The circumplex model of affect: An integrative approach to affective neuroscience, cognitive development, and psychopathology

The circumplex model of affect proposes that all affective states arise from cognitive interpretations of core neural sensations that are the product of two independent neurophysiological systems. This model stands in contrast to theories of basic emotions, which posit that a discrete and independent neural system subserves every emotion. We propose that basic emotion theories no longer explain adequately the vast number of empirical observations from studies in affective neuroscience, and we suggest that a conceptual shift is needed in the empirical approaches taken to the study of emotion and affective psychopathologies. The circumplex model of affect is more consistent with many recent findings from behavioral, cognitive neuroscience, neuroimaging, and developmental studies of affect. Moreover, the model offers new theoretical and empirical approaches to studying the development of affective disorders as well as the genetic and cognitive underpinnings of affective processing within the central nervous system.This work was supported in part by NIMH Grants MH01232, MH59139, MH36197, MHK02-74677, and MH068318; a grant from the National Alliance for Research in Schizophrenia and Affective Disorders (NARSAD); NSF Grant BSC-0421702; and funding from the Thomas D. Klingenstein and Nancy D. Perlman Family Fund and the Suzanne Crosby Murphy Endowment at Columbia University.

[1]  J. Babinski,et al.  Contribution a l'etude des troubles mentaux dans l'hemiplegie organique cerebrale (anosognosie) , 1914 .

[2]  J. Stainer,et al.  The Emotions , 1922, Nature.

[3]  K. H. Pribram,et al.  Language and Language Disturbances , 1949, The Yale Journal of Biology and Medicine.

[4]  G. Moruzzi,et al.  Brain stem reticular formation and activation of the EEG. , 1949, Electroencephalography and clinical neurophysiology.

[5]  H. Schlosberg.  The description of facial expressions in terms of two dimensions. , 1952, Journal of experimental psychology.

[6]  L. Weiskrantz,et al.  Behavioral changes associated with ablation of the amygdaloid complex in monkeys. , 1956, Journal of comparative and physiological psychology.

[7]  R. Abelson,et al.  Multidimensional scaling of facial expressions. , 1962, Journal of experimental psychology.

[8]  Forrest W. Young,et al.  On the relation between undimensional judgments and multidimensional scaling , 1968 .

[9]  R. Myers,et al.  Social behavior deficits of free-ranging monkeys after anterior temporal cortex removal: a preliminary report. , 1970, Brain research.

[10]  G. Gainotti.  Emotional behavior and hemispheric side of the lesion. , 1972, Cortex; a journal devoted to the study of the nervous system and behavior.

[11]  L. E. Bush.  Individual differences multidemensional scaling of adjectives denoting feelings. , 1973, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[12]  J. A. Horel,et al.  Partial Klu¨ver-Bucy syndrome produced by destroying temporal neocortex or amygdala , 1975, Brain Research.

[13]  遠藤 正臣,et al.  J.ババンスキ-著「病態失認」(J.Babinski;Contribution a l′Etude des Troubles Mentaux dans l′Hemiplegie organique cerebrale--Anosognosie,Anosognosie,Anosognosie,Sur l′Anosognosie,Revue Neurologique,22,25,30 1914,1918,1923) , 1978 .

[14]  J. Osofsky.  Handbook of infant development , 1979 .

[15]  E. Rolls,et al.  Neurophysiological analysis of brain-stimulation reward in the monkey , 1980, Brain Research.

[16]  E. Rolls,et al.  An electrophysiological and behavioural study of self-stimulation in the orbitofrontal cortex of the rhesus monkey , 1980, Brain Research Bulletin.

[17]  J. Eccles.  The emotional brain. , 1980, Bulletin et memoires de l'Academie royale de medecine de Belgique.

[18]  J. Russell.  A circumplex model of affect. , 1980 .

[19]  L. Wheeler,et al.  Review of personality and social psychology , 1980 .

[20]  D M Tucker,et al.  Right frontal lobe activation and right hemisphere performance. Decrement during a depressed mood. , 1981, Archives of general psychiatry.

[21]  O. Andy.  The prefrontal cortex: Anatomy, physiology and neuropsychology of the frontal lobe , 1981 .

[22]  R. Passingham,et al.  Syndrome produced by lesions of the amygdala in monkeys (Macaca mulatta). , 1981, Journal of comparative and physiological psychology.

[23]  N. Geschwind,et al.  Hemispheric asymmetry in the expression of positive and negative emotions. Neurologic evidence. , 1982, Archives of neurology.

[24]  P. Ekman,et al.  Autonomic nervous system activity distinguishes among emotions. , 1983, Science.

[25]  R. Davidson,et al.  Frontal and parietal electroencephalogram asymmetry in depressed and nondepressed subjects. , 1983, Biological psychiatry.

[26]  J. Russell.  Pancultural Aspects of the Human Conceptual Organization of Emotions , 1983 .

[27]  J. Russell,et al.  Preschool Children's Interpretation of Facial Expressions of Emotion , 1984 .

[28]  Infant coding of spatial orientation as a function of different transformations , 1984 .

[29]  R G Robinson,et al.  A Two Year Longitudinal Study of Mood Disorders Following Stroke , 1984, British Journal of Psychiatry.

[30]  G. Paxinos.  The Rat nervous system , 1985 .

[31]  G. Schwartz,et al.  Differential lateralization for positive and negative emotion in the human brain: EEG spectral analysis , 1985, Neuropsychologia.

[32]  Richard J. Davidson,et al.  Affect, cognition, and hemispheric specialization. , 1985 .

[33]  J. Cacioppo,et al.  Electromyographic activity over facial muscle regions can differentiate the valence and intensity of affective reactions. , 1986, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[34]  Nora D. Volkow,et al.  Effects of acute alcohol intoxication on cerebral blood flow measured with PET , 1988, Psychiatry Research.

[35]  Joseph E LeDoux,et al.  Dissociation of associative and nonassociative concomitants of classical fear conditioning in the freely behaving rat. , 1988, Behavioral neuroscience.

[36]  J. Kagan,et al.  Behavioral inhibition in children of parents with panic disorder and agoraphobia. A controlled study. , 1988, Archives of general psychiatry.

[37]  D. Watson,et al.  Development and validation of brief measures of positive and negative affect: the PANAS scales. , 1988, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[38]  Sandra Smidt,et al.  Socioemotional development. , 1988, Nebraska Symposium on Motivation. Nebraska Symposium on Motivation.

[39]  T. Kaneko,et al.  Glutaminase-like immunoreactivity in the lower brainstem and cerebellum of the adult rat , 1989, Neuroscience.

[40]  N. Fox,et al.  Frontal brain asymmetry predicts infants' response to maternal separation. , 1989, Journal of abnormal psychology.

[41]  W. Potter,et al.  A neuroanatomical and biochemical basis for attention deficit disorder with hyperactivity in children: a defect in tonic adrenaline mediated inhibition of locus coeruleus stimulation. , 1989, Medical hypotheses.

[42]  Jeffrey B. Henriques,et al.  Regional brain electrical asymmetries discriminate between previously depressed and healthy control subjects. , 1990, Journal of abnormal psychology.

[43]  P. Ekman,et al.  Approach-withdrawal and cerebral asymmetry: emotional expression and brain physiology. I. , 1990, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[44]  A. Ortony,et al.  What's basic about basic emotions? , 1990, Psychological review.

[45]  R. Davidson,et al.  Regional brain electrical asymmetries discriminate between previously depressed and healthy control subjects. , 1990, Journal of abnormal psychology.

[46]  Monte S. Buchsbaum,et al.  PET in generalized anxiety disorder , 1991, Biological Psychiatry.

[47]  Jeffrey B. Henriques,et al.  Left frontal hypoactivation in depression. , 1991, Journal of abnormal psychology.

[48]  A direct projection from the central nucleus of the amygdala to the acoustic startle pathway: anterograde and retrograde tracing studies. , 1991, Behavioral neuroscience.

[49]  R. Lazarus.  Emotion and Adaptation , 1991 .

[50]  R. Larsen,et al.  Promises and problems with the circumplex model of emotion. , 1992 .

[51]  N. Fox,et al.  Electroencephalogram asymmetry during emotionally evocative films and its relation to positive and negative affectivity , 1992, Brain and Cognition.

[52]  R. Mathew,et al.  Regional Cerebral Blood Flow after Marijuana Smoking , 1992, Journal of cerebral blood flow and metabolism : official journal of the International Society of Cerebral Blood Flow and Metabolism.

[53]  P. Ekman.  An argument for basic emotions , 1992 .

[54]  D. Watson,et al.  On traits and temperament: general and specific factors of emotional experience and their relation to the five-factor model. , 1992, Journal of personality.

[55]  L. Camras.  Expressive development and basic emotions , 1992 .

[56]  Jeff T. Larsen,et al.  The psychophysiology of emotion. , 1993 .

[57]  Alprazolam and depression: a review of risks and benefits. , 1993, The Journal of clinical psychiatry.

[58]  D. Cicchetti.  Emotion and Adaptation , 1993 .

[59]  P. Ekman.  Facial expression and emotion. , 1993, The American psychologist.

[60]  M. Bradley,et al.  Looking at pictures: affective, facial, visceral, and behavioral reactions. , 1993, Psychophysiology.

[61]  C. Amos.  Robust variance-components approach for assessing genetic linkage in pedigrees. , 1994, American journal of human genetics.

[62]  Richard T. Marrocco,et al.  Arousal systems , 1994, Current Opinion in Neurobiology.

[63]  J. Russell,et al.  Fuzzy concepts in a fuzzy hierarchy: varieties of anger. , 1994, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[64]  S. Mineka,et al.  Temperament, personality, and the mood and anxiety disorders. , 1994, Journal of abnormal psychology.

[65]  M Ashtari,et al.  Reduced caudate nucleus volume in obsessive-compulsive disorder. , 1995, Archives of general psychiatry.

[66]  N. Breslau,et al.  Sex differences in depression: a role for preexisting anxiety , 1995, Psychiatry Research.

[67]  H. Wellman,et al.  Early understanding of emotion: Evidence from natural language , 1995 .

[68]  L. Feldman.  Valence Focus and Arousal Focus: Individual Differences in the Structure of Affective Experience , 1995 .

[69]  B. Parkinson,et al.  Emotion and motivation , 1995 .

[70]  M Steriade,et al.  Arousal--Revisiting the Reticular Activating System , 1996, Science.

[71]  J. Gorman.  Comorbid depression and anxiety spectrum disorders , 1996, Depression and anxiety.

[72]  R. Thayer.  The Origin of Everyday Moods: Managing Energy, Tension, and Stress , 1996 .

[73]  M. Pistis,et al.  Mesolimbic dopaminergic reduction outlasts ethanol withdrawal syndrome: Evidence of protracted abstinence , 1996, Neuroscience.

[74]  S M Kosslyn,et al.  Visual imagery and perception in posttraumatic stress disorder. A positron emission tomographic investigation. , 1997, Archives of general psychiatry.

[75]  J. Russell,et al.  The psychology of facial expression: Frontmatter , 1997 .

[76]  José-Miguel Fernández-Dols,et al.  Spontaneous facial behavior during intense emotional episodes: Artistic truth and optical truth. , 1997 .

[77]  Nathaniel M. Alpert,et al.  The functional neuroanatomy of anxiety: a study of three disorders using positron emission tomography and symptom provocation , 1997, Biological Psychiatry.

[78]  L. Almasy,et al.  Multipoint quantitative-trait linkage analysis in general pedigrees. , 1998, American journal of human genetics.

[79]  D. Greenblatt,et al.  Nefazodone in major depression: adjunctive benzodiazepine therapy and tolerability. , 1998, Journal of clinical psychopharmacology.

[80]  B. Kushner.  Descartes' error. , 1998, Journal of AAPOS : the official publication of the American Association for Pediatric Ophthalmology and Strabismus.

[81]  S. Shelton,et al.  Asymmetric frontal brain activity, cortisol, and behavior associated with fearful temperament in rhesus monkeys. , 1998, Behavioral neuroscience.

[82]  J Risberg,et al.  Alcohol activates the cerebral reward system in man. , 1998, Journal of studies on alcohol.

[83]  M. Telch,et al.  Social anxiety and history of behavioral inhibition in young adults. , 1998, Journal of anxiety disorders.

[84]  G. Gessa,et al.  Mesolimbic dopaminergic decline after cannabinoid withdrawal. , 1998, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.

[85]  M. Bradley,et al.  Emotion, Motivation, and Anxiety: Brain Mechanisms and Psychophysiology the Motivational Organization of Emotion Patterns of Human Emotion Emotion and Perception the Psychophysiology of Picture Processing Neural Imaging: Motivation in the Visual Cortex Motivational Circuits in the Brain , 2022 .

[86]  J. Russell,et al.  Independence and bipolarity in the structure of current affect. , 1998 .

[87]  S. Pliszka.  Comorbidity of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder with psychiatric disorder: an overview. , 1998, The Journal of clinical psychiatry.

[88]  J. Panksepp.  Affective Neuroscience: The Foundations of Human and Animal Emotions , 1998 .

[89]  J. Price,et al.  Neuroimaging abnormalities in the subgenual prefrontal cortex: implications for the pathophysiology of familial mood disorders , 1998, Molecular Psychiatry.

[90]  M. Weissman,et al.  Grandparents, parents, and grandchildren at high risk for depression: a three-generation study. , 1999, Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.

[91]  J. M. Carroll,et al.  On the bipolarity of positive and negative affect. , 1999, Psychological bulletin.

[92]  C. Bowden,et al.  Psychomotor performance and monoamine function in bipolar and unipolar affective disorders , 1999, Biological Psychiatry.

[93]  Joseph Biederman,et al.  Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (adhd) as a noradrenergic disorder , 1999, Biological Psychiatry.

[94]  J. Vaidya,et al.  The two general activation systems of affect: Structural findings, evolutionary considerations, and psychobiological evidence , 1999 .

[95]  J. Lock,et al.  Gay, lesbian, and bisexual youth risks for emotional, physical, and social problems: results from a community-based survey. , 1999, Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.

[96]  K. Heilman,et al.  Neglect and Related Disorders , 1984, Seminars in neurology.

[97]  Abraham Weizman,et al.  Serotonin transporter polymorphism and response to SSRIs in major depression and relevance to anxiety disorders and substance abuse. , 2000, Pharmacogenomics.

[98]  A. Tanaka,et al.  Activation of fronto-limbic system in the human brain by cigarette smoking: evaluated by a CBF measurement. , 2000, The Keio journal of medicine.

[99]  L. F. Barrett,et al.  Handbook of emotions, 2nd ed. , 2000 .

[100]  K. Heilman.  Emotional experience: A neurological model. , 2000 .

[101]  B. Birmaher,et al.  Relation between anxiety and depressive disorders in childhood and adolescence , 2001, Depression and anxiety.

[102]  Michael Davis,et al.  The amygdala: vigilance and emotion , 2001, Molecular Psychiatry.

[103]  S. Houle,et al.  Changes in regional brain glucose metabolism measured with positron emission tomography after paroxetine treatment of major depression. , 2001, The American journal of psychiatry.

[104]  D. Kupfer,et al.  Amphetamine-induced dopamine release in human ventral striatum correlates with euphoria , 2001, Biological Psychiatry.

[105]  J. Levine,et al.  Anxiety disorders and major depression, together or apart , 2001, Depression and anxiety.

[106]  L. F. Barrett,et al.  Mental representations of affect knowledge , 2001 .

[107]  Matthias M. Müller,et al.  Effects of emotional arousal in the cerebral hemispheres: a study of oscillatory brain activity and event-related potentials , 2001, Clinical Neurophysiology.

[108]  E. Murray,et al.  The amygdala and reward , 2002, Nature Reviews Neuroscience.

[109]  Sham M. Kakade,et al.  Opponent interactions between serotonin and dopamine , 2002, Neural Networks.

[110]  M. Raichle,et al.  Functional anatomical correlates of antidepressant drug treatment assessed using PET measures of regional glucose metabolism , 2002, European Neuropsychopharmacology.

[111]  D. Pine,et al.  Adolescent life events as predictors of adult depression. , 2002, Journal of affective disorders.

[112]  J. Bremner.  Neuroimaging studies in post-traumatic stress disorder , 2002, Current psychiatry reports.

[113]  R. Davidson.  Anxiety and affective style: role of prefrontal cortex and amygdala , 2002, Biological Psychiatry.

[114]  Joseph E LeDoux,et al.  Emotional learning circuits in animals and humans , 2002 .

[115]  J. Gabrieli,et al.  Rethinking Feelings: An fMRI Study of the Cognitive Regulation of Emotion , 2002, Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience.

[116]  S. Faraone,et al.  Familial links between attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, conduct disorder, and bipolar disorder , 2002, Current psychiatry reports.

[117]  Rita Z. Goldstein,et al.  Drug addiction and its underlying neurobiological basis: neuroimaging evidence for the involvement of the frontal cortex. , 2002, The American journal of psychiatry.

[118]  S. Kapur,et al.  Direct Activation of the Ventral Striatum in Anticipation of Aversive Stimuli , 2003, Neuron.

[119]  J. Grafman,et al.  The Human Amygdala: An Evolved System for Relevance Detection , 2003, Reviews in the neurosciences.

[120]  G. Glover,et al.  Dissociated neural representations of intensity and valence in human olfaction , 2003, Nature Neuroscience.

[121]  Lisa M Shin,et al.  Neuroimaging Studies of Amygdala Function in Anxiety Disorders , 2003, Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences.

[122]  J. Zohar,et al.  Bipolar comorbidity: from diagnostic dilemmas to therapeutic challenge. , 2003, The international journal of neuropsychopharmacology.

[123]  M. Bradley,et al.  Activation of the visual cortex in motivated attention. , 2003, Behavioral neuroscience.

[124]  K. Scherer,et al.  Handbook of affective sciences. , 2003 .

[125]  Jerome Kagan,et al.  Behavioral inhibition as a temperamental category. , 2003 .

[126]  M. Mesulam,et al.  Dissociation of Neural Representation of Intensity and Affective Valuation in Human Gustation , 2003, Neuron.

[127]  S. Faraone,et al.  The genetics of pediatric-onset bipolar disorder , 2003, Biological Psychiatry.

[128]  J. Russell,et al.  A closer look at preschoolers' freely produced labels for facial expressions. , 2003, Developmental psychology.

[129]  W. Drevets.  Neuroimaging Abnormalities in the Amygdala in Mood Disorders , 2003, Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences.

[130]  Ciaire B. Kopp,et al.  Emotional development during infancy. , 2003 .

[131]  Richard J. Davidson,et al.  Seven sins in the study of emotion: Correctives from affective neuroscience , 2003, Brain and Cognition.

[132]  J. Gore,et al.  Amygdala and hippocampal volumes in adolescents and adults with bipolar disorder. , 2003, Archives of general psychiatry.

[133]  J. Russell.  Core affect and the psychological construction of emotion. , 2003, Psychological review.

[134]  N. Kalin,et al.  Nonhuman Primate Models to Study Anxiety, Emotion Regulation, and Psychopathology , 2003, Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences.

[135]  L. F. Barrett,et al.  On the Broad Applicability of the Affective Circumplex , 2003, Psychological science.

[136]  K. Berridge.  Comparing the emotional brains of humans and other animals. , 2003 .

[137]  James A. Russell,et al.  Multidimensional scaling of emotional facial expressions: Similarity from preschoolers to adults. , 1985 .

[138]  E. Garcia-Rill,et al.  Arousal mechanisms related to posture and locomotion: 2. Ascending modulation. , 2004, Progress in brain research.

[139]  E. Garcia-Rill,et al.  Arousal mechanisms related to posture and locomotion: 1. Descending modulation. , 2004, Progress in brain research.

[140]  Michael Koch,et al.  Enhancement of the acoustic startle response by stimulation of an excitatory pathway from the central amygdala/basal nucleus of Meynert to the pontine reticular formation , 2004, Experimental Brain Research.

[141]  Gal Yadid,et al.  The serotonin–dopamine interaction is critical for fast-onset action of antidepressant treatment: in vivo studies in an animal model of depression , 2004, Progress in Neuro-Psychopharmacology and Biological Psychiatry.

[142]  S. Lorente,et al.  Neurophysiological methods testing the psychoneural basis of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder , 1996, Child's Nervous System.

[143]  C. Don.  Looking for Spinoza: Joy, Sorrow, and the Feeling Brain , 2004 .

[144]  A. Avcı,et al.  Pharmacotherapy and regional cerebral blood flow in children with obsessive compulsive disorder. , 2004, Yonsei medical journal.

[145]  S. Strakowski,et al.  Magnetic resonance imaging analysis of amygdala and other subcortical brain regions in adolescents with bipolar disorder. , 2004, Bipolar disorders.

[146]  Peter Dayan,et al.  Temporal difference models describe higher-order learning in humans , 2004, Nature.

[147]  E. Cherland.  The Development of Emotional Competence , 2004 .

[148]  J. Cacioppo,et al.  Handbook Of Psychophysiology , 2019 .