Forebrain psychophysiology of feelings: interest and involvement.

i Some two decades ago, I wrote: There is a convergence between earlier biological theories of emotion and a current, The current presentation stems from two apparfar more comprehensive view. The medieval humeral theoent paradoxes that must still be addressed by any ries find a berth in current endocrine research. Lange's viscomprehensive theory of emotion. One concerns ceral theory is confirmed as taking part in the arousal mechanism that provides feelings of interest, novelty, familiarity, and more painful disruptions of stable states. James' emphasis on a report to the brain of bodily responses is shown to be a manifestation of the brain's representation of familiar body responses so that departures from the familiar are arousing. Cannon's thalamic theory is supported by the documentation that the diencephalon is a prime locus for receptors sensitive to the humors that determine the body's chemical response systems and thus central to the (homeostatic) maintenance of the stable representations of body states. Papez' and MacLean's extension of Cannon's brain locus to the limbic forebrain is also amply supported-and one must now add (as foreshadowed by Nina Bull's attitude theory) the basal ganglia as well-in that limbic formations and basal ganglia are shown to be part of the neurochemical regulating mechanisms responsible for stable states and the sensing of departures from such stable states. Such departures were at an earlier time enco~npassed by Lindsley, by Dufy, and by Malmo under the banner of activation theory. Finally, as demanded by clinical evidence and social psychological experiment, the cerebral isocortex is not exempt from playing a critical role in the organization of emotional and motivational experience and expression. Laboratory evidence has shown that the intrinsic portions of the cerebral cortex, the 'association' corteces of the posterior convexity and of the frontal pole, exert their influence via the basal ganglia, the forebrain focus of the arousal and readiness systems. This cortical control accounts for the specific 'labeling' of feelings-Pribram (19801, p. 245.