ABSTRACT
With over 30 years of research into emotion, and author of popular books including The Emotional Brain, Joseph Edward LeDoux Jr has long been at the forefront of bringing the subject of emotion in from the cold. LeDoux is best known for his research on fear conditioning, which has allowed him to map out the neural pathways in the brain involved in emotion and the reaction to dangerous events – work that shows a pivotal role for the amygdala. As LeDoux has noted there is something unique about being in the presence of a brain compared to other bodily organs, which makes one contemplate what the mind must have experienced in life and also in the moments before death. Because the amygdala is the site where information about the tones and shocks are processed, it is reasonable to hypothesise that it is also the place where the neural basis of fearful learning events takes place.
