4.1 The neurobiology of emotions
Panksepp argued that ‘an understanding of the
Studying emotion in animals has a number of advantages, including the ability to examine emotions in a ‘raw’ state unaffected by human higher cognitive processes and
In such studies, the test subjects can be given control over the electrical stimulation of their own brains; for example, by pressing a lever to switch the electrical stimulation on or off. If the animal chooses to switch the stimulation on, that is considered to be evidence that the electrical stimulation produces a rewarding effect, indicating that the brain region where the electrode is located is involved in a positive emotion. The converse, of course, applies if the animal actively avoids stimulation, as that indicates that the brain area is involved in a negative, aversive emotion. This methodology, although originally developed in the 1950s, is still used to provide insight into the neural underpinnings of behaviour, particularly emotional motivational behaviour (e.g. Carlezon and Chartoff, 2007).