Neuromodulation, Emotional Feelings and Affective Disorders

Abstract

Affective disorders such as anxiety, phobia and depression are a leading cause of disabilities worldwide. Monoamine neuromodulators are used to treat most of them, with variable degrees of efficacy. Here, we review and interpret experimental findings about the relation of neuromodulation and emotional feelings, in pursuit of two goals: (a) to improve the conceptualisation of affective/emotional states, and (b) to develop a descriptive model of basic emotional feelings related to the actions of neuromodulators. In this model, we hypothesize that specific neuromodulators are effective for basic emotions. The model can be helpful for mental health professionals to better understand the affective dynamics of persons and the actions of neuromodulators - and respective psychoactive drugs - on this dynamics.

A Model for Basic Emotions Using Observations of Behavior in Drosophila

“…As such, Jack et al (2014) proposed that we humans have four basic emotions: fear, anger, joy, and sad. Notably, other authors have also proposed fear, anger, joy, and sadness as four basic emotions (Gu et al, 2015, 2016; Wang and Pereira, 2016; Zheng et al, 2016). As Izard said: people need the category label of fear to explain flight to one another for safety, anger to explain the frustration of blocked goal responses, joy (or its equivalent) to explain the pride of achievement, and sadness to explain the experience of a life-changing loss (Izard, 2007).…”

“…Every stimulation event has two features: whether it is fit for our needs (hedonic value), and whether it happens as expected (arousal) (Figure 1, right). These two features correspond to the two core affects: the hedonic value that represents a physiological need, and the safety value represents the way the stimulus happens (Wang and Pereira, 2016; Zheng et al, 2016). The two-dimensional coordinate plane or the core affects also represents these values of the stimulus: whether it happens as expected, and whether it is fit for our needs (Gu et al, 2016).…”

“…However, the emotion induced behaviors have two features: the direction and the tension of the behavior (LeDoux, 1998; LeDoux and Brown, 2017). These features can be reflected on the dimensions: hedonic value decides the approach/avoidance, the vertical dimensions decides the tension of the behavior (Wang and Pereira, 2016; Zheng et al, 2016). Thus, the locations of the emotions on the dimension can also be determined by the behaviors they might induce.…”

The Neural Mechanism Underlying Cognitive and Emotional Processes in Creativity

“…Therefore, it is concluded that we humans have four basic elements of emotion: happy, sad, fear/surprise, and angry/disgust, and these four emotions are the basic building blocks from which we develop our modern, complex, and emotional stews ( Jack et al, 2014 ). Consistently, several other papers also proposed four basic elements for emotion: fear, anger, happiness, and sadness ( Gu et al, 2015 , 2016 ; Wang and Pereira, 2016 ; Zheng et al, 2016 ).…”

“…Monoamine neuromodulators are proposed to be substrates for the basic emotions: dopamine-pleasant, serotonin-displeasant, and norepinephrine-arousal ( Lovheim, 2012 ; Gu et al, 2016 ; Wang and Pereira, 2016 ), like the three primary colors (Figure 3 ). However, even though numerous studies from different fields support the notion that all three monoamines are involved in affective diseases, their effects are still mixed.…”