See it with feeling: affective predictions during object perception

• Published in: Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B. Biological sciences Vol. 364; no. 1521; pp. 1325 - 1334
• Main Authors: Barrett, L.F., Bar, Moshe
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London The Royal Society 12.05.2009
• Subjects: Affect; Affect - physiology; Amygdala; Behavioral neuroscience; Brain; Brain - physiology; Emotion; Humans; Mental objects; Models, Neurological; Neurons; Object Attachment; Orbitofrontal Cortex; Perception; Perception - physiology; Prediction; Prefrontal cortex; Recognition, Psychology; Somatosensory perception; Visual information; Visual perception; Visual Perception - physiology
• ISSN: 0962-8436; 1471-2970; 1471-2970
• DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2008.0312

People see with feeling. We 'gaze', 'behold', 'stare', 'gape' and 'glare'. In this paper, we develop the hypothesis that the brain's ability to see in the present incorporates a representation of the affective impact of those visual sensations in the past. This representation makes up part of the brain's prediction of what the visual sensations stand for in the present, including how to act on them in the near future. The affective prediction hypothesis implies that responses signalling an object's salience, relevance or value do not occur as a separate step after the object is identified. Instead, affective responses support vision from the very moment that visual stimulation begins.