View source for Cognition and emotion

==Introduction==
Cognition refers to processes such as memory, '''attention''', language, problem solving, and planning. Many cognitive processes are thought to involve sophisticated functions that may be unique to primates. They often involve so-called controlled processes, such as when the pursuit of a goal (e.g., maintaining information in mind) needs to be protected from interference (e.g., a distracting stimulus). A prototypical example of a neural correlate of a cognitive process is the sustained firing of cells in dorsolateral prefrontal cortex as a monkey maintains information ''in mind'' for brief periods of time (Fuster and Alexander, 1971; Kubota and Niki, 1971). With the advent of functional MRI (fMRI), it appears that cognitive processes engage cortical regions of the brain (Gazzaniga et al., 2008).  

Whereas there is relative agreement about what constitutes cognition, the same cannot be said about emotion. Some investigators use definitions that incorporate the concepts of drive and motivation: emotions are states elicited by rewards and punishers (Rolls, 2005). Others favor the view that emotions are involved in the conscious (or unconscious) evaluation of events (Arnold, 1960) (i.e., appraisals). Some approaches focus on basic emotions (Ekman, 1992) (e.g., fear, anger), others on an extended set of emotions, including moral ones (Haidt, 2003; Moll et al., 2005) (e.g., pride, envy). Strong evidence also links emotions to the body (Damasio, 1994). Brain structures linked to emotion are often subcortical, such as the amygdala, ventral striatum, and hypothalamus. These structures are often considered evolutionarily conserved, or ''primitive''. They are also believed to operate fast and in an ''automatic fashion'', such that certain trigger features (e.g., the white of the eyes in a fearful expression (Whalen et al., 2004)) are relatively unfiltered and always evoke responses that may be important for survival. Accordingly, an individual may not be necessarily conscious of a stimulus that may have triggered brain responses in an affective brain region, such as the amygdala. For discussion, see (Ohman, 2002; Pessoa, 2005). 

Because of the inherent difficulty in providing clear definitions for both cognition and emotion, they will not be further defined here. We now turn to illustrating some of the interactions between emotion and cognition. Given the enormous scope of this topic, by necessity, this review will be relatively narrow in scope and will emphasize the brain systems involved in the interactions between emotion and ''i'') perception and attention; ''ii'') learning and memory; and ''iii'') behavioral inhibition and working memory. Other valuable sources include (Damasio, 1994; LeDoux, 1996; Damasio, 1999; Dolan, 2003; Rolls, 2005; Phelps, 2006). A key conclusion from this review and from other current discussions of the relationship between cognition and emotion is that it is probably counterproductive to try to separate them. Instead, current thinking emphasizes their interdependence in ways that challenge a simple division of labor into separate ''cognitive'' and ''emotional'' domains. In particular, in the context of the brain, the general dichotomization alluded to above in terms of cortical-cognitive and subcortical-emotional brain areas is now viewed as largely simplified and breaks down rather quickly when more in-depth analyses are carried out; e.g., (Pessoa, 2008).

Before proceeding, however, a brief historical note is in order. The emotion/cognition debate came into sharp focus with the report of the mere-exposure effect (Kunst-Wilson & Zajonc, 1980), which led to a strong belief that affect was primary to and independent of cognition. It can be said that the mere-exposure effect and other behavioral findings shifted ongoing debates to focus on affect as being related to unconscious processing and subcortical activity, with cognition being related to conscious processing and cortical involvement. Interestingly, behavioral findings were interpreted in the context of the “low route” suggested by LeDoux (1996), which was purported to carry affective information subcortically. These early behavioral studies provided a strong impetus to the wave of neuroscience research in the late 1990s (and beyond) that investigated related phenomena. For some of the early theoretical arguments, see Fazio et al. (1986), Leventhal & Scherer (1987), Bornstein (1989), Lazarus (1994), Zajonc (1994), and Bargh (1997); also see Storbeck, Robinson, & McCourt (2006) and Storberk (2008).