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Related Experiment Videos

What is emotion?

Michel Cabanac1

  • 1Département de Physiologie, Faculté de médecine, Université Laval, Que., Laval, Canada

Behavioural Processes
|November 12, 2002
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Defining emotion remains challenging. This study proposes emotion is a high-intensity, high-hedonic mental experience, using pleasure/displeasure as a common currency for motivational states.

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Area of Science:

  • Neuroscience
  • Psychology
  • Philosophy of Mind

Background:

  • The definition of emotion lacks consensus in scientific literature.
  • Emotions are often defined by a list of basic affective states (e.g., joy, sadness).
  • Previous work defined consciousness as a four-dimensional experience: quality, intensity, hedonicity, and duration.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To propose a novel, experimentally-based definition of emotion.
  • To establish a common currency for comparing motivational states.
  • To build upon a prior definition of consciousness.

Main Methods:

  • Review of existing literature on emotion and consciousness.
  • Application of experimental methods, moving beyond introspective intuition.

Related Experiment Videos

  • Extension of a previously proposed 'common currency' for motivational states.

    • Main Results:

    • The common currency for motivational states is pleasure.
    • Emotion is defined as a mental experience characterized by high intensity and high hedonic content (pleasure/displeasure).

    Conclusions:

    • This definition offers a quantifiable approach to understanding emotion.
    • It integrates emotion within a broader framework of conscious experience.
    • The proposed definition is grounded in empirical evidence rather than subjective feelings.