The interaction of attention and emotion

We analyse emotions from the viewpoint of how emotion and attention interact in the brain. Much has been learnt about the brain structures involved in attention, especially in vision. In particular the manner in which attention functions as a high-level control system, able to make cognitive processing so effective, has been studied both at a global level by brain imaging (fMRI, PET, MEG and EEG), at a local single cell level in monkeys and lower animals, and computationally by a variety of models. The manner in which emotions impinge on this attention control system is not so well analysed, although numerous new results are now emerging from using the same tools. Here we use an engineering control approach to attention to model it in a global manner but with relatively sure local foundations at singe neuron level. The manner in which emotional value (as coded in amygdale and orbito-frontal cortex) can interact with the attention control circuitry is analysed using results of various experimental paradigms. A general model of this interaction is first developed and tested against a list of paradigms, and then more detailed computations are performed using more specific features of the attention control system and the limbic value coding. These computations are completed by a simulation of the emotional attentional blink, a demanding paradigm for any model of attention alone, but made more so by the presence of emotional value codes for stimuli. We conclude the paper with a general discussion of further avenues of research.