Emotions are often described as “irrational”, but modern neuroscience tells a very different story. Feelings are not noise around rational thought – they are integral signals generated by complex brain networks that shape how we perceive the world, make decisions, and recover from adversity.

The Neuroscience of Feelings: Unveiling the Mind-Brain Alchemy (Progress in Brain Research, Volume 293) takes this idea seriously. It brings together researchers from neuroscience, psychology, and medicine to examine how emotions influence neural pathways, brain cell regeneration, and long-term mental health.

From feelings to brain circuits

Basic emotions such as fear, anger, joy, and sadness emerge quickly from evolutionarily old circuits involving the amygdala, brainstem, and autonomic nervous system. More complex feelings – guilt, hope, nostalgia – build on these foundations and recruit higher-order cortical regions involved in memory, prediction, and social reasoning.

This volume maps how those layers interact. It shows how emotional signals are encoded in neural pathways, how they are integrated in cortical networks, and how they feed back into our perceptions and actions.

Emotions, neuroplasticity, and brain health

One of the central themes of the book is neuroplasticity: the brain’s ability to reorganize its structure and function. Positive emotions and supportive environments can promote neurogenesis and synaptic strengthening, while chronic stress and trauma may weaken critical networks and increase vulnerability to psychiatric and neurological disorders.

By connecting experimental findings with clinical observations, the editors highlight how emotional experiences leave measurable traces in brain architecture – and how targeted interventions can support recovery.

Why emotions matter for decision-making

We like to imagine that we decide purely on logic, but research consistently shows that without emotion our choices become rigid, impulsive, or disconnected from real-life consequences. Emotional signals help us evaluate risk, weigh rewards, and prioritise what truly matters in uncertainty.

In this volume, chapters on cognitive neuroscience and decision-making explore how feeling states modulate attention, learning, and valuation processes. This is highly relevant for clinicians, policy-makers, and anyone working at the intersection of brain science and behaviour.

Emotional trauma, resilience, and mental health

Another key section is devoted to emotional trauma and its impact on brain function. Prolonged exposure to traumatic stress can alter connectivity in networks involved in fear, memory, and self-perception. At the same time, neuroplasticity offers a pathway toward resilience: with the right interventions, circuits can adapt and re-balance.

The book presents evidence on how psychotherapy, pharmacological treatments, and lifestyle factors can interact with neural systems to support recovery from trauma and mood disorders.

Why this book belongs in your collection

The Neuroscience of Feelings is designed for neuroscientists, psychologists, psychiatrists, and advanced students who want a rigorous, research-based overview of how feelings arise from brain processes and why they matter for health and behaviour. It is also a valuable reference for clinicians seeking to ground their practice in current brain science.

At CLNZ Books, we curate specialised titles for professionals worldwide. This volume fits perfectly alongside our collections in neuroscience, mental health, and interdisciplinary brain research.

Useful international resources

• International Brain Research Organization (IBRO)
• Society for Neuroscience
• World Health Organization – Mental Health
• American Psychological Association – Emotions

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