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Updated: Jul 8, 2026

Brain Imaging Investigation of the Impairing Effect of Emotion on Cognition
Published on: February 1, 2012
The role of social cognition in emotion
Andreas Olsson1, Kevin N Ochsner
1Department of Psychology, Columbia University, 1190 Amsterdam Avenue, New York, NY 10027, USA. aolsson@paradox.psych.columbia.edu
Abstract:
Although recent research has shown that social cognition and emotion engage overlapping regions of the brain, few accounts of this overlap have been offered. What systems might be commonly or distinctively involved in each? The close functional relationship between social cognition and emotion might be understood in terms of a central role for mental state attribution in the understanding, learning and regulation of emotion. In each of these cases, mental state attributions might be supported by either stimulus-driven or more reflective processes.
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