Sábado 17 de mayo a las 12.30 hrs en el Complejo Administrativo Triunfo (frente al Hospital Real)
The current view of brain organization supports the notion that there is a considerable degree of functional specialization and that many regions can be conceptualized as either ‘affective’ or ‘cognitive’. Popular examples are the amygdala in the domain of emotion and the lateral prefrontal cortex in the case of cognition. This prevalent view is problematic for a number of reasons. It will be argued that complex cognitive–emotional behaviors have their basis in networks of brain areas, none of which should be conceptualized as specifically affective or cognitive. Central to cognitive–emotional interactions are brain areas with a high degree of connectivity called hubs (e.g., amygdala), which are critical for regulating the flow and integration of information between regions. To illustrate cognitive-emotional processing, I will discuss a series of studies that have investigated interactions between emotion and perception (including studies showing that emotional perception is not automatic) and between emotion and executive function.