Current Perspectives in the Intersection between Emotion and Consciousness.

A fascinating question that went through the last decades of experimental psychology research is the relationship between emotion and consciousness. Emotions are complex pattern that require the contribution of numerous physiological, psychological and cognitive processes. In fact, they are state of feeling which give rise to physical and psychological changes that influence and actively drive our behaviors. On the one hand emotions involve the appraisal and evaluation of sensory afferent information. On the other hand they produce motivation and disposition to behave that, differently from reflexes and instincts, vary across different situations. The fact that the same central emotional state may generate very different patterns of behavior, each adaptive in a different situational context, is an important connection point with the consciousness [1,2]. Here, we consider the term consciousness in a broad acceptation referring to to the level of consciousness (e.g. coma, vegetative state and wakefulness), the content (that is what it is we are conscious of) as well as the self-awareness [3-6]. By this token, conscious emotional experiences may be fundamental to elaborate the cognitive and behavioral strategies which enable us to act intentionally and purposely. Hence, emotion and consciousness overlap and interact in several psychological domains and, importantly, each is necessary for some aspects of the other.