Brain and Emotions Research at UW-Madison

This site was last updated in spring 2001. It remains online as an archival record.

Neurobiology advances emotion research
Until recently, the study of emotions was relegated to the fringes of science.

A decade or so ago, many researchers believed emotions, the feelings usually associated more with the heart than the head, couldn't be measured or studied in laboratory experiments. Researchers lacked instruments, and what's more, most scientists didn't recognize the far-ranging and long-lasting effects emotions can have on peoples' health.

More recently, though, hard scientific scrutiny of emotions has dramatically come into its own due in large part to a critical mass of researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Today, nearly two dozen scientists approach the study of emotions using the most advanced, non-invasive technology available to capture highly revealing images of the living brain responding to emotions.

Supported by extensive funding from the National Institutes of Health, the network of Wisconsin emotions researchers is well on its way to finding answers to questions that have baffled scientists and all others affected by the power of emotions. Among those questions:

Which regions and chemicals in the brain control different emotions?
Can those regions and chemicals be altered?
What activities and treatments alter them?
How do emotions affect immune, cardiovascular and endocrine
Why do emotions affect people differently?

The ultimate quest of this new science is to pinpoint the cause-and-effect relationships between emotions and disease, develop more precise treatments for affective disorders such as depression and anxiety and identify pathways that promote positive mental health and resilience to disease.

For more details on the key people, resources and research at UW-Madison that are devoted to this cause, explore the categories listed in the column to the right.

For more information, contact:

Dian Land
UW Health Public Affairs
608-263-9893
dj.land@hosp.wisc.edu