Back in the day, like way back (1987), there was an anti-drug ad campaign in which the frying of an egg in a very hot pan was likened to the effect of drugs on your brain. For the uninitiated, the egg is your brain; the hot pan is the drugs. Put the former in the latter and all hell breaks loose. (Don’t do drugs, children.)
In this blog, we’re instead going to liken that very hot pan to emotions and affective processes. In a series of blog posts, many authored by students enrolled in my seminar in affective neuroscience at Tufts University, we’ll be cooking up** a variety of topics all addressing how it is that the brain represents emotions and affective processes – things like rage, stress, joy, panic, delight, and despair. Each post will offer some useful conclusions that might be drawn on the basis of the available scientific literature. We hope that these posts will be both interesting and informative and we welcome your comments.
First posts will be published on or around Friday, October 10, 2014. Stay tuned.
** Rest assured; no eggs (or brains) will be harmed in the making of this blog.