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The brain works as a network, and when experiencing emotion, more than one area are activated, rather than only one specific brain region, but there is usually one main character in this neural interplay. In the case of anger, our group, in collaboration with Andy Calder, from Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit at Cambridge University, demonstrated that the critical area for this emotion is the ventral striatum region. Our work offered the early evidence in this respect. As well, our group has demonstrated the selective role of the insula in disgust. Currently, researchers at INECO are studying basic emotions in neurological and neuropsychiatric pathologies, such as Parkinson disease and ADHD.

Selected scientific articles by researchers at INECO in this line of research:

Maria Roca, Teresa Torralva, Anabel Chade, Gonzalo Gomez Arevalo, Facundo Manes. Emotion Recognition in Early Parkinson Disease. J Int Neuropsychol Soc Abstract. 2008.

Calder AJ, Keane J, Lawrence AD, Manes FF. Impaired Recognition of Anger Following Damage to the Ventral Striatum. Brain. 2004;127: 1958-1969 

Calder AJ, Keane J, Manes F, Antoun N, Young AW Impaired recognition and experience of disgust following brain injury. Nature Neuroscience. 2000;3: 1077-1078 

Calder AJ, Keane J, Manes, F., Antoun, N and Young, A.W. Impaired recognition and experience of disgust following damage to the insula and basal ganlia. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 13, Suppl, 30 2001