The quartet theory of human emotions: An integrative and neurofunctional model

Koelsch, Stefan; Jacobs, Arthur; Menninghaus, Winfried; Liebal, Katja; Klann-Delius, Gisela; Scheve, Christian von; Gebauer, Günter

doi:10.1016/j.plrev.2015.03.001

Cited by 169 publications

(120 citation statements)

References 240 publications

(246 reference statements)

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“…Lower FA in the uncinate may point to a dysfunctional interaction between the orbitofrontal-centered and hippocampal affect systems as defined in the recently published Quartet Theory on Emotions (Koelsch et al, 2015). The theory suggests that four different affect systems in the brain generate different classes of affect.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 98%

White matter structure in the uncinate fasciculus: Implications for socio-affective deficits in Autism Spectrum Disorder

Samson

Dougherty

Lee

et al. 2016

Psychiatry Research: Neuroimaging

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a b s t r a c tIndividuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) have social and communication deficits and difficulties regulating emotions. The brain bases of these socio-affective deficits are not yet clear, but one candidate is structural connectivity in the left uncinate fasciculus, which connects limbic temporal and frontal areas thought to be involved in socio-affective processing. In this study, we assessed white matter structure in the left and right uncinate fasciculus in 18 high-functioning individuals with ASD and 18 group-matched typically developing (TD) controls using Diffusion Tensor Imaging. To test specificity of the associations, we also examined the association between both uncinate fasciculi and restricted and repetitive behaviors. Compared to TD individuals, individuals with ASD had significantly lower fractional anisotropy (FA) in the left and right uncinate. Group status significantly moderated the association between left uncinate and socio-affective deficits, indicating that within the ASD group, FA was associated with socio-affective deficits: Individuals with ASD with lower FA in the left uncinate had significantly more social and emotion regulation deficits. There was no association with restricted and repetitive behaviors. This study provides evidence that the left uncinate may play a critical role in socio-affective skills in individuals with ASD.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 98%

White matter structure in the uncinate fasciculus: Implications for socio-affective deficits in Autism Spectrum Disorder

Samson

Dougherty

Lee

et al. 2016

Psychiatry Research: Neuroimaging

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“…It may be true that in the context of Berlyne’s theory, which has arousal at its core, the relationship between hedonic tone and complexity may not always follow an inverted-U curve; however, arousal may still play a decisive role during esthetic episodes (Marin and Leder, 2013). Consequently, we highlight not only the need to study autonomic arousal but also the investigation of brain correlates of subjective arousal levels that may be associated with different neural affect systems (Koelsch et al, 2015) during esthetic experiences.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Berlyne Revisited: Evidence for the Multifaceted Nature of Hedonic Tone in the Appreciation of Paintings and Music

Marin

Lampatz

Wandl

et al. 2016

Front. Hum. Neurosci.

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In his seminal book on esthetics, Berlyne (1971) posited an inverted-U relationship between complexity and hedonic tone in arts appreciation, however, converging evidence for his theory is still missing. The disregard of the multidimensionality of complexity may explain some of the divergent results. Here, we argue that definitions of hedonic tone are manifold and systematically examined whether the nature of the relationship between complexity and hedonic tone is determined by the specific measure of hedonic tone. In Experiment 1, we studied three picture categories with similar affective and semantic contents: 96 affective environmental scenes, which were also converted into 96 cartoons, and 96 representational paintings. Complexity varied along the dimension of elements. In a between-subjects design, each stimulus was presented for 5 s to 206 female participants. Subjective ratings of hedonic tone (either beauty, pleasantness or liking), arousal, complexity and familiarity were collected in three conditions per stimulus set. Complexity and arousal were positively associated in all conditions, with the strongest association observed for paintings. For environmental scenes and cartoons, there was no significant association between complexity and hedonic tone, and the three measures of hedonic tone were highly correlated (all rs > 0.85). As predicted, in paintings the measures of hedonic tone were less strongly correlated (all rs > 0.73), and when controlling for familiarity, the association with complexity was significantly positive for beauty (rs = 0.26), weakly negative for pleasantness (rs = -0.16) and not present for liking. Experiment 2 followed a similar approach and 77 female participants, all non-musicians, rated 92 musical excerpts (15 s) in three conditions of hedonic tone (either beauty, pleasantness or liking). Results indicated a strong relationship between complexity and arousal (all rs > 0.85). When controlling for familiarity effects, the relationship between complexity and beauty followed an inverted-U curve, whereas the relationship between complexity and pleasantness was negative (rs = -0.26) and the one between complexity and liking positive (rs = 0.29). We relate our results to Berlyne’s theory and the latest findings in neuroaesthetics, proposing that future studies need to acknowledge the multifaceted nature of hedonic tone in esthetic experiences of artforms.

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“…In the emerging field of neurocognitive poetics, not addressed in Brown et al’s meta-analysis, the Panksepp-Jakobson Hypothesis (Jacobs, 2015b) expresses this similarly in an attempt to bridge the language-emotion gap. This concerns the gap between neurobiological theories of emotion, as perhaps best represented by Panksepp’s (1998) core affect systems theory, and complex (psycho-)linguistic models, as exemplified by Jakobson’s (1960) extended version of Bühler’s (1934) ‘organon model’ of language functions (Jacobs et al, 2015; see Koelsch et al, 2015, for a theory linking emotion and language). Stated simply, the Panksepp-Jakobson Hypothesis submits that since evolution had no time to invent a proper affective system for art reception, even less so for reading, the emotional and aesthetic processes we experience when reading must be somehow linked to the ancient neuronal affect circuits we share with all mammals (Panksepp, 1998).…”

Section: The Role Of Valence and Beauty In Theories Of Emotion Aesthmentioning

confidence: 99%

On Elementary Affective Decisions: To Like Or Not to Like, That Is the Question

2016

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Perhaps the most ubiquitous and basic affective decision of daily life is deciding whether we like or dislike something/somebody, or, in terms of psychological emotion theories, whether the object/subject has positive or negative valence. Indeed, people constantly make such liking decisions within a glimpse and, importantly, often without expecting any obvious benefit or knowing the exact reasons for their judgment. In this paper, we review research on such elementary affective decisions (EADs) that entail no direct overt reward with a special focus on Neurocognitive Poetics and discuss methods and models for investigating the neuronal and cognitive-affective bases of EADs to verbal materials with differing degrees of complexity. In line with evolutionary and appraisal theories of (aesthetic) emotions and data from recent neurocognitive studies, the results of a decision tree modeling approach simulating EADs to single words suggest that a main driving force behind EADs is the extent to which such high-dimensional stimuli are associated with the “basic” emotions joy/happiness and disgust.

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The quartet theory of human emotions: An integrative and neurofunctional model

Cited by 169 publications

References 240 publications

White matter structure in the uncinate fasciculus: Implications for socio-affective deficits in Autism Spectrum Disorder

White matter structure in the uncinate fasciculus: Implications for socio-affective deficits in Autism Spectrum Disorder

Berlyne Revisited: Evidence for the Multifaceted Nature of Hedonic Tone in the Appreciation of Paintings and Music

On Elementary Affective Decisions: To Like Or Not to Like, That Is the Question

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