ANATOMY OF EMOTIONAL BRAIN ...

Back to "WHAT IS EQ" | How emotional brain works

Amygdala : (Greek – almond – shape ) Emotional Brain

Thalamus : Does the translation into the language of the brain

Neocortex/Cortex : Thinking Brain. Signals are put together into objects as we   perceived them

Limbic System / Brain : Provides the appropriate response

Hippocampus : Memory brain

Joseph LeDoux, a neuroscientist at New York University was the first to discover the key role the amygdala in the emotional brain. His findings was revealed in his book  "Sensory Systems and Emotion, Integrative Psychiatry, (1986)" and "Emotion and the Limbic System Concept, Concepts in Neuroscience, (1992).

Le Doux research (1992) is revolutionary for understanding emotional life because it is the first to work out neural pathways for feelings that bypass the neocortex , leading to the wellknown concept of ‘EMOTIONAL HIGHJACKING’ (mentioned in Daniel Golman’s writings in 1995). This circuit does much to explain the power of emotion to overwhelm rationality.