The basic emotional circuits of mammalian brains: Do animals have affective lives?

The primal affects are intrinsic brain value systems that unconditionally and automatically inform animals how they are faring in survival. They serve an essential function in emotional learning. The positive affects index “comfort zones” that support survival, while negative affects inform animals of circumstances that may impair survival. Affective feelings come in several varieties, including sensory, homeostatic, and emotional (which I focus on here). Primary-process emotional feelings arise from ancient caudal and medial subcortical regions, and were among the first subjective experiences to exist on the face of the earth. Without them, higher forms of conscious “awareness” may not have emerged in primate brain evolution. Because of homologous “instinctual” neural infrastructures, we can utilize animal brain research to reveal the nature of primary-process human affects. Since all vertebrates appear to have some capacity for primal affective feelings, the implications for animal-welfare and how we ethically treat other animals are vast.

► It is finally possible to neuroscientifically understand primary human emotional feelings by studying animal emotional behaviors. ► Affective feelings arise from the Unconditioned Emotional Response systems of the brain. ► Seven emotional systems have been identified: They are SEEKING, RAGE, FEAR, CARE, LUST, PANIC/grief and PLAY/joy. ► A detailed preclinical study of mammalian emotional systems provides new scientific foundation for the study and treatment of psychiatric disorders. ► An understanding of these emotional systems can provide a foundation for understanding forms of phenomenal consciousness in animals and humans.