Reward and emotion: an affective neuroscience

Pleasure and reward are central for motivation, learning, feeling and allostasis. Although reward is without any doubt an affective phenomenon, there is no consensus concerning its relationship with emotion. In this mini-review we discuss this conceptual issue both from the perspective of theories of reward and emotion as well as human systems neuroimaging. We first describe how the reward process can be understood and dissected as intertwined with the emotion process, in particular in light of the appraisal theories, and then discuss how different facets of the reward process can be studied using neuroimaging and neurostimulation techniques. We conclude that future work needs to focus on mapping the similarities and differences across stimuli and mechanisms that are involved in reward processing and in emotional processing, and propose that an integrative affective sciences approach would provide means for studying the emotional nature of reward.

Automated summary

Pleasure and reward are essential for motivation, learning, feeling, and allostasis, but the relationship between reward and emotion lacks consensus. Future research should focus on mapping the similarities and differences in stimuli and mechanisms involved in reward processing and emotional processing, advocating for an integrative affective sciences approach.