Emotions Are Rising: The Growing Field of Affect Neuropsychology

Abstract

Thirty years ago, the neuropsychology of emotion started to emerge as a mainstream topic. Careful examination of individual patients showed that emotion, like memory, language, and so on, could be differentially affected by brain disorders, especially in the right hemisphere. Since then, there has been accelerating interest in uncovering the neural architecture of emotion, and the major steps in this process of discovery over the past 3 decades are detailed in this review. In the 1990s, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans provided precise delineation of lesions in the amygdala, medial prefrontal cortex, insula and somatosensory cortex as underpinning emotion disorders. At the same time, functional MRI revealed activation that was bilateral and also lateralized according to task demands. In the 2000s, converging evidence suggested at least two routes to emotional responses: subcortical, automatic and autonomic responses and slower, cortical responses mediating cognitive processing. The discovery of mirror neurons in the 1990s reinvigorated older views that simulation was the means to recognize emotions and empathize with others. More recently, psychophysiological research, revisiting older Russian paradigms, has contributed new insights into how autonomic and other physiological indices contribute to decision making (the somatic marker theory), emotional simulation, and social cognition. Finally, this review considers the extent to which these seismic changes in understanding emotional processes in clinical disorders have been reflected in neuropsychological practice. (JINS, 2017, 23, 719-731).

An afferent white matter pathway from the pulvinar to the amygdala facilitates fear recognition

“…Early studies on the subcortical route observed specifically right-sided BOLD responses during non-conscious fearful face viewing (Morris et al, 1999; Morris et al, 1998), and a previous tractography study has also found that only the fractional anisotropy of the right subcortical route was significantly related to threat-biased saccades (Koller et al, 2018). There is mounting evidence for right-sided specialisation for ordered (Wyczesany et al, 2018) and disordered (McDonald, 2017) emotion processing, particularly for non-conscious signals transmitted along the subcortical route (Gainotti, 2012). Thus, our results lend support to this theory by demonstrating evidence for the right pulvinar-amygdala connection’s stronger fibre density and its relationship to emotional face viewing and fearful face recognition.…”

When technology cares for people with dementia: A critical review using neuropsychological rehabilitation as a conceptual framework

“…However, it is necessary to clarify that the exclusion of emotional and social variables, when designing and implementing assistive technologies for PwD, is a problem that reflects a broader limitation of the field of NR itself. Only recently emotional and social dimensions have become central elements of NR theoretical models (McDonald, 2017;Bowen, Yeates & Palmer, 2010;Wilson & Gracey, 2009), slowly permeating the treatment of PwD . As a consequence, the operationalization of these variables, in terms of how to assess and monitor them, both in clinical and research settings, has been significantly slower compared to cognitive functions.…”

Neuropsychological Assessment: Past and Future

“…Social cognition was originally identified through the social psychology literature and is a multifaceted construct referring to the ability to perceive, interpret, and generate responses to the intentions and behaviors of others (see McDonald, 2017, for a comprehensive review; McDonald, Flanagan, & Rollins, 2011; McDonald, Flanagan, Rollins, & Kinch, 2003). Examples of social cognition tasks include identifying emotions, theory of mind (ability to understand and attribute others’ mental states), and knowledge of social pragmatics (Green, Olivier, Crawley, Penn, & Silverstein, 2005).…”