Emotion: The Science of Sentiment, by Dylan Evans, is the featured book for this episode of the Brain Science Podcast. Thanks to Kate from the UK for suggesting this book.

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Transcripts: BSP 1-14
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Show Notes

This episode is a short introduction to the idea that our emotions are an essential part of our intelligence.

We discuss the basic emotions, based on the work of anthropologist Paul Eckman.
We learn about culturally-learned emotions, such as "being a wild pig," which is observed among the Gurumba people of New Guinea.
Paul Griffiths introduced the idea of "higher cognitive emotions."
Emotions seem to exist on a continuum from the highly innate basic emotions to the culturally specific emotions.
The work of Joseph Ledoux and Antonio Damasio reveal that our emotions are an important element of normal intelligence.
We consider how fear actually follows two pathways in the brain.
We consider the role of the limbic system including the amygdala.
We consider the relationship between emotions and mood.
We consider how mood affects memory and decision making.
This includes Robert Zajonc's discovery of the "mere exposure" effect.
We briefly consider the question of whether computers could ever display emotions.