Disorders of Emotional Behaviour and of Autonomic Arousal Resulting from Unilateral Brain Damage

  • Guido Gainotti
Chapter
Part of the Wenner-Gren Center International Symposium Series book series (WGS)

Abstract

The existence of a link between experience of emotions and autonomic arousal has been widely recognized, although with different formulations in the history of psychology. Thus, James (1890) and Lange (1885–1822) suggested that the arousal of specific patterns of autonomic nervous system activity provides the basis, through feed-back from peripheral visceral responses, for qualitative distinctions among emotions. Successive non-specific arousal theories have argued that a quantitative, but no qualitative relationship exists between emotions and autonomic arousal (Duffy, 1962). This non-specific arousal theory has also provided the basis for theories suggesting that undifferentiated arousal is structured by cognitive factors (Schachter and Singer, 1962; Mandler, 1975) producing the impression that each emotion differs in feeling. Even more recently, Ekman et al.(1983) have revisited the specific autonomic arousal hypothesis, showing that different facial emotional expressions are associated with distinct patterns of autonomic activity.

Keywords

Emotional Behavior Hemispheric Asymmetry Emotional Facial Expression Autonomic Nervous System Activity Autonomic Arousal 
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© The Wenner-Gren Center 1987

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  • Guido Gainotti

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