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A sensorimotor control framework for understanding emotional communication and regulation
Justin H G Williams Charlotte F Huggins Barbra Zupan Megan Willis Tamsyn E Van Rheenen Wataru Sato Romina Palermo Catherine Ortner Martin Krippl Mariska Kret
Justin H G Williams
Charlotte F Huggins
Barbra Zupan
Megan Willis
Tamsyn E Van Rheenen
Wataru Sato
Romina Palermo
Catherine Ortner
Martin Krippl
Mariska Kret
Abstract
Our research team was asked to consider the relationship of the neuroscience of sensorimotor control to the language of emotions and feelings. Actions are the principal means for the communication of emotions and feelings in both humans and other animals, and the allostatic mechanisms controlling action also apply to the regulation of emotional states by the self and others. We consider how motor control of hierarchically organised, feedback-based, goal-directed action has evolved in humans, within a context of consciousness, appraisal and cultural learning, to serve emotions and feelings. In our linguistic analysis, we found that many emotion and feelings words could be assigned to stages in the sensorimotor learning process, but the assignment was often arbitrary. The embodied nature of emotional communication means that action words are frequently used, but that the meanings or senses of the word depend on its contextual use, just as the relationship of an action to an emotion is also contextually dependent.
Keywords
emotion, feeling, action, facial expression, motor, sensorimotor, planning, linguistics, emotion regulation, cognitive appraisal, embodied cognition, mirror neurons
Date
2020
Type
Journal article
Journal
Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews
Book
Volume
112
Issue
Page Range
503-518
Article Number
ACU Department
School of Behavioural and Health Sciences
Faculty of Health Sciences
Faculty of Health Sciences
Relation URI
Source URL
Event URL
Open Access Status
Published as ‘gold’ (paid) open access
License
CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
File Access
Open