Es gibt zwei Gründe oder vielmehr Anlässe, die Reihe über den Emotional Turn und die Rechtswissenschaft vorläufig abzubrechen und neu über das Thema nachzudenken. Der erste Anlass ist die Berichterstattung über Olympiade in Paris. Mehr und mehr entsteht bei mir der Eindruck, dass das Wichtigste am Sport nicht Können und Leistung sind, sondern Emotionen, Emotionen der Sportler selbst und Emotionen des Publikums. Sportler reißen die Hände empor, sperren die Mäuler auf, werfen sich zu Boden und springen sich zur Umarmung an. Das Publikum wogt und wedelt und johlt. Und die Journalisten konstatieren Gefühle überall, beteuern ihre eigenen Gefühle und fragen Gefühle ab. Und auch von mir als Zuschauer am Fernseher werden Gefühle gefordert. Gefühle hat man nicht nur zu haben, sondern auch zu zeigen. Vor dem »Orkan der Emotionen«, den die Medien in diesen Tagen vermelden, muss Wissenschaft sich jedenfalls vorläufig in Sicherheit bringen.
Der zweite Anlass ist das Human Affectome Project, auf dass ich erst kürzlich aufmerksam geworden bin. Es tritt mit einem großen Anspruch auf, so groß, als wolle es die Emotionspsychologie auf ein neues, erstmals wissenschaftliches Niveau heben. Jedenfalls muss ich mir den dort entstandenen Literaturkomplex erst einmal ansehen. Vielleicht stellt sich am Ende, wie bei so vielen hochtrabenden Projekten dieser Art, heraus, dass die vier oder fünf Generationen von Psychologen, die sich im Anschluss an William James und Carl Georg Lange mit den Emotionen befassten, das schwierige Thema gar nicht schlecht umzingelt haben.
Vorläufig seien hier drei einschlägige Veröffentlichungen aus dem Human Affectome Project auf Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews von Juni 2022 angezeigt:
Howard Casey Cromwell/Christos Papadelis, Editorial: Mapping the Brain Basis of Feelings, Emotions and Much More: A Special Issue Focused on »The Human Affectome«, Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews 137, June 2022, 104672.
Als Highlights werden hervorgehoben:
- An overall interdisciplinary group was organized and began working on mapping the human affectome.
- The group was divided into twelve teams, each focusing on a main topic in affective neuroscience.
- The twelve reviews completed provide a comprehensive analysis of affect, feeling and emotion with a focus on brain organization and development.
- The reviews are accompanied by a capstone synthesis piece that combines the different topics and produces an overall model for affect and brain function.
Abstract: The Human Affectome Project was launched by the non-profit organization Neuroqualia (www.neuroqualia.org) in 2015 with the seemingly impossible goal: To map a psychological process and form possible definitions and working models for affective states and related emotions. Twelve reviews based on emotions, feelings and motivation were written dedicated to mapping the brain basis of affect. A capstone piece ‘The Human Affectome’ provides a foundation for the special issue by giving detailed up-to-date definitions for key terms including feeling, affect, emotion and mood. Critically, the piece offers an overall model synthesizing three main features of affect: valence, motivation, and arousal. Affect itself is explored as the main umbrella function capturing all feeling states and related processes. Overall, the project and the special issue has been a highly successful interdisciplinary effort producing a novel approach that can be used to understand, guide and revise contemporary research on the brain basis of feeling and how diverse feeling states interact with each other in typical and atypical fashions.
Daniela Schiller und 173 andere, The Human Affectome, Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews 158, März 2024, 105450.
Als Highlights werden hervorgehoben:
- The affective sciences have grown disparate due to differing assumptions.
- A teleological principle for human affective phenomena can organize the field’s assumptions.
- Some affective phenomena adjust based on the comfort zone (affective concerns).
- Others monitor that adaptive process (affective features).
- This Human Affectome framework organizes existing research and provides a research agenda.
Abstract: Over the last decades, theoretical perspectives in the interdisciplinary field of the affective sciences have proliferated rather than converged due to differing assumptions about what human affective phenomena are and how they work. These metaphysical and mechanistic assumptions, shaped by academic context and values, have dictated affective constructs and operationalizations. However, an assumption about the purpose of affective phenomena can guide us to a common set of metaphysical and mechanistic assumptions. In this capstone paper, we home in on a nested teleological principle for human affective phenomena in order to synthesize metaphysical and mechanistic assumptions. Under this framework, human affective phenomena can collectively be considered algorithms that either adjust based on the human comfort zone (affective concerns) or monitor those adaptive processes (affective features). This teleologically-grounded framework offers a principled agenda and launchpad for both organizing existing perspectives and generating new ones. Ultimately, we hope the Human Affectome brings us a step closer to not only an integrated understanding of human affective phenomena, but an integrated field for affective research.
Howard C. Cromwell/Leroy J. Lowe: The Human Affectome Project: A dedication to Jaak Panksepp
Abstract: Mapping the neural basis of the Affectome was certainly the goal of Jaak Panksepp as he extended the work of a long line of thinkers from William James to Paul Maclean. Jaak’s contribution was not just an incremental step, but a move to embrace feelings as a key component of affective science. His goal was to develop objective behavioral measures as he identified the neural substrates associated with affective states. He dedicated his career to studying the biological roots of emotional operating systems and his 1998 book »Affective Neuroscience« stands as a seminal accomplishment that provided a foundation for a field of research that has flourished since. His influences can be seen in many of the reviews created for this project and his early references to comfort zones are central to the human affectome. Indeed, Jaak was a tireless investigator who challenged our thinking, and he gave us many insights and gifts. We are immensely grateful for his contributions and this special issue is dedicated to his memory.
Juan A. Arias u. a., The Neuroscience of Sadness: A Multidisciplinary Synthesis and Collaborative Review, Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews 111, 2020, 199-228.
Als Highlights werden hervorgehoben:
- Sadness involves reduction of cortical control over evolutionarily ancient brain systems.
- Basic emotion theorists have identified a SADNESS circuit, based on animal research.
- Psychological constructionists have identified patterns of activity that dependent on context.
- Competing models may relate to different levels on a phylogenetic hierarchy.
Abstract: Sadness is typically characterized by raised inner eyebrows, lowered corners of the mouth, reduced walking speed, and slumped posture. Ancient subcortical circuitry provides a neuroanatomical foundation, extending from dorsal periaqueductal grey to subgenual anterior cingulate, the latter of which is now a treatment target in disorders of sadness. Electrophysiological studies further emphasize a role for reduced left relative to right frontal asymmetry in sadness, underpinning interest in the transcranial stimulation of left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex as an antidepressant target. Neuroimaging studies – including meta-analyses – indicate that sadness is associated with reduced cortical activation, which may contribute to reduced parasympathetic inhibitory control over medullary cardioacceleratory circuits. Reduced cardiac control may – in part – contribute to epidemiological reports of reduced life expectancy in affective disorders, effects equivalent to heavy smoking. We suggest that the field may be moving toward a theoretical consensus, in which different models relating to basic emotion theory and psychological constructionism may be considered as complementary, working at different levels of the phylogenetic hierarchy.