The tie that binds: temporal coding and adaptive emotion

Emotions are temporally dynamic, but the persistence of emotions outside of their appropriate temporal context is detrimental to health and well-being. Yet, precisely how temporal coding and emotional processing interact remains unclear. Recently unveiled temporal context representations in the hippocampus, entorhinal cortex (EC), and prefrontal cortex (PFC) support memory for what happened when. Here, we discuss how these neural temporal representations may interact with densely interconnected amygdala circuitry to shape emotional functioning. We propose a neuroanatomically informed framework suggesting that high-fidelity temporal representations linked to dynamic experiences promote emotion regulation and adaptive emotional memories. Then, we discuss how newly-identified synaptic and molecular features of amygdala-hippocampal projections suggest that intense, amygdala-dependent emotional responses may distort temporal-coding mechanisms. We conclude by identifying key avenues for future research.