Emotion: Sensory Representation, Reinforcement, and the Temporal Lobe

Abstract

In this article emphasis is placed on the reciprocal relationships between reinforcers and the central representations of extrinsic stimuli. It is argued that an understanding of these processes will prove crucial in an understanding of how adaptive stimulus representations can be formed and how such representations can come to elicit emotions. It is proposed that the evolutionary origin of emotions, which are primarily Seen as energising signals of survival value, arose from the need to Sensitise an animal in the absence of appropriate signals of reinforcement. Evidence is provided that many of these functions take place in the primate temporal lobe.