Studies // Cited work
The brain basis of emotion: A meta-analytic review
Lindquist, K. A., Wager, T. D., Kober, H., Bliss-Moreau, E., & Barrett, L. F. (2012). The brain basis of emotion: A meta-analytic review.
Level D Meta-analysis doi:10.1017/S0140525X11000446
What this study supports
Supports the claim that there was little evidence for consistent and specific localisation of discrete emotion categories to distinct brain regions, and that interacting regions also involved in non-emotional operations were active across categories. Imaging findings are correlational with respect to emotion categories, so it is graded D; it was published with open peer commentaries, which were not reviewed here.
- Who was studied
- Meta-analytic summary of human neuroimaging studies of emotion experience and perception; the abstract does not state the number of studies.
- Design
- Meta-analysis
- Level of evidence
- Cross-sectional, observational, qualitative work and narrative reviews.
Claims that rest on it
Each claim states what the site asserts, at what strength, and with what caveat.
A meta-analysis of human neuroimaging studies found little evidence that discrete emotion categories are consistently and specifically localised to distinct brain regions; interacting regions also involved in non-emotional operations were active across a range of emotion categories.
- Scope
- Human neuroimaging studies of emotion experience and perception available to a 2012 synthesis.
- Caveat
- The synthesis weighs two theoretical approaches and favours one; it does not settle the debate between them, and later imaging work is not assessed here.
Last reviewed · Review due · measuring-no-discrete-brain-localization
Meta-analyses found little evidence that discrete emotion categories map consistently and specifically onto distinct brain regions or autonomic response patterns; an earlier review, a partial counterpoint, reported considerable autonomic specificity when emotion subtypes are considered.
- Scope
- Laboratory neuroimaging and psychophysiology studies of emotion categories.
- Caveat
- Absence of a consistent signature across studies does not show that categories are unreal; multivariate methods and different inductions may yield different patterns.
Last reviewed · Review due · no-consistent-category-signature