Behavioral Social Neuroscience Seminar

Thursday, November 12, 2015

4:00pm to 5:00pm

Baxter B125

Emotion inside out: From cartoon neuroscience to the predictive brain

Lisa Feldman Barrett, University Distinguished Professor, Department of Psychology, Northeastern University,

Abstract:

This talk will review theory and research to reveal the surprising ways in which the brain uses prediction to construct experiences and perceptions of emotion. Two themes will be covered: (1) the shift from typological thinking (an emotion has a particular facial expression and autonomic fingerprint) to population thinking (an emotion word names a population of unique instances tailored to the specifics of the immediate situation); (2) the shift from essentialism (all instances of an emotion category share an underlying neural circuit) to degeneracy (instances of an emotion category are constructed as different configurations within the brain's functional architecture of interacting domain-general core networks). These themes represent a shift in the scientific paradigm for mapping brain structure and function to mental categories. They dissolve the artificial boundaries between cognitive, affective, and social neuroscience to unify the mind and provide new opportunities for understanding mental disorders, neurodegenerative disorders, and even physical illness.

For more information, please contact Barbara Estrada by phone at 626-395-4083 or by email at [email protected].

Event Series

Behavioral Social Neuroscience Seminar Series (BSN)

Event Sponsors

Division of the Humanities and Social Sciences More Events from this Sponsor