Brain Activation Imaging in Emotional Decision Making and Mental Health: A Review—Part 2

The second part of the review builds on the methods in Part 1 to propose a working model of emotional decision making that ties brain activation to subjective experience. The model treats responses as a state machine with 16 possible states, arranged as a 4 × 4 grid crossing left versus right activation with an initial sensory response and a later perceptual or comprehension response. How likely a person is to move between these states can be used to describe their typical response style, and the authors discuss possible uses in psychiatry, psychology and counselling. This is a theoretical model rather than a test of outcomes.