Phylogeny of Neurological Disorders/Anatomy and Disorders of Basic Emotion in Stroke: In Clinical Neuroanatomy, Brain Structure and Function

The last decades of neuroscience research has produced evidence challenging the classical basic emotion theory considering basic emotions as universal discrete entities with dedicated physiological patterns and neural circuits. These limitations have led to the innovating psychological theory of constructed emotion, positing that emotions are conceptualized as multicomponent constructs resulting in instances of emotion. In this paper, we briefly consider the assumptions and hypotheses supporting these theories and discuss how stroke and brain lesions contribute to clarify the anatomical correlates of emotions. Neuroimaging data on stroke and brain lesions suggest that there is no dedicated brain regions for each emotion category, and that various and redundant regions of the limbic system may be engaged in emotion processes. Finally we discuss whether the concept of human emotions may conceptualized as functionally integrated networks, or may require more extended frameworks such as psychological constructionist and phylogenetical approaches that need further research.