Role of Emotion in Shifting Choice Preference: A Neuroscientific Perspective

What role(s) do emotions have in choice preference? Individuals’ choices depend on their memories and cognition but also on their current emotional state. Emotions can play a necessary functional role in decisionmaking, but in doing this, emotions can alter the stability of the process. The argument for a necessary functional role of emotions is supported by converging evidence from neuropsychological patients with impairments in either emotional responding or in decision-making, alongside human brain imaging. We also point out that functional brain imaging studies need to target brain areas responding to emotion in order to provide stronger evidence for emotion specifically modulating the process of decisionmaking to influence choice preference.