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Emotion: Theory, research, and experience. Volume 3: Biological foundations of emotion
320
Book reoiews
the techniques rather than allowing a rather uncritical acceptance of the assumption that biofeedback is the best tool for all the challenges facing the sport scientist. Finally, who is this book intended to serve? If it is the applied psychologist then the quality and sophistication of some of the contributions are such that he/she will have read it all before. If it is the coach, then I’m afraid many coaches will be disappointed due to the relative lack of detailed advice on practical applications. In addition, many of the chapters require a base of knowledge that most coaches cannot be expected to have. While a book on biofeedback and sports science is certainly needed, the present text might have made a more valuable contribution if it provided a more solid, data-oriented foundation on which to base the many speculations of the contributors. John A. Edwards Carleton University,
R. PLUTCHIK and H. KELLERMAN (Eds.), Emotion: Theory, Research, and Experience. Volume 3: Biological Foundations of Emotion. (Academic Press, New York, 1986) pp. xxiv +423, f40.50, f25.00 (paperback). Emotion is a multiglobal concept which, although apparently having validity for everyday discourse, can become ephemeral when examined in the laboratory. If you wish to study emotion in its fully glory it is to Homo sapiens that you must turn; no other animal comes within ‘light-years’ of the range and intensity of human emotions. This volume is a collection of chapters relating to the biological roots of emotion and aggression. Compared with the titles of most books on emotion that now appear in booksellers’ catalogues, this volume has a dated air about it. The book turns out to be more than merely a retrospective account; it begins to deal with some of the important bridging concepts which are clearly needed to form an adequate understanding of emotion. The problem of emotion and cognition is confronted but one gains the impression that most of the authors still implicitly consider them as separate functional processes. Names heading the chapters are mostly familiar, with a modicum of new ones to leaven the mix. It is pleasing to report chapters on neurochemistry; at long last the brain is being seen as more than a vast array of nerve cells busily chatting to each other in electrical impulses. The preface states that this is the third volume in a series. The first dealt with the theories of emotion and the second with emotions in early development. Tantalisingly, we are not informed of subsequent titles or, indeed, if there are to be any
Book reviews
321
further volumes in the series. The nineteen authors were asked to address one or more of the following certain key issues in their chapters: What structures, circuits or biochemical events in the brain control emotional expression or experience? What effects lesions and electrical stimulation have on emotions? What role, genetics plays in emotions? The papers are arranged into five sections, these are: general models of brain functioning (six chapters); ethological and evolutionary considerations (two chapters); the biology of aggression (three chapters); the amygdala in emotion (two chapters); biochemical approaches (three chapters). The introduction was disappointing and seemed to promise a repetition of what we already knew. For example, surely we understand that the limbic system is inadequate to explain emotion. The question is where do we next turn to seek a new level of understanding? Fortunately, most of the chapters turn out to contain more substance than the introduction leads us to believe. Heath, in a detailed and illuminating chapter, points out that emotion is always associated with a change in sensory perception or, we might add, a change in sensory experience. Aggleton and Miskin in a later chapter also point out that experiences evoking emotion are often composed of stimuli from several senses. It could be that the reason uncertainty is such a powerful elicitor of emotion is because it sets up simultaneous competition from numerous sensory inputs. In general the first section, together with Kling’s later chapter on aggression, forms the most satisfying part of the book. In this section the author’s accounts were rounded, and linked together human clinical studies with the animal work in a progressive way. The emphasis in this type of research has switched away from what could be called the anatomy of emotion, to attempt to understand functional aspects. It is important that we begin to understand the language of the brain; this will undoubtedly turn out to be more complicated than anything we currently conceive. For example, in terms of brain processing, is there any difference between what we term cognition and what we term emotion? At the moment the best bet would appear to suggest that this dichotomy of function is yet another human intellectual convenience. Could it not be said that works of genius are characterized by a perfect juxtaposition of both the intellect and emotion? Whatever the case, primitive emotional processes in brain function were too important to remain other than rooted in the lower brain structures. At each progressive evolutionary stage of brain development the processes of emotion were carried forward into the new areas to be transmuted subtly usually with an increasing range of functions. The integration of animal studies and human studies is not, to the reviewer’s mind, dealt with in a satisfactory way in the remaining sections of the book. Can an animal chronically restrained in a primate-chair show anything like the range of emotions for that species? The probability must
322
Book
reviews
be that such studies reveal something about long term stressors for that species rather than emotions. The emotional repertoire of the species will only be revealed in free ranging and freely reacting animals. As in common with most edited collections, the contributions are very variable; however, most of the authors provide very thorough and informative reviews of their area of expertise. The diversity of the different perspectives represented in this book provides many interesting hypotheses. A small concern is that an interest of the reviewer was not represented in the subject index, yet there were three of four major references to it in the text. I suspect that this is the case in other areas. I would ask that editors of such volumes take care, either to be very conscientious in their preparation of indexes or to point out to the authors the importance of a detailed and comprehensive subject index. This volume is an important book for postgraduate study in a number of important research areas, but clearly there is still a long way to go in our attempt to understand the biological roots of emotion. Steve Van Toller University of Warwick
Book reoiews
the techniques rather than allowing a rather uncritical acceptance of the assumption that biofeedback is the best tool for all the challenges facing the sport scientist. Finally, who is this book intended to serve? If it is the applied psychologist then the quality and sophistication of some of the contributions are such that he/she will have read it all before. If it is the coach, then I’m afraid many coaches will be disappointed due to the relative lack of detailed advice on practical applications. In addition, many of the chapters require a base of knowledge that most coaches cannot be expected to have. While a book on biofeedback and sports science is certainly needed, the present text might have made a more valuable contribution if it provided a more solid, data-oriented foundation on which to base the many speculations of the contributors. John A. Edwards Carleton University,
R. PLUTCHIK and H. KELLERMAN (Eds.), Emotion: Theory, Research, and Experience. Volume 3: Biological Foundations of Emotion. (Academic Press, New York, 1986) pp. xxiv +423, f40.50, f25.00 (paperback). Emotion is a multiglobal concept which, although apparently having validity for everyday discourse, can become ephemeral when examined in the laboratory. If you wish to study emotion in its fully glory it is to Homo sapiens that you must turn; no other animal comes within ‘light-years’ of the range and intensity of human emotions. This volume is a collection of chapters relating to the biological roots of emotion and aggression. Compared with the titles of most books on emotion that now appear in booksellers’ catalogues, this volume has a dated air about it. The book turns out to be more than merely a retrospective account; it begins to deal with some of the important bridging concepts which are clearly needed to form an adequate understanding of emotion. The problem of emotion and cognition is confronted but one gains the impression that most of the authors still implicitly consider them as separate functional processes. Names heading the chapters are mostly familiar, with a modicum of new ones to leaven the mix. It is pleasing to report chapters on neurochemistry; at long last the brain is being seen as more than a vast array of nerve cells busily chatting to each other in electrical impulses. The preface states that this is the third volume in a series. The first dealt with the theories of emotion and the second with emotions in early development. Tantalisingly, we are not informed of subsequent titles or, indeed, if there are to be any
Book reviews
321
further volumes in the series. The nineteen authors were asked to address one or more of the following certain key issues in their chapters: What structures, circuits or biochemical events in the brain control emotional expression or experience? What effects lesions and electrical stimulation have on emotions? What role, genetics plays in emotions? The papers are arranged into five sections, these are: general models of brain functioning (six chapters); ethological and evolutionary considerations (two chapters); the biology of aggression (three chapters); the amygdala in emotion (two chapters); biochemical approaches (three chapters). The introduction was disappointing and seemed to promise a repetition of what we already knew. For example, surely we understand that the limbic system is inadequate to explain emotion. The question is where do we next turn to seek a new level of understanding? Fortunately, most of the chapters turn out to contain more substance than the introduction leads us to believe. Heath, in a detailed and illuminating chapter, points out that emotion is always associated with a change in sensory perception or, we might add, a change in sensory experience. Aggleton and Miskin in a later chapter also point out that experiences evoking emotion are often composed of stimuli from several senses. It could be that the reason uncertainty is such a powerful elicitor of emotion is because it sets up simultaneous competition from numerous sensory inputs. In general the first section, together with Kling’s later chapter on aggression, forms the most satisfying part of the book. In this section the author’s accounts were rounded, and linked together human clinical studies with the animal work in a progressive way. The emphasis in this type of research has switched away from what could be called the anatomy of emotion, to attempt to understand functional aspects. It is important that we begin to understand the language of the brain; this will undoubtedly turn out to be more complicated than anything we currently conceive. For example, in terms of brain processing, is there any difference between what we term cognition and what we term emotion? At the moment the best bet would appear to suggest that this dichotomy of function is yet another human intellectual convenience. Could it not be said that works of genius are characterized by a perfect juxtaposition of both the intellect and emotion? Whatever the case, primitive emotional processes in brain function were too important to remain other than rooted in the lower brain structures. At each progressive evolutionary stage of brain development the processes of emotion were carried forward into the new areas to be transmuted subtly usually with an increasing range of functions. The integration of animal studies and human studies is not, to the reviewer’s mind, dealt with in a satisfactory way in the remaining sections of the book. Can an animal chronically restrained in a primate-chair show anything like the range of emotions for that species? The probability must
322
Book
reviews
be that such studies reveal something about long term stressors for that species rather than emotions. The emotional repertoire of the species will only be revealed in free ranging and freely reacting animals. As in common with most edited collections, the contributions are very variable; however, most of the authors provide very thorough and informative reviews of their area of expertise. The diversity of the different perspectives represented in this book provides many interesting hypotheses. A small concern is that an interest of the reviewer was not represented in the subject index, yet there were three of four major references to it in the text. I suspect that this is the case in other areas. I would ask that editors of such volumes take care, either to be very conscientious in their preparation of indexes or to point out to the authors the importance of a detailed and comprehensive subject index. This volume is an important book for postgraduate study in a number of important research areas, but clearly there is still a long way to go in our attempt to understand the biological roots of emotion. Steve Van Toller University of Warwick