Affective Neuroscience: The Foundations of Human and Animal Emotions

by Jaak Panksepp

Some investigators have argued that emotions, especially animal emotions, are illusory concepts outside the realm of scientific inquiry. However, with advances in neurobiology and neuroscience, researchers are demonstrating that this position is wrong as they move closer to a lasting
understanding of the biology and psychology of emotion. In Affective Neuroscience , Jaak Panksepp provides the most up-to-date information about the brain-operating systems that organize the fundamental emotional tendencies of all mammals. Presenting complex material in a readable manner, the book
offers a comprehensive summary of the fundamental neural sources of human and animal feelings, as well as a conceptual framework for studying emotional systems of the brain. Panksepp approaches emotions from the perspective of basic emotion theory but does not fail to address the complex issues
raised by constructionist approaches. These issues include relations to human consciousness and the psychiatric implications of this knowledge. The book includes chapters on sleep and arousal, pleasure and fear systems, the sources of rage and anger, and the neural control of sexuality, as well as
the more subtle emotions related to maternal care, social loss, and playfulness. Representing a synthetic integration of vast amounts of neurobehavioral knowledge, including relevant neuroanatomy, neurophysiology, and neurochemistry, this book will be one of the most important contributions to
understanding the biology of emotions since Darwins The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals

Genres: Psychology, Neuroscience, Science, Nonfiction, Philosophy, Biology, Brain

466 pages, Hardcover

First published August 15, 1998

Reviews

[Patrick · Rating 4 out of 5]

Incredibly dense with information. You will need a degree in neuroscience or at least something close (like cognitive science or psychology) to understand this book. It could easily be used as a textbook for a graduate-level course.

But if you can slog through the dense information, the complex jargon, the advanced scientific concepts, you will learn more about consciousness and emotion than you probably knew that our science understood. You will better understand why it is that we have emotions at all, and you will at least begin to grasp what it is that emotions are made of---though Panksepp admits that there are deep and fundamental unsolved problems here.

It's a brilliant book, and it will be remembered in the annals of science for a long time. But I wouldn't recommend it to anyone who doesn't already have a detailed understanding of the field; it will just be confusing and overwhelming to you.

[Dav · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a non-neuroscientist lacking any formal academic background in chemistry or biology, this was a difficult book due to the technical depth involved. I borrowed it via the Link+ interlibrary loan system, which only allows one renewal per checkout so it took me three checkout/returns over the many months I spent slogging my way through it. I owe my persistence to the compelling nature of the subject matter and the warm, expert and comprehensive delivery of Dr Panksepp.

The book starts with the most thorough explanation of the history and development of neuroscience I've been exposed to. It covered issues of cellular biology, the anatomical layout of the brain (and it's evolutionary implications), and the intricacies of the electrical and chemical systems involved. The experimental techniques commonly used are also explained in enough detail to understand why their results are meaningful.

Panksepp then proceeds to cover the major emotional and motivational processes from a personal standpoint (Sleep/Arousal, Regulatory/Seeking, Anger, Fear/Anxiety) and a social one (Love/Lust. Love/Nurturing, Loneliness, Play). Each concept is covered in detail from anatomical considerations to chemical and neuronal circuit dynamics, including details on the history of scientific thought in each area and the experiments that have shed new light. This covers the final two thirds of the book. Along the way many fascinating insights and hypotheses are shared.

One notable part of the text is an early addressing of the role of animals in neuroscience experiments. Honestly I forget the details now, but it painted a picture of how we must balance the suffering induced in animals with the benefits gained both for human suffering and perhaps an eventual scientific acknowledgement of animal emotions. Some of the experiments described later in the text were pretty rough to imagine, such as rat trials in REM sleep experiments and others involving cats. It is clear from Panksepp's commentary in this introduction and throughout the text that he represents the compassionate scientist who foresees a time when our understanding of the true nature of emotions gives basis to improved treatment of other species.

Our knowledge of the mammalian/human brain and its emotional mechanisms has been greatly advanced in recent decades. Affective Neuroscience wraps a lot of that knowledge up into a fairly comprehensive overview with plenty of new hypotheses and pointers for future research.

[Jeff Whistler · Rating 5 out of 5]

My brain hurts from reading so much about the brain.

[Simon Ri · Rating 5 out of 5]

Probably one of my most insightful reads concerning evolutionary anthropology

[Farouk Ramzan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jaak Panksepp does an excellent job tieing in all three disciplines (which are too ignorant at the moment to learn from each other) of Psychology, Neuroscience, and Behaviorism. Panksepp's clear cut language with virtually none unnecessary scientific verbiage makes this an exceptional read for novices interested in the field of affective neuroscience or if you're curious about where emotions are developed in mammals. This book is revolutionary as it finally allows the common man to learn highly intellectual concepts and idea with the sacrifice of scientific verbiage, of course.

Panksepp's is highly fascinating and worth reading this book alone for. Panksepp's discovery of the play circuit is Nobel prize winner worthy. How come nobody told me our brains had a specific circuit for rough-and-tumble play? Oh well...Regardless, Panksepp's discovery of this special circuit and how ADHD medication dampens children who are hyper-playful is enlightening. How children are treated in the lower grades is truly sickening, and Panksepp makes it clear that rough-and-tumble play should be prescribed to ADHD children rather than making them sit in a chair for six hours and drugging them out of youthful play.

This leads me to Panksepp's social implications. I appreciate how he makes it clear that "naturalistic fallacies" (how things "are" is how things "should be") occur all the time in biological fields. Panksepp uses his exceptional research to suggest modest reforms in children centres to make life more meaningful for them.

Going forward, I can say that Panksepp was the first to teach me neuroscience/psychology solidly, and I'm sure he'll be able to guide you too.

[Eric · Rating 4 out of 5]

The first third of the book should be primarily review for anyone familiar with the basics of neuroanatomy and neuroscience in general. The second and third sections are the interesting parts, particularly the last third of the book. To make a long story short Panksepp outlines the major emotional (affective) brain circuits that control our most rudimentary affective states, all of which are subcortical and hierarchical. His best analogy comes late in the book when he compares the subcortical/cortical relationship to a tree with numerous branches and canopies of leaves. The large, hanging branches may be the most obvious parts of the tree (the cortex) but without the trunk and roots (the subcortical affective circuits) the tree can't survive. Panksepp had a knack for using simplistic language to make complex concepts more clear. That's evident throughout this book. His theories about REM states and the origins of consciousness are really interesting as well. It took me forever to read this because I just started a new job right around the time I started reading it, which was annoying! It's worth your time.

[Steve James · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating, accessible, and detailed journey through the still-ongoing discoveries of the neurophysiological and neurobiological workings of mammalian emotional systems. Jaak Panksepp writes with great enthusiasm and not a little humour, and, as old as the book now is, it remains the important and original work it was when published. You don’t need a background in neuroscience; I would suggest just a genuine interest is enough in order to get the most from this work. Jaak doesn’t use any jargon he doesn’t first introduce, but there isn’t a glossary, so if you are new to neuroscience, you may wish to make notes as you go. I would say, also, this might not be recommended for animal rights activists!

[Dustin · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book contains the best description of emotion I've ever read. The author goes to great lengths to make conclusions in vivid, normal speech. Maybe I would have gotten more out of it with a stronger anatomical background, but I'm perfectly happy with being given a new way of conceiving of feelings in animals and people. Amazing, simply amazing.

[Ian M Warren · Rating 5 out of 5]

Eye opening perspectives on the concept that the why and the how are equally important

[Dominic Pakenham · Rating 5 out of 5]

I remember reading something about how people tend to rhapsodise over long, challenging books they've read — because to do otherwise would be to admit to having wasted a good chunk of their time. That said, this is the kind of beast that might genuinely change the way you see the world. Yes, there was an early neurochemistry section that nearly broke me — dense, highly technical, and dry — but then came long, fascinating stretches where I found myself underlining or highlighting multiple passages per page, so rich was it with insight.


Panksepp’s basic contention is that the neuroscience of emotions has been historically neglected owing to the sometimes deleterious overhang of behaviourism. Even after neuroscience moved beyond the black box of stimulus-response models to embrace more sophisticated neurochemical and neuroanatomical perspectives, many researchers remained reluctant to admit that emotions could be fundamental to the brain’s organisation. This resistance stemmed in part from a longstanding scientific prejudice against studying emotions at all — but also from the assumption that so-called “lower mammals” didn’t really feel them. That latter belief is highly significant because most neuroscientific research is conducted on non-human mammals. To dismiss the emotional lives of these creatures, therefore, is to structurally exclude emotion from our models — not based on data, but on a methodological blind spot.


Panksepp argues, persuasively, that this is a serious error. One major reason for the continued scepticism around animal emotions is the fear of anthropomorphism — that we’re simply projecting human states onto animal behaviours. But here, Panksepp makes a vital distinction. The relationship between humans and other mammals is not merely analogous but homologous. We don’t just resemble other mammals in surface ways — we share deep biological commonalities. The genetic and structural overlaps are significant, and many of the same subcortical circuits and hormonal influences are at play in both human and non-human brains. “The impressive degree of genetic relatedness between ourselves and other mammals,” he writes, enables us to make “powerful cross-species generalisations”.


At the heart of the book is Panksepp’s theory of seven primary emotional systems, rooted in the subcortical regions of the brain. These systems are evolutionarily ancient, biologically conserved, and observable across all mammals. Each emotional system serves a distinct adaptive function, and each can be linked to specific neural circuits and neurochemical activity. While their expression becomes more complex in humans — thanks to our expanded neocortex and frontal lobes — the underlying architecture is shared.


The seven circuits he identifies (though he freely admits more may emerge with future research) are as follows:


SEEKING – the exploratory, forward-moving drive; rooted in the mesolimbic dopamine system, this circuit underlies curiosity, motivation, and the pursuit of resources of all kinds.


RAGE – an ancient defensive mechanism, triggered when something obstructs our goals or violates our boundaries. It is centred in subcortical structures like the medial amygdala and hypothalamus and modulated by substance P and glutamate. It’s not just “anger”; it’s a primal assertion of agency. This is most typically triggered in all mammals by physical restriction or pinning of the limbs.


FEAR – mediated primarily by the amygdala and periaqueductal gray, this circuit governs threat detection and avoidance. Importantly, Panksepp shows that this system can be triggered even in the absence of conscious awareness, suggesting a bottom-up origin of much of our anxious behaviour.


LUST – as reproductive drive, this circuit involves hypothalamic and septal areas and is modulated by testosterone, estrogen, and oxytocin. Panksepp’s treatment is refreshingly frank and even-handed — neither moralising nor reductive.


CARE (or NURTURANCE) – the system that underpins parental love and social bonding. Rooted in the hypothalamus and periaqueductal gray, and heavily modulated by oxytocin and prolactin. It’s the neurobiological heart of compassion.


PANIC/GRIEF – the distress system that activates when an attachment figure is lost. Panksepp locates this circuit in the dorsal periaqueductal gray and surrounding regions and shows how its activation leads to deep separation distress. This is not just sadness — it's the biological ache of social loss.


PLAY ��� perhaps the most underrated of all. This circuit encourages social interaction, learning, and boundary-testing. Found in areas such as the thalamus and cerebellum and associated with endorphins and dopamine, the PLAY system is a reminder that joy is as central to survival as fear or rage.


Reading about these systems gave me a renewed sense of kinship with animals — not in the romantic, anthropomorphic sense, but in a deeply biological one. To consider that the cat curled up on the sofa or the dog chasing its tail is expressing neural structures and drives nearly identical to our own is profoundly humbling. It collapses the artificial boundary we so often erect between “us” and “them.”


It also confirmed something I’ve long suspected but could never articulate with this level of precision: that what we call “rational thought” is often just the shadow cast by an emotion. Our decisions, our actions — even the loftiest of them — are usually triggered by an emotional impulse first. The SEEKING system fires; we want something. And only then does the cortex arrive with its linguistic justifications and symbolic elaborations. Rationality, in this view, is not the opposite of emotion — it’s its servant.


One particularly challenging section concerned gender and sex differentiation. Like many people, I once believed that sex was biological and gender was cultural, and that the two could be neatly separated. Panksepp complicated this view in ways I hadn’t anticipated. He writes:
“Four or more” is certainly a more accurate answer... Some Native American tribes believed that in addition to the prevailing variants of man within man and woman within woman, nature sometimes created a man’s mind within the body of a woman and a woman’s mind within the body of a man... One could argue that there can be an “infinite number” of permutations along the biochemically determined gradients of brain and body masculinization and feminization.


It’s a powerful statement - not only because it affirms what some Indigenous cultures have long recognised, but because it grounds that recognition in the structure of the brain itself. Masculinisation and feminisation, he suggests, are not binary categories but spectra, shaped by hormone exposures and genetic signals during key developmental windows. The result is a richly varied field of possibilities - not merely male or female, but everything in between and beyond.


What I perhaps admired most about Panksepp, though, was his intellectual honesty. This is not a book that pretends to have all the answers. In fact, what makes it trustworthy is precisely its caution. Panksepp is careful to distinguish between what we know, what we think we know, and what we don’t know yet. He is constantly flagging uncertainties, revising assumptions, and refusing to speculate beyond the data. There’s a kind of epistemic humility here that’s rare — especially in neuroscience, a field often plagued by glib pop-science overreach.


In short, this is a difficult book — but a remarkable one. It will challenge your assumptions, enrich your understanding of emotion, and possibly even reshape your view of what it means to be human.

[Farouk Ramzan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jun 25, 2020

Jaak Panksepp does an excellent job tieing in all three disciplines (which are too ignorant at the moment to learn from each other) of Psychology, Neuroscience, and Behaviorism. Panksepp's clear cut language with virtually none unnecessary scientific verbiage makes this an exceptional read for novices interested in the field of affective neuroscience or if you're curious about where emotions are developed in mammals. This book is revolutionary as it finally allows the common man to learn highly intellectual concepts and idea with the sacrifice of scientific verbiage, of course.

Panksepp's is highly fascinating and worth reading this book alone for. Panksepp's discovery of the play circuit is Nobel prize winner worthy. How come nobody told me our brains had a specific circuit for rough-and-tumble play? Oh well...Regardless, Panksepp's discovery of this special circuit and how ADHD medication dampens children who are hyper-playful is enlightening. How children are treated in the lower grades is truly sickening, and Panksepp makes it clear that rough-and-tumble play should be prescribed to ADHD children rather than making them sit in a chair for six hours and drugging them out of youthful play.

This leads me to Panksepp's social implications. I appreciate how he makes it clear that "naturalistic fallacies" (how things "are" is how things "should be") occur all the time in biological fields. Panksepp uses his exceptional research to suggest modest reforms in children centres to make life more meaningful for them.

Going forward, I can say that Panksepp was the first to teach me neuroscience/psychology solidly, and I'm sure he'll be able to guide you too.

[Aidan · Rating 5 out of 5]

An extraordinary deep dive into the core of human emotion. From start to finish, Panksepp weaves together nearly every relevant piece of the story on the connection between the deep evolutionary roots of human affect all the way up to its consequences on social institutions.

It is an intense read, as other reviews have mentioned prior knowledge of Neuroanatomy is probably the biggest prerequisite to reading this book. Understanding the spatial relationship between neural structures and pathways would serve any reader. The neurophysiology and neurochemistries discussed in the book are far less dependent on knowledge of neural organization however, it wouldn’t hurt.

Overall this is an amazing “introduction” into the basis of human and animal emotion and even more so a broad overview of what motivates humans. Understanding our “animal” instincts is an important step in understanding the human condition and Panksepp relays the current state of this understanding brilliantly.

[Robert Bogue]

This book earns the title for the longest time between starting to read it and finishing it. Affective Neuroscience: The Foundations of Human and Animal Emotions is packed with information on a hugely important topic. Generally, since Rene Descartes, we’ve focused on the impact of reason, but evidence points to the idea that it isn’t reason that’s king – it’s emotions. (See Descartes’ Error and The Righteous Mind.) The critical and underappreciated importance of emotions meant better understanding them was essential, and the material was deep enough that I had to be in special places and times to give it the attention it deserved.

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[van gone. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting read but here are my key takeaways:

1. The taxonomy used were Western-centric, patterned in Western understanding of emotions when in fact there are more types of them that can't be labeled in English alone. What if there are emotion concepts/labels not present in Western societies, how will neurobiological theorists put that in their hypotheses?

2. Academic-intensive, complicated to read if you have no background in the topic

3. I'm not sure if Jaak kinda used emotions and behaviors interchangeably

4. The comparison between human and animal emotions sort of assumed that affect and emotion are one and the same. They aren't.


That's it, I guess.

[Diwakaran RP · Rating 4 out of 5]

Though it's a tough read, and has to be reread a couple of times to understand and get familiarised with the facts and terms, the information that is distilled out in this book gives a great understanding of how our emotions are generated, it's evolutionary necessities and to what lengths the scientists have gone to understand them.
Post this book , there will definitely be an added cognitive filter through which our animalistic behaviours will be modulated which would greatly uplift the mental and physical health.

[Natan Bedrosian · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's a very important book which helps to understand the psychobiological foundations of humans and animals emotions (anger, aggressiveness, sexual thirsty, etc...) which got huge information about the topic.
As a non-psychologist and as a person who's so far from the neuroscience field I found this book difficult to read.
With full respect to Mr Panksepp's work, there must be a summary study about this topic to help people with little knowledge on neuroscientific field to understand this work.

[Hartmut Samtleben · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very challenging read, without a background in neuroscience or medicine, and nevertheless extremely engaging and eye-opening.
The perspective provided on fundamental structures and operations of the brain and how they translate into our affects and emotions is vast and thoroughly supported by evidence; speculation is always clearly marked as such.
25 years on, additional affective systems have been identified in the brain, but this does not diminish the profound insight that this book provides.
Very highly recommended.

[Edward Sudall · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dense for a lay reader but very rewarding. The implications of biological construction along with social and psychological construction is fascinating. Especially to consider emotions with nonlinguistic physiological causes, that we somehow 'share' because of bodily commonalities but different sets of the social environment and thinking that might trigger the expression of different -
or probably 'modulated' - behaviours and emotions.

[Andrew]

Cited in Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less.

[Ehsan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Pretty much of a rich book. Despite of having a background in neuroscience, it took me a long time to finish. Definitely suggest this book to those who are interested in neuroscience/behaviour. Top five star.

[Kristina · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a hefty introduction to neuroscience, and I'm glad I was introduced to it.

[Riku Repo · Rating 4 out of 5]

interesting but difficult

[Vasile Corjan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Highly detailed, tough read, terminology wise is a struggle but worth it.

[Jesse Kelso · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the most informative books I’ve ever read.

[Scott · Rating 2 out of 5]

So, this is very very difficult. If you are in a graduate program in psychology, go for it. Otherwise, nope. 25 pages was all I could endure.

[Alex Schmitt · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a must read. Emotions show that we are animals. So, studying animal emotions and then comparing them to our own is the best and most appropriate way to understand humans.

[CJ · Rating 4 out of 5]

insightful interpretations of human behaviour regarding seeking, fear, rage, and play. however, this book is not for those without a background in neuroscience or psychology.

[Gleb Razgar · Rating 4 out of 5]

A deep genesis of affective consciousness.

[Andrew · Rating 2 out of 5]

Read this for school (everyone disliked it)

[michael prado · Rating 5 out of 5]

A pioneering exposition of ascending emotional circuits in neuro-anatomical, chemical and electrical components, grouped into novel “folk psychology” correlates, which describes how these shared, definable and consistent systems drive conscious experiences in man and mammals.