Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-jkksz Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-22T14:29:49.555Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Overcoming the emotion experience/expression dichotomy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 May 2012

Fausto Caruana
Affiliation:
Department of Neuroscience, Section of Physiology, School of Medicine and Surgery, University of Parma, Università di Parma, 43100 Parma, Italy. [email protected]@unipr.ithttp://www.unipr.it/arpa/mirror/english/staff/caruana.htm Brain Center for Social and Motor Cognition, Italian Institute of Technology, 43100 Parma, Italy. [email protected]://www.unipr.it/arpa/mirror/english/staff/gallese.htm
Vittorio Gallese
Affiliation:
Department of Neuroscience, Section of Physiology, School of Medicine and Surgery, University of Parma, Università di Parma, 43100 Parma, Italy. [email protected]@unipr.ithttp://www.unipr.it/arpa/mirror/english/staff/caruana.htm

Abstract

We challenge the classic experience/expression dichotomous account of emotions, according to which experiencing and expressing an emotion are two independent processes. By endorsing Dewey's and Mead's accounts of emotions, and capitalizing upon recent empirical findings, we propose that expression is part of the emotional experience. This proposal partly challenges the purely constructivist approach endorsed by the authors of the target article.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2012

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Caruana, F., Jezzini, A., Sbriscia-Fioretti, B., Rizzolatti, G. & Gallese, V. (2011) Emotional and social behaviors elicited by electrical stimulation of the insula in the macaque monkey. Current Biology 21(3):195–99.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Craig, A. D. (2002) How do you feel? Interoception: The sense of the physiological condition of the body. Nature Reviews Neuroscience 3:655–66. Available at: http://www.nature.com/nrn/journal/v3/n8/box/nrn894_BX1.html.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Critchley, H. D., Wiens, S., Rotshtein, P., Ohman, A. & Dolan, R. J. (2004) Neural system supporting interoceptive awareness. Nature Neuroscience 7(2):189–95.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Damasio, A. R. (1999) The feeling of what happens: Body and emotion in the making of consciousness. Harcourt Brace/Random House.Google Scholar
Darwin, C. (1872) The expressions of the emotions in men and animals. John Murray.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Davis, J. I., Senghas, A., Brandt, F. & Ochsner, K. N. (2010) The effects of BOTOX injections on emotional experience. Emotion 10(3):433–40.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Dewey, J. (1894) Theory of emotion (I). Emotional attitudes. Psychological Review 1:553–69.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Frijda, N. H. (1986) The emotions. (Studies in emotions and social interaction). Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Gallese, V. & Sinigaglia, C. (in press) Cognition in action. A new look at the cortical motor system. In: Joint attention and agency, ed. Metcalfe, J. & Terrace, H.. Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Hennenlotter, A., Dresel, C., Castrop, F., Ceballos-Baumann, A., Wohlshlager, A. & Haslinger, B. (2009) The link between facial feedback and neural activity within central circuiteries of emotion. Cerebral Cortex 19:537–42.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
James, W. (1884) What is an emotion? Mind 9:188205. Available at: http://www.jstor.org/pss/2246769.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mead, G. H. (1895) A theory of emotions from the physiological standpoint. Psychological Review 2:162–64.Google Scholar
Mead, G. H. (1934) Mind, self and society. University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Niedenthal, P. M. (2007) Embodying emotion. Science 316(5827):10021005.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed