Abstract
Following the neurophenomenological approach, we propose a model of emotional emergence that identifies the experimental structures of time (i.e., anticipation, crisis, and aftermath) involved in emotional experience and their plausible components in terms of cognition, physiology, and neuroscience. We argue that surprise, as a lived experience, and its physiological correlates of the startle reflex and cardiac defense are the core of the dynamic, and that the heart system sets temporally in motion the dynamic of emotional emergence. Finally, in reference to Craig’s model of emotion, we propose an integrative model of the temporal dynamic of emotional emergence that allows emotions to be distinguished depending on each temporal phase and that involves the following three systems: the brain (3rd person), the consciousness (1st person), and the doubled-sided (subjective/objective) continuum of the body-heart context, with the heart as the focus within the body during emotion. This model provides the framework for future developments in 1st- and 3rd-person approaches for an integrative understanding of the science of emotion, including the fields of psychophysiology and psychopathology.
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
In order to clearly distinguish the experimental method of the description of lived experiences from the philosophy of Phenomenology, we capitalize Phenomenology when referring to the philosophy but not when referring to the experimental method, according to previous suggestion (Depraz et al. 2003).
By ‘emotional experience’ we understand a lived subjective experience with an emotional quality, leaving open the possibility for other lived subjective experiences to be non-emotional: perceptive-cognitive, imaginative, memory, linguistic, social, etc.
Although Heidegger proposed a similar position in Being and Time (Heidegger 1973) of an affect-laden future-oriented lived time, we didn’t refer to his account for two reasons: 1) Heidegger’s existential level of analysis is overly macro-embedded in that it hardly allows for the possibility of a fine-grained subjective description that can be mapped onto the micro-physiological and neuro-dynamics of time, which is the goal of our discussion of neurophenomenology; and 2) Heidegger’s account is primarily one-sided with a negative valence (e.g., anguish and boredom), whereas our core interest for surprise is more encompassing of the valence of emotions, particularly the transversal of positive–negative polarization.
A pre-conscious level refers to a level of consciousness that is neither reflexive not strictly unconscious given that it has the possibility to be brought into consciousness.
Our main understanding of surprise is that it reflects the global temporal dynamic of emotional emergence but it has also other acceptations we consider as well, including surprise as 1) a startle reaction, as 2) the onset of the crisis after experience a strong emotional stimulus and as 3) the emergence of an occurrence linked to a rupture in the flowing of time.
References
Belzung, C. (2007). Biologie des émotions. De Boeck Supérieur.
Bermpohl, F., Pascual-Leone, A., Amedi, A., Merabet, L. B., Fregni, F., Gaab, N., & Northoff, G. (2006). Dissociable networks for the expectancy and perception of emotional stimuli in the human brain. NeuroImage, 30(2), 588–600.
Berns, G. S., Chappelow, J., Cekic, M., Zink, C. F., Pagnoni, G., & Martin-Skurski, M. E. (2006). Neurobiological substrates of dread. Science, 312(5774), 754–758.
Berridge, K. C., Robinson, T. E., & Aldridge, J. W. (2009). Dissecting components of reward: « liking », « wanting », and learning. Current Opinion in Pharmacology, 9(1), 65–73.
Breznitz, S., Ben-Zur, H., Berzon, Y., Weiss, D. W., Levitan, G., Tarcic, N., & Zinder, O. (1998). Experimental induction and termination of acute psychological stress in human volunteers: effects on immunological, neuroendocrine, cardiovascular, and psychological parameters. Brain Behavior and Immunity, 12(1), 34–52.
Brosschot, J. F., Gerin, W., & Thayer, J. F. (2006). The perseverative cognition hypothesis: a review of worry, prolonged stress-related physiological activation, and health. Journal of Psychosomatic Research, 60(2), 113–124.
Brunia, C. H. (1988). Movement and stimulus preceding negativity. Biological Psychology, 26(1–3), 165–178.
Cannon, W. (1927). The James-Lange theory of emotions - a critical-examination and an alternative theory. American Journal of Psychology, 39, 106–124.
Craig, A. D. (2002). How do you feel? interoception: the sense of the physiological condition of the body. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 3(8), 655–666.
Craig, A. D. (2009a). How do you feel–now? the anterior insula and human awareness. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 10(1), 59–70.
Craig, A. D. (2009b). Emotional moments across time: a possible neural basis for time perception in the anterior insula. Philosophical transactions of the royal society of London. Series B Biological sciences, 364(1525), 1933–1942.
Darwin, C. R. (1873). The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals. D. Appleton and Company.
Davidson, D. (2004). Problems of rationalit. Oxford: Clarendon Press; Oxford University Press.
Dennett, D. C. (2001). Surprise, surprise. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 24(05), 982–982.
Depraz, N. (2001). Lucidité du corps: De l’empirisme transcendantal en phénoménologie. Springer.
Depraz, N. (2008). The rainbow of emotions: at the crossroads of neurobiology and phenomenology. Continental Philosophy Review, 41, 237–259.
Depraz, N. (2009). Plus sur Husserl: une phénoménologie expérientielle. Neuilly: Atlande.
Depraz, N., Varela, F. J., & Vermersch, P. (2003). On Becoming Aware: A pragmatics of experiencing. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company.
Depraz, N. (in preparation) - Pays Germanique - UMR 8547 « les archives Husserl de Paris », ENS-CNRS, Paris, France. (s. d.). Consulté à l’adresse http://www.umr8547.ens.fr/spip.php?rubrique50.
Dorr, N., Brosschot, J. F., Sollers, J. J., 3rd, & Thayer, J. F. (2007). Damned if you do, damned if you don’t: the differential effect of expression and inhibition of anger on cardiovascular recovery in black and white males. International Journal of Psychophysiology, 66(2), 125–134.
Ekman, P., & Davidson, R. J. (1994). The Nature of Emotion: Fundamental Questions. Oxford University Press
Eryilmaz, H., Van De Ville, D., Schwartz, S., & Vuilleumier, P. (2011). Impact of transient emotions on functional connectivity during subsequent resting state: a wavelet correlation approach. NeuroImage, 54(3), 2481–2491.
Gallagher, S. (2005). How the Body Shapes the Mind. Oxford University Press
Gilbert, D. T., & Wilson, T. D. (2009). Why the brain talks to itself: sources of error in emotional prediction. Philosophical transactions of the royal society of London. Series B Biological sciences, 364(1521), 1335–1341.
Grillon, C., & Baas, J. (2003). A review of the modulation of the startle reflex by affective states and its application in psychiatry. Clinical Neurophysiology, 114(9), 1557–1579.
Hall, M., Vasko, R., Buysse, D., Ombao, H., Chen, Q., Cashmere, J. D., & Thayer, J. F. (2004). Acute stress affects heart rate variability during sleep. Psychosomatic Medicine, 66(1), 56–62.
Heidegger, M. (1973). Being and Time. Basil Blackwell.
Herwig, U., Baumgartner, T., Kaffenberger, T., Brühl, A., Kottlow, M., Schreiter-Gasser, U., & Rufer, M. (2007). Modulation of anticipatory emotion and perception processing by cognitive control. NeuroImage, 37(2), 652–662.
Hume, D. (1739). A Treatise of Human Nature. Digireads.com Publishing.
Husserl, E. (1973). Experience and Judgment. Northwestern University Press.
Husserl, E. (1991). Collected Works: On the phenomenology of the consciousness of internal time (1893–1917). Kluwer Academic Pub.
Husserl, E. (2001). Analyses Concerning Passive and Active Synthesis: Lectures on Transcendental Logic. Springer.
James, W. (1884). What is an emotion? Mind, os-IX(34), (pp. 188–205).
James, W. (1918). The Principles of Psychology. H. Holt.
Jänig, W. (1996). Neurobiology of visceral afferent neurons: neuroanatomy, functions, organ regulations and sensations. Biological Psychology, 42(1–2), 29–51.
Jänig, W. (2006). Integrative Action of the Autonomic Nervous System. Cambridge University Press.
Knutson, B., & Greer, S. M. (2008). Anticipatory affect: neural correlates and consequences for choice. Philosophical transactions of the royal society of London. Series B Biological sciences, 363(1511), 3771–3786.
Knutson, B., Fong, G. W., Adams, C. M., Varner, J. L., Hommer, D., & Hommer, D. (2001). Dissociation of reward anticipation and outcome with event-related fMRI. Neuroreport, 12(17), 3683–3687.
Kotani, Y., Ohgami, Y., Kuramoto, Y., Tsukamoto, T., Inoue, Y., & Aihara, Y. (2009). The role of the right anterior insular cortex in the right hemisphere preponderance of stimulus-preceding negativity (SPN): an fMRI study. Neuroscience Letters, 450(2), 75–79.
Lacey, K., Zaharia, M. D., Griffiths, J., Ravindran, A. V., Merali, Z., & Anisman, H. (2000). A prospective study of neuroendocrine and immune alterations associated with the stress of an oral academic examination among graduate students. Psychoneuroendocrinology, 25(4), 339–356.
Lang, P. J., Davis, M., & Ohman, A. (2000). Fear and anxiety: animal models and human cognitive psychophysiology. Journal of Affective Disorders, 61(3), 137–159.
Larsen, B. A., & Christenfeld, N. J. S. (2011). Cognitive distancing, cognitive restructuring, and cardiovascular recovery from stress. Biological Psychology, 86(2), 143–148.
Meinck, H.-M. (2006). Startle and its disorders. Clinical Neurophysiology, 36(5–6), 357–364.
Melzig, C. A., Weike, A. I., Hamm, A. O., & Thayer, J. F. (2009). Individual differences in fear-potentiated startle as a function of resting heart rate variability: implications for panic disorder. International Journal of Psychophysiology, 71(2), 109–117.
Murakami, H., Matsunaga, M., & Ohira, H. (2010). Phasic heart rate responses for anticipated threat situations. International Journal of Psychophysiology, 77(1), 21–25.
Peirce, C. S. (1958). Collected Papers of Charles Sanders Peirce. Harvard University Press.
Petitmengin, C. (2011). Ten years’ viewing from within: further debate. Journal of Consciousness Studies, 18(2).
Pieper, S., Brosschot, J. F., van der Leeden, R., & Thayer, J. F. (2010). Prolonged cardiac effects of momentary assessed stressful events and worry episodes. Psychosomatic Medicine, 72(6), 570–577.
Plutchik, R. (2003). Emotions and life: perspectives from psychology, biology, and evolution. Washington: American Psychological Association.
Poli, S., Sarlo, M., Bortoletto, M., Buodo, G., & Palomba, D. (2007). Stimulus-preceding negativity and heart rate changes in anticipation of affective pictures. International Journal of Psychophysiology, 65(1), 32–39.
Rainville, P., Bechara, A., Naqvi, N., & Damasio, A. R. (2006). Basic emotions are associated with distinct patterns of cardiorespiratory activity. International Journal of Psychophysiology, 61(1), 5–18.
Richter, S., Schulz, A., Port, J., Blumenthal, T. D., & Schächinger, H. (2009). Cardiopulmonary baroreceptors affect reflexive startle eye blink. Physiology & Behavior, 98(5), 587–593.
Ricoeur, P. (1967). Le volontaire et l’involontaire. Aubier.
Ricoeur, P. (1987). Temps et récit, Tome I. Paris: Ed. du Seuil.
Salimpoor, V. N., Benovoy, M., Larcher, K., Dagher, A., & Zatorre, R. J. (2011). Anatomically distinct dopamine release during anticipation and experience of peak emotion to music. Nature Neuroscience, 14(2), 257–262.
Salomon, K., Clift, A., Karlsdóttir, M., & Rottenberg, J. (2009). Major depressive disorder is associated with attenuated cardiovascular reactivity and impaired recovery among those free of cardiovascular disease. Health Psychology, 28(2), 157–165.
Sarinopoulos, I., Grupe, D. W., Mackiewicz, K. L., Herrington, J. D., Lor, M., Steege, E. E., & Nitschke, J. B. (2010). Uncertainty during anticipation modulates neural responses to aversion in human insula and amygdala. Cerebral cortex, 20(4), 929–940.
Schulz, A., Reichert, C. F., Richter, S., Lass-Hennemann, J., Blumenthal, T. D., & Schächinger, H. (2009). Cardiac modulation of startle: effects on eye blink and higher cognitive processing. Brain and Cognition, 71(3), 265–271.
Schwarz, A. M., Schächinger, H., Adler, R. H., & Goetz, S. M. (2003). Hopelessness is associated with decreased heart rate variability during championship chess games. Psychosomatic Medicine, 65(4), 658–661.
Scott, D. J., Stohler, C. S., Egnatuk, C. M., Wang, H., Koeppe, R. A., & Zubieta, J.-K. (2007). Individual differences in reward responding explain placebo-induced expectations and effects. Neuron, 55(2), 325–336.
Seth, A. K. (2013). Interoceptive inference, emotion, and the embodied self. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 17(11), 565–573.
Setlow, B., Schoenbaum, G., & Gallagher, M. (2003). Neural encoding in ventral striatum during olfactory discrimination learning. Neuron, 38(4), 625–636.
Simons, R. F., Ohman, A., & Lang, P. J. (1979). Anticipation and response set: cortical, cardiac, and electrodermal correlates. Psychophysiology, 16(3), 222–233.
Singer, T., Critchley, H. D., & Preuschoff, K. (2009). A common role of insula in feelings, empathy and uncertainty. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 13(8), 334–340.
Smith, A. (1795). SECTION I: Of the Effect of Unexpectedness, or of Surprise. In Essays on Philosophical Subjects. In W. P. D. Wightman & J. C. Bryce (Eds.), vol. III of the Glasgow Edition of the Works and Correspondence of Adam Smith. Indianapolis: Liberty Fund, 1982.
Somsen, R. J. M., Jennings, J. R., & Van der Molen, M. W. (2004). The cardiac cycle time effect revisited: temporal dynamics of the central-vagal modulation of heart rate in human reaction time tasks. Psychophysiology, 41(6), 941–953.
Thayer, J. F., & Lane, R. D. (2009). Claude Bernard and the heart-brain connection: further elaboration of a model of neurovisceral integration. Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews, 33(2), 81–88.
Thayer, J. F., Yamamoto, S. S., & Brosschot, J. F. (2010). The relationship of autonomic imbalance, heart rate variability and cardiovascular disease risk factors. International Journal of Cardiology, 141(2), 122–131.
Tobler, P. N., Fiorillo, C. D., & Schultz, W. (2005). Adaptive coding of reward value by dopamine neurons. Science, 307(5715), 1642–1645.
Turk-Browne, N. B., Scholl, B. J., Johnson, M. K., & Chun, M. M. (2010). Implicit perceptual anticipation triggered by statistical learning. The Journal of Neuroscience, 30(33), 11177–11187.
Varela, F. (1999). The specious present: A neurophenomenology of time consciousness. In Naturalizing Phenomenology: Issues in Contemporary Phenomenology and Cognitive Science. Stanford University Press.
Varela, F. J., & Depraz, N. (2005). At the source of time - valence and the constitutional dynamics of affect. Journal of Consciousness Studies, 12(8–10), 61–81.
Varela, F., Lachaux, J.-P., Rodriguez, E., & Martinerie, J. (2001). The brainweb: phase synchronization and large-scale integration. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 2(4), 229–239.
Varela, F. J. (1996). Neurophenomenology: a methodological remedy for the hard problem. Journal of Consciousness Studies, 3(4), 330–349.
Verkuil, B., Brosschot, J. F., de Beurs, D. P., & Thayer, J. F. (2009). Effects of explicit and implicit perseverative cognition on cardiac recovery after cognitive stress. International Journal of Psychophysiology, 74(3), 220–228.
Vermersch, P. (1994). L’entretien d’explicitation en formation initiale et en formation continue. Paris: ESF.
Vila, J., Guerra, P., Muñoz, M. A., Vico, C., Viedma-del Jesús, M. I., Delgado, L. C., & Rodríguez, S. (2007). Cardiac defense: from attention to action. International Journal of Psychophysiology, 66(3), 169–182.
Vrana, S. R., Spence, E. L., & Lang, P. J. (1988). The startle probe response: a new measure of emotion? Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 97(4), 487–491.
Waugh, C. E., Panage, S., Mendes, W. B., & Gotlib, I. H. (2010). Cardiovascular and affective recovery from anticipatory threat. Biological Psychology, 84(2), 169–175.
Zaki, J., Davis, J. I., & Ochsner, K. N. (2012). Overlapping activity in anterior insula during interoception and emotional experience. NeuroImage, 62(1), 493–499.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Desmidt, T., Lemoine, M., Belzung, C. et al. The temporal dynamic of emotional emergence. Phenom Cogn Sci 13, 557–578 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11097-014-9377-8
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11097-014-9377-8