Imaging the Brain - Finding Emotion

Claudia Wassmann (1)

1 IHPST - Institut d'Histoire et de Philosophie des Sciences et des Techniques

During the past twenty years the understanding of emotion shifted in the scientific literature from "emotional disorders" to emotion as "function of the brain." How did this change from disorder to brain "function" came about? Extensive studies on the amygdala that began in the early 1980s were one important step. The development and increasing sophistication of imaging techniques and their application to the study of the brain was another one. In this talk I want to highlight how the development of Positron Emission Tomography, and of functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging changed the picture of emotion and cognition, and brought about the "turn to emotion" in the public sphere that we witnessed at the turn of the twenty-first century.

Mots clés: Diagnostic Imaging; Emotions; physiology; Brain

Domaines: Histoire, Philosophie et Sociologie des sciences

Claudia Wassmann. Imaging the Brain - Finding Emotion. 2006. ⟨halshs-00791717⟩