Temporal dynamics and potential neural sources of goal conduciveness, control, and power appraisal

Temporal Unfolding of Micro-valences in Facial Expression Evoked by Visual, Auditory, and Olfactory Stimuli

Appraisal theories suggest that valence appraisal should be differentiated into micro-valences, such as intrinsic pleasantness and goal-/need-related appraisals. In contrast to a macro-valence approach, this dissociation explains, among other things, the emergence of mixed or blended emotions. Here, we extend earlier research that showed that these valence types can be empirically dissociated. We examine the timing and the response patterns of these two micro-valences via measuring facial muscle activity changes (electromyography, EMG) over the brow and the cheek regions. In addition, we explore the effects of the sensory stimulus modality (vision, audition, and olfaction) on these patterns. The two micro-valences were manipulated in a social judgment task: first, intrinsic un/pleasantness (IP) was manipulated by exposing participants to appropriate stimuli presented in different sensory domains followed by a goal conduciveness/obstruction (GC) manipulation consisting of feedback on participants' judgments that were congruent or incongruent with their task-related goal. The results show significantly different EMG responses and timing patterns for both types of micro-valence, confirming the prediction that they are independent, consecutive parts of the appraisal process. Moreover, the lack of interaction effects with the sensory stimulus modality suggests high generalizability of the underlying appraisal mechanisms across different perception channels.

Studying appraisal-driven emotion processes: taking stock and moving to the future

Appraisal theories of emotion, and particularly the Component Process Model, have claimed over the past three decades that the different components of the emotion process (action tendencies, physiological reactions, expressions, and feeling experiences) are essentially driven by the results of multi-level cognitive appraisals and that the feeling component constitutes a central integration and representation of these processes. Given the complexity of the proposed architecture of emotion generation, comprehensive experimental tests of these predictions are difficult to perform and thus evidence has been slow to appear. Complementing earlier work on self-reported appraisal, a massive amount of empirical results from studies with experimental designs based on appraisal manipulation, using electroencephalographic and electromyographic measures, now confirms many of the theoretical predictions with respect to the effect of different appraisal checks, their interactions, and their exact timing. A major issue for future research is the nature of the coherence or synchronisation of the appraisal-driven components in the unfolding emotion process. It is suggested that interdisciplinary multi-team research will be needed to face the theoretical and methodological challenges of experimentally investigating the dynamics of the emotion process.

The Emotion Process: Event Appraisal and Component Differentiation

Much emotion research has focused on the end result of the emotion process, categorical emotions, as reported by the protagonist or diagnosed by the researcher, with the aim of differentiating these discrete states. In contrast, this review concentrates on the emotion process itself by examining how ( a) elicitation, or the appraisal of events, leads to ( b) differentiation, in particular, action tendencies accompanied by physiological responses and manifested in facial, vocal, and gestural expressions, before ( c) conscious representation or experience of these changes (feeling) and ( d) categorizing and labeling these changes according to the semantic profiles of emotion words. The review focuses on empirical, particularly experimental, studies from emotion research and neighboring domains that contribute to a better understanding of the unfolding emotion process and the underlying mechanisms, including the interactions among emotion components.

An Appraisal-Driven Componential Approach to the Emotional Brain

This article suggests that methodological and conceptual advancements in affective sciences militate in favor of adopting an appraisal-driven componential approach to further investigate the emotional brain. Here we propose to operationalize this approach by distinguishing five functional networks of the emotional brain: (a) the elicitation network, (b) the expression network, (c) the autonomic reaction network, (d) the action tendency network, and (e) the feeling network, and discuss these networks in the context of the affective neuroscience literature. We also propose that further investigating the “appraising brain” is the royal road to better understand the elicitation network, and may be key to revealing the neural causal mechanisms underlying the emotion process as a whole.

The Affective Core of Emotion: Linking Pleasure, Subjective Well-Being, and Optimal Metastability in the Brain

Arguably, emotion is always valenced-either pleasant or unpleasant-and dependent on the pleasure system. This system serves adaptive evolutionary functions; relying on separable wanting, liking, and learning neural mechanisms mediated by mesocorticolimbic networks driving pleasure cycles with appetitive, consummatory, and satiation phases. Liking is generated in a small set of discrete hedonic hotspots and coldspots, while wanting is linked to dopamine and to larger distributed brain networks. Breakdown of the pleasure system can lead to anhedonia and other features of affective disorders. Eudaimonia and well-being are difficult to study empirically, yet whole-brain computational models could offer novel insights (e.g., routes to eudaimonia such as caregiving of infants or music) potentially linking eudaimonia to optimal metastability in the pleasure system.