Subcortical and cortical brain activity during the feeling of self-generated emotions

In a series of [O-15]PET experiments aimed at investigating the neural basi s of emotion and feeling, 41 normal subjects recalled and re-experienced pe rsonal life episodes marked by sadness, happiness, anger or fear. We tested the hypothesis that the process of feeling emotions requires the participa tion of brain regions, such as the somatosensory cortices and the upper bra instem nuclei, that are involved in the mapping and/or regulation of intern al organism states. Such areas were indeed engaged, underscoring the close relationship between emotion and homeostasis. The findings also lend suppor t to the idea that the subjective process of feeling emotions is partly gro unded in dynamic neural maps, which represent several aspects of the organi sm's continuously changing internal state.