensory information of the stimulus from the thalamus to the neocortex.

2-The feeling path: it carries the stimulus information to the hypothalamus (specifically to the mammillary bodies) where the motor, neurovegetative and endocrine systems are activated. Subsequently, the information would be sent to the cortex, the latter being bidirectional (hypothalamus or cortex).

Figure 3. Circuit of Papez (adapted from Redolar, 2014).

Regarding the perception of emotional stimuli, Papez stipulated that it could be done in two ways (see Figure 3):

1-Activating the path of thought. The activation of this pathway would release the memories about previous experiences in which the same stimulus was witnessed, the information of the stimulus and the previous memories would be sent to the cortex, where the information would be integrated and the perception of the emotional stimulus would become conscious, of so that the stimulus would be perceived based on the memories.

2-Activating the way of feeling. In this way, the bidirectional pathway from the hypothalamus to the cortex would simply be activated, without taking into account previous experiences.

In the following decade, specifically in 1949, Paul MacLean expanded Papez's theory by creating the MacLean circuit. To do this, he relied on studies carried out by Heinrich Klüver and Paul Bucy with Rhesus monkeys that had had their temporal lobes injured.

MacLean attached great importance to the role of the hippocampus as an integrator of sensory and physiological information. In addition, I include in its circuit other areas such as the amygdala or the prefrontal cortex, which would be connected with the limbic system (see figure 4).

Figure 4. MacLean circuit (adapted from Redolar, 2014).

Current theories about emotion

There are currently three distinct groups of psychological theories of emotion: categorical, dimensional and multi-component theories.

- Categorical theories

Categorical theories try to distinguish basic emotions from complex ones. Basic emotions are innate and are found in many species. We humans share them, regardless of our culture or society.

These emotions are the oldest, evolutionarily speaking, and some ways of expressing them are common in various species. The expressions of these emotions are made through simple response patterns (neurovegetative, endocrine and behavioral).

Complex emotions are acquired, that is, they are learned and modeled through society and culture. Evolutionarily speaking, they are newer than basic emotions and are especially important in humans because they can be shaped by language.

They appear and refine as the person grows, and is expressed through complex response patterns that often combine several simple response patterns.

-Dimensional theories

Dimensional theories focus on describing emotions as a continuum rather than in all-or-nothing terms. That is, these theories establish an interval with two axes (for example, positive or negative valence) and include emotions within that interval.

Most of the existing theories take valence or arousal (intensity of activation) as axes.

-Multiple component theories

Multiple component theories consider that emotions are not fixed, since the same emotion can be felt more or less intensely depending on certain factors.

One of the factors that has been studied the most within these theories is the cognitive assessment of emotion, that is, the meaning we give to events.

Some of the theories that can be included within these categories are the Schachter-Singer theory or theory of the two factors of emotion (1962) and the theory of Antonio Damasio described in his book El error de Descartes (1994).

The first theory places great importance on cognition when it comes to elaborating and interpreting emotions, since they realized that the same emotion could be experienced by having different neurovegetative activations.

Damasio, for his part, tries to establish a relationship between emotions and reason. Since, according to his theory of the somatic marker, emotions can help us make decisions, they can even substitute for reason in some situations in which a quick response must be given or all the variables are not well known.

For example, if someone is in a dangerous situation, it is not normal to think and reason what to do, but to express an emotion, fear, and act accordingly (fleeing, attacking or becoming paralyzed).

References

1. Cannon, W. (1987). The James-Lange theory of emotions: a critical examination and an alternative theory. Am J Psychol, 100, 567-586.
2. Damasio, A. (1996). The somatic market hypothesis and the possible functions of the prefrontal cortex. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci, 351, 1413-1420.
3. Papez, J. (1995). A proposed mechanism of emotion. J Neuropsychiatry Clin Neurosci, 7, 103-112.
4. Redolar, D. (2014). Principles of emotion and social cognition. In D. Redolar, Cognitive Neuroscience (pp. 635-647). Madrid: Panamerican Medical.
5. Schachter, S., & Singer, J. (1962). Cognitive, social, and physiological determinants of emotional state. Psychol Rev, 69, 379-399.