title: The experience of emotion.
abstract: Experiences of emotion are content-rich events that emerge at the level of psychological description, but must be causally constituted by neurobiological processes. This chapter outlines an emerging scientific agenda for understanding what these experiences feel like and how they arise. We review the available answers to what is felt (i.e., the content that makes up an experience of emotion) and how neurobiological processes instantiate these properties of experience. These answers are then integrated into a broad framework that describes, in psychological terms, how the experience of emotion emerges from more basic processes. We then discuss the role of such experiences in the economy of the mind and behavior.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Boston College, Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts 02467, USA. barretli@bc.edu
authors.forename: Lisa Feldman
authors.initials: LF
authors.lastname: Barrett
authors.forename: Batja
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Mesquita
authors.forename: Kevin N
authors.initials: KN
authors.lastname: Ochsner
authors.forename: James J
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Gross
mesh_terms: D000339:Affect / Q000502:physiology; D001364:Awareness / Q000502:physiology*; D001921:Brain / Q000502:physiology; D001931:Brain Mapping; D003210:Concept Formation; D004644:Emotions / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D021621:Imaging, Three-Dimensional; D007389:Internal-External Control; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D019222:Mind-Body Relations, Metaphysical; D009415:Nerve Net; D012919:Social Behavior