ABSTRACT
From the evolutionary perspective first proposed by Darwin, emotions evolved to enhance survival by providing more adaptive solutions to problems that animals commonly encounter, such as maintaining body homeostasis, finding food, defending against danger, reproducing, caring for offspring and sustaining social relationships. The function of emotion is to co-ordinate the mind and body. The bridge between the neuroscience of emotion and psychoanalysis is that both centre on unconscious mechanisms. The terminology regarding emotion often differs from scientist to scientist. Neuroscientists seem to use the words ‘emotion’ and ‘affect’ interchangeably, although the term ‘affect’ is sometimes reserved for the unconscious mental representation of the emotional process. Besides its role in memory, the hippocampus also regulates emotional arousal, since cortisol binding of receptors in the hippocampus sends a message to the hypothalamus to slow the release of cortisol.
