Hello everyone,

 

Can neocortex initiate emotional behaviour. Since it is outside limbic system, is it not considered part of limbic system. What exactly is this structure? Why only humans have this. Does this give us moral values. Thanks

It's virtually impossible right now to say what gives us 'moral values'. Especially considering things like moral values have fuzzy meanings at best. But most recent experimentation has pointed toward the cortex having virtually nothing to do with emotion.

 

Your statement of emotional behavior could be misleading, do you mean behavior regulated by emotion such as intercourse and the like, or do you mean behavior pushed forward by emotion, such as revenge. Either way there is virtually nothing I know of that can show the neocortex, or isocortex or cortex(all virtually the same thing depending what book you read), has anything to do with emotion in so far that we have some sort of emotion other animals don't because we have a large segment of cortex.

It's virtually impossible right now to say what gives us 'moral values'. Especially considering things like moral values have fuzzy meanings at best. But most recent experimentation has pointed toward the cortex having virtually nothing to do with emotion.

 

Your statement of emotional behavior could be misleading, do you mean behavior regulated by emotion such as intercourse and the like, or do you mean behavior pushed forward by emotion, such as revenge. Either way there is virtually nothing I know of that can show the neocortex, or isocortex or cortex(all virtually the same thing depending what book you read), has anything to do with emotion in so far that we have some sort of emotion other animals don't because we have a large segment of cortex.

 

Thanks for the reply Yes I agree, I don't know why I corelated moral values with the neocortex???

There was a large body of belief that the cortex was involved in the regulation of emotions and the like. I don't think that this had much to do with experimental evidence as much as with people wanting to believe that people are special in the way we feel, i.e. we are morally superior and our cortex is large vi-sa-vi cortex regulates emotions.

 

A book others have recommended to me, I haven't got around to reading it so I can't say how good it is, on the subject is at amazon if you want more information.