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Information concerning the book can be found at: http://www.cns.nyu.edu/home/ledoux/book.html
In his new book to be published in November New York University neural scientist Joseph E. LeDoux explores emotions as biological functions of the nervous system and illustrates that studying how emotions are represented in the brain can lead to knowl edge not possible through psychological experimentation alone.
A professor of neural science and psychology at NYU's Center for Neural Science, LeDoux has been studying the neurobiological basis of emotions since the 1970s. His work is based upon research that indicates there are multiple emotion systems, each hav ing evolved for different functional purposes -- from response to fear to love -- and that each gives rise to different kinds of emotions.
In his book, The Emotional Brain: The Mysterious Underpinnings of Emotional Life, published by Simon & Schuster, LeDoux concentrates on the emotion of fear and notes that each system must be studied independently to fully understand how the emotions o f the mind truly work.
"Joseph LeDoux took a courageous step when, in the 1970s, he started to work on the neurobiology of emotion," said J. Anthony Movshon, director of the Center for Neural Science and professor of neural science. "Though interest in this field extends at least as far back as Charles Darwin, it had become something of a backwater. LeDoux's work has re-established emotion as a major topic in neurobiology, and The Emotional Brain is an elegant synthesis of the field. It will be important to both neurobiolo gists and others for a long time to come."
Much of the new information about the neural circuits underlying emotion stems from the premise that the circuits that support emotional expression were highly conserved through evolution. Understanding fear mechanisms in animals, explains LeDoux, may help in understanding fear (and possibly other emotions) in people.
LeDoux draws heavily from his own research into the brain's "fear system," which suggests that unconscious fear-related memories imprinted on the brain can result in deep-rooted neurotic anxiety, phobias, panic attacks or post-traumatic stress disorder s. Not the least important is the suggestion that therapy might actually rewire the brain's pathways.
Much of LeDoux's research is centered on the amygdala, a tiny structure deep in the brain that is crucial for the formation of memories about significant emotional experiences. Previously, brain researchers focused attention on conscious feelings and c ognitive processes such as perception and memory in understanding emotions. This has interfered with an understanding of how the real emotional brain works.
Now researchers such as LeDoux are finding that neural circuits -- the actual networks of cells that crisscross the brain and send projections through the body -- actually comprise the biological basis for emotions.
"LeDoux's work represents some of the most innovative and creative thinking in the neurosciences today and is representative of the strong emphasis being placed on development of the brain sciences at NYU, especially in areas that are at the forefront of multidisciplinary research," said Philip Furmanski, dean of the Faculty of Arts and Science, chair of the biology department and professor of biology. "We are particularly proud of our renowned faculty in neural and cognitive sciences in the Center for Neural Sciences and in our departments of psychology, philosophy and mathematics."
Among LeDoux's key findings are:
* The brain has pathways for processing information that allow us to have emotional reactions before we know to what we are reacting. In other words, much of the emotional brain works in a subconscious way.
he limbic system, once believed to be the emotional brain, is no longer an adequate explanation of where our emotions come from.
DIfferent emotions have their own systems and failure to recognize this has impeded progress.
Emotional memories and memories of emotions are two different things. The former work unconsciously, the latter consciously. Only by studying emotion and memory in the brain are we able to understand the distinction.
Emotional feelings result when we become consciously aware that an emotion system of the brain is active. Any organism that has consciousness also has feelings. However, feelings will be different in a brain that can classify the world linguistically a nd categorize experiences in words than in a brain that cannot.
* The difference between fear, anxiety, terror, apprehension, etc. would not be possible without language. At the same time, none of these words would have any point were it not for the existence of an underlying emotion system that generates brain sta tes and body emotion.
"In this (decade of the brain), as many neuroscientists are mapping the circuitry for short and long-term memory, LeDoux adds an important dimension to understanding these complex processes," said Alice Huang, dean for science and professor of biology. "In the end, by knowing our emotions, they may be turned to always serve constructive means."
LeDoux's work indicates that emotions evolved not as conscious feelings, linguistically differentiated or not, but as brain states and bodily responses. The brain states and bodily responses are the fundamental facets of an emotion, and the conscious f eelings are the frills that have added icing to the emotional cake.